Ref: 30/2009

Date: 24 February 2009

Time: 11:00 GMT  

PCHR Condemns Western Jerusalem Municipality Decision to Evacuate al-Basatin District in Silwan Village and Displace 1,500 Palestinians

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns eviction orders issued by the Western Jerusalem Municipality against dozens of Palestinian houses located in the al-Basatin district of Silwan Village in occupied East Jerusalem.

PCHR’s investigations indicate that, at the beginning of the week, the Western Jerusalem Municipality demanded that 88 Palestinian civilians evacuate their homes in al-Basatin district. Their houses have been scheduled for demolition, on the pretext that they were built without permission. Some of the houses were built prior to 1948, while others pre-date the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967. The most recent houses are 15 years old. The al-Basatin district Local Committee informed PCHR that the houses scheduled for demolition are home to 130 families (including extended families) and house a total of 1,500 Palestinians. 65% of the inhabitants are children.

Surveyors from the Western Jerusalem Municipality have visited the area, escorted by members of the Israeli border guard service. At the time of publication, 16 houses had been surveyed. The area on which the threatened houses are established totals 46 dunums.

PCHR field workers have reported that the Western Jerusalem Municipality intends to establish a garden in the area. The garden project was first proposed on 11 November 2004, when Uri Sheetrit, an engineer in the Municipality, sent a letter to the Director of Construction Control Department in the Municipality. In his letter, Sheetrit requested that the buildings in the area be demolished in order to preserve local Jewish monuments and history, and under the pretext that the area is public and open. PCHR’s field workers report that the Municipality plan is a part of the “Holy Basin” project, which is founded on an ideological basis. The “Holy Basin” extends from the Prophet Dawud Region to Silwan Village, the Helwa Valley, al-Basatin District, the Qaddoum Valley, the Jewish Cemetery in Ras al-‘Amoud neighborhood, the western slope of the Mountain of Olives and Wadi al-Joz Neighborhood, 100 meters from the wall of Jerusalem.

PCHR strongly condemns all Israeli procedures and policies aimed at solidifying the illegal annexation of East Jerusalem, and changing the majority demographic of the city, and:

1. Affirms that East Jerusalem is an integral part of the Palestinian territories that had been occupied following the Israeli aggression on 4 June 1967.
2. The procedures taken by the occupation forces following the occupation of the City, including the decision of the Knesset on 28 June 1967 to annex the occupied City to the Israeli territories; the Knesset decision of 30 July 1980 that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel” and the decision to expand the boundaries of the Municipality, constitute a flagrant violation of international law and the decisions of the United Nations.
3. Despite the illegal measures taken by the Israeli military occupation, the legal status of Jerusalem remains unchanged.
4. The evacuation notices issued to Palestinian civilians in al-Basatin district forms part of Israeli policy aimed at changing the City’s demographic makeup. These actions exert pressure on those Palestinians remaining in the City, and are intended to force migration.
5. The Israeli claims relating to the establishment of a public garden (green area) is one of the policies that the authorities of the occupation used to implement their settlement projects in Eastern Jerusalem in particular, and in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT) in general.

Upon the abovementioned, PCHR:

1. Calls upon the international community to take immediate action to pressurize the authorities of the Israeli military occupation, in order to prevent procedures aimed at solidifying the city’s illegal annexation, and establishing demographic change. 
2. Calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, individually or collectively, to uphold their legal obligations, and ensure Israel’s respect for the Conventions in accordance with common Article 1. PCHR believes that the conspiracy of silence on the part of the international community encourages Israel to act as a State above the law, and to commit further violations of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law, including the annexation of the occupied City of Eastern Jerusalem.
3. Demands that the international community take immediate and urgent action to ensure that the Government of Israel halts all settlement activities in the OPT – including occupied East Jerusalem – and removes all existing settlements, the establishment of which constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law.
4. Calls upon the European Union (EU) and/or EU Member States to activate Article 2 of the Euro-Israel Association Agreement, which provides that Israel must respect human rights as a precondition for economic cooperation between the EU States and Israel.  PCHR further calls upon the EU States to prohibit import of goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the OPT.