We first headed to Bethlehem today to meet with some individuals from the Alternative Information Centre. This was the first time that I had witnessed the infamous Israeli settlements and was astonished by what I saw. They were beautiful buildings, royal-esque in their features, atop hilltops above the dilapidated Palestinian homes. The settlements are generally built on hills leaving their sewage runoff to culminate in the Palestinian villages.
First we met with Dr. Elias Rishmawi, a city council member. He was the first to tell us of the "mini Gazas" that are being created all over the West Bank and East Jerusalem, one of which we would see later in the day. We learned that of the 10 million Palestinians in the world, 6 million are refugees, and that Israel has complete control over the water aquifers in the West Bank and traps water from getting into the Gazan aquifers, which leaves Palestinians with no control over their own water sources, as is the case with most if not all utilities.
We then went of a tour of East Jerusalem and first saw a building site that is to be the home of the Museum of Tolerance. While this may sound great, the ground is currently undergoing the excavation of an ancient Muslim cemetary in order to build the museum. Irony, anyone? We then learned that the Israeli government does not issue building permits to residents of East Jerusalem (which is the supposedly Palestinian portion of the city) and therefore buildings can be demolished at any time. The purported plan is to have all Palestinians out of East Jerusalem by 2020 to the other side of the wall (into the West Bank, mostly) or to Jordan.
We then saw Shafat Camp, which is one of the "mini Gazas" we learned about earlier. It is surrounded by walls except for the one gate out to Jerusalem, and its buildings are not regulated and therefore all construction is illegal and often haphazard and very unsafe. It has 20000 - 50000 inhabitants, depending on who you ask. The residents pay the highest taxes (tax rates are dependent on your area, with more wealthy areas supposedly paying more), and yet receive absolutely no services - there is no garbage pickup, no police services, and the sewage outlets have been closed up thereby keeping all sewage inside the walls. ID must be presented everytime one leaves the gate, and if someone tries to leave who hasn't paid their incredibly high taxes, they are jailed until someone pays the taxes for them. There are currently five such communities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Our day ended with a meeting with Jeff Halper from ICAHD - it was like meeting a celebrity, I was so excited. According to Jeff, there are currently 22000 outstanding demolition orders in East Jerusalem, or one third of Palestinian homes. He told us a current project of Beit Arabia, wherein a woman's home had been demolished four times and rebuilt each time. According to international law, an occupying force has no right to extend its law into the occupied territory (such as controlling building permits, demolishing buildings, etc) however Israel does this everyday in the West Bank.
Tonight and tomorrow night I'm staying with Rebecca, a young woman that I met in Cairo through a friend in the student delegation to Gaza. She had myself, Gabriel and Sascha over for an amazing vegan dinner and then - wait for it - I did LAUNDRY! It was a pretty awesome night!
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