Jerusalem

EU Recognition of a Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its Capital

INSS Insight No. 147, December 10, 2009

The declaration by EU heads of state on December 8, 2009 about the political process in the Middle East is no cause for anxiety. However, neither should it be dismissed lightly, and we would do well to examine its long term implications.

An Israeli View: Neither revolutionary nor trivial

The current episode in the never-ending saga of Jerusalem-related controversies relates to a leaked draft resolution implying that the Council of the European Union expects East Jerusalem to become the capital of a future Palestinian state. Banner headlines highlighted Israel's shock and dismay over this diplomatic "outrage". At this writing, PM Binyamin Netanyahu is pulling out all the diplomatic stops to convince the Europeans to retract the offending words; it is still not known if he will succeed.

A Palestinian View: Israeli pressure must be resisted

The council of European foreign ministers is currently debating a draft resolution drawn up by Sweden, holder of the rotating EU presidency, which is supposed to specify EU positions on different aspects of the Middle East conflict.

An Israeli View:The Swedish Initiative as Metaphor

The government of PM Binyamin Netanyahu has no convincing reason of substance to be upset about the Swedish request that the Council of the European Union endorse a Palestinian state with "East Jerusalem as its capital". Of course the wording of the resolution could and should be less hostile to Israel, e.g., by explicitly recognizing West Jerusalem as Israel's capital and doing more than merely "taking note" of Netanyahu's settlement freeze. But what can Netanyahu expect? Basically, the proposal reiterates known European and international positions.

The status of Jerusalem

A report published last week by the The Israeli Macro Center for Political Economics and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation found that within 20 years, Palestinians will make up a majority of the population of Jerusalem. 

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.

Voices from Jerusalem: Dangerous Developments in East Jerusalem

By Yudith Oppenheimer, Executive Director, Ir Amim

In the early morning on August 2, 2009, as residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem slept soundly, a group of Israeli settlers accompanied by a large police force broke into two homes, forcefully removing the residents and their belongings. Within hours, the settlers had moved in and began treating the homes as their own. Pictures of the eviction were seen all over the world, prompting Israel's friends everywhere to wonder how such scenes could be squared with the Israeli government's repeated declarations of commitment to the peace process. A similar fate awaits other Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood who recently lost the right to their homes after long and exhausting legal battles with well-heeled settlers' groups, who make no secret of their goal -- to demolish these homes and build a Jewish settlement of around 200 residential units in their place.

U.S. Warns Netanyahu Against New Construction in Jerusalem

The already rocky relationship between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu was further strained this past week by a recent warning from the U.S. to Israel.

Aluf Benn in Haaretz:

An Israeli View: A Critical absence of urgency

On the thirteenth anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, at a memorial ceremony on Mt. Herzl in early November 2008, then-PM Ehud Olmert delivered one of his last speeches in office. He sought to leave the mark of his vision regarding the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the solution required by the state of Israel.