If I forget thee, O Jerusalem

Jerusalem does not have good public relations. In the last few months, since President Obama raised his demand to freeze the settlements, attention has been directed towards the West Bank - to the construction in the illegal outposts, the expansion of settlements and the dismantling of roadblocks. Jerusalem almost never appears on the radar screen, neither in Israel nor anywhere else in the world.

Occasionally, events like the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah appears momentarily in the news but the city's general situation hardly ever enters the public debate. Israel certainly is not looking for such a discussion and neither is the Obama administration, which prefers to concentrate on the "easy" topic of settlements.

Turning a blind eye to what is happening in Jerusalem is no new phenomenon and is understandable. Of all the issues on the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation table, the question of Jerusalem is possibly the most complicated. On the one hand, it is clear to all that the Palestinians (as well as the whole Arab and Muslim world) will only agree to a peace treaty that will include a comprehensive and just (from their point of view) solution to the issue of Jerusalem and the holy sites. On the other hand, the reality on the ground - starting with the expansion of Jewish neighbourhoods in areas of East Jerusalem that were annexed to Israel after the 1967 war and ending with the entrenchment of Jewish settlements within the Palestinian neighbourhoods - render every proposal to divide Jerusalem between Israel and Palestine difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

It seems that settlers, the right wing parties and large sections of the Israeli establishment have a good understanding of Jerusalem's complex situation. That's why they are trying to make it even more complicated by "mixing" the city up even further in order to prevent a solution along the lines of the "Clinton parameters" which talked about dividing Jerusalem according to the simple equation of Jewish neighbourhoods for Israel and Palestinian neighbourhoods for Palestine.

Only in this light are the recent events we have been witnessing in the last few months understandable; beginning with the decision to build a new Jewish neighbourhood at the site of the "Shepherd Hotel" in Sheikh Jarrah and the introduction of Jewish families into houses whose Palestinian residents were evicted in that same neighbourhood, and ending with a proposal, recently tendered to the Jerusalem municipality, to construct 110 housing units in the neighbourhood of Ras al Amud in East Jerusalem.

The geographical location of these new settlements is not coincidental. Sheikh Jarrah is located to the north of the Old City and the Temple Mount/Haram el Sharif, and Ras al Amud is adjacent to the Old City from the East. The Jewish settlements in these neighbourhoods will create a Jewish ring around the Old City and will sever it from other Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem. Without territorial contiguity and free access to the Haram el Sharif the Palestinians will not be able to establish their capital in East Jerusalem.

In one neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, this process is already becoming a reality. Sixty Jewish families are living in Silwan, which lies to the south of the Old City, very close to the Al Aqsa mosque. The settlers' not for profit organization, Elad, which is active in that neighbourhood, received permission from the state to manage the national park and archaeological sites in the area. With this governmental support, the settlers, who constitute a small minority in Wadi Hilweh (the centre of Silwan as it is called by the Palestinians) or "Ir David" ("City of David" as it is referred to in Hebrew), have de facto control over a large part of its public space. The head of Elad, David Be'eri, doesn't conceal his intention to take over the whole neighbourhood and "judaify" it, as he puts it.

Two weeks ago I visited "Ir David"/Wadi Hilweh. After a few minutes of standing in the main street with a camera, a group of Jewish girls, residents of the settlement in the neighbourhood, walked up the street. Even before I asked anything, one of them explained to me that "Jerusalem is our city - the Jews. It's just too bad that there are Arabs here. The Messiah will come only when no Arab is left". Similar things were said to me by an ultra orthodox family walking by.

The Jewish settlement in Ir David/Wadi Hilweh is part of the creation of the Jewish ring around the Old City. But beyond the fact that this and other Jewish settlements in Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem are intended to pre-empt a political solution in Jerusalem, there's another, possibly bigger danger. The sense of hate that I witnessed in Silwan could lead to an explosion, to a terrible outbreak of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

The increasing presence of settlers in neighbourhoods such as Silwan is turning East Jerusalem into a Hebron: a reality of daily friction between Israelis and Palestinians. In Hebron this friction led to a series of mutual acts of violence, beginning with the massacre in the Cave of the Patriarchs by a Jew, on the one hand, and Palestinian attacks against settlers on the other. In Hebron, Arabs and Jews do not share a common life together. The same is true for those Palestinian neighbourhoods in Jerusalem which contain a Jewish settlement.

There is no doubt that the question of Jerusalem is a very complex and sensitive one. But this is precisely the reason why it shouldn't be ignored. If the Obama administration wants to bring about the desired resolution between Israelis and Palestinians, it must not delay the issue of Jerusalem until the end of the process. If Obama succeeds in dismantling the ticking time-bomb that is Jerusalem, he has a good chance of solving the rest of the conflict. Jerusalem might not only be the problem, it might be the solution as well.

This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service, 10 September 2009, www.commongroundnews.org.