Region | Palestinian Territories
Palestinians in Occupied Jerusalem taking over a world that does not belong to them
Whenever Munir Nasrawi opens the door to his house in the Christian quarter of occupied Jerusalem's Old City, he is faced with a cold reminder of the fierce struggle under way inside this ancient world of twisting lanes, crumbling domes and bustling souqs.
- By Tobias Buck, Financial Times
- Published: 00:05 May 3, 2008
- A Palestinian man walks past a group of Israeli border police officers standing in front of a closed shop in occupied Jerusalem's Old City.
- Image Credit: AP
Occupied Jerusalem: Whenever Munir Nasrawi opens the door to his house in the Christian quarter of occupied Jerusalem's Old City, he is faced with a cold reminder of the fierce struggle under way inside this ancient world of twisting lanes, crumbling domes and bustling souqs.
Nasrawi's family has lived inside the Old City for more than 200 years. The shopkeeper is a big cheerful man and he has an affecting laugh. He also has a fondness for holding barbecues on his roof terrace overlooking the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Yet his face clouds over as he contemplates the solid, 3 metre iron fence that cuts along the lane opposite his sprawling home.
On the other side of the fence, builders are busy putting up a new house. The foundations have already been laid and soon, he says, the third floor of a new Jewish seminary will be completed.
To Nasrawi and other Palestinians who make up the vast majority of the Old City's 32,000 residents, these new neighbours are unwelcome intruders.
They see the growing number of Jews moving to the Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City as a hostile force determined to take over a world that does not belong to them.
In the 41 years since Israel conquered the Old City, along with the rest of Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Jewish colonists have sought to lay down roots in the occupied territories.
With the generous help of successive Israeli governments, the colonists have built entire cities on land Palestinians regard as theirs, as well as more than 100 small "border posts" that often consist of little more than a few containers and a generator for electricity.
Today, about 450,000 Jews live in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem and their determination to stay is widely seen as one of the biggest obstacles to reaching a peace agreement that would allow the creation of a Palestinian state.
Fierce strugggle
Though small in numbers, the colonists inside the Old City are considered to be among the most committed. They insist that all of occupied Jerusalem is now part of Israel and that they have as much right to live in the Old City as the Palestinians.
But their readiness to hold out in single-room apartments surrounded by hostile Palestinians has set off a fierce house-to-house battle that is fought with building permits, bulldozers and, above all, money - lots of money.
Many residents inside the Old City say they have been approached by Israeli colonists - or by Palestinian middle-men - with generous offers to buy their houses. Maysoun Maslouhi, who lives in the Muslim quarter, says her family was offered $100,000 (Dh367,000) for just one of their rooms. It was a huge sum of money for the family, but "of course" her father refused.
Palestinians who sell their property to colonists face being ostracised by their community and one has reportedly been killed for what is regarded by many here as the worst form of betrayal.
"Their souls are very weak," says Maysoun of the families who sell up. "I despise them more than I despise the Jews."
The small number of colonists - 900 according to the highest estimate - outside the Old City's Jewish Quarter make their presence felt in many ways. Their flats and houses are decked out in Israeli flags and often are surrounded by high fences and security cameras.
Whenever colonists, or their children, leave their house they are accompanied by at least one armed security guard paid for by the Israeli government. The protection is necessary, says one guard, because of the threat of knife attacks and from stone throwers.
But Palestinians say they are terrified by the armed men that roam the Old City's narrow cobbled lanes and take position on the roofs of the colonists' houses. "Sometimes I am afraid of going up on to my roof terrace," says Nasrawi. "You don't feel free in your house."
Many colonists in the West Bank form separate enclaves that are fenced off and removed from Palestinian villages, but there is no way in which colonists and Palestinians can avoid each other in the confines of the Old City.
In one house close to the Via Dolorosa - the lane that Jesus is believed to have taken on his final journey - the second floor is decked out in dozens of Israeli flags. On the balcony below, a Palestinian family proudly displays an Islamic banner.
The colonists say they have as much right to live in the Old City as anyone else. Daniel Luria, Executive Director of Ateret Cohanim, an organisation that promotes Jewish migration to the Old City, says that in the 19th century Jews and Arabs lived side by side across occupied Jerusalem's four quarters. "This is our country, this is my city and no one has the right to divide it," he says.
Luria says his organisation has never approached Palestinians with an offer to buy their property and that "there is no shortage of Arabs willing to sell".
But he admits that life between Jews and Palestinians in the Old City is tense: "They know there is a battle going on over every inch of the Old City."
Share this article
More from Palestinian Territories
More from Region
Popular in News
News Editor's choice
-
Al Qaida returns to Manhattan
Trial in US federal court would be just the theatre Khalid Shaikh Mohammad wants
-
Obama's Tibet test
The US president's snub of the Dalai Lama could embolden China
-
What to expect at the Dubai Airshow
We preview what types of aircraft to expect at the Dubai Airshow
