Democratic Palestine : 26 (ص 15)
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- Democratic Palestine : 26 (ص 15)
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New Israeli Attack on the
Jerusalem Electric Company
As the largest remaining Palestinian economic institution in all occupied Palestine, the fate of the
Jerusalem Electricity Company (JEC) has special significance. This article deals with the latest Israeli at-
tack on the JEC, supplemented by background information taken from a study printed in the Lebanese
daily Al Safir on August 19, 1987.
With the aim of eventually _li-
quidating the JEC, the Zionist
authorities took a decision on August
8th, to restrict the company’s conces-
sion. The new concession bars the
company from supplying electricity to
settlements in the Jerusalem area,
Jewish quarters in the city, and the
Israeli military camps in the West
Bank. The Israeli authorities also
decided to fire 320 out of 460
employees. Moreover, the company’s
concession will be renewed for ten years
instead of twenty as the company
demanded.
A week before the decision was
taken, the executive committee of the
JEC workers’ union sent a memoran-
dum to the popular institutions and
nationalist personalities in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, stating the
dangers of the Israeli plan to liquidate
the company. The memorandum ex-
plained that giving up some areas of the
JEC’s concession would eventually lead
to eliminating the company as a whole,
due to the accumulating debts owed to
the Israeli Regional Electricity Com-
pany; many other issues remain
unresolved, such as allowing the com-
pany to install new generators and
transformers. The memorandum
pointed out that limiting the company’s
concession would lead to doubling the
Palestinian Arab residents’ electricity
bills. It will also mean giving up the
land the electricity lines pass through.
In the process of Judaizing occupied
Palestine, particularly the city of
Jerusalem, and its Arab quarter and
institutions, the Israeli government
originally decided to confiscate the JEC
early in 1980. Under the pressure ex-
erted by angry Palestinian
demonstrators, the Israeli Supreme
Court at that time ruled against the
government decision, on the grounds
that no concessions in the West Bank
could be confiscated because it 1s oc-
cupied territory. East Jerusalem,
however, was annexed, although it was
occupied at the same time.
BACKGROUND
The Jerusalem Electricity Company
is the main Palestinian company in the
occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Israeli authorities have always
considered it a stronghold of the PLO.
The company employs 460 people and
distributes 400 million kilowatts to
more than 100,000 customers, among
whom are 50,000 Israelis. Prior to the
latest decision, the company served
East Jerusalem, the new Jewish
quarters on the outskirts of the city, 130
Palestinian villages in the areas of
Bethlehem, Jericho, and Ramallah, and
a number of Israeli settlements and
military camps in the West Bank.
The JEC was established during the
time of the British Mandate. In 1948,
with the Israeli occupation of the main
part of Palestine, the company moved
its headquarters to the Old City (East
Jerusalem), while an Israeli company
provided electricity to West Jerusalem.
After 1948, the Jerusalem Electricity
Company enlarged the area of its con-
cession to include other cities in the
West Bank, such as Hebron, Bethlehem
and Ramallah, through buying out
local companies. In 1962, the JEC
signed an agreement with the Jordanian
government, whereby the company
would serve the whole Jerusalem
district which was under Jordanian
administration.
The 1967 war led to the destruction
of the bigger part of the company’s
distribution network. After Jerusalem
was Officially annexed in 1968, the
Israeli authorities forced the JEC to
supply the new Jewish settlements. The
Israeli authorities used other methods
to pressure the company and eventually
withdraw its concession. Some of the
methods used were:
1. appointing two Israelis to the com-
pany’s administrative board.
2. direct intervention in technical mat-
ters on the pretext of a shortage of
technicians in the company.
3. forcing the company to submit all its
account books and records to the cen-
sor and imposing high fees on the fuel
and spare parts needed.
4. forcing the company to buy elec-
tricity from the Israeli Regional Com-
pany in order to meet its obligations to
the Israeli settlements and quarters.
5. forcing the Palestinian company to
have the same electricity prices as the
Israeli company.
6. imposing high income taxes on the
Palestinian company, despite its rising
budget deficit.
In addition to all of the above
restrictions, the conditions of occupa-
tion have aggravated the JEC’s crisis to
the point of collapse. In the period after
the 1948 war, the JEC was buying 58%
of its electric energy from the Israeli
company. This led to the accumulation
of 38 million Israeli pounds in debts by
1979, in addition to another ten million
Israeli pounds owed to the Israeli fuel
company. Moreover, the Israeli settlers
who were benefiting from the JEC’s
services refused to pay their electricity
bills, and the Israeli authorities did not
interfere to collect from them. The JEC
also suffered from the spiral of infla-
tion that hit all sectors of the Israeli
economy. This meant rising prices for
fuel, generators, equipment and
maintenance.
The Israeli Regional Electricity
Company and the Jerusalem
municipality, headed by Teddy
Kolleck, worked together to cancel the
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