On May 21, Jerusalemites, barely recovered from a city shut down by a papal visit, will brace themselves for yet another round of massive gridlock. Throngs of religious-nationalist youth will take over the center of town. Yeshiva students will march en masse into the Old City, in celebration of the “reunification” of Jerusalem in 1967.
Apart from some tourists, few others will be celebrating. The city’s ultra-Orthodox population will look on in apathy and disdain. Non-religious Jerusalemites will have planned their escape routes in advance. The 35% of the city’s population that is Palestinian will stay in the background, simultaneously defiant and resigned to the sight of yet another Jerusalem event that celebrates yet another one of their tragedies. Some will also cower in anticipation of the traditional trashing of their shops that has often accompanied such events.
In short, Jerusalem Day is not embraced by all of Jerusalem — let alone by Israeli society at large. It does, however, provide an annual opportunity for ideologues of the right to shake their heads and lament the loss of solidarity and the devaluation of all that was once sacred, while some on the left point to it as proof that Israelis now realize that the dividends of the Six Day War included the curse of a protracted occupation over another people.
There is an element of truth in both of these views, but what this collage illuminates more than anything is a dirty little secret (no longer) truth: The mantra of “Jerusalem-the-undivided-capital-of-Israel-that-will-never-be-re-divided” (one word, and a noun) is dead. Until 2000, this mantra reigned supreme, an unassailable article of faith. But when Ehud Barak, as prime minister, placed the political division of the city on the bargaining table, with relatively little protest from the Israeli public, it became clear that the mantra had been overtaken by reality.
Today, there is a growing awareness that Jerusalem is already deeply divided, with what might be called “glass walls” all over the city, invisible yet often impermeable social and psychological boundaries. Israelis rarely venture into East Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods, and Palestinians venture into West Jerusalem only for compelling, utilitarian reasons (mainly to the workplace and back). Israelis have never seen East Jerusalem Palestinians as Israeli Arabs, nor have the city’s Palestinians — most of whom are not entitled to vote in national elections and unwilling to vote in municipal elections — viewed themselves as Israeli. Meanwhile, only between 5% and 12% of the municipal budget goes to the Palestinian sector, which represents 35% of the city’s population. Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem are separated by differing perceptions, entitlements, schools, patterns of movement and living spaces.
Most Israelis remain skeptical of the notion that there is any possibility of a final-status agreement with the Palestinians at present. But they also know that when this agreement is reached, it will entail a politically divided Jerusalem. The Israeli soul is torn between the “politically impossible” and the “historically inevitable” — generating fluctuating, often contradictory polls on the future status of the city. But it is telling that when, in talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed the division of Jerusalem along lines similar to those of Barak’s proposals in 2000, it was a non-event.
Virtually all of this remarkable transformation has bypassed the American Jewish community, which remains devoted to a “united” Jerusalem. It is a position that is easy to caricature, leading to occasional snickering from some Israelis who, when it comes to attitudes toward Jerusalem, see American Jewry as the equivalent of a clueless tourist sporting a Hawaiian shirt. Nothing, however, could be less warranted than this sort of disdain. American Jews’ love of Jerusalem derives from the same wellsprings as their love for Israel.
But times have changed, and there is more change to come. If President Obama and his administration are serious about achieving a Middle East peace breakthrough, then we are on the brink of a serious push to grapple with the outstanding final-status issues, most prominently that of Jerusalem. If and when the Obama administration creates the political platform needed to address the Jerusalem issue, it will not derive from hostility toward Israel but rather from a coherent view of Israel’s genuine national interest, one that differs significantly from the ideologically driven views of the Bush administration and the political/religious right in Israel.
Unfortunately, American Jews are singularly unprepared to engage in sober, rational discourse on the city’s political future. But it is now imperative that the Jewish community replace sloganeering about Jerusalem with a more nuanced approach, rooted in a familiarity with the complexities of the city and the genuine Israeli and Jewish interests embedded in it. In reacting to the prospect of an engaged White House and progress toward a final-status agreement, American Jews should not abandon their love and devotion to Jerusalem, but they must undergo a process that many Israelis have already undergone: transforming devotion to Jerusalem from a teenage infatuation into a mature, adult love.
