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Police officer in east Jerusalem
Photo: Gil Yohanan

Jerusalem will never be united

Creating Arab entity in east Jerusalem only way to make it a city of peace

Since the Annapolis Conference, construction in east Jerusalem has expended. While peace talks go on, we see construction on the ground that is aimed to thwart them. A total of 9,617 new residential units in the capital's eastern neighborhoods are in various phases of approval. Meanwhile, private construction at the heart of Arab neighborhoods continues at an accelerated pace.

 

This Israeli activity casts a dark shadow not only on the frankness of the current negotiations between the sides, but also on their chances of success.

 

In the face of the accumulation of unilateral moves being implemented on the ground at a growing pace, any discussion of the Jerusalem question will soon become mute, as it would no longer be possible to reach an agreed-upon understanding in the city.

 

These unilateral steps including the wave of public construction in the eastern section of the capital, government support for settler groups, the decision to renew the excavations under the Mughrabi Gate and the launching of two more excavations in the Holy Basin even before permits were granted, the continued policy of home razing, and the ban on civilian and political Palestinian associations.

 

Regardless of whether they are the result of a deliberate strategic policy or an inability to implement the policy shift required in the city – their implication is clear: In the short run, they will be undermining the sensitive status quo in the capital and escalating tensions in the city, while in the not-too-distant future they would hinder the possibility of a historical compromise in Jerusalem, on all this entails.

 

The harsh reality underscores the need to disengage from simplistic slogans and cheap demagoguery. A genuine solution in the city would only be secured via a diplomatic agreement that would lead to the creation of two political entities within Jerusalem that would enable each side to provide a real and fair solution, in the area under its jurisdiction, to all city residents, both Jewish and Arab.

 

Jerusalem Arabs don’t feel part of Israel

We must stop forcing the idea of a united city. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians residing in east Jerusalem, who were never granted Israeli citizenship, face blatant discrimination and neglect and demand an official entity of their own to be associated with that would provide them with proper services.

 

It would be very difficulty for anyone who ever saw the real east Jerusalem to define it as part of the capital as we know it.

 

The State of Israel has failed in all matters pertaining to the provision of proper service to east Jerusalem residents, and today we should allow a Palestinian entity that would operate within Jerusalem's eastern neighborhoods to attempt to provide the population with what it deserves. Only if this happens will we be able to start advancing towards turning Jerusalem from a city of conflict to a city of peace.

 

Jerusalem was not, will not be, and cannot be a united city. It is home to an Arab population that does not feel that it is part of Israel and does not wish to be part of it. The State itself, the sovereign on the ground, gives the Arabs every reason in the world to feel that way.

 

The way to deal with this population is not via threats or by pushing it out of Jerusalem through Israeli construction on most land reserves still remaining in the east of the city. Rather, it should be done via the possibility of turning this population into a part of a political entity it can identify with and receive proper services from – services which the State of Israel has failed to provide for the past 41 years.

 

Amos Gil is the director of Ir Amim, a non-profit group dedicated to an equitable and stable Jerusalem with an agreed political future

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.18.08, 01:10
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