Patronizing
Dear Sirs,
I agree with Gila Swirsky's point about the shameful lack of
articles by women in the Palestine-Israel Journal (Vol. II, No.2),
and, indeed, wholeheartedly share her concern and hope that this
will be rectified in the coming issues.
But I must take issue with the way in which she addresses your
concern for the underdogs. I find her point of reference
patronizing to Palestinians.
Perhaps the time has come for all of us to stop comparing
discriminated-against groups and work towards the real equality of
rights and opportunities for all. This starts, it seems to me, with
the way we truly perceive each other.
Nomi Sharron. London
International Jerusalem
Dear Sirs,
I believe that the internationalization of Jerusalem is the only
solution to its prob¬lems, as was made clear by the United
Nations in 1948. The fact that it will not satisfy completely the
Jews, the Muslims or the Christians proves that it is the right
solution!
The administrative problems will be no greater and may be less than
for any other solution (e.g., condominiums or cantonization), and
the United Nations (which is a big improvement on the old League of
Nations) is the only and there¬fore the best international
organization we have got.
I am convinced that the person-in-the-street worldwide believes
that there should be a Palestinian state to coexist with the Jewish
state of Israel in peace and friendship, and that Jerusalem should
be the capital of neither, nor a branch of the Vatican, but an
uncommitted international city. An undivided internationalized
Jerusalem could replace Geneva as a truly international
center.
Eric Rose, London
Palestinian Bantustan
Dear Sirs,
To balance Israeli and Jewish exclusive claims to the whole of
Jerusalem, the Palestinians endeavor to demonstrate their
attachment to East Jerusalem with his¬torical and theological
arguments. Yet the geographic and demographic facts are even more
important. East Jerusalem is the political, economic, cultural and
reli¬gious capital of its Palestinian hinterland. By
incorporating into Metropolitan Jerusalem the settlement of Ma'ale
Adumim (to the approaches of the Dead Sea) and building the
proposed Jewish quarter on Har Homa, the Palestinian territorial
coher¬ence north and south of East Jerusalem will be severed
and the establishment of a Palestinian state precluded.
Therefore, Israel aims not only at the de-Palestinization of the
city but, first and foremost, at dealing a geopolitical k.o. to a
nascent Palestinian sovereignty. Israeli "advice" promoting
Ramallah and/or Bethlehem as capitals of the future Palestinian
political framework is a recipe for a Palestinian Bantustan.
Dan Wischnitzer, Avigdor, Israel
