Jerusalem is a mixture of logic and emotions, dreams and realities,
past and present, religion and politics, love and hatred. In short,
Jerusalem is every¬thing.
Often, on a plane, leaving Jerusalem on business or vacation, I am
gripped by a sudden urge for the day I will return. In fact,
whenever I leave Jerusalem, I am pervaded by a strange
sadness.
Jerusalem is my childhood and youth. Its cold, narrow, semi-dark
lanes smell of history. The stones and earth tell of invasions they
have witnessed and of arrogant rulers. All these have passed; all
has sunk into dust; only the stones of Jerusalem endure strong,
proud, and defiant.
Jerusalem for me represents the deep roots of Canaan and his son
Ibrahim (Abraham), father of prophets to whom Muhammad attributed
his lineage. It is the city of al-Isra' wal Mi'raj (the Prophet's
nocturnal journey), the Mosque of Omar and the Dome of the
Rock.
Jerusalem is my childhood spiced with the voice of the muezzin
calling Muslims to prayer, mixed with the chimes of church bells;
wax from melt¬ing candles dropping on my hands and clothes;
the chanting of nuns and priests in the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher where I often found myself lost among the crowds.
Jerusalem was and still is the everlasting Islamic cultural
heritage whereby Muslims and Christians of the city meet in a
unique blend and twinning of identities.
Thus Jerusalem embodies the symbol of the national dignity as well
as of the religious faith and attachment to the city of Muslim and
Christian Arabs.
Jerusalem has been destroyed tens of times by those who claimed
they loved it. Twenty-six times in recent history. Destructive love
was its lot and affliction. Is it because Christ said: "This is
your house; it shall be left unto you in ruins"? I hope not.
The time has come now for another kind of love - the love of
sharing, tolerating and coexisting, the love which will preserve
Jerusalem and glo¬rify rather than destroy.
Although Jewish building in Jerusalem is not the focus of this
article, it is almost impossible to speak about the politics of
Jerusalem without men¬tioning the Israeli efforts to Judaize
the city. Since Israel occupied Jerusalem in 1967, continued
efforts have been made to change the charac¬ter of the city by
converting it into a Jewish one. Immediately after the war, the
Muslim quarter, Waqf Abu Madyan, near the Wailing Wall, was razed
to the ground, for the enlargement of the Wall's courtyard. New
Jewish neighborhoods were hastily built around the city: French
Hill, Ramat Eshkol, Giv'at Hatahmoshet, Giv'at Hamivtar, Talpiyot
Mizrah, Neveh Ya'acov, Gilo. Others are still in the planning stage
or under construction, such as Reches Shu'fat, Har Homa, etc.
Israel has been engaged in an ongoing process to establish, by all
means, a Jewish presence in East Jerusalem. It is obvious that
efforts, in the early years of the Occupation, were made under
pressure of time to establish facts on the ground. Only this fact
can explain the ugliness of these neighbor¬hoods. The
historical and architectural character of the city were not
respected. Even the Mandatory and Jordanian rules, which aimed at
pre¬serving the city's image by limiting the number of stories
in all buildings, were not observed and the city became an ugly
mixture of odd new "car¬ton blocks" and beautiful traditional
buildings.
The question arises: Can Israel achieve peace with its Arab
neighbors while still keeping Jerusalem as its capital? Is a
comprehensive peace in the Middle East possible as long as Israel
insists on Jerusalem as the "eternal capital" of the Jews, and
denies the rights, emotions and attachment of Muslims and
Christians to it? Any attempt to ignore what Jerusalem
sym¬bolizes for Muslims and Christians will inevitably
contribute to lack of security and stability, not only in
Jerusalem, but in the entire region.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the heart of the Arab-Israeli
conflict, while Jerusalem is the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. No durable and stable peace in the Middle East can be
achieved without a satisfactory settlement to the Palestinian
problem, including Jerusalem, based upon international legitimacy,
enabling the Palestinian people to practice their right to
self-determination, including the right to establish their own
state on their national soil, alongside Israel. Jerusalem remains
the key to any peaceful settlement in the region.
