By Daniel Seidemann
Contact Information Daniel Seidemann E-mail: dseidemann@t-j.org.il Tel: 972-2-6231471 Fax: 972-2-6246371 Produced by SAYA in cooperation with TJ Website: www.sayarch.com Graphic consultant: Harel Schreiber 2010 - 2011 Terrestrial Jerusalem (“TJ�) is an Israeli nonprofit organization devoted to the illumination of Israeli-Palestinian relations in Jerusalem. TJ delivers pertinent information, maps and analyses to stakeholders in Israel and the international community, towards the goal of upgrading the quality of the decision-making processes relating to Jerusalem, its current management and its future political status.
For more information: www.T-J.org.il
By Daniel Seidemann
Table of Content About Terrestrial Jerusalem
page 1
Preface
page 2
The Jerusalem Atlas
page XX
- Jerusalem and its Environs
page XX
- Old City and Environs
page XX
- Old City
page XX
- Historical Jerusalem
page XX
- Historical Borders
page XX
- Proposed Borders
page XX
- Route of the Barrier
page XX
- Settlements
page XX
Essays and Reports
page XX
- Jerusalem and its Environs
page XX
- Old City and Environs
page XX
- Old City
page XX
- Historical Jerusalem
page XX
- Historical Borders
page XX
- Proposed Borders
page XX
- Route of the Barrier
page XX
- Settlements
page XX
The Future of Jerusalem
page XX
Index
page XX
About TJ Launched on January 1, 2010, Terrestrial Jerusalem (TJ) - ירושלים דלמטה- is an Israeli non-governmental organization that works to identify and track the full spectrum of developments in Jerusalem that could impact either the political process or permanent status options, destabilize the city or spark violence, or create humanitarian crises. Jerusalem is the “volcanic core” of the Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab conflicts. Competing and largely irreconcilable religious, national, and historic narratives – Israeli and Palestinian; Jewish, Muslim, and Christian – exist side-by-side in the city, in a constant struggle for legitimacy, validity, and survival. Jerusalem is also becoming the central arena for IsraeliPalestinian skirmishing of such intensity that developments there jeopardize the very possibility of a two-state solution and threaten to undermine both local and regional stability. An agreement on Jerusalem, acceptable to all sides, is widely recognized as essential to any future peace agreements -- but developments on the ground could, if unchecked, undermine negotiations and ultimately prevent a peace agreement. Moreover, because of the religious equities at stake, such developments could spark violence in the city and beyond, as has happened in the past. Indeed, such developments have the potential to transform what is today a difficult but resolvable territorial conflict into an irresolvable, zero-sum religious battle. TJ believes that intense crisis prevention and management must take place simultaneously with any Israeli-Palestinian political negotiations, both in order to prevent developments in the city from derailing negotiations and to prepare the stakeholders for substantive permanent status talks regarding the future of the city under a peace agreement. To this end, TJ produces timely and accurate resources, including maps, illustrating and analyzing 2
these developments, for the benefit of policy makers and the public, both in Israel and abroad. TJ’s founder and director is world-renowned Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann. His team includes Lara Friedman, a DCbased policy expert and consultant, Israeli urban planners Yehuda Greenfield and Karen-Lee Bar Sinai, Hagit Ofran, Peace Now’s settlement watch expert, and Israeli analyst and mapping expert Dan Rothem. TJ’s credibility is based not only on the expertise and reputations of its team and the quality of their analyses, but also on the fact that TJ represents a proud Jewish/Israeli voice. This voice is well-respected and well-received not only in Israel and the West, but also by Palestinians and in the Arab world. Among the plethora of organizations working on issues related to the conflict, TJ is unique. It assembles under one organizational roof and for the first time, the experts and fields of expertise relevant to the Jerusalem issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It does so in the framework of an organization that is focused strictly on this issue, rather than on the full range of peace process/final status-related challenges. And it does so in an explicitly objectoriented/impact-oriented organization, focusing on both crisis management and conflict resolution in Jerusalem.
