Ir Amim - Land rights in East Jerusalem

General

Core support to Ir Amim for their work with the protection of Palestinian rights to land and socio-economic development in East Jerusalem. Ir Amim is an Israeli NGO based in Jerusalem that monitors settlement expansion and Palestinian land rights in the city. The organization was founded in the year 2000 with the aim of supporting Jerusalem as a current home and a future shared capital for both Israelis and Palestinians. Continued expansion of settlements in and around Jerusalem, demolition and eviction threats against Palestinians and the challenging of the status quo in relation to the Temple Mount / al-Haram al-Sharif make it increasingly difficult for Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and undermines a future two-state solution. Ir Amim’s work aims to counteract these events and to promote the Palestinian people’s socio-economic rights in East Jerusalem.Ir Amim has received grants from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs since 2009. For the past five years, the support has been between SEK 500,000 and SEK 850,000 per year but in 2021 an increase was granted for a total grant of 1.2 MSEK. The MFA considers the activities well implemented and reported and has a favorable opinion of working with Ir Amim. Given the strategic significance and long term commitment to Ir Amim, MFA has asked Sida to consider taking over the support to the organization. This would enable a more long term support that will allow the organization better opportunity for planning ahead. It would also allow supporting capacity building measures for the organization. Sida intends to provide core support to Ir Amim, as has also been the support-form that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has used in the last few years. Sida proposes to raise the level of support to Ir Amim to 2 MSEK per year for a period of 3 years. That would equal a bit more than 10% of the organization's total budget and make Sida the 3rd largest donor.Sida's assessment is that the work of Ir Amim is aligned to the Swedish strategy for Palestine and well complements the Human Rights portfolio. The Swedish Strategy for development cooperation with Palestine 2020-2024 highlights East Jerusalem as a prioritised geographical area and the support to Ir Amim responds to the expectation expressed in the strategy that Sida should be prepared to "respond to small scale initiatives of a strategic nature including initiatives aimed at following developments regarding settlement expansion".

Objectives

Objective 1: Safeguarding the conditions for an agreed two state solution and the character of Jerusalem as the present home and future capital of the two peoples, while impeding unilateral and formal and de-facto annexation steps. Objective 2: Protecting the individual and collective home of Palestinians in East Jerusalem including their physical and communal space, socio-economic rights and their right to the city. Objective 3: Local and international target audiences are informed, mobilized and subsequently act with regard to on-the-ground developments that affect the current reality in Jerusalem and the prospect for a negotiated solution.