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Dangerous Liaison - Dynamics of the Temple Movements Reports

Recent tensions on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif are not isolated events but part of the growing rise of Temple movements-organizations and groups committed to challenging existing arrangements on this most contested of holy spaces. Despite Israel’s chief rabbis recently reinstating the ban on Jews ascending the Temple Mount, ascents are on the rise, along with a range of activities to realize the Mount as the site of the Third Temple. The steady advance of these movements - and the permeation of their values into the public discourse - represents one of the most volatile issues in the Middle East conflict today. Ir Amim’s comprehensive report analyzes the dynamics of the growth of the Temple movements, their increasing acceptance in the political center in Israel and the nature and depth of ties between Temple groups and the Israeli political establishment.

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The E1 Report Reports

Ostensibly, the E1 controversy pertains to the city of Ma’aleh Adumim to the east of Jerusalem. But E1 is, in fact, not part of Ma’aleh Adumim. The proposed construction in E1 differs from Ma’aleh Adumim both topographically and in terms of its political ramifications. It constitutes a new autonomous 4,000 unit-strong (roughly 20,000 people) settlement that will separate East Jerusalem from the West Bank and prevent any future territorial continuity between the two in any meaningful way. Alongside a plan for a large commercial area with hotels, the intent of this construction is to make facts on the ground. Its “successful” implementation has the potential to thwart any just and stable political solution.

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The Giant’s Garden Reports

In June 2010 the Local Planning and Building Subcommittee recommended the Jerusalem Municipality’s plan for "The King's Garden" in the heart of the Al-Bustan neighborhood of Silwan for deposit to the District Committee. Presently, the Municipality is pressuring the District Planning and Building Committee to expedite discussion of the plan. Meanwhile, the Municipality continues to pursue court proceedings for the demolition of dozens of houses in the neighborhood.

The City of David site in the center of Silwan—managed by the Elad settler organization—and additional settlements located throughout the neighborhood have intensified tension with local residents. This report finds that a much larger number of buildings in the al-Bustan neighborhood are expected to be demolished than the number originally declared by the Municipality. Furthermore, the solution offered by the Municipality—a kind of evacuation-construction plan according to which new houses will be constructed before the old ones are demolished—is not feasible; moreover, the Municipality is simultaneously working to cancel the plan.

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Education Report 2012: Failed Grade – East Jerusalem's Failing Educational System Reports

Tens of thousands of schoolchildren in East Jerusalem will continue to receive second-rate education, if any, during the 2012 school year despite their basic right to education. Most will find themselves in dysfunctional public schools, lacking adequate resources and personnel, including many operating out of residential apartments. Of those who will have access to education, 40% will drop out by the time they reach 12th grade. Many families will be forced to fund informal education programs, often entailing thousands of NIS per year, in crude violation of their right to free education. Such expenses are especially detrimental to residents of East Jerusalem, in which poverty has reached an all-time high: 78% of the general population and 84% of children in the area are below the national poverty line.

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Officially Out of Order: The Education System in Silwan Reports

This report reviews the condition of educational infrastructure in the neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, and demonstrates how statistics indicating the state of the educational system in East Jerusalem as a whole manifest in the lives of children and their parents. This report was written alongside Ir Amim’s and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel’s annual monitoring report, published in August 2012, and it serves as a case study for understanding the stories behind the statistics.

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Permanent Residency: A Temporary Status Set in Stone Reports

Israel de facto annexed East Jerusalem but not its inhabitants. The Israeli state applied Israeli law, jurisdiction and administration to East Jerusalem, granting it "full citizenship" status. It even guaranteed its jurisdiction over East Jerusalem by passing the ‘Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel,’ making it extremely difficult for any future government to cede territory in East Jerusalem. And yet, Israel did not grant citizenship rights to East Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents. These are not immigrants to Israel but native Jerusalemites who live their lives in this city. Today, one third of Jerusalem's residents live without citizenship, they live under a political structure that claims their land but does not accept them along with it.

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Education Report 2011 - The East Jerusalem School System Reports

The East Jerusalem school system has suffered from severe neglect for many years. Any solution, therefore, will require a deep overhaul and a comprehensive long-term plan to overcome the ongoing failure of the authorities. Although there has been some progress recently, change has come decades too late and, for the moment, is moving too slowly. This paper represents an annual update on the status of various aspects of the education system. Ir Amim and ACRI continue to monitor, document and act for the full realization of the basic constitutional right of the tens of thousands of children of East Jerusalem for adequate education.

