Israel is celebrating these days what it calls the "unification of
Jerusalem" and what the Palestinians call the occupation and
unilateral annexation of Arab Jerusalem by Israel. Call it what you
will; the facts on the ground show that, despite 40 years of
Israeli occupation, the city is still divided. Palestinians and
Israelis exist as two separate societies in the city. The gap is
widening - socially, economically and in all other aspects of life.
No one from one side of the city feels secure and relaxed on the
other side.
The Palestinians are subjected to discrimination by different
Israeli authorities. The policy of the Israeli Ministry of the
Interior is to limit by all possible means the Palestinian
population's right to obtain Jerusalem residency permits. The
objective is to prevent the growth of the Arab population and to
force them to leave the city. The Palestinians call this policy
ethnic cleansing. The Municipality is using all possible methods to
cease granting building licenses to prevent Palestinian
construction in the city. At the same time, both the Ministry and
the Municipality are accelerating the process of increasing the
number of Jewish residents and Jewish neighborhoods in the Arab
part of the city. Israel considers the Palestinian residents - who
were not granted Israeli citizenship when Israel annexed the city -
Jordanian citizens holding permanent residency visas (with blue
Israeli identity cards, as opposed to orange ones for the residents
of the occupied territories). These residents are considered a
threat to Israel's policy of converting Jerusalem into a Jewish
city.
Jerusalem is a core issue in the conflict. No one side can have the
monopoly of control over the entire city and have peace and
security at the same time. It remains an unresolved issue, at the
top of the agenda of any serious negotiations aimed at ending the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And without a fair and just solution
to the problem of Jerusalem, based on parity, mutual respect and
coexistence, the prospects of a real peace will continue to elude
us.