Jerusalem

Voices from Jerusalem: What Is Behind Jerusalem's First Master Plan Since 1967?

A special report by Sami Ershied.

Jerusalem's first city plan since 1967 was slated to be deposited for public review but is currently being held up by MK Eli Yishai, purportedly because it allocates too much housing to the city's Palestinian population. The plan, "Jerusalem 2020," calls for investment in affordable housing units, expansion of the tourism industry, increased job training and employment opportunities, and new housing for Arab residents. In many respects, Jerusalem 2020 is long overdue.

Netanyahu: "Jerusalem was always ours and will always be ours."

"Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people," Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said last night at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva at the traditional event held there for Jerusalem Day. "The city that was unified will never be divided again."

Ma'ariv reports:

The Arab Peace Initiative: A Work in Progress

In preparation of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's trip to Washington to meet with President Barack Obama on May 18, Arab states are working on a draft of the Arab Peace Initiative that addresses Israel's concerns. However, there is not a full consensus yet. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said today that there was "no justification for amending" the deal, according  to a report in Ha'aretz.

Smadar Peri and Itamar Eichner report in Yediot Acharonoth:

Two States, One Capital: A Proposal for the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict

The following article was published on April 8, 2009 by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

The greatest tragedy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that all reasonable parties know the contours of a final settlement, yet such a settlement is not close at hand. Israel will retain large settlement blocks close to the 1967 "Green Line" in exchange for an equivalent amount of uninhabited Israeli land. The smaller, outlying settlements will be dismantled. Palestinian refugees will be allowed to return to a future Palestinian state and will be compensated by the international community for the loss of their land in Israel.

Jerusalem Mayor on a U.S. Tour

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat is on a tour of several U.S. cities this week. At Harvard University yesterday he promoted his plan to revitalize Jerusalem, the Boston Globe reports.

"We have a 3,000-year-old brand," Barkat, 49, told reporters at a briefing in the business school's Ludcke House.

Ehud Olmert: I Offered the Palestinians More Than Anyone Before Me

"I offered a deal that has never been offered by any Prime Minister in the history of the State of Israel. A deal that dealt with the heart of every problem," outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said today at a speech at the Raphael Recanti International School in Herzliya.

Stopping Home Demolitions, Securing Jerusalem's Future

Look out from Mount Zion's observation point and you'll be "overlooking Biblical Jerusalem which sends visitors 3,800 years back in time to the days of Abraham, when the first foundations of the city were laid," reads the tourist brochure of the City of David ("Elad") organization. The tour begins from a vantage point with a scene both historic and familiar, the Western Wall, the dome of the Al-Aqsa mosque, and a hillside dotted with stone houses that look like they have been there for hundreds of years.
    

A Palestinian View: Talking one way, walking the other

Ehud Olmert, who was elected three years ago as prime minister of Israel, will be remembered here as someone with an unprecedented and unique ability to combine peaceful and positive rhetoric with hostile and aggressive action vis-a-vis the Palestinians and Arabs in general.