Jerusalem – Alquds or United Yerushalayem
Recently the Israeli abuse in Jerusalem against the Palestinians is becoming harsher. Since Oslo’s agreement the Israeli leadership decided to do everything possible to make any kind of compromise regarding Jerusalem impossible.
The plan is to try to change Jerusalem into a complete Jewish city that holds no other religious or cultural sign even though it used to be in it since hundreds of years. Although Israel knows that any attempt to make a change in the old city and specifically in the Aqsa mosque would be like playing with fire because of its holiness and importance in the Islamic circles, it keeps on.
Most of the Palestinian demonstrations and intifadas started because of the Holy Mosque. However, the situation in East Jerusalem does not stand at this point but is more complicated. The peace agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians states that residents of East Jerusalem are not to hold any kind of nationality temporary until a final peace agreement is signed. At the same time residents of East Jerusalem are given Israeli permanent resident Identification cards which allow them to move from place to another. Israel admits the right of East Jerusalem residents in participating in Palestinian Presidential and parliament elections. At the same time there are laws which allow Israel to imprison any Jerusalemite resident from a period which would reach five years in prison if he or she is suspected to work in the Palestinian Authority associations.
The result is a collection of laws which does not bring anything except of suffering, difficulties, and punishment for Jerusalemites as long as they consider themselves Palestinians. The real reason which stands behind the agreement of Israel on these rules is to give itself a chance to try to direct a secret battle in East Jerusalem to come out with two major results: 1. Create a pressure which will result in pushing as much Palestinians as possible to leave Jerusalem and live somewhere else. 2. Create a situation of chaos and lost identity which will only bring crime and disorder in the Arab neighborhoods.
This is made on the ground by putting high taxes on the residents, preventing any kind of building or expansion in existing buildings in the Arab areas, imprisoning anyone who would participate in a political activity on the bases of considering him or her a “threat to Israel’s national security”, preventing any kind of community leadership, leaving the city with no one to be in charge to prevent crime, allowing criminals and drug dealers to work freely as long as they sell their poisons to the Palestinian youth, and many other actions to make life seem to be impossible in Jerusalem. At the same time, Israel’s policy includes wide collection of attractions for Israelis to come and live in illegal settlements built in the city by offering them low taxes, security protection, and of course convincing them that they are doing a real favor for Israel’s control of the city.
After building the racist separation wall which Israel claims to be a security fence against Palestinian attacks, the plan was to continue in building settlements inside East Jerusalem in places like Shekh Jarah, Selwan, Bet Hanina, Esawyeh, Ras Ilamood, and many other Arab neighborhoods. Israel’s goal is to reach a situation in which it will be impossible to remove these settlements exactly as it is said now regarding West Bank settlements and then reach the final goal which is to be impossible to withdraw from East Jerusalem and end the occupation.
Since Israel’s occupation of the holy city, the government and the Zionist movements continued to convince their people that Jerusalem is finally United; East and West, and that it will always be kept like this. On the ground, and despite all its actions mentioned before, Israel did not succeed in turning East Jerusalem into a Jewish city; in the last municipal elections of Jerusalem only 2% of the Palestinian population which is about 268400 residents, which is about 35% of the whole population of Jerusalem participated in it. Palestinians continue their resistance in the city by staying in their homes despite all the difficulties and challenges which the Israeli government put for them.
The majority of the Palestinian residents admit that the only identity which they consider their own is the Palestinian one. Beside this, many of the residents are extremely associated with their religious identity which is Islam. This factor pushes them to keep on staying in the city and at the same time be ready to sacrifice anything to protect their holiest place; the Aqsa Mosque. So Israel is facing a challenge which is not only about national identity but also a religious factor which affects the Palestinian population.
Although crime is spreading in the city and drugs is becoming a normal thing which youth are addicted to because of the Israeli irresponsibility, the people continue to struggle for their security and try to deal with their problems through different channels which are also considered forbidden by Israel because leadership is simply forbidden in the city.
Israel tried everything including the expelling of thousands of Palestinians from Jerusalem claiming that they do not live inside the racist separation wall, imprisoning others, putting high taxes, and doing everything possible to make Jerusalem including its East part a place which includes a higher population of Israelis but until today no strategy did succeed.
At the same time the Israeli violation of the International law including its neglect of its responsibility of assuring the human rights of the Palestinian residents of an occupied land, the political imprisoning of Palestinians, and the building of illegal settlements on lands which it does not own claiming its Jewish historical right in it did not make any International actor to move and put an end to this farce. Any Arab attempt which was made to try to support Palestinian residents of Jerusalem was faced with an Israeli barrier claiming that it is illegal. International actors preferred to cover their eyes instead of looking at the miserable life of hundreds of thousands of human beings although they claimed their intentions in spreading freedom and justice in the world.
If nor for a political reason then at least for a human reason the world must move to put an end to this ethnic cleansing of the city, its population, and its milestones. This city is not Jewish but indeed could be more important for Christians and Muslims because of its rich history, religious importance, and national identity.
If Israel believes that it can reach a peace agreement designed in its own way, wrote in its own hands, and only satisfies its own needs, then it will be another dream which it will keep on dreaming exactly as it is dreaming now of a “United Yerushalayem”.
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