Swiss have no plans to leave Jerusalem

Israel has targeted Palestinian security and intelligence infrastructure Keystone

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) says its projects in east Jerusalem are largely unaffected by the violence in the region.

The head of the SDC’s office in east Jerusalem, Rosemarie Schelling, said that despite the increased tension following Israel’s decision to sever all contacts with the Palestinian Authority, the SDC had no plans to withdraw from the region.

“I don’t see any reason for that at all,” Schelling told swissinfo. “As long as we can still do our job and our partner organisations can still do theirs, we will carry on. All donor countries are doing the same.”

The SDC supports a number of locally run projects in east Jerusalem, including education and vocational training programmes, as well as social development schemes.

No damage to aid projects

Schelling said that despite the heavy Israeli bombing of Palestinian targets in east Jerusalem, the SDC’s projects were unaffected.

“One reason for that is that our projects are not really physical things,” she explained. “We work with people on capacity building and institution building.”

“What we always say at the SDC,” she continued, “is that we work with software not hardware.”

Schelling added that despite the increased violence in the region, aid workers were continuing as normal.

“One thing you have to remember,” she said, “is that people here are used to situations like this, they have lived with it for years.”

“And it is not as if the violence is everywhere,” she added. “We have flashpoints where violence erupts, but in other places life is calm.”

Work less efficient

But Schelling admitted that her work had become less efficient recently, simply because the number of checkpoints in Jerusalem and the surrounding area make travelling a very slow process.

“To give you an example,” she explained, “if I have a meeting with one of our partner organisations say 10 or 15 kilometres from our office, and the meeting takes two hours, it will take me at least twice that time to get there and back.”

“Like everyone else we have to go through the checkpoints, and that takes time, so I am spending a lot of time just travelling back and forth, which makes the SDC’s work not as efficient as usual.”

Carrying on is the most important thing

But Schelling, who has been working for the SDC in east Jerusalem since the summer, was reluctant to offer any predictions about how the current cycle of violence might end.

“That’s a very difficult question,” she said. “I don’t think I have an answer, I just can’t make a judgement about that.”

“What I can say is that as long as it possible for the SDC to stay and continue its work, we will stay. That is the most important thing.”

Situation worrying

Switzerland says it is “extremely worried” by the escalation of violence in the region. Bern encouraged both Palestinians and Israelis to respect human rights and return to the negotiating table.

The surge in violence has undermined efforts to restart peace talks to end more than 14 months of bloodshed. At least 766 Palestinians and 233 Israelis have been killed during the Palestinian uprising.

by Imogen Foulkes