Abir Dandis, the mother of the two girls who were murdered in the Negev town of Al-Fura’a last week, couldn't find a police officer to listen to her warnings, neither in Arad nor in Ma’ale Adumim. Both police stations operate in areas where Israel wants to gather the Bedouin into permanent communities, against their will, in order to clear more land for Jewish communities. The dismissive treatment Dandis received shows how the Bedouin are considered simply to be lawbreakers by their very nature. But as a resident of the West Bank asking for help for her daughters, whose father was Israeli, Dandis faced the legal-bureaucratic maze created by the Oslo Accords.

The Palestinian police is not allowed to arrest Israeli civilians. It must hand suspects over to the Israel Police. The Palestinian police complain that in cases of Israelis suspected of committing crimes against Palestinian residents, the Israel Police tend not to investigate or prosecute them.

In addition, the town of Al-Azaria, where Dandis lives, is in Area B, under Palestinian civilian authority and Israeli security authority. According to the testimony of Palestinian residents, neither the IDF nor the Israel Police has any interest in internal Palestinian crime even though they have both the authority and the obligation to act in Area B.

The Palestinian police are limited in what it can do in Area B. Bringing in reinforcements or carrying weapons in emergency situations requires coordination with, and obtaining permission from, the IDF. If Dandis fears that the man who murdered her daughters is going to attack her as well, she has plenty of reason to fear that she will not receive appropriate, immediate police protection from either the Israelis or the Palestinians.

Dandis told Jack Khoury of Haaretz that the Ma’ale Adumim police referred her to the Palestinian Civil Affairs Coordination and Liaison Committee. Theoretically, this committee (which is subordinate to the Civil Affairs Ministry) is the logical place to go for such matters. Its parallel agency in Israel is the Civilian Liaison Committee (which is part of the Coordination and Liaison Administration - a part of the Civil Administration under the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories).

In their meetings, they are supposed to discuss matters such as settlers’ complaints about the high volume of the loudspeakers at mosques or Palestinians’ complaints about attacks by settlers. But the Palestinians see the Liaison Committee as a place to submit requests for permission to travel to Israel, and get the impression that its clerks do not have much power when faced with their Israeli counterparts. In any case, the coordination process is cumbersome and long.

The Palestinian police has a family welfare unit, and activists in Palestinian women’s organizations say that in recent years, its performance has improved. But, as stated, it has no authority over Israeli civilians and residents. Several non-governmental women’s groups also operate in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, and women in similar situations approach them for help. The manager of one such organization told Haaretz that Dandis also fell victim to this confusing duplication of procedures and laws. Had Dandis approached her, she said, she would have referred her to Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which has expertise in navigating Israel’s laws and authorities.

John Kerry revealed his long-awaited plan for peace in the Middle East on Sunday, hinging on a $4bn (£2.6bn) investment in the Palestinian private sector.

The US secretary of state, speaking at the World Economic Forum on the Jordanian shores of the Dead Sea, told an audience including Israeli president Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that an independent Palestinian economy is essential to achieving a sustainable peace.

Speaking under the conference banner "Breaking the Impasse", Kerry announced a plan that he promised would be "bigger, bolder and more ambitious" than anything since the Oslo accords, more than 20 years ago.

Tony Blair is to lead a group of private sector leaders in devising a plan to release the Palestinian economy from its dependence on international donors. The initial findings of Blair's taskforce, Kerry boasted, were "stunning", predicting a 50% increase in Palestinian GDP over three years, a cut of two-thirds in unemployment rates and almost double the Palestinian median wage. Currently, 40% of the Palestinian economy is supplied by donor aid.

Kerry assured Abbas that the economic plan was not a substitute for a political solution, which remains the US's "top priority".

Peres, who had taken the stage just minutes before, also issued a personal plea to his Palestinian counterpart to return to the negotiations.

"Let me say to my dear friend President Abbas," Peres said, "Should we really dance around the table? Lets sit together. You'll be surprised how much can be achieved in open, direct and organised meetings."

Thick locks hug the front gates of shuttered shops, now covered in graffiti and dust from lack of use. Only a handful of customers pass along the dimly lit road, sometimes stopping to check the ripeness of fruits and vegetables, or ordering meat in near-empty butcher shops.

