In July 2008, ACRI intervened to the Israel Police and Defense Ministry to improve freedom of movement for two East Jerusalem families trapped in their homes, in an enclave created by the construction of the Separation Barrier. The only road entering and exiting the area where the families live is blocked by permanent checkpoints on either end. ACRI Attorney Tali Nir highlighted in the intervention that since the construction of the barrier, many members of the Kunbar and Surhi families have been trapped in their homes, unable to receive services or guests, and have had extremely limited freedom of movement in their residential area. Moreover, they have essentially lost the ability to conduct normal lives. Attorney Nir recommended several concrete steps for the authorities to take in order to ease the families’ unbearable living conditions. Below is the translation of the intervention:
July 2008
S/18020
To:
Commander Nissim Edri
Jerusalem Perimiter Commander
Israel Police
Col. Ofer Hindi
Head of the Security Barrier Administration, Ministry of Defense
Dear Sirs,
Subject: Restoring Freedom of Movement for Palestinian Residents of Enclave
1. We are writing to you on behalf of the Kunbar and Surhi families, who live in the Abu Majira neighborhood on the outskirts of the village of Jabel Mukaber, within the jurisdiction of Israel and adjacent to the Separation Barrier between Jabel Mukaber and Abu Dis.
2. Once construction of the Separation Barrier in this hilly region was completed, access roads between Abu Majira and Abu Dis were cut off. The only transportation route remaining for members of these families is the road that runs along the Barrier. This road is blocked at both ends by permanent checkpoints: the Sawahreh checkpoint in the south, which is closed to them at all times, and the former Kalif Hotel checkpoint, through which only members of the Kunbar and Surhi families, whose names appear on the Border Patrol lists, are allowed to pass. Passage through the latter checkpoint is denied to the families’ guests, public transportation, and service providers, as will be explained below. At the outset, we note that the rules and demands with which members of the Kunbar and Surhi families must comply do not apply to residents of the settlement recently established at this location. These residents, along with their guests and service providers, pass through the checkpoint with no restrictions.
3. The significance of this matter, as will be explained, is that many members of the Kunbar and Surhi families are, essentially, trapped in their homes, unable to receive services or guests, and have extremely limited freedom of movement in their residential area.
4. Before describing the situation in detail, some background on the families: Many generations of the Surhi and Kunbar families have lived in the area. There are currently about 200 members of the Surhi family and about 160 members of the Kunbar family. The large majority of them have Israeli identity cards, and some have Palestinian identity cards. Four members of the Kunbar family suffer physical disabilities resulting from polio.
5. Before construction of the Separation Barrier, their neighborhood was integrated with the fabric of life of the villages of Sawahreh a-Sharkiya, Abu Dis, and al-Azariya. They used to shop and spend time in these villages, which they also passed through by vehicle to travel to the West Bank and Jerusalem. Construction of the Barrier cut them off from hundreds of their relatives living on the Palestinian side of the Barrier, from locations where they shopped and visited friends, and from transportation routes they used daily.
6. As members of these families have testified, since completion of the Separation Barrier in their residential area, their freedom of movement has been increasingly restricted, as has their ability to conduct their lives normally.
7. At the start, about four years ago, a permanent checkpoint was erected at the former Kalif Hotel and only the vehicles of residents appearing on the Border Police lists at the checkpoint were allowed to pass through. The procedure has a significant impact on the daily lives of these families:
A. Every resident who passes through the checkpoint is delayed and subject to a security check that can be humiliating and infuriating, depending on the level of service and frame of mind of the officers stationed at the checkpoint.
B. Every new couple coming to live in the neighborhood, and every child age 16 and older, must register their names at the checkpoint. Unfortunately, this procedure is not at all easy, and most residents had to, and still must, resort to paying a lawyer to arrange for each and every name to be recorded. Residents report that Border Police officers sometimes announce that no new names will be recorded until further notice. Problems also arise when residents renew their identity cards or passports because of changes in the information they contain. For example, Iman Surhi renewed her Jordanian passport, a document not recognized by the Border Police, and her name was stricken from the list at the checkpoint.
C. Members of the two families cannot receive guests in their homes, not even close relatives or spouses living in a different area, since these visitors are not listed with the Board Police at the checkpoint and not permitted to add their names. Beyond the de facto ban on visits by family and friends, the residents are also prevented from conducting wedding ceremonies or receiving condolence calls since their friends and relatives are not permitted to visit their homes.
D. These families are unable to receive services of various types-emergency services, the electric company, Bezeq telephone Company, gas, plumbing, cable television, and others-unless the arrivals have been arranged days in advance with the Border Police. The result is that the residents themselves often need to make needed repairs, and some have already endangered their lives in the course of making essential electrical repairs. Families who purchase large electrical appliances cannot count on getting them delivered. One family, for example, was unable to arrange for delivery of a new refrigerator because the store’s vehicle was not permitted past the checkpoint.
E. The presence of the checkpoint even drastically reduces the municipal services these families receive-such as garbage collection and infrastructure arrangements-despite the fact that they pay the required taxes to the Jerusalem Municipality.
