Annual Report - Palestinian Center for Human Rights

As the construction of the Wall is expected to be completed soon, totally isolating
Jerusalem, hundreds of Palestinians living in al-Ram village and Dahiat al-Barid
suburb have started to move back to East Jerusalem. Most of these Palestinians
are young couples who have been separated from their families living in
Jerusalem. According to Israeli classifications, the eastern parts of al-Ram
village and Dahiat al-Barid suburb are located in the West Bank, whereas the
western parts are part of Jerusalem.
Impacts of the Construction of the Annexation Wall around Jerusalem
• Land Confiscation and Isolation
With the construction of the Annexation Wall around Jerusalem, Israeli measures
to isolate the city have become more complicated. In 2005, IOF accelerated the
construction of the Wall around the city in order to complete it as soon as
possible and thus implement decisions taken by the Israeli political and security
establishments.
• Denial of Rights of the Palestinian Civilian Population
Israeli illegal and arbitrary measures in East Jerusalem lead to violations of civil,
political, economic and social rights of the Palestinian civilian population.
1. Violation of the Right to Citizenship: The construction of the Annexation
Wall around Jerusalem falls under Israeli policies aimed at the Judaization
and the annexation of the city with the least Palestinian population. These
policies seek to make the Palestinian population constitute only 22% of the
total population of the city, according to the Israeli ministerial committee for
Jerusalem’s affairs. In the past years, the Israeli government has
implemented instructions issued by the Israeli Ministry of Interior that
Palestinians must prove their permanent residence in the city, a measure
known as “the center of life”. Every Palestinian living in Jerusalem must
prove that he has lived in the city in the past seven years, when he/she refers
to any Israeli official body, otherwise, he/she will lose his/her Israeli identity
card. It is worth noting that IOF imposed Israeli identity cards on the
Palestinian population in the city following its occupation in 1967 in the
context of measures aimed at the annexation of the city. These measures have
resulted in the dispersion of families and denial of the rights of families to
receive social services and medical care, which are enjoyed by residents of
Jerusalem.
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed its
concern at the effect of the directive of the Ministry of the Interior, according
to which Palestinians may lose their right to live in the city if they cannot
prove that East Jerusalem has been their "centre of life" for the past seven
years. The Committee also regretted a serious lack of transparency in the
application of the directive. In its comment on Israel’s preliminary report on
the rights prescribed by articles 1-15 of the International Covenant of
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee noted with concern that
this policy is being applied retroactively both to Palestinians who live abroad
and to those who live in the West Bank or in nearby Jerusalem suburbs, but
not to Israeli Jews or to foreign Jews who are permanent residents of East
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