There is no Israeli plan for the city’s future to counter the PA’s orchestrated plan to take over Jerusalem area.
Another in the Sovereignty Movement’s series of tours was held (May 22) in Jerusalem with the participation of dozens of public-opinion shapers from throughout the Land, led by Middle East expert Baruch Yedid.
During the tour, alarming data was presented on the loss of control and Israeli sovereignty in Israel’s capital over the past decades in contrast, the orderly Arab plan to take over Jerusalem is planned and implemented, and this is in addition to the active involvement of international Arab elements in the context of the power struggle over Jerusalem.
Along with the data, revealing the problem of governance in Jerusalem, various solutions that are now in the process of development, arose during the tour, but there has not yet been the political resolve to recognize the problematic situation and internalize the need to need for an appropriate Zionist response for Israeli’s capital. Later in the tour, there was a meeting with a representative of the Palestinian opposition from the ranks of Fatah, who presented the position of his organization and the Arab position in general, in a conversation that became a heated debate.
Yedid began by describing the three main parameters of the loss of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem: demographics, land and political subversion. Throughout the entire tour, he detailed each and every one of these parameters. He presented data showing that in the past forty years, Israel has lost approximately 25 percent of the Jewish majority in the capital. While after the Six Day War there were about 70 thousand Arabs, today there are about 380 thousand, yielding a balance of 60 percent Jews to 40 percent Arabs.
He also noted that Israel does not have official data on illegal Arab building in the city, and according to estimates, there are close to 25 thousand illegal Arab houses in the city. Even the definition of illegal Arab construction is not clearly and delineated and actually, enforcement is carried out only on illegal building within public spaces. “In the past twenty years, 100-1500 illegal buildings have been built every year by the Arabs. Israel destroys only 83 buildings on average. In the area of real estate, Israel is not involved and certainly is not fighting”.
Zero Israeli plans compared to a well-structured Arab plan
At the observation point on Mount Scopus, Baruch Yedid presented the organized and orderly Palestinian plan to build within the area of Jerusalem, stretching from Hebron, with the Old City as its heart. This plan receives European funding and UN approval. While Israel itself has approximately forty bodies dealing with Jerusalem, none of them deal with long-term planning for the capital.
Yedid spoke of the initiative called “City of the Moon”, which PA Chairman Abu Mazen is planning, with the largest tourism initiatives in the Middle East. This grandiose initiative is intended gradually to stop the spread and expansion of Israeli building to the east. In a decision by the PA government, this area is defined as highest priority. Khan al-Ahmar, the PA defines as “the gates of Jerusalem” with a clear intention to express Arab sovereignty over Jerusalem. He also mentioned the “Lana” (Our) neighborhood, which is already being built and according to the Palestinian plan, there will be another 7 such neighborhoods in the Jerusalem area.
The tour continued to the Orient House, which is now closed, where Yedid described the mechanisms of control that the PA has expressed from that building, over 1200 various organizations that engage in various fields, but mainly with the field of real estate. He also told the participants of the tour about the chain of historical events in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where its residents were instructed by the Orient House not to pay rent to Israel, using this as a way to avoid expressing recognition of Israeli rule. This, in spite of Jordanian and Turkish documents proving Jewish ownership of the houses.
Yasser Arafat approved this policy, which was continued by Faisal Husseini when he demanded that the families not agree to any legal settlement with Israel. A lawyer who supported a settlement was fired for this and since then, the matter has been relegated to the court in a long and exhausting saga.
In another observation point overlooking the Temple Mount and the entire city, Yedid described the chain of events in recent years in which the power of the WAKF has decreased; Jordanian representatives and representatives of Abu Mazen gained ground against the Israeli government, for instance in the matter of the magnetometers, empowering Hamas in the eastern part of the city, pushing out the PA in favor of greatly increased radicalism.
