By Jennifer Thompson
A part of Israel's strategy to make its exclusive control of Jerusalem a fait accompli is the pressure being applied for all Palestinian Authority activity to cease in the city as a precondition to Israeli withdrawal from Hebron.
Military withdrawal from Hebron is five months overdue according to the "Taba II" agreement of last September, but Radio Israel reported on August 7 that Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu would not allow redeployment in Hebron until the PA stops all political activity in East Jerusalem.
On the same day, the Israeli press reported that ministers meeting with Netanyahu had decided on eventually withdrawing from most of Hebron, while maintaining the right to re-enter "Area A", the area under Palestinian control, if anti-Israeli activity takes place there, conduct raids and searches and pursue activists. The Palestine Report quoted an Israeli official as saying that Israel will vacate 80% of Hebron, but will keep patrols in the area for as long as it thinks necessary.
The Israeli pressure is causing consternation amongst Palestinians. PA rejection of any deal on Hebron redeployment made the front page of the Jerusalem Times on August 16 and 23. The paper reported an August 19 Israeli declaration that it would not redeploy until the PA shut all its offices in East Jerusalem. On August 21, PA President Yasser Arafat rejected the Israeli demand.
Despite this, rumours of a deal continue. Salwa Kanaana wrote in the August 30 Palestine Report: "... the PA succumbed to Israeli pressure early on August 25, when it silently closed three offices in Jerusalem ... Palestinian officials said they closed down the offices they once vowed would remain in operation so that the peace process could move ahead unhindered."
In the same issue, Muhammed El-Hasan reported that the three institutions in question, the Palestinian Geographic Centre, the Sports and Youth Department and the Palestinian Association for Vocational Training are claimed by Israeli officials to be permanently closed and by PA officials to be still in operation.
According to El-Hasan, Legislative Council member Hatem Abdul Qader (Jerusalem, Fateh) dismissed PA claims that the offices were not closed down and criticised the PA executive branch for allegedly agreeing to the closures. Abdul Qader added that it was necessary to reinforce Palestinian institutions in the city to counter Israel's continuous establishment of "facts on the ground".
These events followed an earlier controversy as Israeli internal security minister Avigdor Kahalani tried to force Abdul Qader to stop using his home in East Jerusalem as an office for meeting with Palestinian constituents.
After a commotion in the Israeli media and a police surveillance team setting up outside the office interrogating visitors, legal advisers warned Kahalani against pursuing the matter. Abdul Qader was entitled to use his private home as he liked, and, according to Middle East International's Peretz Kidron, the advice added that he couldn't legally be barred from discharging duties arising from elections held in East Jerusalem with Israel's consent.
While Kahalani was prepared to let the matter drop, Netanyahu refused, continuing to list Abdul Qader's office amongst the so-called PA infringements of the Oslo agreements.
Soon after, Israel began a new method to force Palestinians from East Jerusalem, refusing return travel visas to Palestinians with US passports unless they relinquished their right of residency in the city.
The Jerusalem Times reported that Palestinian journalist and resident of Jerusalem Daoud Kuttab, who holds a US passport, was refused a return visa for an August 20 trip. Kuttab described the Israeli measures as part of a "policy of ethnic cleansing".
'If [Palestinians] leave their birthplace without a return visa", he said, "they will be treated as tourists in future, and automatically lose their residency rights. If they give up their foreign passports, they will never be able to travel."
According to the Jerusalem Times, the present measures are part of a campaign of withdrawing residency IDs from Jerusalemites which the Interior Ministry began several months ago. Additionally, there has been a long term policy of the Israeli Jerusalem municipality to refuse building permits to Palestinians in East Jerusalem but to allow the development of Israeli settlements in Palestinian neighbourhoods.