Jerusalem fact sheet

From Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPTNet),
7 March 1995

Palestinian residents of Jerusalem who marry persons from outside the city, including West Bank Palestinians, must ask formal permission from the Israeli Interior Ministry for their spouses and children to live with them in Jerusalem. No such restrictions apply to Israeli Jews [Jerusalem: Reclaiming a Divided City (American Friends Service Committee, 1994),pp. 1,14.]

There are no mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem [Ibid., p. 14.]

Between 1967 and 1991, 40,000 residential units were built for Israeli Jews in Jerusalem and only 555 for Palestinians. [Statistics on Israeli Housing Demolition and Planning Policy in East Jerusalem, Palestinian Human Rights Information Center, 1994.]

Palestinians are permitted to build homes no higher than two stories. Nearby Israeli residential settlements have buildings as high as eight stories. The 155,000 Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem are allowed to build on only 14 percent of the land (Ibid.]

Approximately 50 Palestinian homes are destroyed in Jerusalem each year [Ibid.]

A common practice used by the Jerusalem municipality to discourage Arab construction has been the establishment of green zones which prevent Palestinians from building on their own land. When Israeli Jews decide to build on the land these zones are changed. [Ibrahim Matar, To Whom does Jerusalem Belong?Jerusalem (Washington D.C.: The Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine, 1993), p. 8.]

In East Jerusalem, Palestinians pay 26 percent of the cost of municipal services, but receive 5 percent of those services. [Nathan Krystall, Urgent Issues of Palestinian Residency in Jerusalem, 2nd rev. ed. (Jerusalem: Alternative Information Center, June 1994), p.36.]

In 1967 there were no Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem. In 1979 there were 50,000. In 1993, 160, 000. [Jerusalem: Reclaiming a Divided City, p. 6.] These settlers pay no tax for the first five years they live in East Jerusalem and afterwards are charged a reduced rate [Nathan Krystall, pp. 36-7.]

We have never talked about Jerusalem. We have just made it a fait accompli. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin [Davar, Oct. 19, 1990.]