One Year after Arafat, Peace Remains Elusive

[Wordie]

One Year after Arafat, Peace Remains Elusive

By Samar Assad

Occupied East Jerusalem

In what seems to be a pay-back for the Gaza evacuation, Israel has launched an aggressive campaign to consolidate its occupation of East Jerusalem. The fate of Jerusalem, a key issue that prevented Arafat from signing a peace deal at Camp David, is being decided off the negotiating table through Israel’s construction of the Wall, which further isolates Jerusalem from the West Bank and destroys Palestinian institutions. Palestinians warn that Israel’s actions in Jerusalem are an obstacle to the two-state negotiated solution that Bush has endorsed.

According to Hind Khoury, the PA Minister for Jerusalem Affairs, the Wall will cut off approximately 55,000 Palestinian residents in Jerusalem from their city. Palestinian Christians and Muslims, including many Jerusalemites, will be denied free access to the holy sites located there. More than 6,500 Palestinians have already lost their residency rights. More than 50 Palestinian homes have been demolished, while 64 additional homes have demolition orders pending against them. According to the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, there are more than 10,000 outstanding demolition orders against Palestinian structures in East Jerusalem.

Palestinian Economy

(Re: the World Bank’s 2004 report, Stagnation or Revival? Israeli Disengagement and Palestinian Economic Prospects) ...the World Bank recommended that Israel remove checkpoints and barriers in Gaza and the West Bank; open internal routes between West Bank cities and from these cities to the borders; ease movement into and out of East Jerusalem; develop Gaza-West Bank transport links; and improve the management of border passages and facilities.

Palestinian economist Mohammed el-Samhouri says that in the past five years, the Palestinian economy has lost a third of its gross domestic product (GDP), 40 percent of its pre capita income, two-thirds of its private investment, and more than half of its exports. As a result, two-thirds of the population is poor and over a third is unemployed, says el-Samhouri. In a recent poll, the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion found that 44 percent of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip would relocate to the West Bank if they had a job and the opportunity.

http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/images/informationbrief.php?ID=147