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Bios Daniel Seidemann has been a practicing attorney in Jerusalem and a partner in a firm specializing in commercial law since 1987. Since 1991, he has also specialized in legal and public issues in East Jerusalem. In particular, he has worked on issues and cases related to government and municipal policies and practices, representing Israeli and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem before the statutory Planning Boards regarding development issues. Key cases have included the takeover of properties in Silwan, the legality of the Har Homa expropriation and town plan, the Ras el Amud town plan, the closing of Orient House, administrative demolition orders, denial of free education in East Jerusalem, etc. He has argued more than 20 Jerusalem-related cases before the Israeli Supreme Court. Since 1994, Mr. Seidemann has participated in numerous Track II talks on Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians. In 20002001, he served in an informal advisory capacity to the final status negotiations, serving as a member of a committee of experts commissioned by Prime Minister Barak’s office to generate sustainable arrangements geared to implement the emerging political understandings with the Palestinians. Mr. Seidemann is frequently consulted by governmental bodies in Israel, Palestine and in the international community on matters pertaining to Israeli-Palestinian relations and developments in Jerusalem. He has been conducting ongoing discussions on Jerusalem issues within the Arab world and with Christian faith communities in North America and Europe. He has participated in numerous Jerusalem-related projects, colloquia and back channel work. ...
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The Jerusalem Atlas
Jerusalem & Environs
Jerusalem & Environs The map of “Greater Jerusalem” displays the geographic and demographic realities “on-the-ground” with which impact on crisis management and conflict resolution in Jerusalem and its environs.
Index
\\\\' Beituniya
Al Bireh Psagot
Ramallah
Migron Kafr 'Aqb
Beit Horon Rafat Giv'at Ze'ev
Kochav Ya'akov
Qalandiya Camp
Binyamin I P
Qalandiya
Jaba
Al Judeira
Atarot I.P. Ar Ram Bir Nabala
Al Jib Givon
Ma'ale Michm
Adam
Neve Ya'akov Har Shmuel
Biddu
Qatanna Har Adar
Beit Surik
Hizma
Beit Hanina Beit Hanina al Balad
Beit Iksa
Almon
Pisgat Ze'ev
Ramot
Anata Shu'afat Reches Shuafat Shu'afat RC French Hill Issawiyya Sheikh Jarrah
E-1
Az Za'ayyem At-Tur Silwan Ras al-'Amud Al 'Eizariya Abu Tor Abu Dis
Har Gilo
Sheikh Sa'ad
Sur Bahir
Gilo Battir
Qed
East Talpiyot Jabal Mukabar Sawahra e Sharqiya
Beit Safafa
Walajeh
Ma'ale Adumim
Har Homa
Khalet an Na'man
Al 'Ubeidiya
Beit Jala Husan Al Khadr
Bethlehem
Beit Sahur
Beitar Illit
Nahhalin Neve Daniel Rosh Tzurim
Efrata
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Old City & Environs
Old City & Environs With the Old City and its immediate environs becoming in recent years the principle arena of contention between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem, the map of the “Historic Basin� displays the major sites of the current conflict.
Index
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35
Old City & Environs
Index
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The Old City
The Old City The following Map displays the major features of the Old City: its ramparts, gates and thoroughfares; its division into quarters; its major religious and archeological sits; and the location of settler houses in the Muslim and Christian Quarters.
New Gate
Index
Jaff
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Herod's Gate
Damascus Gate
Muslim Qtr.
St. Stephen's Gate
Bab Hutta Bab a Nazir
Christian Qtr.
Ba al Khadid Bab al Katanin Bab Al Salsila
ffa Gate
Bab Al Magreb
Jewish Qtr. Armenian Qtr.
Dung Gate
Zion's Gate 23
The Old City While the strictures of a division of sovereignty can be applied in Jerusalem, these appear to be inadequate in addressing the special challenges posed by the Old City, for reasons that are both simple and complex.
Index 1967 Border Old City Gate Jewish Site Christian Site Muslim Site 22
Herod’s Gate Muslim Quarter
Damascus Gate
St. Stephen’s Gate
New Gate
Christian Quarter
Jaffa Gate Armenian Quarter
Jewish Quarter
Dung Gate
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Historical Jerusalem ......
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Historical Borders ......
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Proposed Borders ......
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Route of the Barrier ......
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Settlements ......
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Articals & Reports
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Jerusalem:
The key to Israel’s peace? or an existential liability?