And if, against all odds, diplomatic efforts succeed, the pain of politically dividing Jerusalem should be allayed by the appearance of the first Arab embassy in Israeli Jerusalem, signifying the crowning achievement of Zionism: Israel’s universal acceptance into the family of nations, with Yerushalayim recognized as its legitimate capital. In contrast to the charade that Israel will witness later this month, that will be a Jerusalem Day that can be welcomed and celebrated by all Israelis — even at the expense of massive gridlock.
Daniel Seidemann is the founder of and a legal adviser to the Jerusalem nongovernmental organization Ir Amim, or “City of Nations.”
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Thank you Daniel Seidemann for this important piece. Every year on Jerusalem day, I remember that there is no "unified" Jerusalem but an Occupied Jerusalem where the rights of the Palestinians are buried under the rubble of their destroyed homes. As a Jew who has lived here for close to 15 years, raising 2 children it is more than difficult to continuously debrief your children who are programmed in their schools with the fallacy of a "united" Jerusalem or a "liberated" Jerusalem.
It is time for Jews in Israel and the US to face facts: Today is Occupation Day, which has been celebrated with impunity for over 4 decades. Enjoying the blessings of the US Jewish Community and a perpetual presidential pardon, this cruel occupation must end and we must stop celebrating it every year.
This "opinion", brought to you by the Forward, is by the founder of a fringe far-left NGO ("Ir Amim") devoted to the partition of Jerusalem, which depicts Jews living in east Jerusalem as "settlers'. A report of its funding and anti-Israel affiliations is described below. The author of this screed argues for the "nuanced" destruction of Jerusalem as the eternal undivided heart and soul and capital of the Jewish State of Israel, which he derides as a "charade". He ignores that the arabs have no legitimate claim to any part of Jerusalem, and should not be bartered for political expediency. To rationalize Barak Hussein Obama's attempt to force the Jewish people to abandon any part of Jerusalem, by denigrating our 3,000 year prayer for and commitment to Jerusalem as "childish", is truly obscene. It is an obscenity with which only the most cynical far-left ideologue could shamelessly demean the Jewish people's commitment to Jerusalem. The love and commitment for Jerusalem by every generation of Jews over the millennia, kept alive in prayer and sanctified by the sacrifice of Jewish lives, is by any measure "mature". This obscenity is aimed at American Jews to pave the way for just one part of the most concerted attack ever launched against the Jewish State of Israel by an American administration. American Jews should be rightfully appalled, by "progressive" Jews who place their parochial political ideologies and solidarity with the "palestinians" over the safety and welfare of their people, and who would seek to convince us not to believe or respond to the outrageous threats now being made the Obama administration against Israel. This dovetails well with the Forward's editorial, attempting to convince American Jews to ignore the obvious: Obama does not "get it" when it comes to Iran. It appears that he has chosen to accept the impending reality of a nuclear armed Iran, and is now running out the clock, while publicly threatening Israel to do nothing to prevent it. How will American Jews respond? As to "Ir Amim", according to NGO Monitor, its "Major funders include The Ford Foundation, the EU Commission (Partners for Peace - 2005), The New Israel Fund, British Embassy", and it partners with, "Americans for Peace Now and The Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs.
This "opinion", brought to you by the Forward, is by the founder of a fringe far-left NGO ("Ir Amim") devoted to the partition of Jerusalem, which depicts Jews living in east Jerusalem as "settlers'. A report of its funding and anti-Israel affiliations is described below.
The author of this screed argues for the "nuanced" destruction of Jerusalem as the eternal undivided heart and soul and capital of the Jewish State of Israel, which he derides as a "charade". He ignores that the arabs have no legitimate claim to any part of Jerusalem, which should not be bartered for political expediency.
To rationalize Barak Hussein Obama's attempt to force the Jewish people to abandon any part of Jerusalem, by denigrating our 3,000 year prayer for and commitment to Jerusalem as "childish", is truly obscene. It is an obscenity with which only the most cynical far-left ideologue could shamelessly demean the Jewish people's commitment to Jerusalem.
