Reading Materials on Jerusalem

Orientation Resources
Written By Friends of Sabeel

Drawing from our wealth of past experiences, it is evident that the itineraries for our upcoming trip are full of information, activities, and encounters. This promises an immersive and at times overwhelming experience. Therefore, gaining some preliminary insight into the political and social landscape of Jerusalem will prove invaluable in comprehending the wealth of experiences and information you will encounter during your visit.

Your preparations preceding the trip will not only determine (to an extent) the depth of your experience in Jerusalem but will directly influence the efficacy of your advocacy action plan upon your return home. We emphasize the importance of thorough preparation to maximize the productivity and impact of your time in our city.

It is recommended that all participants familiarize themselves with the materials provided prior to their arrival in Jerusalem. We recommend engaging with a diverse array of resources, including books, articles, reports, maps, videos, films, and relevant organizations. This proactive approach will undoubtedly enrich your understanding and facilitate meaningful engagement with it.

General Education on Palestine

Palestine, with its rich history and cultural significance, holds global importance. Situated at the crossroads of three continents, it has served as a vital hub for numerous trading routes, fostering a mosaic of diverse cultures and identities alongside imperial interests. However, this beauty has also been marred by repeated imperial occupations. In contemporary times, Palestinians endure colonial oppression, notably through the settler colonization of the state of Israel and the broader Zionist movement. Sadly, we are witnessing the darkest chapter of modern history. Moreover, the portrayal of Palestine and its people, as well as the struggle against settler colonization, has been egregiously misrepresented, oversimplified, and weaponized for imperial agendas. Jerusalem, in many respects, stands as the epicenter or microcosm of these complex dynamics and historical injustices.

 

The Judaization of Jerusalem / Greater Jerusalem

When the UN General Assembly recommended in 1947 to partition Palestine, Jerusalem and its environs (including the city of Bethlehem to the south) were to be administered internationally as a separate entity, or corpus separatum. However, during the 1948 war, Israel invaded the corpus separatum and occupied 85 percent of its territory. In June 1967, Israel occupied the remainder of Jerusalem, or “East Jerusalem”, including the Old City. Only weeks later, Israel unilaterally expanded the municipal borders of Jerusalem, enlarging East Jerusalem ten-fold. The new borders were drawn to incorporate undeveloped Palestinian lands and excluded our population centers. During the 1970s, those undeveloped lands were illegally confiscated by Israel to build Israeli settlements, in violation of international law.

With the expansion of Jerusalem’s borders, Israel applied its laws, administration and jurisdiction over the expanded area of municipal Jerusalem (an area then covering 72 km2 or 1.3 percent of the West Bank) in a clear attempt to de facto annex East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank. This annexation violated the prohibition against acquiring territory by force and was declared of ‘no legal validity’ by the UN Security Council. (Palestinian Liberation Organization Negotiations Department, “Jerusalem”, last updated 2023).

    • Bruno Huberman, The Palestinians and East Jerusalem, (2023). This book provides a cutting edge analysis on the political and social context in Jerusalem. 

    • Haaretz: “Mapping out the Rapid Judaization of East Jerusalem” by Maya Horodniceanu and Nir Hasson, 2022.

    • Passia: has an excellent collection of maps showing the Judaization of Jerusalem.  

    • Ir Amim: provides a more up-to-date map showcasing the “Greater Jerusalem Plan”, 2022.

    • Visualizing Palestine: “House By House, Lot By Lot”, a helpful infographic published May 2023. 

    • Passia: “The Judaization Of Jerusalem - Israeli Policies Since 1967”, Passia, published 1996.

    • Amnesty International: “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: A look into a decade of oppression and domination.” Amnesty International, published 2022.  

    • Omar Shakir: “Israeli Apartheid: ‘A Threshold Crossed’”, Human Rights Watch published 2021.

    • Btselem: “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid”, Btselem, published 2021. 

    • A collection of reports on E. Jerusalem by Btselem.

    • Grassrootalquds: “Greater Jerusalem Plan”, Grassrootalquds, published 2022. 

    • United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humantarian Affairs, “Jerusalem”, OCHA’s data collection on Human Rights Violations in Jerusalem.

 

Settler Expansion in Jerusalem

Since 1948, Jewish settlements have been expanding daily. These settlements, built on Palestinian land and based on removing Palestinians residents, have grown significantly over the years, despite being illegal under international law. Israeli government policies, including discriminatory zoning and planning measures favoring Jewish neighborhoods, have further entrenched erased the native character and history of Jerusalem. This is one aspect and manifestation of the Judaization of Jerusalem. (Passias’ fact sheet published 2023 details the comprehensive expansion of settlements in Jerusalem).

    • Waleed Al-Modallal. The Israeli Settlements in Jerusalem, (2011).

    • Osman Bahadır Dinçer, ‎Gamze Çoşkun. Jewish Settlements: Another Name for Occupation, (2022).

