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.”

A long-running row over the rights to a rooftop section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre could bring the entire structure tumbling down, destroying Christendom’s holiest site.

While renovations are needed across the church, the small Deir al-Sultan monastery on its roof has reached an “emergency state”, according to engineers who completed an evaluation this month.

The Times has learnt that in 2004 the two chapels and twenty-six tiny rooms that comprise the monastery were pronounced in dire need of reinforcement. They have since deteriorated to the point where engineers now fear that they will crash through the roof and into the church, venerated by millions of Christians as the site of the Crucifixion and burial of Jesus.

Yigal Bergman, the engineer who led the investigation, reported that the church, situated in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, was in a dangerous state of construction. “The structures are full of serious engineering damage that creates safety hazards and endangers the lives of the monks and the visitors. This is an emergency”.

Local officials are pressing the church to begin repairs before the heavy autumn rains begin but have stopped short of interfering directly in its notoriously acrimonious affairs.

The church has been vigilantly managed by six competing and often fractious Christian denominations — Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Coptic, Syrian Orthodox and Ethiopian — since an agreement reached under Ottoman law in 1757.

Rival denominations often battle for access or space and the congregation at the annual Easter service sometimes resembles the terraces of a boisterous football match. The keys to the main entrance of the church have been held by a Muslim family since the 12th century because the Christians do not trust one another.

The dispute over the Deir al-Sultan monastery is a more recent phenomenon dating back to Easter 1970. When the Coptic monks, who had controlled the area, went to pray in the main church and left the rooftop unattended, Ethiopian monks seized the opportunity to change the locks at the entrances before the Copts returned.

Relations between the two groups have remained tense ever since, with the Coptic Church refusing to relinquish its claim to the monastery and posting a single monk there at all times. In the midst of a blistering heatwave in the summer of 2002, the Coptic monk on duty moved his chair from its agreed spot to a shadier corner. The move was taken as a hostile manoeuvre by the Ethiopians and 11 monks needed hospital treatment after the ensuing fracas.

The rest of the church factions have been unable to mediate between the two groups, even in the case of minor repairs or renovations to the rooftop. Archbishop Matthias, head of the Ethiopian Church in Jerusalem, wrote a letter to the Israeli Interior Ministry and the Bureau of Jerusalem Affairs this month describing the dire state of the buildings.

The Archbishop stated in the letter that he did not recognise the right of the Coptic Church in any part of the disputed area. He said, according to the Haaretz Hebrew daily, that it was “inconceivable that the implementation of emergency repairs at the holy site would be conditioned on the consent of the Coptic Church”. The Archbishop added that he was turning to the Israeli authorities, as a neutral party, to carry out the repairs.

Israel has offered to shoulder part of the cost of repairs but will do so only if the Christian factions first come to an agreement among themselves.

The Copts, who are mainly of Egyptian origin, received preferential treatment during Ottoman, British and Jordanian rule. That changed after Israel took control of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War, fought against a combined Arab force, including Egypt. The Copts accused Israel of using its position in Jerusalem to aid the Ethiopians in 1970 in their takeover of Deir al-Sultan.

Nine years later, when Israel and Egypt signed the Camp David peace accords, Coptic officials hoped that the rooftop monastery would be restored to them. Israel, however, is mindful of its sensitive relations with Ethiopia, where hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian Jews lived and were brought to the Jewish state in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III said: “There is a greater issue here, something that has to be addressed sooner or later. To be honest, so far the [Israeli] Government has tried to keep out of the dispute. But now it seems that the Government is under pressure to demonstrate concern in helping resolve the issue.”

Bible bashing

— In the 19th century a ladder was placed on a ledge above the main entrance to the church. A priest from another denomination accused the man of trespassing and a row began that has yet to be resolved. The ladder is still there

— In 1995 the church announced it had reached a decision on how to paint a part of the dome in the central part of the structure — but only after 17 years’ debate

— In 2004 during Greek Orthodox celebrations of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a door to the Franciscan chapel was left open. This was taken as a sign of disrespect by the Greek Orthodox faction and a fight broke out. There were several arrests

— Another fight broke out on Palm Sunday this year when a Greek monk was ejected from the building by a rival faction. Police were attacked by the feuding monks and several people were taken to hospital

Ehud Olmert's tenuous grip on power weakened further yesterday when officials of his ruling Kadima party suggested that he would not contest the leadership primaries in September.

