East Jerusalem is the 'Bnei Brak' of the Arab sector in Israel, one defense official says. He describes it as a "black hole of lack of information, treatment, and tracking in the corona epidemic."
Medical officials in the capital are worried that within a few weeks or even days, the east of the city will see an outbreak of COVID-19. There are already 21 confirmed cases among the 350,000 inhabitants of east Jerusalem. And officials think that the low number does not reflect a low rate of infection or a higher rate of immunity but rather a very low rate of reporting.
Residents of east Jerusalem are loath to take the coronavirus test, and the Health Ministry and other Israeli healthcare entities are not very active there: Security constraints limit Magen David Adom from entering some neighborhoods in the eastern half of the city, particularly those that lie outside the security barrier.
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In these neighborhoods, home to some 140,000 people, the situation is especially dangerous. The Shuefat refugee camp and Kafr Aqeb – in which the Israeli authority is practically absent and the Palestinian Authority is lax about providing infrastructure and services – have slipped between the cracks. Unfortunately, this has not changed with the coronavirus epidemic.
The Trump administration's peace designated these two neighborhoods for transfer to the PA, but for now, they are still formally under Israeli sovereignty. In practice, there is virtually no enforcement over coronavirus protocol there: The residents are not being tested for the virus; residents are not reporting cases of COVID-19; quarantine is not enforced there as strictly as it is in the city's Jewish neighborhoods. In the few cases in which residents are willing to quarantine themselves, the decision is impractical because of the high population density, most notably in Shuefat.
This reality is similar to that which exists in some of the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak – large families living in small apartments. Residents of the east Jerusalem neighborhoods are also much less inclined to be tested, for fear they will turn out to be carriers and be quarantined away from their families.
No work in the settlements
The PA, which would ordinarily exploit the Israeli void to beef up its show of sovereignty in these neighborhoods, isn't rushing to do so this time. Moreover, Fatah disseminated messages via social media explaining that these were unusual times and there was no alternative but to take action that went against "the national interest." This could explain the PA and the Fatah's unusual conduct there right now. Both entities are asking that Israel step up coronavirus tracking and treatment in the east Jerusalem neighborhoods on the other side of the barrier and even to set up checkpoints to keep the residents out of the PA.
The PA even went so far as to ask Israel to prohibit the residents of the Arab neighborhoods outside the security barrier from commuting to work in any of the settlements for fear they might contract the virus there.
Meanwhile, Israel is limiting and considering banning movement from those neighborhoods into east Jerusalem proper or into the city's Jewish areas. As a result, 140,000 residents of greater Jerusalem are without anywhere to turn for help in the corona epidemic. They are hemmed in from the east and the west, with no one rushing to help them.
Two things have occurred as a result. First, local groups and Fatah members are trying to keep the residents in self-isolation at home and curtail public gatherings. This includes shuttering businesses. The second is tens of thousands of residents move into east Jerusalem proper – which is something of a repeat of 15 years ago when Israel first built the security barrier and tens of thousands of residents, afraid of losing their residents' rights, who would have been cut off moved into east Jerusalem proper. However, this is risky in the current coronavirus crisis – families often move in with and thus expose their elderly parents, who are already a high-risk group.
The mosque 'deal'
The east Jerusalem holy sites for Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are another issue. While brief prayers in small groups are still permitted at the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Israel was forced to exert a variety of tactics to compel the Muslim Waqf and the Muslim public to close the mosques and the Temple Mount compound.
At first, there was difficulty. The Waqf and the Muslim population refused to listen to police warnings and avoid Al-Aqsa. Thousands crowded into the mosque and the Dome of the Rock, ignoring Health Ministry instructions and endangering themselves and the people with whom they came into contact afterward.
Their behavior called to mind the behavior of the Waqf during a different crisis in the early 2000s, when the eastern wall of the Temple Mount compound became unstable, putting the stability of the entire compound at risk, not to mention the Muslim worshippers who came to pray at the underground mosque in Solomon's Stables at the southeast corner of the Mount. At the time, the Waqf refused to clear out the mosque to allow for work that would shore up the wall. It took Jordanian pressure to push the Waqf into taking the action that was necessary.
This time, too, the Waqf wasn't cooperating at first. When the police closed the gates to the Mount, Waqf officials opened them again. When the police closed the gates to Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Muslims flocked to the new mosque they recently opened in the area around the Gate of Mercy. Israel appealed to Jordan, its silent partner in handling Temple Mount affairs.
After a number of talks with the Jordanian royal family and officials from the Jordanian Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Holy Places, the Waqf settled on a course of action. The Jordanians made their willingness to act conditional on Israel stopping Jews from visiting the Mount, even in small numbers. The Jordanians explained that this would make it easier for them to convince the population of east Jerusalem to follow the Waqf's instructions. The proposal was laid before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who agreed to the deal. The Temple Mount was closed to Jews and Muslims alike. Apart from a small number of Waqf employees who pray in small groups every day, no one goes in or out of the compound.
When the gates re-open to allow scaled-back prayer ceremonies, Israel will once again need to strike a balance between the number of Muslims who pray there and the number of Jews who visit. It will also be necessary to deal with the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, whose deputy leader Sheikh Kamel Khatib has already warned about Israel's scheme to "conquer Al-Aqsa through the coronavirus." The northern branch might have been outlawed, but its members in east Jerusalem continue to keep things restive.