The Jewish attachment to Jerusalem is incontrovertible However, the realities in Jerusalem today clash with Israel’s genuine interests, and a blind devotion to exclusive Israeli rule over a mythical “undivided” city poses grave existential challenges to the long-term viability of Israel and its character. Indeed, a drama of historic proportions is unfolding in Jerusalem today. If the Government of Israel continues on its current course – pursuing its claims and policies of sole Israeli control over the entire city – Jerusalem will soon become the arena where the two-state solution is lost forever. If it follows this path, Israel will continue on a collision course with the Arab world, the world churches and much of the international community, and condemn the City of Jerusalem to become an impoverished, Increasingly - violent backwater. By pursuing an alternative course – a political division of the city in a way that guarantees genuine Israeli and Jewish national interests – Israel will achieve what it needs and deserves most: recognition of Yerushalayim as the capital of Israel, and universal recognition of the Jewish attachment to the city, which will be the crowning achievement of Zionism. 2
The millennia-old attachment of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, and the centrality of contemporary Jerusalem as Israel’s national capital are incontrovertible. They are embedded in the religious and historic sites of the Old City and its environs, and in the modern Jewish city that has emerged over the last century and a half. Whether evoking the ancient memories of exile and redemption, or the more recent traumas of denial of access to ancestral sacred sites between 1949 and 1967, Jerusalem is at the core of the collective identities of Israelis and Jews throughout the world. But the realities in Jerusalem today clash with Israel’s genuine interests, and a blind devotion to exclusive Israeli rule over a mythical “undivided” city poses grave existential challenges to the long term viability of Israel and its character. A DIVIDED JERUSALEM IS ALREADY A REALITY Jerusalem today is a de facto binational city. In 1967, the Palestinians represented 24.5% of the city’s population; today they constitute 38%, and within decades there will be a Palestinian majority in the city. Considering that the ultraOrthodox population of Jerusalem is largely non-Zionist, the reality today is that fewer than 40% of the residents of Israel’s capital celebrate its Independence Day. Israel has never viewed the Palestinians of East Jerusalem as Israelis, nor have they viewed themselves as such. Never seriously offered citizenship by Israel, and nor wanting that status, almost 300,000 Palestinian residents of the city do not have the right to vote in national elections. They are a permanently disenfranchised population, with neither Israelis nor Palestinians aspiring to share a political community. A quasi democratic, binational capital in Jerusalem is an anomaly that cannot be sustained over time. Jerusalem today also is a de facto divided city. As defined by Israel in 1967, modern Jerusalem is a city whose limits go well beyond the map of Israeli and Jewish equities. It incorporated into Jerusalem 27 Palestinian towns and villages that have nothing to do with Israeli Jerusalem, nor with the historic Jewish attachment. Few Israelis have ever heard of these Palestinian neighborhoods, much less visited them. The reality is that on the ground, the borders between Israeli and Palestinians in Jerusalem already exist. Few Israelis ever venture into East Jerusalem, and Palestinians rarely visit the West. The two peoples lead separate lives, shopping in different areas, going to separate schools and even having different curricula (even in Israeli public schools, the Palestinians study the West Bank curriculum). 3
Israeli rule in East Jerusalem today is largely a fiction. Forty-four years after “unifying” the city, Israel today still does not deliver mail, provide most normal services, or even build sufficient classrooms in much of East Jerusalem. This reality is rooted in the fact that Israel does not really want to rule over the people of East Jerusalem or be responsible for their needs, and the Palestinians of East Jerusalem do not accept the legitimacy of Israeli governance. As a result, today Israel’s flimsy rule in East Jerusalem is collapsing under the weight of its own fictions: by pursuing the fictitious vision of an undivided Jerusalem, Israel has created an impoverished, disgruntled, strife-ridden city. Israel pays another price for the unsettled status of Jerusalem: while Israelis view Jerusalem as their nation’s capital, it is not recognised as such by any other country. There are no embassies in Jerusalem, and no state, not even Israel’s staunchest allies, recognises the legitimacy of Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem. Doggedly clinging to the mantra of an “undivided Jerusalem” has not altered this reality and, if anything, has only driven Israel into an everincreasing isolation. Israeli Policies in Jerusalem: Existential Threats to Israel’s Vital Interests These are the hard realities of Jerusalem. And alongside these realities, the current trajectory of Jerusalem’s development poses grave existential challenges to Israel and its equities in this most precious of cities. Today, Israeli rule over Palestinian East Jerusalem is creating four existential challenges to Israel; these are threats that go well beyond the periodic, customary crises and, over time, cut to the core of the very viability of the state of Israel. Firstly, Jerusalem is fast becoming the arena where the only plausible resolution of the conflict between Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab world - the two-state solution - is being lost. Israel’s policies in East Jerusalem threaten to destroy any possibility of a two-state solution. Palestinians will never accept a two-state solution that does not include a capital in East Jerusalem. This is reality. To believe anything else is delusion. Alongside this reality is the fact that Israeli settlement activities in East Jerusalem are creating such a balkanised geography and demography in the city that the day will come soon when the two-state/two-capital solution will no longer be possible. The destruction of the two2
