Press Releases

While the Israeli government continues to expand Jewish-only settlements in the Eastern areas of Jerusalem, Palestinians continue to suffer due to Israeli policies aimed at radically reducing the number of Palestinians living in Jerusalem.  The 20 families living in Sumoud Camp in East Jerusalem, for example, are still unable to find affordable housing in the city and are fearful that if they leave Jerusalem to find cheaper accommodation, their residency cards will be confiscated and they will be unable to return to Jerusalem.  In order to preserve their right to live in their hometown, these families continue to live in a windowless, unfinished concrete building subdivided into small living quarters by metal, wood and canvas walls without modern sanitation. 

With the end of the school year and the beginning of the long, hot summer, parents in Sumoud Camp have expressed deep concern regarding the well-being of their children.  Families are unable to send their children to summer day camp.  Most of the children thus spend the entire day in the camp.  The unfinished building is full of concrete dust while ledges, sharp edges and metal reinforcement bars which protrude from the concrete provide a constant source of danger. 

Outside, there are few places to play.  There is no green space around the building.  Parents do not want to keep their children inside all day, but they worry that the children may wander off to the busy road in front of the Sumoud Camp building.  With no school and no organized summer activities outside the camp, parents say that the level of hitting and fighting among the children has increased. 

The children in the camp are also highly vulnerable to mosquito bites since the Sumoud Camp building does not have any windows.  Several of the children at the camp are completely covered with bites, including Mustafa, the newest member of the camp who is only 3 weeks old.   If the situation remains the same after the summer, children in the camp will likely face a repeat bout of colds and bronchial infections similar to last winter. 

The families in the camp, however, remain determined to stay in the building until their right to live in Jerusalem is secured.  Residents recently pooled together some money to begin building two indoor bathrooms, one for the women and one for the men.  Since moving into the building following the demolition of the original Sumoud Camp by Israeli municipal officials in March 1998 the families have been using several portable outdoor bathrooms rented by the Orient House.  The portables, however, are difficult to use for the children, especially during the night.  The new bathrooms are half done, but the families need to find approximately US$ 1000 to complete them. 

---------------

For more information contact: The Lobby for Palestinian Women's Rights in Jerusalem, c/o The Jerusalem Center for Women, [email protected]  (tel) 574-7068; The Palestine Human Rights Information Center, [email protected] (tel) 628-7076; BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights, [email protected] (tel) 2747346.