The immorality and cruelty of home demolitions in Jerusalem

You shall not render an unfair decision: do not favor the poor or show deference to the rich; judge your kinsman fairly. You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart…You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:15-18). When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the LORD am your God.(Leviticus 19:34-35)

Last Monday, before sunrise, bulldozers came once again, with lots of police and special forces, to Walajeh – a small Palestinian village, on the southwestern edge of Jerusalem – and destroyed two Palestinian homes. Why? Because they were not built with a legal permit. But here’s the catch 22: they can’t get a permit! It is virtually impossible for Palestinians in East Jerusalem (and much of the West Bank) to obtain such a document. This has been true since 1967 and is all the more so now, in the contemporary Israeli reality!

How would you like to have your home destroyed? Can you imagine it? Can you conceive of the idea that the state will make you homeless for no good reason? Or for absurd reasons, like you tried to get a permit, but it was impossible, so then you built a home without a permit which was unattainable?

This is not a theoretical or imaginary question, but a real and pressing issue for the hundreds of Palestinians who live in Walajeh, which could be a potentially beautiful area of Jerusalem. It is still called a village, even though roughly half of it is actually a Jerusalem neighborhood within the post 1967 boundaries of the expanded city (the other half is mostly area C and there is some B, according to the Oslo Accords). The entire village is encircled by the separation fence and is only accessible from the West Bank.

After the Six Day War of June 1967, the State of Israel annexed large parts of the Jordanian West Bank around the city, de facto enlarging the city of Jerusalem and creating what is known today as “East Jerusalem”, although much of the land – and the inhabitants thereof — are actually in parts of Jerusalem that are north and south of West Jerusalem, as well as east of it. It should probably be referred to as Expanded Jerusalem.

For various Kafkaesque and political reasons, the Jerusalem municipality never provided basic services in Walajeh, such as water, electricity, schools, and health services. Never! As one of the residents of this village has said many times:

The only service we get from the Jerusalem Municipality is the announcement that our home is about to be destroyed!

This is, of course, an absurd situation, which has been going on for a long time. Too long.

I actually visited Walajeh last Thursday on a special study tour with rabbis who had just finished attending a convention in Jerusalem organized by the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative/Masorti movement. The study tour was with T’ruah, which was organized by the indominable Rabbi Jill Jacobs, and led by representatives of two important NGOs in Jerusalem, Bimkom Planners for Planning Rights and Ir Amim — to help these rabbis learn about the situation in this village—and in East Jerusalem, in general, first hand.  These two organizations have been working together in recent years to help develop a proper zoning plan for the village, in order to prevent the destruction of additional homes. We actually saw the plan and were encouraged by the hope that it actually has some chance of being accepted by the authorities in Israel.

Part of the tour in the village was led by Hassan Abu Tin, a member of the committee for creating the new zoning plan for the village. He hosted us in his home and told us that since 2016 dozens of homes have been demolished in the village. This year alone, 26 homes have been destroyed. Thirty-eight homes are currently protected by a temporary injunction under a class action case pending before the Supreme Court. Hassan and members of his extended family feel the pain in their hearts and souls every time a house is demolished, as occurred last week. We felt it too as we saw some destroyed homes with our own eyes.

These demolitions are acts of cruelty and callousness by a government in Israel which has become more violent and extreme all the time. As Hassan told us many times, the residents of the village feel that there is a systematic plan to gradually displace them from their land.

I would add that this draconian measure of home demolitions – which totally ignores the humanitarian situation on the ground — should not be used against Palestinians at all anywhere in Jerusalem. It is not used against Jews who build without permits. And, it certainly should not be used against Palestinians who cannot possibly get a permit!  This is a cruel, immoral and unjust policy which must not be allowed to continue.

I would also add that many people around the world simply do not understand how a Jewish state — founded on the lofty principles of Israel’s Declaration of Independence — can dream up and actually implement such policies. Of all states, the Jewish state should understand the soul of the stranger within its midst since we were “strangers in the land of Egypt” and in many other lands throughout our history.

There should be no more home demolitions of Palestinian homes in Walajeh, nor in East Jerusalem, nor anywhere else. Instead, there should be a return to the humanistic Jewish values, of equality and justice, upon which the state of Israel was founded.

The state of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex;

Some American rabbis (but not yet enough) are clearly distressed by this policy and practice of home demolitions against Palestinians in Jerusalem. And they were undoubtedly more disturbed after witnessing the results of these demolitions for themselves. Hopefully they will speak out about what they have seen when they return to their communities in the Diaspora. This is not the way a Jewish state should act towards its minorities. They now know this and will certainly share this with others.