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Faisal Husseini launched the idea of the "Buy Time in Jerusalem" program shortly before he passed away. Through this idea he aimed to direct people and governments to put  the issue of Jerusalem as a priority on their work programs on the one hand, and to contribute to supporting the steadfastness of City's service institutions on the other hand. The Faisal Husseini Foundation was established shortly after the pass away of Faisal Husseini to make the idea of buying time in Jerusalem a major project in the Foundation.

The following is part of an interview with the late Faisal Husseini on Future TV Khallik Bil Beot (Stay at Home) programme, where he explains the idea behind "Buy Time in Jerusalem" project. Faisal Husseini passed away two months after the interview on May 31/2001. 

 Zahi Wehbe: You are currently presenting an interesting project entitled "Buy time in Jerusalem." Would you please explain to us what this project is, and how we can buy time in Jerusalem?

 
 Faisal Al-Husseini: This is part of the struggle that we  have started since 1967 in order to establish our presence in Jerusalem and to protect the Palestinian, Arab, Islamic and Christian community inside the city, from the Zionist attack that sought to Judaize and Israelize the city.  Let me say that in light of Arab weakness and defeat, we had to protect our presence in this city, and this was only possible through the creation of a “crucible” that protects us.  This crucible was the Palestinian institutions that follow our daily life, for example the Islamic Endowments Department, religious sanctuaries, and Sharia courts, and schools.  Accordingly, we established the Supreme Islamic Council to protect all these institutions not to be affiliated with the Israeli Ministry of Religions.  Of course, as we followed this, our Christian brothers from their various churches also struggled, and also managed to keep themselves away from and outside the scope of the Israeli Ministry of Religions. We also fought a battle for education when Israel seized the existing Arab schools that belonged to the Jordanian government, annexed and handed them over to the municipality, and imposed the Israeli education system on our children in Jerusalem. Immediately we, as Palestinians, established new schools, where we rented houses in different locations as alternative schools teaching the Arab education system. There was conflict and competition between these two systems. For example, the largest school in Jerusalem, Al-Rashidiya School, which accommodated one thousand five hundred students, had only seven students two years later, where the rest of the students went to Palestinian schools. This forced Israel and the Israeli Ministry of Education to recognize the existing situation, and they accepted to continue teaching the Arabic curriculum in schools controlled by Israel. Of course, they added the Hebrew language to the curriculum which we did not reject.  The same applied for hospitals and for other services, where we provided all of our services through these institutions: commercial, cultural, syndicate, professional, educational and religious services, and this preserved the face of Arab Jerusalem.
These institutions provided their services not only to the Jerusalemites, but also to all Palestinians in general, just as any capital provides its services to all the population. Here too, we have established Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, even under occupation.
 
Since 1993, Israel has waged war against these institutions, trying to weaken them by imposing new laws, trying to prevent aid from reaching them, and preventing any kind of international relations with the city of Jerusalem.  Israel began to incorrectly or arbitrarily interpret the Oslo Accords by saying that any institution in Jerusalem that receives aid from the Palestinian Authority becomes one of the institutions of the Palestinian Authority, and thus, must move outside Jerusalem. This matter hit these institutions as Israel besieged Jerusalem and it became difficult for people to enter, and therefore, their services were limited to the people within the city. Then Israel imposed new laws, financial blockade, and increased taxes on these institutions. The institutions and residents of Jerusalem under the weight of this siege are now living very great pressure.
However, we want these institutions to survive, by continuing to provide services -even if they financially lose- to the people of Jerusalem. These institutions are always not-for-profit institutions, and Israel made the cost of these services, such as treatment and other things very high to tighten the screws on us. We thought about this issue, and looked at the status of our institutions in Jerusalem, and in order not to close these institutions, we must help them and make a sacrifice. People work for low salaries and all this stuff, however, I want hospitals to provide services that are comparable to Israeli service providers. We conducted a research on these various institutions, and we found that these institutions,  in order to continue to perform their services, need approximately $30 million a year. That's two and a half million dollars a month, 625,000 dollars a week, 85,000 dollars a day, 3,600 dollars an hour, 60 dollars a minute, and one dollar a second. 
 
 Zahi Wehbe: So every second costs a dollar to keep these institutions going. This is an impressive calculation. 
 
Faisal Al-Husseini: So we came up with this idea: “Buy time in Jerusalem” in order for Arab institutions to remain in place, in order for Jerusalem to remain Arab, Islamic, and Christian, you have to “Buy Time in Jerusalem.” Therefore, we are thinking of forming a commission or a fund for Jerusalem under this title, with a primary function to cover current expenses for these institutions.  We are not talking here about development, or building new institutions, but rather about maintaining and developing institutions’ ability to provide services, in terms of maintaining mainly their ability to continue their current services. This body shall have a public body, made up of credible Jerusalemites and Palestinian, Arab and international figures and will present its accounts and expenses very clearly.