Tag: ISRAEL

Regardless of how the current and future violent conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians in Jerusalem will end, there will be no Israeli-Palestinian peace unless East Jerusalem becomes the capital of a Palestinian state while the city remains united, writes Dr Alon Ben-Meir

The flareup that has engulfed East Jerusalem over the past few days should surprise no one. The status quo could never be sustained; the Palestinians’ resentment of the occupation was only deepening and any incident could have precipitated a violent outbreak. This time it was the order to evict six families from the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem. For the Palestinians, this became symptomatic of Israel’s much wider scheme of ethnic cleansing to make more room for Jewish settlers and thereby Judaize East Jerusalem, which Israel views as an integral part of its capital. Israel may hold onto East Jerusalem for another 54 years, but the Palestinians, and for that matter the Arab states, will never give up on their claim to East Jerusalem.

While we can find temporary solutions for the current violence, then what? A long-term solution is necessary to ensure that Jerusalem does not continue on its path as a flashpoint city for violence. That said, there is a way whereby both sides can live in a united city and make it a microcosm for peaceful coexistence.

Jerusalem is unique in that both Israelis and Palestinians—and Jews, Muslims, and Christians around the world—have a special affinity to the city. There are four major factors that attest to the city’s uniqueness. First, East Jerusalem houses the largest mixed Jewish-Arab community anywhere in the world, with roughly 215,000 Israelis and 328,000 Palestinians who move freely across the city, east and west, and throughout Israel.

Second, the city’s infrastructure and services—roads, electrical grid, communications, and maintenance—are all fully integrated, and there is simply no way that they can be divided. In fact, neither Israel nor the Palestinians want to physically divide the city, regardless of its final political status.

Third, Jerusalem is home to the Jews’ holiest shrine, the Western Wall, the third-holiest Muslim shrines, the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and the holiest sites in Christianity within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The fact that the Jewish and Arab holy shrines are adjacent to one another requires them to fully collaborate on security, tourism, access to the holy sites, and improvements.

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Fourth, the main contentious issue between the two sides is the political status of the city. Given however that under any circumstances the city will remain united physically, and the majority of the population in East Jerusalem are Palestinian, it is essential that the city’s administration reflects the reality on the ground.

To truly recreate Jerusalem as a microcosm of peace, East and West Jerusalem would be independent municipalities—East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state and West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In addition, a joint Israeli-Palestinian council must be established to handle any issues or services that impact the two parts of the city, including electricity, water, certain municipal services, cross-border crimes, and joint development projects, to name a few examples. The council should have a clear and well-defined mandate to ensure that neither side can infringe on the other’s separate municipal responsibilities.

In this regard, since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has and continues to maintain the custodianship and the administration over the Muslim holy shrines, Haram al-Sharif, and will continue to do so regardless of the final agreement; Israel will maintain its control over the Western Wall. As a part of this, a religious council encompassing Judaism, Islam, and Christianity would be established to address various issues related to their holy shrines.

In the final analysis, Israel will have to accept that the Palestinians will establish their capital in East Jerusalem, while all Israeli Jews living on the east side of the city can remain where they are. In fact, the Trump administration’s official recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital clearly states that “We are not taking a position on any final status issues, including the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the resolution of contested borders. Those questions are up to the parties involved.”

The ongoing disturbances actually present an opportunity for Biden to be very decisive that this violence is not something that will go away once the immediate flareup subsides. Biden should declare definitively that while West Jerusalem belongs to Israel and the US recognizes it as such (given that the US Embassy is located there), East Jerusalem is not part of Israel’s capital.

There are many Israelis, perhaps a majority, who insist that the Palestinians’ future capital can be established in either Abu Dis or Silwan, which would be incorporated into Greater Jerusalem. The Palestinians will continue to reject that off-hand, especially because they have the backing of the international community and the Arab states and in particular Saudi Arabia. Indeed, the Saudis uphold the establishment of the Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem as sacrosanct to the Arab world as a whole.

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Those Israelis who bask in the illusion that East Jerusalem will forever remain under Israeli control must realize that only through the use of force can Israel maintain control and even then, frequent flareups, such the current one, will happen and potentially escalate into a full-blown violent uprising.

The upcoming new Israeli government should view the unfolding events in Jerusalem as the catalyst for looking somberly at long-term Israeli-Palestinian relations. Moreover, every Israeli should remember that under any violent conflict, the Arab states will always land on the Palestinian side, and put an end to and possibly abrogate current diplomatic relations with Israel.