The love and commitment for Jerusalem by every generation of Jews over the millennia, kept alive in prayer and sanctified by the sacrifice of Jewish lives, is by any measure "mature".
This obscenity is aimed at American Jews to pave the way for just one part of the most concerted attack ever launched against the Jewish State of Israel by an American administration. American Jews should be rightfully appalled, by "progressive" Jews who place their parochial political ideologies and solidarity with the "palestinians" over the safety and welfare of their people, and who would seek to convince us not to believe or respond to the outrageous threats now being made the Obama administration against Israel.
This dovetails well with the Forward's editorial, attempting to convince American Jews to ignore the obvious: Obama does not "get it" when it comes to Iran. It appears that he has chosen to accept the impending reality of a nuclear armed Iran, and is now running out the clock, while publicly threatening Israel to do nothing to prevent it.
How will American Jews respond?
As to "Ir Amim", according to NGO Monitor, its "Major funders include The Ford Foundation, the EU Commission (Partners for Peace - 2005), The New Israel Fund, British Embassy", and it partners with, "Americans for Peace Now and The Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs."
(The Forward's website resists publishing the source of this information, so for the source materials describing this NGO's anti-Israel agenda Google NGO Monitor.)
This "opinion", brought to you by the Forward, is by the founder of a fringe far-left NGO ("Ir Amim") devoted to the partition of Jerusalem, which depicts Jews living in east Jerusalem as "settlers'. A report of its funding and anti-Israel affiliations is described below.
The author of this screed argues for the "nuanced" destruction of Jerusalem as the eternal undivided heart and soul and capital of the Jewish State of Israel, which he derides as a "charade". He ignores that the arabs have no legitimate claim to any part of Jerusalem, which should not be bartered for political expediency.
To rationalize Barak Hussein Obama's attempt to force the Jewish people to abandon any part of Jerusalem, by denigrating our 3,000 year prayer for and commitment to Jerusalem as "childish", is truly obscene. It is an obscenity with which only the most cynical far-left ideologue could shamelessly demean the Jewish people's commitment to Jerusalem.
The love and commitment for Jerusalem by every generation of Jews over the millennia, kept alive in prayer and sanctified by the sacrifice of Jewish lives, is by any measure "mature".
This obscenity is aimed at American Jews to pave the way for just one part of the most concerted attack ever launched against the Jewish State of Israel by an American administration. American Jews should be rightfully appalled, by "progressive" Jews who place their parochial political ideologies and solidarity with the "palestinians" over the safety and welfare of their people, and who would seek to convince us not to believe or respond to the outrageous threats now being made the Obama administration against Israel.
This dovetails well with the Forward's editorial, attempting to convince American Jews to ignore the obvious: Obama does not "get it" when it comes to Iran. It appears that he has chosen to accept the impending reality of a nuclear armed Iran, and is now running out the clock, while publicly threatening Israel to do nothing to prevent it.
How will American Jews respond?
As to "Ir Amim", according to NGO Monitor, its "Major funders include The Ford Foundation, the EU Commission (Partners for Peace - 2005), The New Israel Fund, British Embassy", and it partners with, "Americans for Peace Now and The Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs."
(The Forward's website resists publishing the source of this information, so for the source materials describing this NGO's anti-Israel agenda Google NGO Monitor.)
When Qassams are launched from East Jerusalem onto all of Israel, and the hudna is broken, I hope the first targets are Daniel Seidemann and Louis' houses. I have no doubt they will not be hurt, because they will have evaculated to their true homeland, Paris 5th Arondissement, where they can party with Suha Arafat and Mohammed al Dura. Daneil Seidemann's mature love of Jerusalem is reminiscent of that of Stella Goldschlag, who used sex to trap German Jews for the Gestapo.
If this is Mr Seidemannns idea of love, I would not want to be his children. Better yet, he should refrain from having them.
The organization Ir Amin is misnamed. It should be named Ir Goyim, a organization dedicated to ethnically cleansing Jews from Jerusalem. Mr Seidemann aims to realize a modern version of Aelia Capitolina, when Hadrian barred Jews from Jerusalem. Daneil should change his first name to something more appropriate, like Hadrian or Titus.