Spending My Shekels on Palestine

Before setting off to Jerusalem, I sat down and thought very carefully about how I wanted to spend my money in the city.

A lot of people who support the Palestinian cause are careful to boycott Israeli products but a lot fewer have the chance to actively support the Palestinian economy. Visiting Jerusalem would be my chance to throw in my shekels for the Palestinian economy so I want to make sure I get it right. Basically I need to avoid propping up Israeli businesses while I am there and although I am not spending thousands, if you put together all the money tourist spend it really does start to add up.

According to the Word Travel Market Global Trends forecast, by 2011 the number of tourist visiting the Middle East will have increased to 55 million people a year. These visitors are estimated to bring in revenue worth $51 billion to the region. Now, that is a lot of money. Spent in the right way a tourist's money could really help Palestinians, especially in Jerusalem where the economy is built on local businesses related to tourism. Hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops and stalls are where Palestinian Jerusalemites make their living and so when a Muslim like me visits, I have a real opportunity to positively contribute to its economy.

How do I support the Palestinian economy?

“It's really quite simple,” answers Mrs. Salhab from the Hashimi Hotel in Jerusalem. “Don't buy from the Jewish Quarter or stay in Israeli hotels and look for Palestinians wherever you are staying or eating. The Arab Hotel Association is really useful as it has a list of Palestinian hotels to stay in across the whole of Palestine.”

The Arab Hotel Association was established in Jerusalem in 1962, to represent Palestinian hotels and currently has 56 members with over 3,700 guest rooms. It also runs a center to train Palestinian tourism professionals to help them compete in an increasingly competitive industry. The Alternative Tourism Group of Bethlehem has also joined forces with other Palestinian organizations to come up with 'A Code of Conduct' which gives advice on how to support “a just and responsible tourism in Palestine.” It has some great suggestions such as using local guides, transportation and spending more time getting to know Palestinians and their way of life.

Another place to support the economy is the particularly vibrant Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem's Old City. You can buy almost anything from here, safe in the knowledge that you are supporting the Palestinian community.

Jerusalem's Economy after the Intifada

The tourism industry is now buoyed by streams of pilgrims and optimism about its future. As recently as 2000, the industry suffered a severe downfall as political turmoil erupted in the country and visitors kept away due to fears for their safety. In the wake of the Al Aqsa Intifada in 2000, the tourism industry fell by the unprecedented amount of 50% and four years later reports were stating that the volume of tourism was still some 45% lower than pre-intifada levels.

“After 2000 things were very bad, and not for a few months but for a very long time,” reaffirms Sarah who runs a Muslim-friendly hotel in the Muslim Quarter. “It took a long time for things to get better and in consideration of the economic situation worldwide and Gaza, things are remarkably strong.”

Even so, reports by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) noted that the Israeli security measures such as checkpoints, curfews and roadblocks fragmented the Palestinian economy and pushed it further into decline. A report by the World Bank this June 2009 also found that recent post-conflict economic recovery has been hampered by Israeli restrictions on Palestinian trade and movement. As a result, Palestinians are becoming more rather than less dependent on foreign aid.

In these circumstances, it is more important than ever that Muslims are supporting the Palestinian economy sustainable by visiting the holy city and investing in its economy. As Sarah add, “Jerusalem sees so much of everyone but it would be great to see more Muslim visitor, especially from the UK and Europe, supporting the Palestinian economy.”

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What's behind the Israeli Separation Wall? Implications for Jerusalem

Click here to enlarge © Arwa Aburawa

Walking around the ancient streets and spice markets of Jerusalem, it is easy to forget that this city is under Israeli occupation. Daily life flows smoothly between shopping mothers, kids at schools and old men sitting outside shops drinking coffee. Nothing really seems out of place, until you look a little closer. Firstly, there are Israeli soldiers walking through the market and streets, on buses, queuing at the post office and eating falafel- they are everywhere. Another thing that makes you realize that something is very wrong is the Wall.

Building a 'Greater Jewish Jerusalem'

Known as the Separation or Apartheid Wall, it is a menacing symbol of hatred and fear. How could anyone think it is okay to build an 8-meter high concrete Wall running over 723kms long around an entire community? A Wall that is trapping them into what is effectively an open-air prison? According to the International Court of Justice the Wall is illegal and in violation of the Right to self-determination, the Fourth Geneva Convention, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as well as various human rights and humanitarian laws.

Defenders of the Wall reply that Israeli is simply exercising its right to protect itself from Palestinian suicide bombers. Maybe. But why is Israel building the Wall deep within the West Bank annexing nearly 50% of Palestinian land in the region, pushing Palestinians out of Jerusalem as well as incorporating illegal Israeli settlements into a 'Greater Jewish Jerusalem'?

Daoud Hamoudi of Stop the Wall, the anti-apartheid organization based in the West Bank, explains that as Jerusalem is the political, economic and spiritual center of the country, Israel realized that it would need to have control over it. “Because Jerusalem is such an important center, Israel began to isolate it from the beginning and annex it.”

“More recently in 2002,” he adds, “scientists reported to the Zionist movement that by 2025 the Palestinian population will become 60% in historical Palestine and the Jews will become a minority at 40%. So they took a decision that they needed to reduce the Palestinian population to 30%.”

Pushing Palestinians Out

Within Jerusalem specifically, the Palestinian population currently stands at around 33% and the Zionist movement decided that this would need to be reduced to 8% in the coming 25 years. The plan for a 'Greater Jewish Jerusalem' details the methods and policies that would bring such a reduction in the Palestinian population.

“The first policy they implemented is the Wall which annexes the settlement blocs into Jerusalem and isolates the Palestinian neighborhoods and you are taking about almost half of the population of Jerusalem, around 120,000” says Hamoudi. “They also manipulated natural growth of the cities so that Arab cities grow outside the center whilst Jewish neighborhoods grow towards Jerusalem.”

This means that Palestinian neighborhoods surrounding Jerusalem now have to cross the Wall to enter Jerusalem and so they begin to rely on major cities further out in the West Bank, totally severing their connection with Jerusalem. “The farmers would normally depend on Jerusalem to sell their produce but they now have to depend on places like Ramallah in the West Bank. They are isolating them into ghettos.”

Bringing Israeli Settlements In

The second implication of the Wall and securing a 'Greater Jewish Jerusalem' is that it is absorbs major illegal settlement blocs which sit around Jerusalem. This includes the largest Jewish Settlement, Ma'ale Adumim which has a population of around 35,000 and plans to grow to 50,000. In fact Hamoudi reported that the Zionist movement wants to bring another 1 million Jewish immigrants to live in these blocs, in an attempt to resolve the 'demographic issue' and secure Jewish dominance across Jerusalem.

Settler roads have also played a part in this demographic 're-balance.' “Maybe in the States or Europe roads and highway networks are something normal but here it is not,” states Hamdoudi. “These roads are not only confiscating lands they are also isolating people from their lands. For example in Silwan [a Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem] they will destroy around 92 homes under the name of 'development' to build a park for settlers and a highway to make it easier for settlers from Bethlehem to reach the Wailing Wall.”

This re-drawing of Jerusalem is a political effort to dominate the Holy City with a Jewish majority at the expense of the Christian and Muslim Palestinians. “What was East Jerusalem will become 31% of the Greater Jewish Jerusalem” Hamoudi elaborates. “Also within this area, they have confiscated around 45-65% as Green land which cannot be built on and State lands for settlements. So that leaves them with only 10% of the Greater Jewish Jerusalem.” At only 10%, the Palestinians would become a very small minority at the mercy of the Israeli state which threatens the very future existence of this historic community in Jerusalem.