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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 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 politically-divided 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.
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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.
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, increasingly- violent 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.
About the author
Daniel Seidemann
Daniel Seidemann is the founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem, an Israeli NGO that deals with crisis management and conflict resolution in the city. He is also a practicing attorney and specializes in legal and public issues in East Jerusalem. Since 1994 he has participated in many of the Track II talks on Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians. In 2000 and 2001, he served on a committee of experts commissioned by the prime minister, Ehud Barak, which studied the implementation of political agreements with the Palestinians.
Daniel Seidemann is a graduate of Cornell University and he immigrated to Israel in 1973. A retired reserve major in the Israeli Defense Forces, he received a degree in Law from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 2010, in recognition of his work in Jerusalem, he was awarded an honorary MBE.
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This article was first published in The Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre, http://www.peacebuilding.no and is republished here with their full permission.