Beit Safafa is a Palestinian neighborhood just south of West Jerusalem, inside annexed and occupied East Jerusalem, all within the boundaries of Israel's vast Jerusalem municipality. It is situated between the Green Line to its northern perimeter, and the Israeli settlement of Gilo on its southern perimeter. (To find Beit Safafa on Ir Amim's map below, move your eyes directly down from "West Jerusalem" and you will see it, just below the Green Line.) Until 1967, Beit Safafa was divided between Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem and the Jordanian-controlled West Bank. Train tracks ran through it along the 1949 Armistice Lines. When Israel occupied East…

Those who think that E1 is the nail in the coffin of the two-state 'solution' are willfully blind to the fact that a one-state outcome is already on the ground and that the Zionist militias started building it before there ever was an Israel. I know this is a little late. The big brouhaha about E1 was, what, a few weeks ago? I wasn’t paying that much attention because, as someone who spends a lot of time traveling between Jerusalem and the West Bank--and noticing the one unequal state already on the ground--I didn't quite get the fuss about E1.…

A stroll west of West Jerusalem can lead to a surprising discovery, confronting the casual walker with various layers of the Palestinian tragedy. I just finished an ordeal at the Knesset. The next thing on the agenda was a long phone call, one that would last for at least an hour. Instead of walking about West Jerusalem for an hour, I decided to begin heading west on foot. The brisk winter day was gorgeous. Beneath me, past the last row of city blocks, lay the gulley separating West Jerusalem from a ridge of lofty hills to the west. The slopes…

I’d stepped into the alley to grab a few sage leaves for my tea. In my West Jerusalem neighborhood, the alley is more like a massive, shared garden. Branches loaded with plums, pomegranate, berries, apricots, oranges, lemons and olives bend over fences. Sage and rosemary are everywhere. When I first moved into the neighborhood, I used to ask permission to take fruit and herbs and olives. After some surprised yeses and after noticing others just plucking as they passed, I realized it’s a bit like a kibbutz. The same goes for the people. An elderly neighbor watches my landlords’ children…

Sergio Yahni at the Alternative Information Center compiled and I edited and added to this fact sheet about Jerusalem. It's a great resource for journalists or anyone with a general interest in the political situation of Jerusalem, which embodies the history of Israel/Palestine as well as what is happening now in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “The 75 kilometer wall being built in East Jerusalem is an instrument of social engineering designed to achieve the Judaization of Jerusalem by reducing the number of Palestinians in the city.”   -Professor John Dugard, United Nations Special Rapporteur   Fact and Figures about Jerusalem Population Total population:…

By Louis Frankenthaler Israel’s High Court of Justice recently issued a ruling that could lead to the expulsion of  dozens of families from the East Jerusalem Palestinian area of Sheikh Jarrah.  This is a section of Occupied East Jerusalem that has gained increased attention over the past year as Israeli settler organizations, supported by Israeli courts, have made ownership claims over pre-1948 properties in which Jews lived but which are now inhabited by Palestinians. The courts have accepted these claims and the result is that Israel’s government, the Jerusalem municipality and settler organizations expel Palestinian men, women and children from…