The successive Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem, including
Resolution 252, call upon Israel to respect the status quo and
refrain from efforts or actions to change the status of the city of
Jerusalem in any man¬ner or form. Regrettably, Israel has
never abided by any U.N. resolution, except those in its
favor.
Article V of the Declaration of Principles (DOP) states: "Permanent
sta¬tus negotiations will commence as soon as possible, but
not later than the beginning of the third year of the interim
period."
"As soon as possible" makes it more than possible to start
immediate talks on Jerusalem, particularly in light of the Israeli
settlement activities. These attempts to change the demographic
nature of the city of Jerusalem by building Jewish neighborhoods in
and around the Palestinian part of the city at the expense of its
Palestinian population on their own confiscat¬ed lands. Such a
policy, coupled by Israeli measures forcing the city's Palestinian
inhabitants to leave it, aims at predetermining the outcome of the
negotiations over Jerusalem, even before they have started.
From the Israeli point of view, the Palestinians of Jerusalem are
foreign¬ers, living as permanent residents in the city. They
are obliged to keep the city as the center of their economic life.
They are not allowed to live out¬side the municipal boundaries
of the city for more than seven years. Those who leave the city as
a result of the housing crisis or are forced to live out¬side
the municipal boundaries for any other reason, even if still within
the Occupied Palestinian Territories, lose their Jerusalem identity
cards and their right to live in the city. Furthermore, severe
restrictions are imposed on Palestinian building activities to
prevent the physical growth of Palestinian neighborhoods in the
city. Many areas are classified "unzoned," "green" or "for public
use." The purpose is to prevent any building by Palestinian owners
in these areas, and to preserve them for future Jewish building.
For example, Reches Shu'fat, originally zoned as a nature reserve,
was recently released for the building of a new Jewish
reli¬gious neighborhood on it.
These Israeli practices in Jerusalem constitute a major threat to
the peace process on all its tracks, bilateral and multilateral,
and endanger the possi¬bility of a positive conclusion to the
process.
As a matter of fact, the recent confiscations of lands in
Palestinian Jerusalem, occupied in 1967, represent an example of
the short-sighted Israeli policy, which may in the end cause the
collapse of all that has been achieved on the road to peace in the
Middle East.
That is why the Israeli government's recent move to "freeze" its
latest decision to confiscate land for housing purposes leaves the
door open for other uses, such as roads, public use, etc. Thousands
of dunums were con¬fiscated in the past but have not been
exploited yet. Their use in the future, like the so-called Har Homa
near Beit Sahour, to the south of Jerusalem, will refuel the
situation and endanger the whole peace process.
Ceasing all acts of land-grabbing and construction on Palestinian
con¬fiscated land, is a requisite for the achievement of any
progress in the Middle East peace process. It is also of the utmost
importance that Israel cancel the confiscation orders and abandon
its discriminatory policy against the Palestinian Arabs until a
negotiated settlement of the perma¬nent status of the city is
worked out.
Israel as an occupying military power can, theoretically, dictate
its posi¬tion by the use of force. It can impose a closure,
confiscate land, build set¬tlements, but all these measures
will center all the time on the perpetuity of the occupation, and
its military power. No one can guarantee Israel con¬tinued
military superiority or unending American aid in all its forms, or
persistent weakness and division in the Arab world.
Converting Jerusalem from a city for all believers, Muslims,
Christians and Jews, into a city for Jews alone, will transform the
conflict from a national conflict between Israelis and Palestinians
into a conflict between Jews, on the one hand, and Muslims and
Christians on the other. Waging a holy war (Jihad) to liberate
Islamic Jerusalem will neither be in Israel's interest nor of all
those who are striving for stability and a durable peace in the
Middle East. Jerusalem belongs to all believers: Jews, Christians
and Muslims. Any settlement for the city must guarantee justice,
equality and respect for all the followers of the three
religions.
The time has come to face realities and take courageous steps to
save the peace process before its total breakdown. Let logic and
reason overcome fanaticism and political blindness.