In Defense of Palestinian-Arab Jerusalem 

The signing of the Declaration of Principles (DOP), and especially the UN Security Council condemnation - vague as it was - of the February 25 Hebron massacre, re-ignited the debate concerning the future of Jerusalem and gave rise to a new wave of propaganda in defense of “unified” Jerusalem by Israel and the Zionist lobby in the United States. Today, May 9, Israel celebrates “Jerusalem Day”, and the Israeli media and spokespersons of the center and right wing parties stress repeatedly that this year’s “Jerusalem Day” has a strong political content, i.e. the manifestation of Israel’s unwillingness to rediscuss to status of Jerusalem. 
A letter dated March 18, circulated by AIPAC in the United States, calls upon President Clinton to direct the US ambassador at the UN to veto any future UN Security Council Resolution that “states of implies that Jerusalem is `occupied territory’”. This letter was signed by 82 out of 100 US-Senators. Moreover, it was certainly no coincidence that AIPAC held its convention and sent a personal message to Clinton during the Security Council vote on the Hebron massacre. The same pro-Israeli lobby is currently organizing a media campaign around the “celebration of Jerusalem’s 27th anniversary of reunification” on May 26, 1994. All this should give rise to concern, especially since informed sources in the US report that US policy regarding Jerusalem is handled by Clinton personally and by his policy advisers, all of them notorious for favoring a solution which will leave East Jerusalem under Israeli authority. 
Meanwhile Israeli settlement and road construction in and around East Jerusalem has been stepped up since the signing of the DOP, with most of the construction scheduled for completion before the end of the three-year interim period. At that point, according to Israeli plans, Greater Jerusalem reaching from Ramallah in the north to Gush Etzion in the south will have become totally integrated into 1948 Israel, and there will be nothing left to discuss except for, maybe, some special arrangements for the Palestinian ethnic minority living in metropolitan Jerusalem. 

Organizational shortcomings, factionalism, and difficulties in establishing an efficient local and international framework which could oppose the ongoing Israeli settlement  activities in East Jerusalem on the one hand, and Zionist propaganda abroad on the other, have until now kept the results of diverse activities in defense of Palestinian Jerusalem on a modest level. However, there is reason for hope that this will change: 
On April 27 and 28, East Jerusalem was the site of two public conferences on Jerusalem, one organized by PANORAMA Center for the Dissemination of Alternative Information, the other by Al Quds University Law College. Speakers at these conferences included well known public figures and experts on economy and law, such as Atty Omar Yassin, Atty Ussama Halabi, Saleh Abdel Jawad, Dr. Haidar Abdel Shafi, Khalil Nahle, Riad Al Malki, and others. In addition to analyzing international and Israeli law concerning Jerusalem, and economic and social problems in the city, lectures and discussions focused on suggestions for new strategies in defense of Palestinian Jerusalem and its inhabitants based on the new reality created by the DOP, which - on the surface - excludes the city from the ongoing negotiations and has been interpreted by Israel as a carte blanche for speeding up its efforts towards the Israelization of Arab Jerusalem. 
Unfortunately, public participation in these two conferences was limited, mainly due to the ongoing military closure of Jerusalem which prevented many West Bank residents from participating. 
Also on the Israeli side progressive circles around the Peace Bloc and Peace Now, former municipality council members, and the Jerusalem Link, have started to prepare for a campaign around the issue of Jerusalem. Although little is known yet about the actual content of these new campaigns, it appears that the common denominator will be the demand to freeze the Judaization in general, and settlement construction in East Jerusalem in particular, in order to preserve the status quo until the final status negotiations. Whether Palestinian and progressive Israeli forces will succeed to coordinate their activities towards a joint campaign in defense of Palestinian rights in Jerusalem remains to be seen.

 
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issues no. 8-9