An obvious example of this, Yedid finds in an event which did not receive much media coverage, when on the Friday after Operation Guardian of the Walls, the mufti appointed by Abu Mazen was removed by the Arab crowd because of his speech in al-Aqsa, only because Abu Mazen instructed him not to talk about what was happening in Gaza, which was a result of a conflict between Abu Mazen and the Hamas leadership in Gaza.
According to Baruch Yedid, the Israeli government and Israeli authorities relate to the conflict with Islamist elements in Jerusalem as a civil demonstration; in this spirit, they allow them to bring dozens of buses packed with believers, who, right after a police officer clears a place for them to park, go up to the Temple Mount and create a conflagration in the city. “We must stop thinking about Jerusalem as a place for demonstrations”, says Yedid, noting that even in the funeral of Shirin Abu Akal, the coffin was held by senior terrorists and heads of hostile organizations in the PA.
The demographic crisis. The problem, the solutions and “Greater Jerusalem”
The tour continued into the Old City, where, at the Ariel Sharon House, they met with Haim Silberstein from the Keep Jerusalem organization, who laid out before the participants, both the alarming demographic data as well as proposals for a solution.
Silberstein spoke of the NGO that he heads and what it deals with – redeeming land, hasbara, education and public diplomacy along with practical political activity. In this framework, the NGO arranges tours for decision makers in the fields of policy and politics. They present them with the harsh reality as well as proposals for a solution, highlighting the Greater Jerusalem initiative, which calls for expanding the municipal border of Jerusalem in almost all directions.
According to him, the housing and employment crisis intensifies the demographic threat to the city and if a practical solution is not initiatied, within 15 years an Arab with broad support by the Arab residents of Israel’s capital, could, G-d forbid, be elected as mayor of the city.
“In the 25 past years, 450 thousand Jews have left Jerusalem and 260 thousand have entered”, says Silberstein. “Each year, between 7000 and 10,000 Jews leave the city. It is not because of childbirth. Arab childbirth is decreasing throughout the Middle East and Jewish childbirth is rising. The reason for this is mainly lack of housing and employment in Jerusalem”. To this, he adds illegal Arab building, which is carried out methodically by the PA, which has a long-range strategic view. To deal with this illegal Arab building, there are only 7 overseers, while in the western part of the city, there are 49 overseers, despite the fact that most of the illegal building is done in the eastern neighborhoods. “There are more than 2000 demolition orders on illegal buildings, but even these are not carried out”, he notes.
In his opinion, the inclusion of RAAM in the present coalition will arouse among the Arabs of the city, renewed thoughts on the question of integration into the Israeli political scene, besides the “kosher” status that Mansour Abbas provides to Arab participation in the country’s leadership.
Silberstein views changing the demographic trend to a situation where there is a Jewish majority of 85 percent as a primary goal. “The simple solution is massive Jewish building”, says Silberstein, speaking of a special report that mapped Jerusalem, dividing it into about 400 neighborhoods and examining the capability for building in each one of them. The result was the possibility to build 110 thousand housing units. The report was presented to the Ministry of Housing under the assumption that 70 percent of this amount could be immediately carried out. After serving the report, the Ministry of Housing issued a plan to build 25 thousand housing units, “a good start”, as he defined it.
He also mentioned the “Gates of the City” plan to erect 12 skyscrapers, but because the cost of housing in them was expected to be high, this will not be a practical answer to the crisis. The Greater Jerusalem initiative does provide an answer that will add about a quarter of a million Jews to Jerusalem and free up hundreds of thousands of dunams for construction and industry on the open land that will be added to the city.
Silberstein noted that Yisrael Katz, the former minister, also favored a plan to expand Jerusalem and in his plan, he excluded Arab villages in Gush Etzion from the municipal borders of Jerusalem. Approval for this plan lacked only seven votes.
