The last conquest of Jerusalem

[Englander]

Apr 12th 2006 | JERUSALEM

Israel's plans for Jerusalem will create a large Jewish city but will have harsh consequences for the Palestinians, on both sides of the barrier


IN THE twilight of a Bethlehem evening, Jerusalem shimmers on a distant hilltop like the Wizard of Oz's Emerald City, its floodlit walls giving it a surrealist glow. Except that these are not the fortifications of ancient Jerusalem as seen above, but the appropriately named Har Homa (Wall Mountain), one of the new Israeli settlements that now ring the city.

After millennia of violent conquest and reconquest, Jerusalem, centre of pilgrimage, crucible of history and the world's oldest international melting-pot, is changing hands once more, but with a slow and quiet finality. Israel redrew the municipal boundary after the 1967 war to enclose some of the West Bank land that it had occupied, a de facto (though not internationally recognised) annexation.

Settlements like Har Homa gradually encroached on the empty spaces. In 2002, as the second intifada raged, and central Jerusalem took the brunt of suicide bombings, Israel started building the West Bank barrier or wall, supposedly to keep out Palestinian bombers. But its route, enclosing Palestinian as well as Jewish neighbourhoods of Jerusalem (see map), suggested another purpose too.

Before Israel's election last month, Ehud Olmert, the acting prime minister, outlined his plan to do unilaterally what years of peace talks had failed to achieve: separate Israelis from Palestinians. Most of the smaller West Bank settlements would be removed, their residents brought over to the Israeli side of the barrier. A few days later, Otniel Schneller, a settler leader and member of Mr Olmert's Kadima party, publicly listed the Palestinian parts of Jerusalem that might stay on the West Bank side. Right-wingers accused Kadima of dividing the Jewish capital, but in fact all but two of the areas he mentioned—At-Tur and Az-Zaayem—were already on the West Bank side of the planned route of the barrier. The talk among politicians, said an article in Haaretz last month, is of “a strong, large, Jewish Jerusalem”.

In Mr Schneller's vision, the bits Israel does not want can serve as the capital of an eventual Palestinian state. But they are just fragments of what was once not only the Palestinians' cultural and religious centre, but also the hub of the West Bank's central economic zone. The concrete-block barrier, when finished, will cut right through Palestinian Jerusalem, severing it from its hinterland in the West Bank.

More at;
The Economist

[haab]

1. The shameful conquest continues...

... Our silence to the suffering of innocent Palestinians is also shameful.

[TomClash]

2. Coming soon

The Warsaw Ghetto - in Jerusalem. The sorrow and pity of it all.

A rather fitting article for Passover.

[cali]

3. this plan

is doomed to fail. I still don't see why Jerusalem can't be a city under an international protectorate. I'm sure someone will inform me.

[sabbat hunter]

4. tried that once

when israel and palestine were partioned in 1947 jerusalem was supposed to be an international city under the UN. the jordanians prevented that and the UN did nothing of consequence to punish the jordanians.
from 1947-1967 no jews were allowed into jerusalem and the wailing wall. jordan even had homes build by the wall.

since 1967 jews and members of all religions have been allowed into jerusalem.

under israel the old city has been more international than at any other time in recent history. i see no reason why this should change.

why should israel give up jerusalem to a body that failed in its duties the first time around?

[cali]

5. Because Jerusalem

is too important to too many different groups, and under Israeli governance, there will never be peace? That seems like a reason compelling enough to try again.

[King Mongo]

6. There will be peace, but only for a while?

It is not just for Israel to annex occupied territory while not recongizing that Palestine exists as an independent unoccupied nation. However, Israel is going to annex Jerusalem and has full US and European support to achieve such. So, wether we like or not, Israel is going to annex all of Jerusalem. This is something that we must accept. As a result of this action, violence will be used against Israel in the distant future, but it is very likely that this violence would be used even if Israel did not annex all of Jerusalem. Certainly, not annexing all of Jerusalem would help to heal wounds and build bridges, but this is unfortunately not the path that Israel chose to take. Nevertheless, eventually, people will learn to accept the current sitaution and violence will eventually decline. Yet, even if violence does vanish, it is always possible that Palestinians, living in diaspora, will one day return to the holy land. It is thus possible that both Israelis and Palestinians will be doomed for all eternity, fighting over the holy land with occasional long periods of peace before Zionism on either side returns.

[adriennui]

7. israel allows all religions to worship in jerusalem

wish i could say the same for other countries in the mideast.

[Englander]

8. That's the spirit! n/t