Even while fast-talking politicians transform Jerusalem into
the city that never stops (building), the line "a unified Jerusalem, Israel's
heart for all eternity," remains a surefire winner at any Jewish
convention. It's a safe bet that every time Benjamin Netanyahu utters the magic
word "Jerusalem" Monday night at the annual AIPAC conference, the
applause will make the place tremble.
The Ramat Shlomo construction affair raised the bar for
Jerusalem-related cliches to new records. On Sunday the prime minister, on the
eve of his flight to speak to the pro-Israel lobby, said that "building in
Jerusalem is the same as building in Tel Aviv." Last week, President
Shimon Peres opined that "only Israel" can preserve freedom of
worship at Jerusalem's holy sites.
It's clear that these leaders have no clue what's happening
in Israel's largest city. Forty-three years after Levi Eshkol's government annexed
East Jerusalem at the expense of its Palestinian residents, "an undivided
Jerusalem" is little more than an empty slogan. For 17 years, since the
days of the Peres-Yitzhak Rabin administration, holy places in the Old City
have been closed to Muslim and Christian believers from the occupied
territories. The only East Jerusalem residents allowed to enter the Temple
Mount compound are women and the elderly.
The Netanyahu administration is hardly unique in all things
related to Jerusalem. Every Israeli government built on the hills in the
eastern part of the city and dug beneath the Holy Basin's historical sites. All
discriminated against East Jerusalemites. And all displayed the same
tactlessness, again and again, to the sensitivities of the various religions.
It's true that building in Jerusalem is no different from building in Tel Aviv
- on condition that the issue is construction for Jews. Has the state put up
even one neighborhood for Arabs in West Jerusalem? Does anyone know of an Arab
contractor given permission to build a single apartment in a Jewish
neighborhood in the eastern part of the city?
On March 21, 1999, the first Netanyahu government announced
that it would "strengthen Jerusalem as an undivided city through equality
in services and infrastructure between the western and eastern parts of the
city." Eleven years on, East Jerusalem lacks more than 1,000 classrooms.
It's much cheaper to apply Israeli law to Arab lands than to apply the
Compulsory Education Law to Arab children. It's easier to get the Knesset to
pass the Basic Law on Jerusalem than to dedicate funds for paving sidewalks in
the Arab villages Israel has converted into "Jerusalem
neighborhoods". It's far simpler to utter sage words about an undivided city
than to tear down walls of discrimination and isolation.
But none of this is of concern to these Jewish-American
activists, most of them liberals who rejoiced in the election of a black
president. Like most Israelis, most have never come close to the Shoafat refugee
camp, in "undivided Jerusalem." Fifteen years ago, to mark
Jerusalem's 3,000th anniversary (and the annual AIPAC conference), U.S.
lobbyists pushed a bill recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital.
Bill Clinton, and later George W. Bush and Barack Obama, used their clout to
suspend the bill, citing national-security considerations.
The current U.S. government also understands the
wide-ranging political and security implications of changing Jerusalem's status
quo. According to Washington and the entire international community, Jewish
building beyond the Green Line remains a violation of international law. Israel
continues to be the only country in the world in which no other country
recognizes its capital.
In January 1937, a few months before the Peel Commission
presented its recommendations to the British government, David Ben-Gurion said
that "Jerusalem and Bethlehem must be taken out of the equation - they
must be international zones under the authority of the British, with local
Jewish-Arab administration." Though he later changed his opinion,
Ben-Gurion was prescient: For 19 years Jordan's Hashemite monarchy treated
Jewish holy sites callously. For the last 43 years, however, Jewish politicians
have taken Jerusalem's name in vain, paying the eastern part of the city mere
lip service.
East Jerusalem is greater than the two peoples living in it.
This unique city demands unique government - generous, restrained and fair.
Jerusalem