How do we know what is “Jerusalem” today?
Announce that the Palestinian Authority’s Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, himself a resident of East Jerusalem, will attend a ceremony inauguration renovated schools in various parts of East Jerusalem… After an order signed by Israel’s Ministry of Internal Security Yitzhak Aharonovitch, banning any Palestinian Authority activity inside Israeli territory, following instructions from Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, Fayyad cancelled his appearance at Dahiet as-Salaam [sealed behind The Wall, beyond Shuafat Refugee Camp and Anata Village].
PA PM Salam Fayyad was testing the boundaries of “Jerusalem, and Israeli PM Netanyahu got involved.
According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, Fayyad was to rededicate 2 of 15 East Jerusalem schools that “the PA secretly paid to renovated”. This was published here.
The JPost report added that this news of PA schools renovations “was condemned by Israeli politicians, who accused the PA of flaunting its authority within Jerusalem”. According to this report, Israeli officials and politicians say “the PA violated Oslo Accords by renovating East Jerusalem schools”.
There was also another recent report that the PA had paid [presumably using donor money] to repave some of the roads in Dahiet as-Salaam.
But, Fayyad did attend the planned ceremony in Dahiet al-Bariid.
The ceremony that Fayyad attended, however, was in the part of Dahiet al-Bariid that is on the “Palestinian” side of The Wall.
Dahiet al-Bariid is split in two by The Wall, which runs right up the middle of Ahmad Orabi Street, separating families. But, this was done by the Army to implement a Supreme Court decision following a petition of some of the residents and institutions [though not including the World Bank, whose offices are there] closest to… well, if not all of Neve Yaakov, at least to the IDF’s Central Command (which is in Neve Yaakov). Residents and institutions told Israel’s Supreme Court that they did not want to be cut off from Jerusalem, which they said was the “center of their lives”. The Supreme Court accepted the petition, and the Israeli Army re-routed The Wall, right up the middle of the street.
The status of that special triangle [ Dahiet al-Bariid on the Jerusalem side of The Wall] is yet not fully clear. At the moment it is apparently still officially a “seam zone”, according to the Commander of Qalandiya Checkpoint who was present in February 2009, after the miserable “Ar-Ram” Checkpoint was removed. The Commander said “we will let the negotiators do their work”. That, of course, could take some time.
The miserable “Ar-Ram Checkpoint was left in place for six months AFTER the IDF sealed The Wall between the two parts of Dahiet al-Bariid — and this meant that the triangle of Dahiet al-Bariid that the Israeli Supreme Court left on the Jerusalem side was completely sealed off, without entry or exit except through the miserable Ar-Ram Checkpoint. Israeli garbage collection began almost immediately, but residents are still waiting for phone service from the Israeli Bezeq company…
The part of Dahiet al-Bariid on the other, “Palestinian”, side of The Wall, which Fayyad visited, is now only accessible after going through or around Qalandia, and through ar-Ram.
In this way — and only this way — according to the official Israeli reaction including Netanyahu’s tinvolvement, we are learning what this government considers to be “Jerusalem”, and what is not…
The Jerusalem Post reported later Tuesday here, that Salam Fayyad was NOT barred from Dahiet al-Bariid after all, and that the Israeli Interior Ministry had banned Salam Fayyad official activity only in Sheikh Jarrah, the Christian Quarter of the Old City in East Jerusalem, and Shufa’at.
The JPost added that Fayyad said today in Dahiet al-Bariid that “Jerusalem” suburbs are parts of a [future] Palestinian capital, according to a report on Israel Radio. Fayyad also asked what Israel would have done if he had carried out his banned official activity in Dahiet as-Salam.
Salam Fayyad himself lives in [East] Jerusalem – one of many PA officials and hundreds if not thousands of employees who do, and who travel every day to work in Ramallah.
Meanwhile, just yesterday, the Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat officially inaugurated a new girls’ school in Ras al-Amud “marking the completion of the new structure. The Mayor was greeted with a song by the school choir before being joined by school principal, Mrs Arij Arnowt and the head of the Jerusalem municipal educational authority, Mr Danny Bar-Giora, to cut the ribbon on the new building. Following the ceremony, Mayor Barkat was given a tour of the school where he chatted with pupils and staff members. He praised the school’s administration and its pupils on the productive educational atmosphere there and discussed the school curriculum and future plans for the school with its administration and municipal educational nfauthority officials. ‘We are working hard to advance educational infrastructure in both the east and west of the city. We are building new schools, we will introduce new educational programs and we’ll continue to work hard to further advance Jerusalem schools and their pupils’, the Mayor was quoted as saying in a press release issued by the Jerusalem Municipality. The press release also informs us that “The new school which was built at a cost of 30 Million NIS, caters to 900 7th to 10th grade students and includes 26 classrooms, advanced learning laboratories, computer labs and a large library. Building of the school is a part of joint efforts by the Jerusalem Municipality and the Ministry of Education to build hundreds of new classrooms for residents of eastern Jerusalem with the aim of improving the quality of life there and ensuring quality education for all students”.