In the appeal to the Israeli High, Court with regard to the Israeli Segregation Wall which enclaves the Palestinian town Al-Ram; an anticipated, yet unsurprising two verdicts were adopted by the Israeli High Court. The first one is to deny the Palestinian side the request for an injunction order against any further construction of the Segregation Wall at the designated area and the second decision was to sanction the Israeli Army decision to close off the remaining openings for security needs according to the Israeli Army pretext.
The Palestinians appealed to the Israeli High Court in order to remove the Segregation Wall from their lands as the Wall in Al Ram section is far from being on the Green Line. additionally, constructing the Segregation Wall around Al-Ram from its western and southern sides (as is the case now) will deprive the residents from access to various services; such as education, medical care and will cut off their social ties with Jerusalem, with whom a very strong organic relation have developed since ages. Furthermore the Wall will prevent any prospect for future development of the town and will cut it from the nearby cities and towns. The Israeli High Court replied; that it is convinced that the measures taken by the Israeli State to secure services and facilitate swift and secure passage to Jerusalem are completely sensible, practical and come inconformity with the security needs of the State of Israel. The Israeli High Court decision comes in the time when the Israeli authorities were done with the road that was constructed east of Qalandyia terminal so that cars coming from the southern part of the West Bank and from Al Ram can bypass the terminal to go to Ramallah. Under this segregation arrangement, the isolated Al-Ram residents; in the Israeli made enclave; will have their sole exit from the enclave through the designated road set for the town to enter Ramallah. The residents (if they possess the Jerusalem ID or have a permit to travel to Israel) have to pass through an Israeli security check at Qalandyia terminal to access Jerusalem, which according to the Israeli Army will take 5 to 15 minutes. See Map 1
The Israeli High Court decision demeaned the Palestinian interests and needs every time and undermined the repercussions of the Israeli Segregation Wall on Palestinians as it dealt with the Segregation Wall issue from a technical side; proclaiming Israel's efforts to transfer services to Palestinians beyond the Segregation Wall morally justifies the obvious fact that they had successfully amputated considerable number of Palestinians out of Jerusalem thus coercing yet an additional fact on the ground to manipulate the demographic balance of the city to their favor before the final negotiation-battle over the dominion rights in the city begin.
The Israel high court decision advocated the Israeli Army's attempt to rainbow the Segregation Wall around Jerusalem despite the fact that it tears the social fabric of the Palestinian society as it cut off their natural means of interaction; as for the so called facilitation; Palestinians' Jerusalemites long term experience with the Israeli State has proven that the latter has never demonstrated good faith toward Palestinian; especially; Palestinian Jerusalemites who are constantly targeted by the Israeli interior ministry to rid them of their residential rights in the city. The fact that Palestinians will be located outside the Israeli defined territorial limits of Jerusalem will make them eligible to loss their residential rights any time after 3 to 7 years; a procedures that is only exercised against Palestinian Jerusalemites. As for setting up service posts; medical, educational, etc; on the Qalandyia terminal for Al-Ram resident and other Jerusalemites segregated by the Wall; it is hideous how the Palestinian Jerusalemites are manipulated as they will be at the mercy of the Israeli Army day-to-day security report; for one thing schooling will be nightmare of constant delays at checkpoint.
In addition to all that, Jerusalemites residents of Al-Ram will continue to pay the outrageous Israeli taxes and still they will not receive any infrastructure services, which was the case before the Segregation Wall anyway.
The triangle alliance of the Israeli government, Army and high Court is a functioning scheme that started long time ago with the Israeli Army occupation of the Palestinian territory in 1967 with a relentless challenge of the consecutive Israeli governments to cast legitimacy on its occupation status via questionable and almost cynical Israeli High Court decisions; exactly as in the case of Al-Ram appealers almost 40 years later.
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Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
