Support for the resilience of the Palestinian community in East Jerusalem and the protection of its cultural heritage - a mixture of pragmatism and creativity
The European Union, while working assiduously behind the scenes in the protracted Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations led by the United States, is continuing to help the Palestinian people in East Jerusalem and the West Bank through its support for the political and institutional basis of the Palestinian Authority and its aid to the Palestinian community as a whole, including refugees, to allow them access to basic health, education and subsistence services, and help them integrate into an economy stifled by the Israeli occupation and the separation barrier, known more commonly as “the Wall”. During a visit in mid-April to Jerusalem and the West Bank organised by the office of the EU representative for the West Bank and Gaza Strip and UNRWA, John Gatt-Rutter of Malta, EUROPE was able to gain first-hand understanding of the challenge faced daily by the European aid with, at times, hanging like the sword of Damocles, the risk of a project it finances being taken over or stopped by Israel, as was the case when Israel dismantled the humanitarian shelters at Jabal-al-Baba in the West Bank around the same time as the visit. We looked more closely into assistance to the Palestinians in East Jerusalem, a city claimed by two opposing nations and the source of such hatred and passion.
(Report by Emmanuel Hagry)
As they stroll through the narrow streets of the old city and around the holy places of Jerusalem, the tourists and pilgrims from all corners of the world are perhaps not fully aware of the tension that hangs over the city that is sacred to the three great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This tension is, however, clear with large numbers of Israeli soldiers patrolling and the many surveillance cameras.
After the capture, in 1967, of the eastern part of the city, beyond the “green line” [The “green line” refers to the demarcation line agreed in the 1949 armistice between Israel and the neighbouring Arab countries - Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt - after the Israel-Arab war of 1948] and including the old city and its holy places [the Holy Sepulchre, the Upper Room, the shrines of the Mount of Olives, the Basilica of Saint Anne, the Esplanade of the Mosques with the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, Temple Mount and the Wailing Wall], with the exception of Mount Scopus, Israel has made Jerusalem its “unified and indivisible” capital. The international community, however, does not recognise the annexation of the occupied eastern part of the city, which the Palestinians want to make the capital of the state to which they aspire.
“Jerusalem could be an ideal city to live all together, but in reality the situation in daily life is very tense, especially for the Palestinian community, and all the Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, which de facto is already annexed by the Israeli government”, explains Alessandro Mrakic, administrator of a UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) project to help the Palestinians.
The threat of having their houses demolished, the expansion of Jewish settlements, a two-speed social services system that clearly discriminates against the Palestinian community and the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank that has been built since the early 2000s keep Jerusalem's Palestinians in a situation of uncertainty and vulnerability.
Basic services disregarded
“The Israeli government's policies and practices continue to worsen the quality of life for the Palestinian residents of the city, and restrict them from making a living”, affirms Yasmine Al Qutob, communications officer for the NGO Oxfam in East Jerusalem. Here the Palestinian communities suffer from chronic poverty, a lack of basic services - such as roads, paving, drainage and rubbish collection - and frequent refusal of their rights.
Although representing 39% of the total population of the city, the Palestinian districts of East Jerusalem, where the cost of living is extremely high, receive less than 10% of the city's budget. Yet the Palestinians of East Jerusalem pay the same taxes as Israelis living in the western part of the city. The poverty rate here is higher than in the Gaza Strip, rising from 64% in 2006 to 78% in 2012, affecting 85% of the Palestinian children living in the city, according to figures from the platform of French NGOs for Palestine.
Palestinians encounter numerous challenges to their remaining in the city. According to Oxfam, almost 86,500, close to a quarter, of the 372,000 Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem face having their houses destroyed and see their opportunities to build severely limited. In the streets of the souk in the old city, large numbers of Palestinian shops have been closed over the last four years. Meanwhile, Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem - illegal under international law - continue to grow, with nearly 200,000 Israeli settlers now living in the eastern part of the city.
Since 1967, close to 14,000 East Jerusalem Palestinians and their children have had their residence status revoked, and almost 90,000 Palestinians from the districts of Ras Khamis, Dahiyat al-Salaam, Shuafat, Kafr Aqab and Samirami, officially resident in Jerusalem, have been cut off from the city by the separation barrier and have to pass through a checkpoint every time they wish to enter the city. “Movement restrictions and the Wall have contributed to an increasingly dire economic situation, leaving Palestinians with scarce job opportunities and rising poverty rates. Basic services such as schools, healthcare and sanitation are all neglected”, deplores Oxfam.
Boosting resilience
In line with its goal of resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict through a solution based on the peaceful co-existence of two states, both of which would have Jerusalem as their capital, the EU is seeking to improve the socio-economic conditions of the Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, with particular emphasis on the most vulnerable-young people, children and the handicapped. Working with civil society and in cooperation with the office of the president of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), the EU is supporting initiatives in East Jerusalem in health and social wellbeing, housing, town planning, legal aid, education, and economic development, including promotion of the culture and tourism sectors.
Within the overall annual EU aid to the Palestinians, which stood at over half a billion euro every year between 2008 and 2012, the financial assistance programme specifically for East Jerusalem has had its budget increased from €2 million in 2008 to €4.5 million in 2009, then to €6 million in 2010 and 2011 and to €8 million in 2012 and 2013. Through this budget, the EU is providing support for, inter alia, the three-year “Protect the Rights and Improve the Resilience of Vulnerable Communities in East Jerusalem” project that was launched in November 2013.
