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. |