state solution is an existential threat to the Israel – to its security and to its viability as a Jewish state and a democracy. Israeli policies in East Jerusalem today are recklessly re-opening 1948-era grievances. They are doing so by allowing extremist settlers to take over property in the heart of East Jerusalem’s neighbourhoods by arguing that these properties belonged to Jews before 1948. By implanting extreme settlers in existing Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem Israel is laying the seeds for permanent conflict in the heart of city. By supporting a Jewish “right of return” to East Jerusalem, Israel is fanning the flames of Palestinian demands for their own right of return to Israel and undermining Palestinian support for a two-state solution. Secondly, Jerusalem is morphing into a site where the tectonic plates of exclusionary religious movements -- Jewish, Christian and Muslim – are crashing together, with the potential of embroiling Israel in endless holy war. Israeli policies in East Jerusalem today threaten to transform the nature of the conflict. Under current trends, the pursuit of an exclusively-Israeli Jerusalem contributes to the metamorphosis of a bitter, but solvable national conflict into a hemorrhaging, unsolvable religious war. Israel’s pursuit of an exclusionary Israeli- Jewish Jerusalem – via displacement of Palestinians, demolitions, politicised archeology – is putting it on a collision course with even moderate forces in the Arab and Christian worlds, which sense that Jerusalem’s Muslim and Christian equities are being marginalised, and emboldening the forces of radical Islam and Christianity, who, for their own reasons, aspire to holy war. Thirdly, the anomalies of Israeli rule over a functionallydisenfranchised Palestinian national collective are contributing to the transformation of Israel from a flawed-but-feisty democracy into a society whose democratic institutions and values are under perilous assault. This assault can be seen in Silwan, where Palestinian minors are being subjected to arrest under conditions that contravene Israeli law, and where Palestinian civil society leaders are finding themselves subjected to harassment, arrest, detention, house arrest, and even deportation from the city. The broader contours of this assault relate not only to Israeli policy in East Jerusalem but also to the policies required to maintain the occupation overall: the ongoing attacks from the Israeli Knesset on civil society organisations and its efforts to pass laws to 3
quash peaceful protest. And lastly, with its inflammatory policies in East Jerusalem, Israel is alienating even her staunchest allies and inexorably sliding into unprecedented isolation. Rather than enlisting the support of friendly governments and constituencies to assist Israel charter the complex waters of a changing Middle East, support of Israel is being left in the hands of those who sacrifice judgment and empirical evidence regarding Israel on the altars of sundry apocalyptic, end-of-days ideologies. These include American representatives of the Tea Party and their ilk – from Mike Huckabee to Joe Lieberman to Glenn Beck – alongside right-wing evangelical Christian leaders like Rev. John Hagee. They also include European Islamophobics like Geert Wilders. These are the painful, undeniable realities of modern-day Jerusalem. The Way Forward: Securing Israel’s Genuine Equities in Jerusalem These realities also illuminate the way forward, starting with the fact that freeing Israel of its dysfunctional rule over the Palestinians in East Jerusalem will enable Israeli Jerusalem to become a robust capital city. In many ways, the end of Israeli rule over Palestinian East Jerusalem will also be the liberation of Israeli Jerusalem. A truly free and robust Yerushalayim requires a national capital whose residents freely share and believe in the Israeli national ethos and values, without imposing these alien narratives on a rival Palestinian national collective who can never share those beliefs. In such a capital, governance requires the consent of the governed, and each individual and each community is genuinely empowered. In such a society, the birth of every child is a celebration, rather than the birth of a Palestinian child being inevitably viewed as a “demographic problem”. Such a city would not be burdened by inter-communal, internecine skirmishing, and its shared political community would allocate resources equitably. Urban development would maintain a balance between the demands of preserving the character of one of the world’s most charismatic cities, and the demands of every-day life - without mutilating the urban fabric with the calculus of a brutal national struggle passing itself off as city planning. None of these demands are even remotely possible so long as Israel rules over the Palestinian collective in East Jerusalem; however, all become possible when that rule ends. The arduous healing process in Jerusalem – both Jerusalem 2
East AND Jerusalem West - will begin the day after Israelis and Palestinians reach a permanent status agreement that will politically divide the city. Likewise, a political agreement in Jerusalem can ensure full international recognition of Israeli Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, alongside recognition of Palestinian Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. It can also guarantee the equities of all, and guarantee that no community – Israeli or Palestinian, Jewish, Christian or Muslim – need struggle to maintain its identity or the integrity of their neighbourhoods. In doing so, it can bolster recognition of the deep Jewish connection to the city and the legitimacy of Israel’s presence in the city and in the region. More broadly, a two-state solution in Jerusalem can be the fulcrum for an end-of-claims agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel can no longer avoid choosing between two alternate visions of its national interest: the self-destructive vision of an undivided Israeli city that will yield only conflict, instability, and bloodshed; or, alternatively the rational vision of a politicallydivided city where the universal acceptance of an Israeli capital is signified by the presence of Arab League embassies. Negotiators and politicians are often told: don’t touch Jerusalem, it’s radioactive. It’s too complicated. It can’t be solved. This is nonsense. The contours of a political agreement on Jerusalem are crystal clear and have been embraced by all leaders who have engaged in earnest in permanent status negotiations – including two Israeli Prime Ministers and the overwhelming majority of Israel’s security elites. They know what most Israelis and Palestinians know: Jerusalem must be politically divided. Jewish Jerusalem will become the capital of Israel; Palestinian Jerusalem will become the capital of Palestine. Israeli settlement neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem can be incorporated into Israel, within the framework of an agreed land swap, and Palestinian neighbourhoods will become part of the State of Palestine. A special regime or special arrangements will be necessary for the Old City and its environs, safeguarding the religious, historic and cultural integrity of the Old City and its holy sites, as well as universal access and freedom of worship therein. Only those in deep denial suggest that any other solution is possible or desirable.