    • Passia: “Israeli Settlement And Palestinian Neighborhood In Metropolitan Jerusalem, 2000”, published 2000.

    • Grassroot alquds, maps of Silwan, last updated in 2022.

    • Terrestrial Jerusalem: Featured maps of Jerusalem.

    • Peace Now: “Settlements Map 2023”, published 2023.

    • Ir Amim: “Settlement Ring around the Old City, 2019”, published 2019.

    • Mondoweiss: “Israeli settlements in Jerusalem”, (4:22 minutes, published 2022). 

    • Vox: “Settlers are taking over East Jerusalem one house at a time”, (10:00 minutes, published 2017). 

    • The Guardian: “Sharing our house with Israeli settlers in Sheikh Jarrah”, (6:20 minutes, published 2012).

  • Terrestrial Jerusalem: “Settlements Update: Netanyahu Government’s Strategic Agenda”, (published 2023).

    • Passia: “Land & Settlement”, (published 2022).

    • Passia: “Jerusalem & Its Changing Boundaries”, (published 2018).

    • Passia: “Israeli Settlement Activities & Related Policies In Jerusalem”, (published 2009).

    • Ir Amim: “Over 18,000 Housing Units Advanced in East Jerusalem Settlements since the Start of 2023”, (published 2023). 

    • United Nations, “Settlement Expansion in Occupied Palestinian Territory Violates International Law, Must Cease, Many Delegates Tell Security Council”, Meetings Coverage and Press Releases, (published 2023).

 

Settler and Police Violence in Jerusalem

Israeli settler violence, amounting to terrorism, is only possible to understand in the context of Israel's apartheid regime. The aim is to grab more Palestinian lands for expanding its colonial settlement project towards displacing Palestinians and moving in more illegal settlers to replace them. The aim is embodied in Israel’s Jewish Nation-State Law that enshrines Jewish dominance and supremacy on the entire land of historic Palestine between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River (on both sides of the 1967 borders).

In this context, Israeli settler violence is an integral part of Israel's colonial enterprise, which is directed at destroying the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination. Indeed, settler violence in this context is a form of state violence. (Palestinian Liberation Organization Negotiations Department, “Terrorizing a Nation: Israeli Settler Violence (A Year in Review 2021)”, published 2022).

    • Rebecca L. Stein. Screen Shots: State Violence on Camera in Israel and Palestine, (2021). 

    • Nadim N. Rouhana, ‎ Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian. When Politics are Sacralized Comparative Perspectives on Religious Claims and Nationalism, (2021).

    • Sivan Hirsch-Hoefler and ‎Cas Mudde. The Israeli Settler Movement: Assessing and Explaining Social Movement Success, (2020). 

    • B’Tselem Video Archive: Video evidence of instances of Settler violence throughout the West Bank.

    • AJ+: “Americans in Jerusalem Are Helping Kick Out Palestinians”, (16:00 minutes published 2023).

    • Passia: “Settler Violence Videos”, (4:30 minutes published 2023).

    • OCHA: “Flash report on the human rights situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem following the attacks on 7 October 2023”, published 2023.

    • Passia: “Land & Settlement”, published 2022.

    • B’tselem: “This is Jerusalem: Violence and Dispossession in al-‘Esawiyah”, published 2020.

 

Home Demolitions

Israel's policy of demolishing Palestinian homes, both in Israel and in the Occupied Palestine Territory (OPT). The demolition policy is part of Israel’s attempt to Judaize Palestine, to transform an Arab country into a Jewish one. During and after the Nakba of 1948, when the state of Israel was established, it systematically demolished at least 52,000 Palestinian homes, more than 530 entire villages, towns and urban neighborhoods. Since the beginning of the Occupation in 1967, Israel has demolished another 55,000 homes in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. Thousands more continue to be demolished inside Israel itself. Israel’s policy of house demolitions represents the essence of the “conflict”: one people displacing another. (ICAHD, “End Home Demolitions – An Introduction”, published 2020).

    • Meir Margalit. The City of Jerusalem: The Israeli Occupation and Municipal Subjugation of Palestinian Jerusalemites, (2020).

    • Jeff Halper. Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine: Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and the Case for One Democratic State, (2021). 

    • Henrietta Zeffert. Home and International Law: Dispossession, Displacement and Resistance in Everyday Life, (2024).

    • OCHA: “Record number of demolitions, including self-demolitions, in East Jerusalem in April 2019”, published 2019.

    • ICAHD: “Map Demolitions Archive”, last updated in 2023. 

    • Terrestrial Jerusalem: “Insiders’ Jerusalem: Expansion of The National Park In The Visual Basin of The Holy City”, published 2022.

    • Btselem: The Btselem video collection on human rights violation in Jerusalem.

    • Vice News: “Palestinian Homes Are Being Demolished in Jerusalem”, (10:00, published 2022).