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Un-Neighborly Neighbors: The Maale Zeitim Settlement's War of Attrition against the Hamdallah Family Reports

This paper outlines the war of attrition Dr. Irving Moskowitz, patron of the East Jerusalem settlers, is conducting against the Hamdallah family of Ras al-Amud. The Hamdallah household lies adjacent to the settler compound in Ras al-Amud containing its wanton expansion. Accordingly, the settlers and their supporters spare no expense, utilizing the Israeli judicial system in their crusade to evacuate the Hamdallah family out of their home of decades.

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Toward a Point of No Return: Lifting the Political Restraints in East Jerusalem Reports

This report outlines Israel’s policy shift in late 2010-early 2011 towards East Jerusalem, following the expiration of the 2010 settlement freeze. This turn for the worse, which occurred simultaneously in numerous policy fields, increased instability in the city and severely harmed any potential commencement of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

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Walajeh – A Village under Siege Reports

This report describes the unfolding of events regarding the construction of the separation barrier around Walajeh, including the legal complexities and the various entities that play a role in this critical and disturbing development.

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Education Report 2010: Failed Grade - The Education System in East Jerusalem Reports

Despite the fact that Israeli Education Law requires the State to provide education services to all residents of Israel, there continues to be a severe shortage of more than 1,000 classrooms in East Jerusalem. This shortage, as well as the sub-standard conditions of existing classrooms, has led more than 40,000 pupils to turn to private schools, while approximately 5,300 children do not attend school at all. Despite the promises of Israeli authorities to the High Court of Justice in 2007 to build 645 classrooms by 2011, not much has changed since then.

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Absentees Against Their Will – Property Expropriation in East Jerusalem under the Absentee Property Law Reports

The State of Israel, in its early days, enacted the Absentee Property Law in order to regulate transfer of Palestinian refugee property into the hands of the state. Subjugating East Jerusalem to Israeli law since 1967 has had the potential to render the majority of houses in East Jerusalem “absentee property.” This report reviews the Israeli judicial system’s inconsistent application of the Absentee Property Law in East Jerusalem, and illustrates the risks involved in changing the government policy towards East Jerusalem as adopted in 1967.

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Making Bricks Without Straw: The Jerusalem Municipality’s New Planning Policy for East Jerusalem Reports

This report issued by Ir Amim and Bimkom examines the municipality’s new planning policy and concludes that the current planning realities in East Jerusalem serve to thwart, de facto, nearly every Palestinian building plan whether at the stage of approving the plan itself or at the stage of issuing the building permit.

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Why Are They Really Demonstrating in Sheikh Jarrah? Reports

In the past few weeks, the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood has featured prominently in the headlines. Palestinian and Israeli activists organized weekly demonstrations, protesting the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes and entry of Israeli settlers into the neighborhood. This short survey seeks to clarify the historical and legal process leading up to the current demonstrations, as well as their political implications.

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Education Report 2009: The Arab-Palestinian School System in East Jerusalem Reports

The report reveals that thousands of Palestinian pupils in East Jerusalem are denied access to free public education. Of those lucky enough to find space in municipal public schools, thousands learn in substandard classrooms. The report also addresses the problematic conduct of both the State of Israel and the Jerusalem Municipality towards this issue.

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Israeli Settlement in Palestinian Communities in East Jerusalem Reports

This document provides a snapshot of one of the major threats to a negotiated resolution in Jerusalem: the accelerated process of Israeli settlement in Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem (as of August 2009).

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Evictions and Settlement Plans in Sheikh Jarrah: The Case of Shimon HaTzadik Reports

This report aims to clarify the historical-legal background of evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah.

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Shady Dealings in Silwan Reports

This is a comprehensive survey of Israel’s accelerated takeover, through extreme right wing organizations, of large parts of the Silwan village located at the heart of Jerusalem's historical basin. The report strives to expose the state’s problematic conduct in one of the most delicate regions of Jerusalem, and uncover the dangers of uninhibited continuous application of current policies.

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A Layman’s Guide to Home Demolitions Reports

In recent weeks there has been a great deal of news coverage regarding planned home demolitions in East Jerusalem. In response to the high volume of queries about the issue - focused a

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Severe Threat to Al Bustan-Silwan Neighborhood Reports

The Israeli authorities’ actions in the past months bear a renewed danger to the existence of Al Bustan neighborhood of Silwan. The demolition of almost 90 homes in this sensitive and disputed are

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