Already reeling from a corruption scandal, the fallout from the disastrous war in Lebanon two years ago and poor opinion poll ratings, the Israeli Prime Minister is being asked not to run for re-election by concerned members of his own party.

Today Mr Olmert will be questioned for the third time by police investigating allegations that he accepted bribes, in the form of cash stuffed into envelopes, from Morris Talansky, an American businessman.

Mr Olmert has announced that he will step down from office if an indictment is filed against him. Mr Talansky is currently in Israel for a five-day interrogation into the affair.

“The Prime Minister is trying to hold out for as long as possible, with little thought of how this will affect the country both domestically and diplomatically,” a high-level Kadima party official said, adding that many in the party are pressuring Mr Olmert to announce formally that he will not run in the primaries himself.

The Prime Minister's damaged reputation has triggered a succession battle from party rivals such as Tzipi Livni, the Foreign Minister, who is seen as the front-runner, Shaul Mofaz, the Transport Minister, and Avi Dichter, the Public Security Minister.

Ms Livni has built her reputation on her work as Justice and Foreign Minister, as well as her past experience in Mossad, the intelligence agency. However, it is her pristine record that has captured public interest, especially after Mr Olmert's numerous scandals.

“Everyone abroad loves Livni, but domestically she is untried. Her squeaky-clean reputation may hurt her when it comes to the back-room deals necessary to bring together a coalition,” an associate of Mr Olmert said.

In spite of the mounting pressure for him to go, the Prime Minister has proved adept at clinging to power. Political experts predicted that he could hold on for three to nine months in office, beyond the party primaries. Whoever won the Kadima primaries would have until late October to form a coalition, after which opposition parties would be expected to file motions to disband parliament and force early elections.

Mr Olmert's popularity ratings have remained low throughout his premiership, with his approval dipping below 20 per cent after the the war in Lebanon. A recent poll by the daily Yediot Ahronot indicated that less than a quarter of Israelis believed that Mr Olmert should remain in power, while less than half supported the current diplomatic initiatives he was taking on behalf of the state.

Next week, Mr Olmert will sit at the same table as President Assad of Syria, at the Mediterranean Union summit in Paris. Previous stipulations that the two would meet behind closed doors have not been confirmed by the Syrians or Israelis, although President Sarkozy of France is said to be pressing for direct talks between the two countries.

Peace negotiations between Israel and Syria broke down in 2000 and leaders from the two countries have never met face-to-face.

Israelis have also remained sceptical over the ceasefire that Mr Olmert negotiated with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip three weeks ago. Near-daily violations of that truce have led many to suggest that it is a ceasefire in name alone.

The great survivor

March 2006 Ehud Olmert was cleared of wrongdoing in the sale of a Jerusalem apartment, but the government watchdog queried his purchase of one in Tel Aviv. The case was closed this year

December 2006 He ignored calls to resign after he acknowledged for the first time, accidentally, that Israel had nuclear weapons

January 2007 An investigation was launched into allegations that, as Finance Minister, he had tailored a 2005 bank tender to favour a friend. The case was dropped in November

April 2007 He clung on in the face of repeated calls to resign after the Winograd commission's preliminary report accused him of “serious failings” in the 2006 Lebanon war

September 2007 A criminal investigation was opened into his purchase of a home in Jerusalem

October 2007 An investigation opened into allegations of corrupt favours as Industry, Trade and Labour Minister in 2003

May 2008 Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, called on him to resign in the face of the corruption investigation. Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in Tel Aviv. Olmert said that he would resign if indicted

June 2008 He struck a last-minute deal with his Labour coalition partners less than ten hours before the Knesset was due to begin deliberations on a Bill to dissolve parliament

Israel’s vision of Jerusalem as its “indivisible capital” came under attack yesterday as leaders reacted to Wednesday’s carnage by calling for a wall across the city’s ethnic divide.