“All the shops are closed. I’m the only one open. This used to be the best place,” said 64-year-old Mustafa Sunocret, selling vegetables out of a small storefront in the marketplace near his family’s home in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Amidst the brightly coloured scarves, clothes and carpets, ceramic pottery and religious souvenirs filling the shops of Jerusalem’s historic Old City, Palestinian merchants are struggling to keep their businesses alive.

Faced with worsening health problems, Sunocret told IPS that he cannot work outside of the Old City, even as the cost of maintaining his shop, with high electricity, water and municipal tax bills to pay, weighs on him.

“I only have this shop,” he said. “There is no other work. I’m tired.”

Abed Ajloni, the owner of an antiques shop in the Old City, owes the Jerusalem municipality 250,000 Israeli shekels (68,300 U.S. dollars) in taxes. He told IPS that almost every day, the city’s tax collectors come into the Old City, accompanied by Israeli police and soldiers, to pressure people there to pay.

“It feels like they’re coming again to occupy the city, with the soldiers and police,” Ajloni, who has owned the same shop for 35 years, told IPS. “But where can I go? What can I do? All my life I was in this place.”

He added, “Does Jerusalem belong to us, or to someone else? Who’s responsible for Jerusalem? Who?”

Illegal annexation

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, including the Old City, in 1967. In July 1980, it passed a law stating that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel”. But Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and subsequent application of Israeli laws over the entire city remain unrecognised by the international community.

Under international law, East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory – along with the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syrian Golan Heights – and Palestinian residents of the city are protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Jerusalem has historically been the economic, political and cultural centre of life for the entire Palestinian population. But after decades languishing under destructive Israeli policies meant to isolate the city from the rest of the Occupied Territories and a lack of municipal services and investment, East Jerusalem has slipped into a state of poverty and neglect.

“After some 45 years of occupation, Arab Jerusalemites suffer from political and cultural schizophrenia, simultaneously connected with and isolated from their two hinterlands: Ramallah and the West Bank to their east, West Jerusalem and Israel to the west,” the International Crisis Group recently wrote.

Israeli restrictions on planning and building, home demolitions, lack of investment in education and jobs, construction of an eight-foot-high separation barrier between and around Palestinian neighbourhoods and the creation of a permit system to enter Jerusalem have all contributed to the city’s isolation.

Formal Palestinian political groups have also been banned from the city, and between 2001-2009, Israel closed an estimated 26 organisations, including the former Palestinian Liberation Organisation headquarters in Jerusalem, the Orient House and the Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce.

Extreme poverty

Israel’s policies have also led to higher prices for basic goods and services and forced many Palestinian business owners to close shop and move to Ramallah or other Palestinian neighbourhoods on the other side of the wall. Many Palestinian Jerusalemites also prefer to do their shopping in the West Bank, or in West Jerusalem, where prices are lower.

While Palestinians constitute 39 percent of the city’s population today, almost 80 percent of East Jerusalem residents, including 85 percent of children, live below the poverty line.

“How could you develop [an] economy if you don’t control your resources? How could you develop [an] economy if you don’t have any control of your borders?” said Zakaria Odeh, director of the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, of “this kind of fragmentation, checkpoints, closure”.

“Without freedom of movement of goods and human beings, how could you develop an economy?” he asked.

“You can’t talk about independent economy in Jerusalem or the West Bank or in all of Palestine without a political solution. We don’t have a Palestinian economy; we have economic activities. That’s all we have,” Odeh told IPS.

Israel’s separation barrier alone, according to a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD), has caused a direct loss of over one billion dollars to Palestinians in Jerusalem, and continues to incur 200 million dollars per year in lost opportunities.

Israel’s severing and control over the Jerusalem-Jericho road – the historical trade route that connected Jerusalem to the rest of the West Bank and Middle East – has also contributed to the city’s economic downturn.

Separation of Jerusalem from West Bank

Before the First Intifada (Arabic for “uprising”) began in the late 1980s, East Jerusalem contributed approximately 14 to 15 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). By 2000, that number had dropped to less than eight percent; in 2010, the East Jerusalem economy, compared to the rest of the OPT, was estimated at only seven percent.

