The May 11 tour started with a trip to the Atarot Industrial Zone (IZ). On the way our guide Dawood explained the issue with Palestinian ghettoes in the area arounr Jerusalem. If a Palestinian wants build in Jerusalem the city authorities say there needs to be a city plan, but there isn’t one. To make a plan for one home it takes ten years and you must spend money planning an entire neighborhood. So this is why Palestinian neighborhoods are not well organized and do not not good infrastructure. This is part if a deliberate approach of raising cost of living and pressuring Palestinian families to move outside the closer parts of the city. Meanwhile the government is constantly planning and building settlements.
In 2005 when Sharon started the wall around Jerusalem and the West Bank there was a secondary plan as land exchange where some neighborhoods in East Jerusalem would be given to the Palestinian authority in exchange for recognition of annexing of East Jerusalem. They would expand settlements and build alternate roads and infrastructure that cross through Palestinian areas to ensure future land exchange was impossible and ensure encircling of the old city by Jewish settlements. On the Israeli side the wall is colorful to reduce psychological impact on settlers.
2/3 of what we will see is on one side of wall. In Beit Hanina most of the population has immigrated to the US so most have US passports.
On the right we saw high voltage barbed wire for confiscated land and a huge distribution station that provides electricity for Ramallah. This is the Adarot Indistrial Zone.
There are 22 isolated ghettoes in Jerusalem connected by tunnels and controlled by checkpoints, destroying economic viability. The World Bank proposed these industrial zones - they are the same as the IZs Mexico. People at one time were independent and with income now have to go through checkpoints to work for an industry in a zone. Taxes are lower for the owners here. It is mostly low tech and high pollution - cement, for example.
We could not stop to take photos inside as it is risky for questioning so we planned to stop outside.
Lands are open but are confiscated for more settlements.
Because of bombing in Gaza the authorities are sensitive. So we stopped to take photos on a side street. Even so we were approached by a plainclothes person who was explained away by one of our Israeli guides. On our way our we passed the former site of the Pillsbury factory, whose closure was a victory of the AFSC led coalition to get General Mills to stop producing in a settlement.
We passed Qalandiya refugee camp. Houses in the camps are about one meter apart while normal housing should be about 5 meters of separation. Crowded housing leads to more social problems. Part of Israeli plan to cause social problems.
(Har Homa mountain and empty lands near Bethlehem are also planned to be industrial zones like here.)
Jerusalem municipality border ends and Ramallah municipality starts. An Arak factory used to be here.
Foundations of buildings are less than standard. A house here ready made costs $150k while in J at least 500k. In Jerusalem they use aggressive urbanization to reduce density and get people to move to new areas.
We took a long road to show the area.
Jerusalem has one of the highest concentrations of drug addiction in the world. Drug dealers are protected by the police.
The wall creates 22 ghettoes of northwest Jerusalem instead of open villages that would require thousands of soldiers to control. Now they can just send one truck to staff a checkpoint and if the checkpoint is closed the ghetto is cut off from the world.
Villages usually grow toward cities but the wall isolates so growth is toward the opening away from the city and the other area becomes more like a ghost city.
One of Sharon’s conditions was that Israeli housing is above and Palestinian housing is below. Rand Corp proposed a long tunnel for Palestinians from Hebron to Gaza following that rule.
People in Jerusalem ghettoes do not have to pay taxes to the Jerusalem municipality.
Our guide D volunteered with Stop the Wall. He went to every village where the wall would be built and documented before, during and after. In 2009 the Israelis invaded the office and confiscated all the CDs and there was no backup.
We passed part of the wall that shows the single entry point blocked by cement panels. For Palestinians with houses on this side of the wall no cars are allowed. If they come by taxi with purchases they have to walk.
In Qalandia on the settler side they covered the wall with 7 meters of sand and plantings.
The above [pictures to be added later when back in the US and with computer access] from inside old Beit Hanina shows a settler road and colorful wall. Many in Beit Hanina have US citizenship but had to sell lands to have money to leave. It used to be 5-10 min walk for 2 km across the village and now is about 2 hrs by car to meet relatives.
Here is a closed checkpoint with a small door used by people to enter their side but now it is completely closed.
