75% of Palestinians in East al-Quds live below poverty: Report

An independent human rights group in Israel has released figures showing that three out of four Palestinians residing in the Israeli-occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem) live below poverty levels.

Publishing what it referred to as up-to-date facts and figures on the life of Palestinians in al-Quds, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said on Sunday that as high as 84 percent of Palestinian children in the city live in poverty, blaming the policies of the Tel Aviv regime for the dismal conditions.

According to the ACRI, the number of Palestinians living in poverty in East al-Quds has climbed from around 64 percent in 2006 to over 75 percent in the current year. It further blamed the lack of investment in education, industry and local business for the deteriorating living standards of the Palestinian population in the city.

Citing official figures, the group said 75.3% of East al-Quds residents live below the poverty line.

It also noted that 7,514 Palestinian children, representing 53 percent of kids under the auspices of municipal welfare services, are defined as children at risk.

In terms of education, ACRI said only 53 percent of Palestinian students attend official public schools due to a shortage of over 2,000 classrooms in the local school system. It added that many Palestinian students are forced to cram into residential apartments that are converted into schools.

While all Israeli children over the age of 3 are entitled to free education, only six percent of Palestinian children between the ages of 3 and 4 in East Jerusalem (al-Quds) attend public kindergartens due to a shortage of nearly 400 kindergarten classrooms.

In terms of housing, ACRI said that only 14 percent of the East Jerusalem territory is zoned for residential Palestinian construction. It further said that while the maximum level of construction in Palestinian neighborhoods stands at 25-50 percent of capacity, Jewish neighborhoods build at the rate of 75-125 percent.

Meanwhile, since the beginning of 2014, more than 17 houses and buildings belonging to Palestinians have been demolished in the city.

Since 1967, the group said, one-third of all Palestinian lands in al-Quds have been confiscated, upon which tens of thousands of houses have been built for Israelis.

According to ACRI, the construction of Israel’s separation wall has also aggravated the city’s economic downturn, since it has economically dislocated Palestinians living in al-Quds from other communities in the West Bank.

Israeli forces occupied the historic Palestinian city during the six-day war in 1967, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.

MFB/HJL/HRB

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