“Economic separation resulted in the contraction in the relative size of the East Jerusalem economy, its detachment from the remaining OPT and the gradual redirection of East Jerusalem employment towards the Israeli labour market,” the U.N. report found.

Decades ago, Israel adopted a policy to maintain a so-called “demographic balance” in Jerusalem and attempt to limit Palestinian residents of the city to 26.5 percent or less of the total population.

To maintain this composition, Israel built numerous Jewish-Israeli settlements inside and in a ring around Jerusalem and changed the municipal boundaries to encompass Jewish neighbourhoods while excluding Palestinian ones.

It is now estimated that 90,000 Palestinians holding Jerusalem residency rights live on the other side of the separation barrier and must cross through Israeli checkpoints in order to reach Jerusalem for school, medical treatment, work, and other services.

“Israel is using all kinds of tools to push the Palestinians to leave; sometimes they are visible, and sometimes invisible tools,” explained Ziad al-Hammouri, director of the Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights (JCSER).

Al-Hammouri told IPS that at least 25 percent of the 1,000 Palestinian shops in the Old City were closed in recent years as a result of high municipal taxes and a lack of customers. “Taxation is an invisible tool…as dangerous as revoking ID cards and demolishing houses,” he said. “Israel will use this as pressure and as a tool in the future to confiscate these shops and properties.”

Peace Now has declared war on Hilltop Youth – will the State join in? In an appeal to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, Peace Now demanded Friday that an investigation be opened against two prominent right-wing youth organizations that focus their energies on establishing illegal outposts in the West Bank and on fighting authorities seeking to evacuate them.

"These games of cat and mouse of the Hilltop Youth cost the taxpayer thousands of shekels," said Peace Now Secretary General Yariv Oppenheimer. "Without anyone claiming personal responsibility for these hooligans, the outpost phenomenon will only continue to get worse."

The two organizations being targeted – Land of Israel Faithful and Youth for the Land of Israel – deal with establishing new outposts and re-establishing dismantled outposts in the West Bank.

Most of the organizations' activists are youths. Among their leadership is former Kedumim Council Mayor Daniella Weiss, known as someone who needs only make one call, day or night, for hundreds of activists to take to the field.

These organizations are responsible for a series of outposts established recently, including Shvut Ami, Maoz Ester, Ramat Migron, Oz Yehonatan (also called Obama's Cabin because it was established in honor of the US president's speech), and Hill 18. The youth members are adamant and deeply ideological and return again and again to re-establish outposts that have been evacuated.

Peace Now is currently seeking an investigation into allegedly illegal activities undertaken by the organizations.

'Wearing down security forces'

In a letter sent by Oppenheimer, Peace Now outlined that "in recent years, the Civil Administration, Judea and Samaria District Police, and the IDF have dealt with dozens of youths establishing settlement points on hills in the territories illegally and without permits. According to a decree on city, village, and building planning, a license is required by law. He who builds without a license is subject to a fine and a two-year prison sentence.

Peace Now added, "It should be noted that the youths do not act spontaneously and that the illegal activity is funded and organized by various associations, allegedly including the Land of Israel Faithful and the Youth for the Land of Israel…

"It should be noted that establishing outposts on hills in the territories is not activity fitting for protest or for expressing a political position and does not withstand the test of freedom of assembly and freedom of speech.

"In actuality, this is a series of activities meant to wear down the security forces and to establish new towns throughout the West Bank illegally. The hilltop activity of right-wing activists and the evacuation of outposts damages the work flow of the police and security forces and costs the Israeli taxpayer thousands of shekels," the Peace Now letter continued.

Therefore, Peace Now is appealing to Mazuz, asking him to exhaust all options against the outpost activity organizers and those supporting and organizing action in the field. "If no one takes personal responsibility and demands payment from the hooligans, the IDF forces and the police will continue to be occupied day and night with the evacuation of structures and huts illegally erected throughout the West Bank," Peace Now claimed.

Many settlers took a sigh of relief after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech on Sunday in which he made no mention of evacuating settlements.

But Monday morning, right-wing activists announced that they were planning on building dozens of new outposts in the West Bank.

"This is the appropriate Zionist response to Netanyahu's speech and (US President Barack) Obama's speech. The goal is to build new outposts and expand the existing ones," the rightists said in a statement.