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Jerusalem: End of Claims, or Endless Conflict? A drama of historic proportions is unfolding in Jerusalem today. If the Government of Israel continues on its current course – pursuing its claims and policies of sole Israeli control over the entire city – Jerusalem will soon become the arena where a two state solution is lost forever. If it follows this path, Israel will continue on a collision course with the Arab world, the world churches and much of the international community, and condemn the City of Jerusalem to become an impoverished, increasinglyviolent backwater. By pursuing the alternative course – a political division of the city in a way that guarantees genuine Israeli and Jewish national interests – Israel will achieve what it needs and deserves most: recognition of Yerushalayim as the capital of Israel, and universal recognition of the Jewish attachment to the city, which will be the crowning achievement of Zionism. Published: August 2011 NOREF Article - Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre
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EAST Jerusalem: Developments and Trends
January 1, 2006 - November 15, 2011
During the last year of Olmert’s government, after the Annapolis conference in November 2008, there was a surge in the pace and intensity of East Jerusalem settlement construction unprecedented since the massive construction under Golda Meir in the early 1970s. During Netanyahu’s first year in office, the same high levels of East Jerusalem settlement construction that characterized Olmert’s last year as Prime Minister continued unabated. After the Biden visit in March 2010, when the announcement of the large Ramat Shlomo settlement scheme angered Washington, all measurable indicators show that Netanyahu put in place a de facto freeze on East Jerusalem settlement construction, lasting until October 31, 2010. Even during this seven month de facto freeze on settlement construction in East Jerusalem, the Netanyahu government engaged in accelerated settler-related activities in and around the Old City of Jerusalem, and events in these areas, like Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, careened out of control. These activities continue, at a similar accelerated intensity, today. Since November 1, 2010, and even more intensely since July 2011, settlement expansion in East Jerusalem, has, according to almost all empirical indicators, significantly surpasses the previously high levels in all categories save one (the publication of tenders, which are at lower levels than those in 2008-2009), while settler related activities – like excavations, arrest of political activists, etc. – proceed apace. 2
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The Planning/ Construction Process in East Jerusalem
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Jerusalem’s Old City and its Environs
The Contours of a Permanent Status Agreement
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Territorial
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Special Arr
rangements
Special Regime
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Jerusalem’s Old City and its Environs
The Contours of a Permanent Status Agreement
The Physical Border Entailed in Expanding Special Arrangements Beyond the Old City Walls
OLD CITY
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Territorial: the physical boundary will no longer be on the perimeter of the Old City, but around the sites nearby.
Mammila Cemetery
OLD CITY
Mt. Zion
City of David
Mount of Olives Cemetery
The physical boundary will remain on the perimeter of the Old City
Mamilla Cemetery
OLD CITY City of David
Mount of Olives Cemetery
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Sheikh Jarrah
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City Hall City Center
The Old City and its Environs under the Special Arrangements Model
Mammila Cemetery
Christian Quarter
O
Armenian Quarter
WEST JERUSALEM Israel
Mt. Zion
Palestine Physical Border Political Border Area Subject to Special Arrangements
Abu Tur
h h Garden of the Tomb
Muslim Quarter
Kidron Valley
OLD CITY Jewish Quarter
Mount of Olives Cemetery
n Silwan
City of David
EAST JERUSALEM