The Biden administration now has a golden opportunity to change the dynamic of the conflict over East Jerusalem. Biden should insist that given the history of the city, its religious symbolism and the reality on the ground, a solution to the future of East Jerusalem could become a microcosm of Israeli-Palestinian peaceful coexistence under the framework of a two-state solution. Only such an outcome will usher in a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace.

(Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.)

ALSO READ: Gaza violence escalates as Israel intensifies crackdown

The severe violence, which erupted on Monday following weeks of rising tensions in the contested city of Jerusalem, is the worst the region has experienced in years…reports Asian Lite News

Hundreds of rockets were fired upon Israel from Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip throughout Tuesday, as Israel pummelled the tiny coastal territory with airstrikes and the death toll mounted on both sides.

The cross-border violence, which erupted on Monday following weeks of rising tensions in the contested city of Jerusalem, is the worst the region has experienced in years.

More than two dozen Palestinians have been killed in the last day, including several children. Three Israelis died from Gaza rocket fire on Tuesday, DPA news agency reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks on Gaza, which have targeted some 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad positions since Monday, would intensify.

“This operation will take time, but we will bring security back to the citizens of Israel,” he said late Tuesday.

Hamas, which rules the coastal strip, would “receive blows it did not expect,” Netanyahu had said hours earlier in remarks after a meeting with military officials.

An Israeli military spokesperson said that at least 20 members from the two groups have been killed so far in Gaza, including senior officials, and some 150 missile-launchers had been destroyed.

Many of the targets were located in places where civilians reside, spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said, so civilian casualties could not be ruled out, though the army was trying hard to avoid them.

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Rocket warning sirens were a persistent sound across Israeli communities.

The greater Tel Aviv area was in the cross-hairs of Palestinian militants, who sent a barrage of rockets towards the coastal metropolis, marking the heaviest attack the city has faced so far.

The rocket fire prompted flights to be halted at Israel’s main international airport outside of the city.

The Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv was closed to landings and departures due to the attacks; flights were diverted to Cyprus.

One person was killed on the outskirts of Tel Aviv in rocket attack. According to media reports, a woman was killed in the town of Rishon Lezion when she was hit directly. The Zaka aid organization also confirmed her death.

The rockets were fired toward Tel Aviv after the Israeli army destroyed a building containing offices of members of the Hamas political bureau in the Gaza Strip.

Residents of the building were warned by Israeli forces before the attack and told to leave, witnesses said.

A Hamas spokesman had earlier threatened a “harsh” rocket attack on Tel Aviv if the Hanadi Tower building was destroyed.

In the southern city of Ashkelon, two women were killed when their homes were struck, according to the Zaka aid organization. Impacts were also reported on residential buildings in Ashkelon as well as a school where no lessons were being conducted.

In total, Gaza militants aimed around 480 rockets towards Israel over 24 hours. Of these, some 200 were intercepted and 150 failed to properly launch, the Israeli military said Tuesday evening.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attacks, which it said were in retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike on a high-rise residential building in the western part of the Gaza Strip. The apartment belonged to a member of Islamic Jihad, according to witnesses.

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In total, the Gaza Health Ministry put the death toll in the latest round of violence at 28, including 10 children. More than 100 people were injured, it said.

According to local media and witness reports, three children were killed by Israeli airstrikes and others by misdirected rockets fired by extremists.

Israel said it was targeting rocket production, storage and training facilities as well as military posts.

The airstrikes and rocket attacks followed violent clashes in recent days at Jerusalem’s holy site known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims.

Demonstrations continued on the ground in Israel on Tuesday between police and Israeli Arabs in numerous cities throughout Israel. Stones were thrown at police officers and several cars were set on fire.

In the city of Lod, a 25-year-old Arab man was shot and killed during the riots. Media reported that a 34-year-old arrested after the event was a Jewish resident of the city.

The Islamist Hamas movement had issued a Monday night ultimatum telling Israel to withdraw settlers and police from the Jerusalem holy site, parts of which had been cordoned off, and from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.

Shortly after the deadline expired, mass rocket attacks began, with sirens wailing in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu said the militants crossed a “red line” by directing missiles towards Jerusalem, and Israel in turn shelled targets in Gaza.

Leaders around the world expressed concern about the escalating violence, calling on both sides to show restraint.

“This spiralling escalation must cease immediately,” a spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.

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