Monday morning, Yesha Council Chairman Pinchas Wallerstein left for Washington where he is scheduled to meet with US officials and Jews in order to explain the settlers' stance and prepare for the struggle in the matter of settlements and against a Palestinians state.

After Netanyahu's speech on Sunday Wallerstein said, "A large burden has been lifted off my chest. I am proud of the high level of Zionism the prime minister demonstrated. There was no mention of settlement evacuation or freezing. I hope this will enable settlement to continue."

Netanyahu did not mention outposts in his speech, but did say, "there will be no expropriation of land for new settlements: The settlers are not the people's enemy and are not the enemies of peace. They are our brothers and sisters."

The prime minister also stressed that there is a need to allow settlers to live "normal lives".

The Yesha Council on Sunday said they "regret the prime minister's acceptance of the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state. Netanyahu, of all people, who has been saying it for years, that a Palestinian state, even a demilitarized one – will necessarily turn into an armed state and threaten the existence of the State of Israel."

Palestinian farmers in the West Bank are paying the price for the government's efforts to evacuate illegal outpost in the region, data published by human rights group Yesh Din on Wednesday revealed.

According to the organization, in recent weeks there has been an alarming rise in the number of attempts to uproot or damage trees in villages in the area, and the phenomenon is expected to expand if the security forces do not take action against the perpetrators.

In a letter sent to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Central Command Chief Gadi Shamni and Judea and Samaria District Police Commander Hagai Dotan, Yesh Din wrote that since the end of April and throughout the month of May, some 300 trees – mostly olive trees - have been uprooted or sawed in four West Bank villages. According to the group no one has been questioned in relation to the incidents.

"We ask that, in light of the increasing calls for violence and for collecting a 'price tag' from Palestinians following the evacuation of every outpost, you order the IDF and the police to boost their forces and work to prevent, handle and investigate offenses, and plans to commit offenses against civilians in the West Bank," the group's lawyer Michael Sfard wrote.

Sfard noted that in the last four years Yesh Din has repeatedly warned the law enforcement authorities in the West Bank of "systematic, organized and large-scale terrorist actions" taken by Jewish groups against Palestinian civilians in order to promote political objectives.

The Samaria Settlers Council said in response: "Yesh Din is an extreme leftist organization that bases its investigations on the claims of Arabs, without verifying them with the Jewish settlers.

"This is not a human rights organization, but a bunch of snitches, who work day and night in an effort to disgrace the Jews of the Land of Israel in the world and fuel anti-Semitism.

"Had they truly wanted to get the real picture of what is going on in Judea and Samaria, they should have asked Jewish farmers, who would have told them about Arab vandalism of Jewish property that is carried out on a daily basis."

Settler leaders launched a harsh tirade against the Obama administration on Monday following the increased US pressure on Israel over the dismantling of illegal outposts and freezing of construction in the settlements.

"The Americans are employing political terrorism against the State of Israel," Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan said. "Not only is the Obama administration renouncing the commitments made by President George W. Bush in April 2004 – it's looking as if they regret President Truman's decision on May 14th 1948 to recognize Israel's independence."

The council's director-general, Pinchas Wallerstein, said that Obama views the Israeli leadership as a banana republic. "He doesn't understand that this is a democracy too," he said.

In an interview with National Public Radio on Monday, Obama vowed to sustain close ties with Israel but said the status quo in the region was "unsustainable," and put the interests of both countries at risk.

"Part of being a good friend is being honest," Obama told the US radio broadcaster, continuing his recent tougher tone toward Israel.

"I think there have been times where we are not as honest as we should be about the fact that the current direction, the current trajectory, in the region is profoundly negative, not only for Israeli interests but also US interests," Obama said.

The Yesha chairman said that the recent rhetoric used by Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "implies that the current administration doesn't see Israel as a sovereign nation."

Dayan added that the current period, as Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu "determine the rules of the game," was critical. Dayan said that Israel must draw the line by refusing to agree to a complete freeze in the settlements.

"If not this will snowball and then we won't be able to stop (Obama) on the division of Jerusalem either," he said. "Those who won't stop the American attempt to dictate Israel's housing policies in Samaria, Judea and Jerusalem, will also see them determine the borders of this country, they will say who will be prime minister, what the coalition will look like, and most importantly what the fate of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount will be."