It Doesn't Make Sense: Illegal in Their Own Village

From the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israeli: JE Berg, an accompanier in Bethlehem, filed this report which can be found at the EAPPI International website.

"It doesn't make sense to us either"
28.10.11
By: J E Berg, EAPPI Bethlehem

Mohammed Daoud is 22 and ready to start his adult life. He lives with his brother and 5 sisters in the family home, and like most young men, he wants to move out and spread his wings.

Mohammed is from An Nu'man, a village of 200 on the southern edge of Jerusalem. It is a close community, but it exists in a limbo that affects every aspect of life. After Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, it unilaterally annexed the village to the Jerusalem municipality, along with a large area of the central West Bank. But even though An Nu'man came within the municipal boundaries, Israel refused to give its inhabitants Jerusalem residency cards. Instead it defined them as West Bankers, thus denying their right to live in their own houses. This logic extends to the realm of language: Israeli law refers to the residents as "present absentees."

Like many Palestinians both in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Mohammed has almost no chance of obtaining a permit from the Israeli authorities to build a house in his own village. Since 1967, the occupying authorities have not given a single building permit to any resident of An Nu'man.

Without a house, Mohammad will not be able to bring a wife to his own home. The Palestinian Arab tradition is that young men start to build a house after finishing school. As soon as they start to earn money, they start to build, and can think about marriage. Mohammad wants to follow this tradition and settle here, in the village of his forefathers.

"I don't want to leave my place to be replaced by an Israeli," he says, but "I do not dare to build a house without permission."

His brother, who did build a house without an impossible-to-obtain permit, saw his home flattened by the Israeli authorities.

"When I see the demolished house of my brother, I know I will not attempt to follow my dreams."

Locals claim that An Nu'man has the highest number of educated people in any village of the West Bank. Mohammad has a degree in Geography from a Palestinian university in Jerusalem. While he was studying he met girls, but says he wants to marry someone from his village.

"I think it will only make problems for you if you marry a woman from other places," he says. "Perhaps the ideas of their family are different from the customs of your own family."

But his choice of wife is more than a matter of tradition. If a local boy wants to marry a girl from another village in the West Bank, he has to move out from An Numan. Only registered villagers can enter through the checkpoint here. Any girlfriend or new wife will not get permission to come here. And although he wants to marry, like most Palestinians Mohammed is attached to his village.

"My dream is to continue my studies, get a job and settle in my own house and start a family," he says.

"I love my village. It is good place to grow up. The 200 villagers all know each other. But the situation in my village is terrible now. We are included in Jerusalem, but we do not hold a Jerusalem ID. This makes us illegal in our own village. I know it is hard for others to understand. It doesn't make sense to us either."nier in Bethlehem, filed this report which can be found at the EAPPI international website.


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For more about EAPPI, including how to participate, see the US website: www.eappi-us.org .

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Human Rights Watch Lambasts Israeli Policies Denying Residency Based on Palestinian Identity

This bulletin comes to us from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Peace Not Walls campaign.

Human Rights Watch Lambasts Israeli Policies Denying Residency Based on Palestinian Identity

Israeli policies on Palestinian residency have arbitrarily denied thousands of Palestinians the ability to live in, and travel to and from, the West Bank and Gaza, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Israel should immediately stop denying or cancelling the residency of Palestinians and close family members with deep ties to the West Bank and Gaza, and end blanket bans on processing their applications for residency.

The 90-page report, “Forget about Him, He’s Not Here,” describes the arbitrary exclusion by the Israeli military of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians since 1967 and documents the impact that exclusion continues to have on individuals and families. The way Israel’s military has exercised its control over the Palestinian population registry – the list of Palestinians whom it considers to be lawful residents of the West Bank and Gaza territories – has separated families, caused people to lose jobs and educational opportunities, barred people from entering the Palestinian territories, and trapped others inside them, Human Rights Watch said. Egypt also has problematic policies on Palestinians trying to enter Gaza that are based on the Israeli-controlled population registry.

From Human Rights Watch

View Forbidden Family, a video of the family of the ELCJHL’s Redeemer Church organist in Jerusalem. He is a Jerusalem resident living with his West Bank wife who has had to deal with these residency issues.

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World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, May 2012

I'm not very good at thinking ahead, but this memo from the World Council of Churches' calls for some advance planning. Please give it your attention and make some creative plans!

World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel

The Rev. John Calhoun, convener of the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel (WWPPI) shares plans (below) for the observation May 28 to June 3, 2012. The focus is on the growing dispossession and displacement of Palestinians.

In 2012, Palestinians will have been through 64 years of displacement and dispossession. Israel persists with policies of house demolitions, forced evictions, and multiple counts of displacement close to settlements and the wall. Israel’s actions have resulted in failing standards of food security and livelihood access for Palestinians. Palestinians in East Jerusalem whose residency rights have been revoked have reached unprecedented numbers. Refugees now into the fourth generation are gloomy about their prospects of ever returning to their homes.

Everyone is urged to initiate actions around the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, actions that unite the ecumenical family in asserting the dignity and rights of the dispossessed and displaced Palestinians.

World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel
28 May - 3 June 2012
“Pray, educate, and advocate for justice in Palestine”
An initiative of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF) of the World Council of Churches

The World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel invites WCC member churches, faith-based communities, civil society organizations and other agencies working for justice to join a week of prayer, education, and advocacy for an end to the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine and a just end to the conflict. This year our common focus is on the displacement and dispossession suffered by Palestinians under the continuing occupation.

What for? Our aim is to promote an end to the illegal Israeli occupation and a just peace in Palestine. During one week, churches in different countries will send a clear signal to policy-makers, community groups, and local parishes about the urgent need for justice for the Palestinians. The week inaugurates a year-round effort to rally churches, communities, and individuals to work for justice in Palestine.

Who are you joining? Churches, community organizations, specialized ministries, and local parishes on six continents will join together to speak out and act for a just peace. Leadership for this initiative is being provided by:

• Jerusalem’s churches and related church and peace organizations in Palestine
• Volunteers and veterans of the WCC’s Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel
• The Pax Christi International network and church aid agencies in Europe and North America
• Ecumenical networks and civil society groups in South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia

How? Participants are requested to plan their activities around these points:
Pray with churches living under occupation, using a special prayer from Jerusalem and contemporary liturgies to be issued in early 2012.

Educate others, and be further educated, about the crippling effects of the illegal occupation, including displacement, family separation, land confiscation, and denial of basic human rights.

Advocate with political and church leaders, encouraging them to support and enact public policies that will lead to a just end to the occupation.

For further information about World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel 2012, please visit www.worldweekforpeace.org. To share details about your plans for the Week, please contact the Rev. John Calhoun, the convenor of World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel 2012, at calhoun.wwppi@gmail.com.

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