op-ed: Israel's five-year plan for Jerusalem... settlement, Judaization and Israelization

The Minister of Finance of the State of the Extremist Entity, Smotrich, is proud that he will lead the largest plan to strengthen sovereignty over the city of "Jerusalem" as a whole. One billion and 100 million shekels. An amount of 875 million shekels was allocated for the Israelization of the educational process in Jerusalem. The title of that plan was “Integration of the Arab population into the Israeli society and economy, especially the youth among them, and the residents of Jerusalem in general. Among the objectives of that deceptive and misleading plan was the so-called reducing the economic and social gaps between the Arabs and” Jews in the city.

The Smotrich plan, with the participation of the Al-Kyan Municipality and what is known as the Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Heritage, has a budget for the next five years (2024-2028) of 3 billion and 200 million shekels... of which 120 million shekels is allocated to enhance the security of settlement outposts and settlers in the eastern part of the city. By establishing new police stations, deploying and strengthening the police in Jerusalem, outposts, and roads leading to settlements, increasing the number of guards and municipality observers, installing new security cameras, allocating special training to the police, and increasing the salaries of security guards by 100%, while 800 million shekels from that budget will be allocated for “families.” 

The entire educational process in Jerusalem, the exclusion of the Palestinian curriculum from the city, the besieging of the schools that teach it on the way of liquidating them and depriving them of budgets, and the refusal to open any school built by the entity’s municipality except according to the Israeli curriculum…

There are three schools that are required to be opened by teaching the Israeli curriculum in Kafr Aqab, the Elia Elementary School from the first to the sixth grade, and the Creativity School for Arts in Shuafat. Also from the first to the sixth primary grade, which will study mathematics, science, chemistry and other scientific subjects, in addition to a technology school in the Al-Sala’a area - Jabal Al-Mukaber, with a “computer” course from the ninth to the twelfth grade, and the goal here is not only the Palestinian curriculum, but targeting Of this amount, 200 million shekels will be allocated to integrate Palestinian students into Israeli universities, primarily the Hebrew University. So that there will be intensive work to integrate them into the university's programs and activities within the framework of normalization and common relations with Jewish students, in a way that affects their position and national tendencies. 

Matters did not stop at this point within the framework of the process of “Israelization” of awareness. Rather, part of this budget was allocated for the establishment of what is known as the “House of Culture” instead of a parking lot located in the courtyard of the “Jerusalem” municipal library near Al-Zahraa Street and Al-Mamounia Secondary School for Girls. It can accommodate 200 cars and is being closed at a time when Jerusalem and its residents suffer from an acute shortage of parking spaces. This forces them to park their cars illegally and exposes them to persecution, stalking, and violations by the occupation police and its municipality inspectors. On the other hand, the entity municipality confiscated a plot of land in the Sheikh Jarrah area, which is targeted by Judaization, and allocated it as a parking lot for settlers' cars in order to facilitate their arrival to the area. We are fully aware that the aim of building the "Cultural House", which includes a theater and a cultural center, is not to develop its Arab population culturally and artistically, and to create space for them for cultural and artistic activities. The entity's state seeks to obliterate and erase everything related to culture, identity, narration, arts, and Palestinian and Arab history in the city. Because this institution will have a goal within the framework of normalizing relations between the city's Arab residents and "Jews" and establishing joint cultural and artistic activities and events. From another angle, the entity's municipality and its security services will seek to close the artistic and cultural institutions and youth centers in the city, under the pretext that they spread extremist culture and conduct provocative activities and events that endanger the security of the entity's state. Any cultural or artistic institution that provides activities and events related to the patriotic and awareness-raising aspect and stressing the rights of our people, their identity, culture, narrative and history, must be written off and disposed of. Therefore, one of the objectives of this "cultural house" will be to seek to cancel the existence and withdraw licenses of cultural, artistic and youth institutions in Jerusalem, such as the Yabous Cultural Center, the Edward Said Art Center, the Palestinian National Theatre, Al-Hakawati, the Burj Al-Luqluq Foundation, and others. From clubs and community and youth organizations.

Looking at the items of the proposed plan, we find that it is a security plan par excellence, as the security budget alone is 120 million shekels, as well as more censorship, more militarization, more police stations and security men, and more segregation and apartheid.

The development of roads and infrastructure for settlement projects and plans has a share of this budget, in order to connect the settlements to each other, expand the network of trains and tunnels, and build more bridges, tunnels, and an air train that facilitates access to the eastern part of the city and settlers' access to it.

Certainly, the development they are talking about will be in favor of the settlers, by establishing more settlements and outposts, and bringing more settlers to the city, who need security, protection, transportation, infrastructure, playgrounds, schools, health centers and parks, so that they can live and live in the city. And this needs huge funds, the money that this plan provides for them, their housing, and their welfare.

We realize that this plan came mostly to satisfy the settlers. They will distract Jerusalemites with daily issues and crises. This plan came to say to the Israeli society in general and the settlers in particular, we have brought you budgets that will reduce all acts of "terrorism" and give you security.

The occupation is not born of the moment, the occupation has been 56 years, or even 75 years of its occupation of this land, and its plans continue with it, and what it failed to pass in the past, will return to it again. They are always open battles, and the time limit is open. What is not achieved now will happen in the future. This is how the occupation was able to remain in the country for the past 75 years! With force, plans, policies, laws, and unlimited resources, but what is new today is the budgets that come from abroad, thinking that only money can obey humans.

The occupation did not succeed in achieving the system of integration and Israelization, as it sought in other areas of historical Palestine. Imposing projects with different titles to recruit young people, under the title of improving living conditions, civil service and community centers, institutions with different names, with the aim of linking Jerusalemite society to the Israeli system by exploiting the financial and living conditions of young people. We are also witnessing an escalation of the attack on education, as education is the main gateway to obliterating the Palestinian narrative, history and national identity. The occupation began to intensify its support for the "Israelization" of education by building dozens of schools in the various Jerusalem neighborhoods that follow the Israeli educational system and curriculum. And the battles continue with the Jerusalemites over the curriculum, and when he felt that this did not resolve the matter in its final form, he came up with the five-year plan as another window to achieve more linkage, expulsion, Judaization, Israelization, and control.