Palestinian organizations in East Jerusalem, and many eventually moved to
Ramallah or other West Bank cities.
“In terms of the Judaization of the city, the migration of all Palestinian
organizations out of Jerusalem created a situation that facilitates the
displacement of Palestinians. Before the [Oslo] peace process, Jerusalem
was effectively a Palestinian capital, it was the center of Palestinian
activities, transportation… it was the center where all the human rights and
civil society organizations were based. But after the peace process, and after
Jerusalem became isolated physically from the rest of the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip, all the organizations ended up migrating to Ramallah and
now many people from Jerusalem go and work in Ramallah on a continuous
basis. Jerusalem doesn’t offer jobs to Palestinian Jerusalemites. This means
for many Palestinians that they have to either travel back and forth daily
to Ramallah through the Qalandia [military] checkpoint. But some people
might decide to go and move to the other side of the checkpoint [outside
of East Jerusalem, to the rest of the West Bank] for convenience, and this
obviously threatens their residency permit that is given by the Israelis and
their ability to continue to live in Jerusalem after that because of the risk of
losing their residency status in Jerusalem.
This move was mainly because of the disconnect from the West Bank. If
there's an organization that is mainly staffed by Palestinians with West Bank
ID, they will not be able to access this organization if it continues to be in
Jerusalem. Al-Haq for example [Palestinian human rights organization], was
based in Jerusalem before it moved to Ramallah. There are a lot of cultural
and scientific organizations that moved to Ramallah.
So yes, I think the biggest risk is the migration of the organizations.
Everything is focused in Ramallah and other parts of the West Bank.
Palestinians [Jerusalemites] now are alienated from the rest of the Palestinian
community, somehow they feel different. There's a little bit of a gap from
the fragmentation that was caused by the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem,
and certainly the separation. We don't anymore see our family members in
Gaza, I’m half-Gazan myself actually, and we're totally disconnected with
the exception of the people who get medical treatment in Jerusalem and get
permits to come. So this physical division and fragmentation is indirectly
causing some cultural differences.”
Munir Nuseibah, director of the Community Action Center, Jerusalem
Interview: 27 November 2016
In addition to the transfer of many organizations out of Jerusalem, the Israeli
policies of suppression are also widespread elsewhere in the West Bank.
Israel has moved to shut down institutions based on the grounds of political
affiliation. Israel systematically targets “philanthropic and social service
networks” linked to Hamas in the oPt. Related organizations are typically
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