Besides the Greater Jerusalem initiative, Silberstein tells of another plan, which was devised by Nadav Shragai, which is mainly to exclude from the area of Jerusalem, the village of Aqab on the northern side of the city and the Shuafat refugee camp, which comprise, between these two places, 140 thousand Arabs, and establish independent Israeli municipal authorities for them. Silberstein notes that this plan is controversial because of the principled objection to what is called the de facto division of Jerusalem.
Journalist Shalom Yerushalmi, who was one of the participants of the tour, argued that this plan is vital as part of his world view that advocates the establishment of a Palestinian state. In his opinion, these Arab neighborhoods should be handed over to the Palestinian Authority. He claimed that Benjamin Netanyahu favored this as part of the "Deal of the century". In his view, this is how Netanyahu could have saved Jerusalem from losing its Jewish character.
Silberstein did not agree with Yerushalmi and told him that this would be a disaster. He referred to the report written by Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen, that among several considerations is the national security consideration and the concern about creating Palestinian contiguity from Ramallah through Jerusalem to Beit Lehem. “This would become a new Gaza Strip in Aqab and Shuafat inside Jerusalem”, Silberstein cautioned and explained that unlike Yerushalmi who wants to hand over Aqab and Shuafat to the PA, Silberstein talks about keeping them under Israeli rule, just not as part of Jerusalem but rather as new independent Israeli municipalities. According to Silberstein, the step of making a comprehensive change in the municipal borders might and could also include changing the three neighborhoods into independent authorities without it being interpreted as dividing the city as long as parallel to that step, Jerusalem would annex large Jewish areas like Maaleh Adumim, Gush Etsion, Betar and more.
At another spot during the tour, near the WAKF offices, Baruch Yedid described parts of the power struggles between the Jordanian WAKF, the Saudis and the Turks. In the context of this struggle, a fifth mosque was established on the Temple Mount despite Israeli objections. Following these conflicts, Ministers Gantz, Lapid and Bar Lev tried to arrive at an agreement with King Abdullah before the month of Ramadan, prompting Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to issue instructions not to allow Jews to enter the complex of the Mount during the last ten days of the month.
The Confrontation
At the Moroccan Courtyard in the Old City, the participants of the tour encountered actual proof of the loss of Jewish governance in the city. It was when they stopped for a briefing by Baruch Yedid in the inner public courtyard of the building that Morocco is renovating, since it heads the Islamic states’ Jerusalem committee .
As Yedid began to speak, a group of Arabs, men, women and even a young girl, burst in and began yelling, shouting, threatening and demanding that Yedid and the entire group leave the place immediately. Yedid’s attempts to calm the outburst met with increased yelling and threats and more Arab youths came to the place, also demanding that the group of Jews leave the place immediately.
The event almost deteriorated into a brawl. One of the Arab women was forced to apologize for attacking one of the participants of the tour and trying to push away the telephone that she was holding. Security people who arrived at the scene put a stop to the incident and the group left the place to continue the briefing at another spot in the alleys, where Yedid spoke in detail about Morocco’s involvement in renovating the WAKF mosques and other activities. He further elaborated by speaking about the Turkish involvement in what is happening in the Old City. Among other things, in “tourism jihad”, which brings more than two thousand buses of Arabs from all parts of the Land to the city, funded by Turkey in order to demonstrate presence and ownership in Jerusalem. Turkey also funds the renovation of buildings and supports the businesses that welcome “jihad tourists” in the city. Also, the Turkish government has also transferred computers to hundreds of students in the eastern part of the city and the Turkish educational plan is gaining, even to the point of gradually taking over the Palestinian system. Turkey gives 500 dollars to every family for Ramadan meals as well as for the end of the Morbitat fast, for the women who are “defending” al-Aqsa.
The turbulent encounter with a person from the PA
The tour ended with a tense meeting with Samar Sinjilawi, a key operative in Fatah, a member of the opposition to Abu Mazen, who calls for a political solution that includes chosing between establishing a Palestinian state or turning Israel into a bi-national state.