With an envelope of €3.5 million, co-financed by the EU and Oxfam and implemented by local NGOs [including the Palestinian Agricultural Development Association (PARC), the Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC), the Juzoor Foundation for Health and Social Development, the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) and the Coalition for Jerusalem represented by the Palestine Counselling Center (PCC)], this project seeks to improve the living conditions of 30,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem by strengthening the work of Palestinian civil society, addressing Israeli government violations and helping East Jerusalem's Palestinians assert their rights.
85% unemployment among women
In this context, the EU is co-funding an initiative to help Palestinian women into work and so allow them to play a greater role in the economy of East Jerusalem where unemployment levels are currently running at 40% for men and 85% for women (compared with 17% and 29.5% respectively in the West Bank) and where the cost of living is higher than in the rest of the Palestinian territories. Apart from finding it practically impossible to get a job, Palestinian women are also hampered by a patriarchal society which puts constraints on their education, movement and work.
The “Supporting Women's Business in East Jerusalem” project works to enhance the skills of Palestinian women and improve their chances of finding employment, and to help them start up their own small businesses that will bring an income for them and their families. Initially, to allow the women to finance their plans, the project has helped them set up and become members of savings and credit groups (SCGs) in which they can invest and which provide their members with financial support. The project also provides allowances for budding businesswomen, and offers training in financial management and marketing as well as in skills, such as sewing and cooking, and supplies tools and equipment needed for the women to get their companies off the ground.
The initiative has helped Palestinian women set up a number of businesses: in the Sur Baher district, for example, a group of women received logistical support, cookery lessons, kitchen equipment and the tools to set up a bakery. In the Silwan district, the PARC is helping a group of women who are trying to protect a small area of ground under threat of confiscation by the Israeli government and who have created a garden where they grow medicinal herbs for sale. In Essayieh, the PARC has refurbished and restored a house for a women's club and has helped them set up a beauty parlour.
Tailoring workshop
In the old city of Jerusalem, the project has helped a group of Palestinian women set up a tailoring workshop, housed in the premises of the African Community Society. The women received some 20 sewing machines and associated materials, in addition to training. “We thank the EU for its help. God be praised, we have this workshop. In Jerusalem there aren't many jobs for Palestinian women who, in addition, don't have much training”, explained Manal Balalawi, who runs the workshop along with Hidaya Abu Sbeih and May Barqaqu.
“This source of revenue means that the women can better look after their children and their families and provide them with enough food, health care and an adequate education. And they can also invest in a better future for their businesses”, stressed Yasmine Al Qutob who is responsible also for capacity building among vulnerable communities for Oxfam.
In addition to the support for the economic development of women, the project also seeks to refurbish schools and create better educational and training possibilities, particularly in community emergency response. It is engaged, too, in the formation of environmental clubs to address threats to health, and in strengthening family relationships through positive parenting workshops. It also provides legal assistance and counselling to Palestinian women who find themselves in vulnerable positions because of political and social problems, such as gender-based violence, demolitions of homes and the risk of being separated from their children as a result of residence restrictions or their being arrested as they stroll through the streets of old Jerusalem.
Preserving the cultural heritage
The EU's assistance programme for East Jerusalem does not simply stop at support for the resilience of vulnerable communities. In partnership with the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), EU action extends to a €2.4 million project for the preservation of Palestinian cultural sites and heritage in the old city of Jerusalem.
Working with the UNDP, which has, since 1997, been supporting the tourism and cultural sectors in the Palestinian territory through the rehabilitation and restoration of cultural heritage sites, the European Commission's Directorate General for Development and Cooperation signed an agreement with the Al-Quds University in July 2013 on a rehabilitation and revitalisation package for the Al Kilaniyya madrasa and the hammam al Shifa and the hamman al-Ayn, two Mamluk public baths, built in 1300 and still in use by the residents of the old city until the start of the 1970s.
“This programme is very important for Jerusalem”, the head of the Centre for Jerusalem Studies, Huda Al Imam, who is supervising the project, told us. “It will revitalise the city and create awareness for the community of the importance of cultural heritage and the preservation of our identity”, she went on, deploring the “Judaisation of Jerusalem”. “Israel does not really want to see restoration of this kind in Jerusalem. Israel is taking action in Jerusalem to systematically reduce what is not Jewish”, she argued.
“This programme will help the development and protection of the Palestinian cultural heritage. But it will do more than that. Another of its goals is to improve the socio-economic conditions of the citizens of East Jerusalem, through provision of good quality housing and tourist services”, Ms Al Imam said. The programme also seeks to build local skills in conservation, refurbishment and the management of historic buildings and sites. Short- and medium-term employment prospects will also be created for young professionals in the restoration, tourism and cultural heritage management sectors. In the shorter term, restoration work has already brought up to 50 jobs for the ground works.
Wellness centre
Ms Al Imam would also like to see the two restored hammams, which will be linked to the souk al Qattanin, the old city's former cotton market, become a herbal medicine, massage and wellness centre. “This project is absolutely critical for the wellbeing of the Palestinian population of the old city”, living, she says, in an “atmosphere of permanent tension”. This tension can be seen, according to Ms Al Imam, in the “militarisation” of the area, and in the number of clashes over the last few weeks between Palestinians and the Israeli police force and Jewish activists and the arrests of children suspected of troublemaking in the streets of the old city.
“The challenges of this very interesting, very dynamic yet contested project are big. But we are extremely happy to implement this project together. And I want to express my thanks to the EU and the European Commission to have decided that they want to invest in Jerusalem and they care for the wellbeing of Jerusalem and its inhabitants. Because for many years this was not the case”, stated Ms Al Imam.