    • World Council of Churches: “Fact sheet on demolitions in East Jerusalem a source for credible information”, published 2023. 

    • OCHA: “Data base for House Demolitions in Jerusalem”, last updated in 2024.  

    • ICAHD: “January 2024 Demolition and Displacement Report”, published 2024.  

    • Btselem: “Database on fatalities and house demolitions”, last updated in 2024. 

    • Save the Children: West Bank And East Jerusalem: Four Out Of Five Children Feel “Abandoned By The World” After Their Home Is Demolished”, published 2021.

 

Religious Freedom

Since Israel’s establishment in 1948 it has attempted to alter the demographic character of the city to impose a Jewish-only narrative, curtailing freedom of worship for Palestinian Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem. However, over the past five years, restrictions on and violation of freedom of worship in Jerusalem have taken a dangerous upward arc. This escalation is largely, but not exclusively, attributed to the rise of the far-right extremist government in Israel, with the likes of National Security Advisor Itamar Ben-Gvir in particular. (MIFTAH: “Denied: Freedom of worship in Jerusalem”, published 2023).

  • Muḥsin Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ, Salma Houry. The Suffering of Jerusalem and the Holy Sites Under the Israeli Occupation, (2012).

    • The New Arab: “Jump in attacks on Christians in Jerusalem in 2023 'connected to far-right government’”, published in 2023. 

    • Natan Odenheimer: “The escalation is frightening’: Jerusalem Christians fear for their future”, +972 Magazine, published 2023.

    • Islamic Relief: “Palestinians face hardest ever Ramadan as violence, starvation and restrictions increase”, published 2024.

    • B’Tselem: East Jerusalem: Violence against Palestinians during Ramadan prayers, Sabbath of Light and the Flag March, April-May 2023, including videos and testimonies from an Israeli raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan in 2023, published 2023.

    • OCHA in the oPT : “Some 320,000 West Bank ID holders permitted into East Jerusalem for Ramadan Friday prayers”, published 2019.  

  • Kuttab, Jonathan. “Religious Freedom.” The FOSNA Blog, published 2023

    • The Patriarch of the People: In the 26-minute film “The People's Patriarch,” Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the first Palestinian in 500 years to serve as the Latin (Roman Catholic) Patriarch of Jerusalem, exposes the illusion that Israel has any intention of ever letting up on the Palestinians and granting them statehood, and showcases the Human Rights abuses in Jerusalem. 

    • The Stones Cry Out: The Stones Cry Out is an hour long film showcasing the plight of the Palestinian Christian community due to Israeli settler colonization.

 

Municipal Discrimination / Discriminatory Laws

“Since Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Palestinians in East Jerusalem hold the status of “permanent residents” of Israel. As such, they are required to pay taxes and are entitled to all rights and services that are provided to Israeli citizens, except for the right to vote in the general elections. In reality, however, over the past four decades, the Israeli government has neglected to allocate the necessary resources to develop East Jerusalem. As a result, there is a severe shortage of public services and infrastructure in East Jerusalem, including health and education services, welfare services, postal services and water and sewage systems. The continuation of discriminatory policies in East Jerusalem has led to a decline in Palestinian residency.” (The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, “East Jerusalem”, last updated in 2024).

  • Meir Margalit. The City of Jerusalem: The Israeli Occupation and Municipal Subjugation of Palestinian Jerusalemites, (2020).

  • Salem, Walid. “Jerusalemites and the Issue of citizenship in the context of Israeli settler-colonialism.” Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies 17.1 (2018): 25-41.

    • Visualizing Palestine: Timeline portraying some of Israel’s 60+ discriminatory laws that privilege its Jewish population over its Palestinian citizens and others under its control, culminating in the 2018 Nation-State Law.

    • Human Rights Watch: “Israel: Discriminatory Land Policies Hem in Palestinians”, published 2020. 

    • Blogs: Al Jazeera: Article which explains the plight of Jerusalem ID holders (2017)

    • Human Rights Watch: Article which articulates the difficulties faced by Palestinians with residency status in renewing their residency or trying to apply for Israeli citizenship. (2017)

    • Discriminatory Laws in Israel - Adalah : Adalah’s comprehensive list of over 65 Israeli laws that discriminate against Palestinians. Last updated September 25th, 2017. 

    • Peace Now Report Using Jerusalem Municipal Data : Report and charts showing proportion of construction permits approved in Jerusalem between Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, and West Jerusalem neighborhoods. Published December 2019. 

    • Al-Haq: 2023 report which outlines Israel’s tactics to diminish the influence of Palestinian Civil Society Organizations, both in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, arguing that “organisations are targeted to achieve an ultimate goal by the Israeli occupying authorities, i.e., entrenching Israel’s settler-colonial enterprise.” (Page 67) 

    • Crackdown on Freedom of Speech of Palestinian Citizens of Israel - Adalah

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