Israel claimed the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Region (beside Golan Heights and the Sinai) as a defence against Arab aggression, a question of survival - however after having revealed the facts it might be clear, that this occupation was nothing less but a further step in the Zionist fight for an Israel in wider borders, the Mandate borders at least. The strategies are so much similar to what happened from 1948 on in Israel and part of the Judaisingprocess. That was judaising through usurping as much as possible of landscape, agricultural land, villages, historical sides, water resources to establish Jewish presence and eliminate Palestinian existence as far as possible.
Changing the map, changing geographical landmarks, creating exclusive Jewish communication strings, roads and infrastructure networks, thus disconnecting the existing Palestinian society and its living areas from each other - was one part of that ongoing usurpation. Expropriation of Palestinian property was basic for that second criminal part of the usurpation of Palestine. A bunch of fantastic 'laws', faked reasons, always labelled 'security demands', was used fuelling the self made crucial circle: create a problem, ask for soldiers to protect 'our' people, and if protest against occur it gives reason for more pressure, family punishment, finally expropriation and so forth.
Less than 20 percent of a former Palestinian unity was left – and this not even under real Palestinian control. Instead we find a handicapped and scattered mosaic of pieces of a cake that Israel is eventually going on to swallow. Nothing happened plan less, each step had a purpose, and each measure had an aim. Architects were planners implementing Zionist programs for achieving eventually the complete judaising of Palestine 'from the coast to the Jordan River'. The Zionist Movement, the World Zionist Organisation (WZO) is still a forcing power, developing outlines for further occupation, land and water grab.
Most shocking is the fact that the international community, having established a United Nation, a Geneva Convention and declared the principles of Human Rights as universal is watching, knowing and not interfering at all. The United Nations in 1947 decided against such principles to divide Palestine, and also promised to guarantee a Palestinian State. This responsibility still exists. And it will be still a challenge to prove creditability of those organisations, principles and decisions and should be taken seriously.
Given the UN decision is a fact to be accepted, given Israel is a reality based on this international agreement, given this is to be accepted by the powerless and defeated Palestinians, the question is still to rise why Israel is not forced to go back to the borders that UN once proposed. Why no international body can or will force Israel to leaving East Jerusalem, the occupied territories of the West Bank, all Gaza region and Syrian Golan?
Furthermore, Israel too has to fulfil its responsibility and proving what it claims to be: a democratic state that respects other nations and the civic rights of their own citizens. However, Israel is even hurrying up to grab more Palestinian land, to divide more what rests and to enter pure Palestinian living areas, creating a hell for the inhabitants. Intending to make Palestinians moving out and to judaising entire cities in the West Bank like Jaffa, Akka in Israel, or East Jerusalem and Hebron in the West Bank is still fact. Breaking Palestinian identity par force and fabricating instead an image of an 'ancient Israel' is going on, a political entity that in reality only played a small role during a small period in the area of ancient geographical Palestine. How this is going to happen in pure and historic Palestinian cities is a question of the next section.
Religion and ancient history gave according to Herzl an important impulse for colonising and judaising the land of Palestine. In this context the occupation of Jerusalem and Hebron had first priority after 1967. Hence, both cities, Jerusalem, the 'City of Salomon and David' and Hebron the 'City of Abraham', became delicate targets of planners and were suffering and undergoing a deep change in social, cultural and demographic sense.
While Jerusalem is against international law seen as the Israeli Capital and officially usurped into Israel via Knesset decisions, Hebron is conquered in another mode. Hebron had lost its Jewish community since revolts in the end of the 20ties. After occupation Israel started planting the colony Kiryat Arba beside Hebron (Arabic Al Khalil) and fundamentalist Zionist groups entered from there step by step into this Palestinian city by means of demography, history, culture and social life. The gradual usurpation progressed slowly until the division of the centre of Hebron by the 'agreements' after Oslo in 1993. Jaffa is another case in Israel itself, a victim of the first phase of Israeli governance over Palestine and the ongoing ethnic cleansing from 1948 until now. At 1948 a historic Palestinian community that existed since centuries was completely chased out and European Jews came in. Some of the Palestinian refugees, who were chased out, settled in parts of the new town, remaining in an unsecure situation until today. Hundreds of them are threatened to be thrown out again during the years of 2009/2010. In Israelis new interpretation of history Jaffa is called the 'Old City of Tel Aviv', which is absurd.
The following chapters will reveal the story of this judaizing process - again with methods of planning. The story of Jerusalem will be told in 2 steps, at first a general overview about the meaning and phases of the judaizing of Jerusalem in terms of planning and legal frames will be presented (Waltz), followed by an actual view and an approach for justice (Amro).
The story of Hebron follows with a description of the ongoing judaizing steps since the occupation. Jaffa's story will be told through the changing process since 1950 when it was declared part of Tel Aviv and tackle the actual battle.
Sharon's 'visit' in October 2000 to the Haram al Sharif, the 'Holy Place' in the Old City of Jerusalem, was the trigger point for the outbreak of the second Intifada.
Sharon's visit to Jerusalem's holy place did not only symbolise the Israeli claim of the city, but also planned as a starting point for the ongoing central offensive to the city, regarding citizenship, economy, borders and land properties. This process culminated in the isolation of Jerusalem after Oslo, the construction of the wall at 2003 and the government decision in July 2004 to apply the absentee property land law from 1950 and the Mandate Plan RJ/5 to the Jerusalem case (see section III). Step after step, during the last ten years the Israeli government restricted Palestinian presence and life in the eastern, Palestinian City of Jerusalem with its historical centre, the Old City. It began after Oslo, when Jerusalem was excluded from the decisions and (in a unilateral procedure) segregated from the West-Bank and Gaza Region. From that time, only Palestinians who have a special permission from the Israeli Army are allowed to enter the city. From that time on, the historical passage from south to north of Palestine and the West Bank which ran through Jerusalem is blocked.
Judaizing Jerusalem began already in the first days after the occupation in 1967. More than 200.000 illegal settlers were meanwhile transferred into large housing estates forming a ring, 'suffocating' the Palestinian and Arab Jerusalem and the historical Old City. Moreover small satellites of Israeli colonies were implanted amidst the Palestinian residential areas, in Sheikh Jerah, the Kidron Valley, Abu Dees, Souwane, Silwan, Tur, Essawiyye or Ezzariye and particularly in the different Palestinian quarters of the Old City. This ongoing process is neglecting the historical shape and value of architecture, society and atmosphere. With the segregation wall rings around Jerusalem will become denser and more strangling Palestinian development.