An AFSC study found 2,009 factories and workshops in the West Bank IZs mostly producing chemicals and cement or low tech industries like bakeries and chicken processing. For low tech it is profitable and there are no labor laws to protect Palestinian workers.
We entered Qalandia, which is outside the Jerusalem municipality, where there was a Palestinian airport. The Airport main building is still there. We accessed the land of a ruined nice house with remains of a swimming pool so that we could see the airport building. At the end of the road also was a metal door the army uses to come and arrest someone.
The Airport was used by Israeli military during 2000 intifada. Now it is abandoned.
Qalandia checkpoint till 2007 was run by the Israeli army. Later they contracted private sec companies and also deployed military police so it is a bit less bad for Palestinians. Here there was a Palestinian airport. Airport bldg still there. Ruined nice house with swimming pool. Also metal door the army uses to come and arrest someone.
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We made our way to Ramallah at about 11:15 trying to make it to lunch at noon.
We saw two militant martyrs’ faces likenesses spray painted on walls. There are posters for others. These were Fatah militants.
Ramallah is a majority Christian town founded hundreds of years ago by five Palestinian families. In Old City Ramallah most shops are owned by Christians.
El Bireh is right next to Ramallah where Jesus came with his parents but they discovered he was not with them. Mary went to Jerusalem to find him. A church was built here.
Activists managed to stop Palestinian Security vetting being done by the World Bank. To apply to any security company you need clearance. Instead of an Israeli security company doing the background check, now a Palestinian security company called PalSec can do the verification. This allows people to work in IZs.
We stopped to observe the tomb of Yasser Arafat.
Then we had lunch at an excellent Palestinian restaurant before making our way to the Ritaj Center for afternoon presentations.
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Coming soon: presentation from the Boycott National Committee and AFSC staff in Gaza.
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Our evening dinner was at a Palestinian owned private facility. The food was again amazing, and included what many say is the Palestinian national dish, musakhan, which is baked chicken and special bread smothered in sauteed onions, pine nuts, and a lemony spice called sumaq.
Shawan Jabarin, ED of Al Haq, spoke to us. He was Amnesty International’s first Palestinian prisoner of conscience as he was spending a total of nine years in administrative detention in the Naqab prison. His first child was born while he was in prison. Jimmy Carter came to give an award to Al Haq and took a picture for the press with his wife and new baby. The International Red Crescent would bring newspapers to the prisoners and when he saw the article that was his first time to see his new child. Al-Haq is a Palestinian human rights group challenging unjust laws. They opened a case against Israel with the International Criminal Court. Then Israel announced it was declaring six Palestinian human rights groups as terrorist organizations. A few months after that they raided the offices of these groups confiscating all equipment and documents. They placed a steel plate across the door of Al-Haq to prevent entry. Al Haq staff returned the next day and used a crowbar to remove the plate. They are still in their office and the steel plate was on display in Ramallah at the Qattan Foundation building. Al Haq is asking local artists to propose ideas for creative ideas for the metal plate.
He said their attitude is to say thanks to the minister that declared them a terrorist group and closed the offices because it created great publicity and support for their organization. They are gearing up to have Al Haq Europe and Al Haq Americas divisions. Shuwan’s demeanor was inspiringly positive.
They are also preparing to publish a report about a chemical facility in an IZ whose waste byproducts are the same as what was released in the East Palestine Ohio train wreck. The parts per million amount allowed by the US EPA is 1000 ppm and the air around the train wreck tested at 700 ppm. The air tests around this Israeli Industrial Zone facility were at 5000 ppm.
Also with us was a staff person for Al Haq and Eyad Burnat, the leader of the nonviolent protests against the wall from the village of Bil’in and his young son. He is the brother of the Emad Burnat who filmed Five Broken Cameras which was nominated for an Oscar, documenting the nonviolent protests against the occupation wall that was proposed to encroach upon agricultural land in the West Bank village. One of Eyad’s sons was shot by an Israeli sniper and seriously injured several years ago. Two sons of Eyad’s brother Emad are in administrative detention for 24 and 25 months each. This is a holdover practice from the British administration, where people in the Occupied population can be arrested and held in jail and definitely without any charges or trial. Israel does not subject Jews to such a condition. One third of Palestinian males have been jailed at some point. Read ratings of the movie and then watch it.
