Het Israëlisch leger sluit het Nidal Center in Jeruzalem

His Excellency

Mr. Nils Eliasson

Consul General of Sweden

Jerusalem

Jerusalem, 16th July 2009

Dear Mr. Eliasson,

We are writing to you in your capacity as the EU political representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, to draw your attention to the fact that the Israeli occupation forces have closed down the Nidal Community Centre in the Old City yesterday, Tuesday 15th July 2009. At 08:30 in the morning, the Israeli police and secret services arrived at the centre with an order issued by Israel’s general inspector to close down the centre. The police evacuated the centre, arrested the general manager and sealed the doors by use of oxygen welding.

The Nidal Community Centre is a registered non governmental organization that operates in Jerusalem since 1999. Nidal Centre aims at community development through working with children, youth and women. The center provides educational and cultural services and opportunities to the community by offering training and recreational activities. Since August 2001, 26 similar organizations serving the Palestinian community have been closed, including the Orient House closed in 2001.

The Coalition for Jerusalem, the Civic Coalition for Defending the Palestinians' Rights in Jerusalem and the Palestinian NGO network strongly condemn Israel’s closure of the Nidal Community Centre as well as the closure of many more cultural and educational activities organized in Jerusalem over the years. Such activities included the Palestine Literature Festival of last May and the Palestine International Festival of this month; both activities were to be held at the Palestinian National Theatre in Jerusalem.

We view these measures as part of the overall Israeli policy that aims to drive the Palestinian population out of their city, through depriving them of their rights including the right to community life.

We urge the European Union to fulfill its obligations and responsibilities under international law in protecting the Palestinian people by stopping Israel’s violations. We also seize the opportunity to urge the EU to act upon the commitment it took upon itself both under the road map and the EU reports on Jerusalem of 2005 and 2008, to reopen all Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem including the Orient House and the Chamber of Commerce.

Yours sincerely,

The Coalition for Jerusalem,
The Civic Coalition for Defending the Palestinians' Rights in Jerusalem
The Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO)

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Socio-Cultural Repression Continues Unabated in East Jerusalem

The civil society institutions in Jerusalem.
Press Release 003
For Immediate Release
16 July 2009

The Civic Society institution in Jerusalem strongly condemns the unlawful closure of the Nidal Center for Community Development, on the unfounded pretext that it constitutes a “security threat”. Located in the Old City of Jerusalem, the Nidal Center is a registered, well known and well respected Palestinian NGO dedicated to the social and cultural development of Palestinian youth. The Nidal Center provides invaluable educational opportunities to children and youth in East Jerusalem, strengthening their abilities and presence in their communities through voluntarism on social projects, capacity building workshops and recreational activities.

The closure of the Nidal Center closure is not an isolated incident of socio-cultural repression in occupied East Jerusalem. Since August 2001, the Israeli occupation authority closed around 26 organizations serving the Palestinian community, including the reputable Orient House, the Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce and the Arab studies society, in 2001. Since the beginning of the 2009 year, the Israeli occupation authorities also banned, and physically prevented, numerous peaceful, cultural and educational activities organized as part of the Palestinian cultural activities marking the declaration of Jerusalem as the "Capital of Arab Culture 2009." As well, the Palestinian National Theater, which hosts folkloric dancing festivals, art exhibitions for Palestinian artists, Palestinian festival for literature, has been subjected to several closures during 2009. Other institutions subjected to closures include the Cultural Forum Society, the Agricultural and Industrial Chamber of Commerce, Higher Tourist Culture, and the Small Project Center, established by the European Union. The activities carried out by these institutions were publicized in the media, and all relate to the social and cultural and economic development of the Palestinian community.

East Jerusalem is incontrovertibly recognized under international law as an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory over which the Palestinian people are entitled to exercise its right to self-determination. As a fundamental principle of international human rights law, the right to self-determination includes the right of peoples to freely pursue their social, cultural, and economic development. Furthermore, freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly are also fundamental guarantees enshrined under international human rights law that are systematically denied to the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.

The closure of the Nidal Center, and other such closures, draws attention to the continuous repression of Palestinian institutions, which play an integral part in providing services to the Palestinian community in Jerusalem, in the hopes that the institutions will cease their activities in Jerusalem. This can be seen as part of a broader Israeli policy that seeks to reduce, and severely limit, the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem in order to maintain the demographic hegemony of the Jewish population. Maintaining Jewish demographic superiority serves to further consolidate Israel’s claim to sovereignty over occupied East Jerusalem, a claim that holds no validity under international law. Other actions undertaken by the Israeli occupation authority serving this goal are housing demolitions, forced evictions, land confiscation, and settlement building, which can all be seen as a series of related polices which aim to change the status and demographics of East Jerusalem.

In light of the above, the Civic Coalition for Defending Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem calls upon the international community to:

1: Strongly condemn Israel’s unlawful measures aimed at altering the Status of East Jerusalem and denying the realization of the Palestinian peoples right to self-determination.

2: Engage their international obligations and take immediate and concrete steps towards ending the illegal situation created in East Jerusalem by the numerous statutory policies of the Israel occupation authorities