Dislocated communities on the Jerusalem side of the Barrier; concern over forced displacement

The circuitous route of the Barrier in the Jerusalem area has so far isolated some 1,400 West Bank residents on the ‘Jerusalem’ side of the Barrier, living in 17 communities of mixed West Bank and Jerusalem ID card holders. Some of these dislocated communities are located within the Israeli-defined municipal area of Jerusalem, while others are located in Area C. Most of these communities are small, often consisting of a few households, although Al Khalayleh and An Nabi Samwil are more sizable Area C communities stranded on the ‘Jerusalem’ side by the Barrier’s encirclement of the Giv’at Ze’ev settlement bloc.

Those who hold West Bank ID cards are now physically separated from the wider West Bank, but their residency status denies them access to the surrounding East Jerusalem area for work, markets or services. They face strict residency and access restrictions whereby residency in their homes, and movement between their homes and the rest of the West Bank, is conditional upon obtaining either special Israeli ‘seam zone’ permits or having their names recorded on a coordination list at the nearest checkpoint. Some have also been given maps that demarcate the route they must take to reach the designated checkpoint. They are subjected to fines and/or arrest if they are found outside the bounds of their homes or outside the designated routes to the nearest checkpoint. Combined with demolition threats, the humanitarian impact of the Barrier on this category of Palestinians is a major concern and is manifested by continued forced displacement, both directly as a result of demolitions and indirectly as a result of difficult living conditions.

Qalandiya village

Since late 2012, part of Qalandiya village has become the area most recently isolated on the ‘Jerusalem’ side as a result of the completion of the Barrier near Qalandiya airport. Some 80 Palestinians live in this part of the village, including a family of seven people who hold West Bank IDs. A gate installed in the Barrier, which is operated by the Israeli army, opens three times a day only to allow this family and other families who hold Jerusalem ID cards to reach the rest of their village and the wider Ramallah urban area; the West Bank family is denied access to the historic service center in East Jerusalem.

Recent demolitions and displacement

Over the past two years, 126 Palestinians have had their homes demolished and some have been forcibly transferred out of these dislocated communities as a result of demolitions: these include 51 people from the Al Khalayla Bedouin community, 63 from the Tel Al Addasa Bedouin community and 12 from Khirbet Khamis.*Outstanding demolition orders against residential and livelihood structures continue to threaten other dislocated communities with displacement and/or the erosion of livelihood sources, including Khirbet Khamis, An Nabi Samwil village and its nearby Bedouin community, Al Khalayla and Ras Shihadeh Bedouins.

Silent displacement: the case of An Nabi Samwil

In other cases, difficult living conditions, the denial of residency permits by the Israeli authorities and the inability to build as a result of planning and building restrictions have forced families to move out to the remainder of the West Bank. For example, according to An Nabi Samwil village council, 24 households comprising 125 people, including newly-wed couples, have moved out of the village in the past seven years as a result of movement and access restrictions and the inability to build new homes.

An Nabi Samwil village is located entirely in Area C and has been designated by the Israeli authorities as a national park area. Residents live with the continuous threat of demolition orders; in the past three years, the Israeli Civil Administration demolished 11 livelihood structures in An Nabi Samwil, affecting around 25 people. The Israeli authorities have also prevented village residents from expanding their 16-meter-square school and issued demolition orders on the fence surrounding the school, the newly erected school caravan and the school’s sanitation unit.

Israeli settler violence has also been on the rise in the village, including damaging and stealing car wash equipment and flooding newly planted agricultural land with sewage. At the same time, the few Palestinians who attempted to seek work in nearby Ramot settlement were arrested on the grounds that they are not allowed to enter East Jerusalem.

Residency denied: the case of Dahiyat Al Barid residents

Several families living in the area of Dahiyat Al Barid, located within the Israeli-declared Jerusalem municipal boundary, were forced to leave their homes and move to Kufr ‘Aqab after being denied residency permits by the Israeli authorities. These families were issued two-month temporary permits when the Barrier was completed in the area in 2009 and were instructed to apply to the Israeli Ministry of Interior for family reunification, if eligible, or to leave Jerusalem altogether. As a result, three families comprising 18 people, including three fathers with West Bank IDs, were forced to move to the West Bank side of the Barrier after several years of access restrictions that severely affected their family lives and jobs.

* For more information, see OcHa case study reports on Tel al adassa and Khirbet Khamis as well as OCHA’s monthly Bulletin piece on Al Khalayla Bedouin community (page 13).

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Approaching the tenth anniversary of the ICJ advisory opinion

On 9 July 2004, the International court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The ICJ recognized that Israel ‘has to face numerous indiscriminate and deadly acts of violence against its civilian population’ and that it ‘has the right, and indeed the duty, to respond in order to protect the life of its citizens. [However], the measures taken are bound nonetheless to remain in conformity with applicable international law.’

The ICJ stated that the sections of the Barrier route which ran inside the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, violated Israel’s obligations under international law. The ICJ called on Israel to cease construction of the Barrier ‘including in and around East Jerusalem’; dismantle the sections already completed; and ‘repeal or render ineffective forthwith all legislative and regulatory acts relating thereto’.

In the lead up to the tenth anniversary of the ICJ advisory opinion in July 2014, OCHA will issue a series of articles in the Humanitarian Bulletin to highlight the continuing humanitarian impact of the Barrier.