F. Public transportation vehicles, including taxis, are not permitted entrance. For the Kunbar family, which, as mentioned, includes individuals with physical disabilities, this restriction requires them to walk an exhausting one-kilometer distance to and from the checkpoint each time they leave their homes.
G. Members of the Surhi family, who live more than two kilometers from the checkpoint, have no permit to even walk there, and their only means of getting to the checkpoint and back is to drive their own vehicles. Those who do not own their own vehicles, of course, have a great deal of trouble going anywhere beyond their homes. Moreover, since the few available vehicles are owned by men, other members of the family have no means of leaving their homes when the men are at work.
H. Many of the children in these families are forced to walk to their schools and preschools along a rough and dangerous road that is over two kilometers in length. Entry to school transport vehicles in the area is extremely limited. Over a hundred children must negotiate the route by foot in both the heat of summer and the cold, rainy days of winter.
I. The entire area is under constant surveillance by police cameras and patrols, day and night, inducing a constant sense of insecurity among residents. Many of them, particularly women and children, suffer from severe emotional disturbances stemming from the sense of living in what they term a “concentration camp.” Without freedom of movement for work, shopping, school, and pleasure, they feel they are spending their lives in prison.
J. When police investigators or settlers are in the area, residents are occasionally not allowed to leave their homes or use the road.
8. In the past, members of these families were able to drive their vehicles to the
Sawahreh checkpoint in the south, and from there they were allowed to enter the West Bank on foot. The residents were permitted to receive visiting close relatives at the checkpoint. These visitors, who also hold Israeli identity cards, live only a short distance away but were separated from their families by the Separation Barrier and prevented from visiting their homes.
9. However, about a year ago, a Border Police officer visited the families to notify them that the Sawahreh checkpoint would be closed and that they were forbidden from going there, either by vehicle or on foot. He said that the punishment for non-compliance with this order was a fine of NIS 5,000 and a three-month impoundment of their vehicles. The officer also said that anyone violating the order was risking his life since Israeli security forces were permitted to fire at any driver or pedestrian approaching the Sawahreh checkpoint.
10. To complete the picture, we note that beyond the area of the former Kalif Hotel checkpoint live two families in a settlement called Kidmat Tsiyon. The members of these families enjoy full freedom of movement at the checkpoint-for themselves, their visitors, and their service providers.
11. It is clear from this description of the situation that the permit and checkpoint regulations instituted within the enclave where the Surhi and Kunbar families live severely restrict their freedom of movement and infringe on basic human rights that are enshrined in international law (humanitarian and human rights) and Israeli law. These rights include freedom of movement, the right to an education, the right to health, and the right to family life and contact with close relatives living in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
12. As a rule, a restriction on freedom of movement must be reasonable and proportionate to the purpose of the restriction (see HCJ 1890/03 The Municipality of Bethlehem v. The State of Israel, 59(4) PD 736). In this instance, the “reasonable and proportionate” line has clearly been crossed since the existing regulations harm the overall fabric of life and human rights of the families. Without freedom of movement, the Surhi and Kunbar families cannot satisfy their daily needs and realize their basic rights: reaching their places of work and educational institutions, purchasing essential items, visiting relatives, and receiving health and emergency services. In this instance, the restriction is particularly severe since no alternative transportation arrangements were made for leaving the neighborhood, which is cut off from access roads to adjacent Jerusalem neighborhoods-roads that residents were permitted to use before construction of the Barrier.
13. Since the large majority individuals in these families are Jerusalem residents and have official residency status in Israel, it is not clear to us why they are being separated, by the restrictions described above, from the other residents of East Jerusalem. Once construction of the Separation Barrier was completed, these residents were, in any event, restricted from entering the West Bank in this area, and it is therefore clear that they pose no particular security threat.
14. We are also puzzled by the closure of the Sawahreh checkpoint and the road leading to it since the checkpoint is open to the other residents of Jabel Mukaber. In addition, we fail to understand the reason for the military order to fire on anyone making his way toward the checkpoint, by vehicle or on foot.
15. Equally puzzling are the blatant and discriminatory restrictions on the freedom of movement of hundred of members of the Surhi and Kunbar families, restrictions that do not apply to their Jewish neighbors.
16. Given the severe, unreasonable, and disproportionate harm to the human rights of these residents, we request that you intervene immediately to restore their freedom of movement within Jerusalem and to ensure their right to live with dignity and free of harassment in the places where they were born and raised.
17. Accordingly, we request that you:
A. Order the immediate dismantlement of the checkpoint at the former Kalif Hotel.
B. Order the immediate opening of the road that lies adjacent to the Separation Barrier and leads to the Sawahreh checkpoint to the vehicles of all East Jerusalem residents, including members of the Surhi and Kunbar families.
C. Order the opening of the Sawahreh checkpoint to all residents of East Jerusalem, including members of the Surhi and Kunbar families.
18. In light of the severe, prolonged, and daily impact on members of these families, we ask that you address this matter immediately and respond as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Atty. Tali Nir