The Government says that the barrier between itself and Palestinian communities in the West Bank has thwarted many terrorist attacks. However, two recent acts of terrorism perpetuated by Arabs living in east Jerusalem has left some asking whether Israel should abandon the dream of a united Jerusalem and isolate itself further from Arab communities.

Haim Ramon, the Israeli Vice Prime Minister, led a growing chorus of voices calling for a barrier to separate many of east Jerusalem’s neighbourhoods from the rest of the city. “It would be much more difficult to carry out attacks like these and 50,000 Palestinians who live in those two neighborhoods would not be able to reach Jerusalem so easily if they didn’t have blue [Israeli] identity cards,” he said.

Hossam Dwayyat, 30, drove his digger off a construction site and into the oncoming traffic on Jaffa Road on Wednesday, killing three people and leaving a trail of destruction before he was shot dead by security personnel. Video footage of twisted metal heaps and an overturned bus which Dwayyat repeatedly rammed with his digger stunned the Israeli public, who turned to their leaders for answers on how their security could be guaranteed.

“How can we feel safe when these terrorists are always finding new ways to attack us? I know that not all of the Arabs feel this way, but enough do. And we can’t risk exposing ourselves to those who want to kill us,” said Moshe Nazrahi, 41, a local shopkeeper.Israel captured Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it along with nearby villages in a move that is not recognised internationally, granting Palestinian residents Israeli identity cards that give them wide freedom of movement.

Dwayyat used his mobility to secure a job on the west Jerusalem construction site from which he mounted his attack. Redrawing the barrier’s route would draw fire from Israel’s right wing and entail a change in government policy at a time when borders are a central issue of peace talks.

Tightening security in and around east Jerusalem could also be difficult and give the impression of a physical divide in the holy city — something that Israel has long sought to avoid.

“There are 200,000 Arabs in east Jerusalem. You can’t put up roadblocks or a fence that would make life unbearable for everyone,” an Israeli government official said.

Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, was focusing instead yesterday on razing Dwayyat’s home, and pushing for a Bill that would revoke benefits for his wife and two children.Three militant groups claimed responsibility for the attack, although there is evidence that Dwayyat had been driven not by political motives but personal despair.

Dwayyat appears to have had a love affair with a Russian Jew, brought the woman to live in his family’s home, but the woman’s family used a religious organisation to remove her.

The ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip was on its last legs yesterday, according to Egyptian officials who spent months mediating the complex accord.

Hamas said that it was suspending negotiations with Israel over a prisoner swap deal, citing Israeli violations of a declared truce in Gaza. “There is no way for those talks to begin before the obligations of calm are implemented \,” Sami Abu Zuhri, the Hamas spokesman, said.

Despite Egyptian requests that Hamas envoys return to Cairo to continue indirect talks with Israel, he added, the faction had no plans to send a delegation.

An Egyptian official involved with the negotiations said that there was little hope for the ceasefire. “The truce has been active for 15 days, and for nearly half that time there have been violations by both sides. It is questionable whether this is a truce in practice or just in words.”

The ceasefire was intended to ease Israel’s crippling blockade of Gaza, imposed after Hamas seized control one year ago. Israel demanded that Hamas stop all attacks on Israel, including the near-daily rockets that various Palestinian militants were firing at Israel’s southern communities.

In the later stages of the truce Hamas sought the release of about 1,400 prisoners in exchange for Gilad Schalit, an Israeli soldier who was kidnapped in a cross-border raid in 2006.

Since the truce took effect on June 19, militants have fired 11 rockets and mortars at Israel, security officials said. The border crossings have been closed for a week, leaving the flow of aid to the impoverished area at nearly the same level as before the ceasefire.

“The calm in the south that was achieved with the Egyptians was based on a number of fundamental understandings,” Mark Regev, the Israeli government spokesman, said. “One is that there would be a cessation of all hostile fire into Israel. A second was that there would be expedited talks on the Gilad Schalit case. If Hamas is going to break part of that understanding, it does not give us much confidence.”

Israel has expressed interest in talks over Mr Schalit after it reached a prisoner swap deal with the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.