Sinjilawi spoke about his past as a child of the first intifada, about his imprisonment of four years for throwing rocks at buses and about being elected as international secretary of Fatah Youth at the beginning of the Oslo period. In ’96, he met with Likud Youth, as part of the American consul’s initiative at Metsudat Ze’ev in Tel Aviv.
According to him, the mutual hatred and ignorance are the enemy of both sides. In his opinion, ironically, there is a greater chance for peace with the Israeli Right who represent the majority of the Israeli public, but as mentioned, in his opinion the solution can only be achieved politically, not with security measures or militarily. “If the Israeli leadership speaks of such a solution, they are lying. We must find a political solution”, he stated.
"I was born here and yet I cannot be part of the government that determines everything for me. I am not a citizen of any state. If you don’t want to give me a state, give me citizenship”, he said, adding that he “recognizes the historical Jewish right to be in the Land, but “you were not alone here”. There were others here, and now, we are here. Give us a solution. This is my home and I love this Land”.
A storm was aroused by distorted data that Sinjilawi presented along with an attempt to compare the two sides. “We must accept the Jewish right to the Land as a fact but Jews must also recognize the rights of Palestinians. We do not want another holocaust and I understand your need to be strong, but you also must recognize that there was a “Nakba”. If the Jews who left two thousand years ago could return, we also, who left seventy years ago, have the right to return”. The argument became especially stormy when Sinjilawi was asked to define the Arab murderer of innocents as a terrorist and he refused.
Again and again, he ignored this definition, by equating the two sides and claiming that he opposes violence from both sides. The definition of “terrorist” as a murderer of the innocent never came out of his mouth. This was extremely upsetting to many of the participants in the meeting.
When he was asked about his vision for the future of Jerusalem, he claimed that there are holy places for all religions in the city and therefore, the solution must be without a demand for exclusive sovereignty by one of the parties. In his opinion, the holy place for Jews is the Western Wall. The claim that the Temple Mount is holy to Jews was totally rejected by him.
As part of his remarks, he expressed the hope of Abu Mazen being replaced soon. In his opinion, the Chairman of the PA does not represent the Palestinian street and the youths of the PA have lost faith in the vision of two states and they would prefer one state that would grant them full civil rights. He claims that Israel and the Israeli security forces are keeping Abu Mazen in power and that they are making a bitter mistake by doing this.
Summary
The co-chairwomen of the Sovereignty Movement, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, summarize the tour by noting its importance since as well as presenting the current problems, it also presents the beginnings of solutions for the State of Israel to adopt and implement. “Jerusalem is the heart of the People of Israel and it is also the focus of the struggle for the Land of Israel. The continuing harm and erosion of Israeli sovereignty in its capital is the main factor in the increasing damage to Israeli sovereignty over the entire Land. The government of Israel must look at the current reality, recognize the data and stop ignoring it and at the same time, lead a Zionist response that will strengthen the Jewish character of the city and its significance to the People of Israel and to the entire world as the eternal capital of the Jewish People”.
The two women also emphasize that there is a national consensus over Jerusalem that is also reflected in the guidelines of the current Israeli government, which views turning Jerusalem into a metropolis as a goal. It is in this spirit, they say, that the Israeli government must demonstrate its sovereignty in Jerusalem, to control the contents of the educational system in the eastern part of the city and invest in development of both parts of the city equally. “Sovereignty also means taking responsibility”.
Katsover and Matar note that soon (on Thursday, June 9th) The Sovereignty Movement will hold its fourth conference for Sovereignty youth. The conference, which will be attended by youths from all parts of the Land, will take place in Bet Orot on Mount Scopus and will call for the establishment of Greater Jerusalem. “The younger generation fully understands Jerusalem’s significance to the Jewish People and in this spirit, it calls on the Israeli leadership to take responsibility for the future of the city and the future of the People”.
(potos: Meir elipur)