On the slope of Jewish democracy

[Violet_Crumble]

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not dividing Jerusalem. Neither is Minister Haim Ramon. They have simply found a faster and more efficient way than those tried before to get rid of tens of thousands of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem - after the process of robbing them of their lands for the benefit of the Jewish residents has been exhausted.

At the beginning of last week, the government decided to speed up the construction of the separation fence in the Jerusalem area, which will also surround and imprison the residents of three East Jerusalem neighborhoods: the Shoafat refugee camp, and the Salaam and Dar Khamis neighborhoods in Anata. For more than a year and a half from the time the route was set, the state was in no hurry to build, and it delayed replying to the petitions filed by attorney Danny Seideman on behalf of neighborhood residents. Now, when all the spotlights are on the incidents surrounding the disengagement, the state is rushing to construct a concrete wall and watchtowers, which have cut off the residents from their city and their entire way of life.

The Ministry of Defense has promised that the route was determined according to security considerations alone and that it took into consideration the overall interests of the residents. But Haim Ramon said last week on Israel Radio, without mincing words, " the government reinforces the security of Jerusalem, and also makes it more Jewish. The government is bringing security to the city and will also make Jerusalem the capital of a Jewish and democratic State of Israel." In other words: Clear demographic considerations are determining the route - as much land as possible in the hands of Israel, as few Arabs as possible.

The residents of these neighborhoods are not the first or the only Palestinians whom Israel has imprisoned behind fences, border crossings and a bureaucratic network of permits, in order to maintain the territorial achievements of the 1967 Six-Day War. It has become a common "solution" in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. But here we are talking about people with Israeli ID cards. Their predecessors to such imprisonment were the residents of Kafr Akab and Samir Amis, two villages south of Ramallah that were annexed to Jerusalem in 1967.

The government has promised that it will quickly do something it has not done for 37 years in East Jerusalem: Within a few months, it will build an improved system of services that will make it unnecessary for people to come to the city center. This promise demonstrates what the government ministers think of the High Court justices, who are supposed to discuss the petition against the present route: Now, they think in the government, a year after the sword of the International Court of Justice in The Hague stopped dangling over their heads, they can sell any explanation or promise to the High Court.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/602725.html