‘There’s no such thing as illegal houses, there is such thing as racist laws’: Israelis demonstrate against collective punishment in East Jerusalem

About 80 Israelis rallied last Wednesday night outside of Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat’s house, chanting and banging drums in protest against the intensified attack on East Jerusalem that has taken place over the last week and to demand an end to what they call the policy of collective punishment toward the residents of East Jerusalem.

Protesters chanted “There’s no such thing as illegal houses, there is such thing as racist laws,” and “Arresting children does not bring security,” and held signs such as “Discrimination and marginalization in East Jerusalem = Apartheid.”

“[Mayor Barkat] should know that there are numbers of people in this city who do not share his ideology, who do not believe in this collective punishment,” said Uri Agnon, one of the organizers of the protest. “We wanted to tell his neighbors that they should know what their neighbor is doing, and should pressure him as neighbors.”

Since settlers expanded into 25 homes in Silwan on September 29, constituting the biggest such illegal population transfer in decades, the situation in East Jerusalem has been particularly tense. In the last week there have been daily clashes as police ransacked and demolished residents’ houses, limited movement by blocking off major roads for days, invaded schools, and kidnapped and detained students and others.

Agnon said that he decided to organize the protest after going and seeing what was happening in Issawiya, a village in East Jerusalem, for himself on Monday. He said that from very close to his university, he could see the army standing above Issawiya and aimlessly shooting teargas canisters into the village, affecting almost all of the homes.

“What they are doing is collectively punishing everybody [in East Jerusalem],” he said. “Even inside their homes people cannot breathe because of the gas.”

In response to the Israeli media framing the events as “riots” by dangerous and violent Arabs that must be stopped by any means by the police, protesters aimed to raise awareness of the broader context of what’s been going on, highlighting the roots of systematic discrimination and occupation that naturally lead to Palestinian resistance.

East Jerusalem was illegally annexed by Israel in 1980. No country outside of Israel—not even the United States—recognizes it as part of Israel, instead seeing it part of the Occupied Territories.

Israel however, sees East Jerusalem as its own, leaving it with the ongoing dilemma of what to do with all the Palestinians living on this piece of land. The state classifies Palestinians living there as “residents” as opposed to “citizens,” giving them fewer rights than their Jewish counterparts.

Although Palestinians living in East Jerusalem contribute 40% of the city’s taxes, they only receive 8% of municipal spending, resulting in dire situations for schools, hospitals, and other vital city infrastructure like water, sewage, and roads.

Palestinians are also rarely granted building permits by the state of Israel, forcing growing families to either move outside of East Jerusalem and risk losing their residency, or build illegally and risk demolition.

Moriel Rothman-Zecher, an Israeli born in West Jerusalem, elaborated on the chant ‘There’s no such think as illegal houses, there is such think as racist laws’:

“What does it mean that most of the houses in East Jerusalem that are built are illegal? It means that the law doesn’t allow Palestinians living in East Jerusalem—or the West Bank for that matter—to get legal permits to build and thus their houses are illegal and thus they are destroyed on a regular basis.”

Speakers and signs additionally highlighted the unjust “collective punishment” that Palestinian East Jerusalemites are subject to.

“Kids are being arrested in the middle of the night, pulled out of their homes, interrogated without their parents, threatened while under arrest, and in some cases, held under house arrest once they’re released from jail so they can’t return to school,” said Rothman-Zecher.

“If you look at the pattern of what’s going on, these children’s arrests, they’re not remedial efforts, but part of this policy of collective punishment. The goal is that every young boy in Silwan, even as young as 7-years-old, should be too afraid to dare to challenge the occupation in any form because he knows that so many people have been arrested and he knows that he could be arrested at any time.”

This systematic attack on East Jerusalemites’ ability to live normal lives is part of Israel’s attempt at “Judaization” (de-Arabization) such as the “70-30 policy” cited in the Jerusalem 2020 Master Plan. The policy states the goal of maintaining a demographic balance of at most 70-part Jews to 30-part Arabs and recommends various means of removing the Arab population and replacing them with Jews. (For more on the Master Plan see this summary here: PDF.)

At present the demographic ratio of Jews is less than this, and so most activists understand the systematic collective punishment being enacted on East Jerusalem as an attempt to make life so unbearable for the local population that they will simply leave.

However, according to protesters, one problem is that most Israelis simply have no idea what is going on in East Jerusalem.

“People see the headlines about riots, but they don’t know that in East Jerusalem there is no water, no electricity, no sidewalks,” said Agnon. “They don’t know that there are not enough schools or staff for the kids. They don’t know that people in East Jerusalem aren’t even citizens of the country, that they don’t have the right to vote. People have no idea what is going on.”

“Most Israelis don’t care,” added Shlomit Steinitz, an activist with Machsom Watch who joined the demonstration after hearing it from down the street. “Why not? It’s very convenient not to care. It’s very convenient just to blame [the Arabs] for everything.”

Thus activists hoped that in addition to keeping the issue in public discourse, the action might wake up ordinary civilians to what is going on in their city.

As one speaker shouted over a megaphone:

“We know it’s not so pleasant that we are here outside your houses at a relatively late hour, making noise with our drums and shouting and yelling chants. But believe us when we tell you it’s a lot nicer and more pleasant than what is happening in the Eastern city of Jerusalem. This is a lot nicer than invasions, a lot nicer than house Demolitions—all of which are the responsibility of your neighbor, [Mayor] Nir Barkat.”

Thanks to Maya Rotem who assisted with translation.