Israeli civil rights group:Private security guards in East Jerusalem unlawful

Representatives of Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem petitioned Israel's High Court of Justice (HCJ) on Monday to end the use of state-funded security guards to protect Jewish residents living in several apartment complexes among them. The petition, cosponsored by The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), said that deploying armed guards to such areas, "harms and endangers the normal daily life of Palestinian residents and is against the law." In the petition, ACRI claimed that some 350 security guards, who are funded by the Ministry of Construction and Housing, are protecting what the Palestinians consider "settlements" and some 2, 000 of their residents on behalf of the state. Consecutive Israeli governments have said that they consider Jerusalem to be Israel's "eternal and indivisible" capital, and have built several large neighborhoods of more than 100,000 residents over the pre-1967 cease-fire lines. The areas in question, however, are smaller apartment complexes, usually located in the same neighborhoods as those populated by East Jerusalem's Arab residents. These security guards cost Israel about 20 million U.S. dollars per year and only protect the Jewish population in the area, while Israel's police have abandoned their duty to protect all the residents, ACRI said. "The police have effectively abandoned their responsibility towards the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. This has had many implications for the lives of local residents," the document read. ACRI pointed to former prime minister Ariel Sharon as the initiator of using state-funded security in contested areas, when he bought a house in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City in 1987. During that time he was the housing minister and appointed private security to guard it. "Facts on the ground determined that the Ministry of Housing and Construction would provide security for the minister's new home," read the press release. ACRI's report also states that the security guards pose a threat to Palestinian residents, since they exert an authority that is not supervised by the state, and that they use "improper behavior," which has led to clashes with the residents. "The past two years have seen a significant escalation of clashes in Palestinian neighborhoods, with a marked increase of security guards utilizing violent means against local residents, including the use of fire with live ammunition," the document read.