DOCSLIB.ORG

In Jerusalem]

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
In Jerusalem] ‘Would you like a train ride?’ [in Jerusalem] When an e-mail message arrived in my mail box with the unlikely subject title “Would you like a train ride?”, well, I had to be suspicious. But…as you can see below, it was on the level. She was referring to the new Light Rail train in Jerusalem, which finally began operating, with free rides during the first two weeks, last Friday. From: xiaoyu zhang Dear Hillel, This is Zhang from China Radio. Hope you still remember me: I’m planning a report about the new trail [train] in Jerusalem and would like to invite you for a ride and hear some of your comments. Would you do me the favor? I’m especially interested in opinions of Palestinians in east Jerusalem but don’t speak their language, and most of the time they hide from foreign media of what really is in their minds. Are you available anytime tomorrow? Or Thursday afternoon, if it’s better for you. We can meet at somewhere along the route, like Zion Square, or at the New Gate of the Old City. … Thanks a lot and looking forward to seeing you. Zhang China Radio International Xiaoyu Zhang phones Beijing Photos by H. Schenker So, we ended up meeting at the Damascus Gate station on the new Light Rail line, and made the trip together from there to the end of the line in Pisgat Ze’ev. It was fascinating, heading from the walls of the Old City, past Meah Sha’arim on the left, Wadi Joz and Sheikh Jarrah on the right, then on via the middle class Palestinian neighborhoods of Shoafat and Beit Hanina, till the current end of the line at Pisgat Ze’ev. Palestinian and Haredi families were clearly treating the free ride like a summer camp excursion. Of course Xiaoyu used my “linguistic skills” to ask the locals their opinions of the phenomenon. One Palestinian said that he was taking the ride every day since it opened from Shoafat to his place of work, leaving his car at home. Where does he work? At the Al-Aksa Mosque on Haram Al-Sharif/The Temple Mount. He admits there still seem to be some kinks in the works, since by car it would “take three minutes”, while the Light Rail ride takes 15. A teenager from French Hill was taking his racing bicycle (he hopes, if they let him), to the controversial Kalatrava Bridge at the entrance of Jerusalem, hoping to head out from there to Beit Shemesh. Uriel, a Haredi from the Caucasian Mountains who lives in Pisgat Ze’ev, said it was the first time he had ever been in Shoafat and Beit Hanina. When asked if he had any security concerns, he responded “we live in a land of miracles, and will be protected.” We got off at the last stop, and then headed back to the Shivtei Yisrael station between Wadi Joz and Meah Sha’arim, where the old Mandelbaum Gate used to stand — now the Mandelbaum gas station. She did a serious interview with me about the implications of it all, for Palestinians and Israelis, in the refuge of the 4th floor of the National Palace Hotel, which agreed to serve us ice tea, despite the fact that the sun hadn’t set yet, and the Ramadan fast was still on. Among other things, I said that while I personally would prefer that Tel Aviv be the capital of Israel and Ramallah be the capital of a future Palestinian state, clearly the overwhelming majority of Israelis and Palestinians feel otherwise. Thus, anyone who thinks it is possible to find a solution to the conflict which is not based on West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine is deluding themselves. I added that while both the Israelis and the Palestinians we met on the train seemed be enjoying the experience and hope that it will provide good answers to daily transportation needs, it is clear that at the political level, Palestinians believe that the creation of the Light Rail system is a unilateral action by the Israeli government and the Jerusalem Municipality, a form of “creating facts on the ground”, which was done without consultation and cooperation with them. While I don’t believe that the Light Rail system will necessarily be an obstacle to a solution for Jerusalem, particularly since the two capitals should form an open, interconnected city, the political realities and needs must be taken into account. She promised to send me a link to the program. Hillel Schenker Co-Editor Palestine-Israel Journal.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • CBT Nu'z Shevat-Adar 5777 ~ Feb
    CBT Nu'z Shevat-Adar 5777 ~ Feb. 2017 | Congregation B’nai Torah, Olympia, WA, USA Exhalations from the Ex-President A modest proposal. Rabbi Akiva's teacher was a second generation tanna called Nachum, a man of Gamzo. His most famous saying is “gam zu l'tovah” “this, too, is for good.” He was a man who suffered for many physical ailments, but was never discouraged. He always had hope for the future and the sufferings that he underwent were but harbingers of good things to come. We have a new administration, who is proposing to enact the 1995 law passed by Congress to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem. All of our presidents since 1995 have refused to implement this law because of foreign-policy considerations, which come under the purview of the executive branch. There are many who decry this move as an obstacle to peace between the stateless Arabs and the Israeli state. I would suggest, however, that this also may be a case of gam zu l'Tova. Many years ago, a merchant by the name of Simcha Mandelbaum built a house for his large family in Jerusalem on what was later to become the Green line, a truce line, but not a border. During the Arab pogrom against the Jews living in mandate Palestine, the Haganah, the Jewish defense force of Palestine, asked the Mandelbaum's to vacate the house and turned it over to them to protect the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem. The Arabs at that point, declared that no Arab could sell land to a Jew ever so the house stood alone.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mount Scopus Enclave, 1948–1967
    Yfaat Weiss Sovereignty in Miniature: The Mount Scopus Enclave, 1948–1967 Abstract: Contemporary scholarly literature has largely undermined the common perceptions of the term sovereignty, challenging especially those of an exclusive ter- ritorial orientation and offering a wide range of distinct interpretations that relate, among other things, to its performativity. Starting with Leo Gross’ canonical text on the Peace of Westphalia (1948), this article uses new approaches to analyze the policy of the State of Israel on Jerusalem in general and the city’s Mount Scopus enclave in 1948–1967 in particular. The article exposes tactics invoked by Israel in three different sites within the Mount Scopus enclave, demilitarized and under UN control in the heart of the Jordanian-controlled sector of Jerusalem: two Jewish in- stitutions (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hadassah hospital), the Jerusa- lem British War Cemetery, and the Palestinian village of Issawiya. The idea behind these tactics was to use the Demilitarization Agreement, signed by Israel, Transjor- dan, and the UN on July 7, 1948, to undermine the status of Jerusalem as a Corpus Separatum, as had been proposed in UN Resolution 181 II. The concept of sovereignty stands at the center of numerous academic tracts written in the decades since the end of the Cold War and the partition of Europe. These days, with international attention focused on the question of Jerusalem’s international status – that is, Israel’s sovereignty over the town – there is partic- ularly good reason to examine the broad range of definitions yielded by these discussions. Such an examination can serve as the basis for an informed analy- sis of Israel’s policy in the past and, to some extent, even help clarify its current approach.
    [Show full text]
  • If I Forget You, Jerusalem
    IF I FORGET YOU, JERUSALEM The HaMizrachi Jerusalem Quiz! How well do you know Yerushalayim? Here are 28 questions in honor of our newest Chag, on the 28th of Iyar! BY RABBI STEWART WEISS 1. The name Yerushalayim is a combination of which two words? 2. The Midrash says that Jerusalem has 70 names. Which names of Jerusalem are also the names of neighborhoods in the city? 3. Jerusalem is situated in the Biblical portion of which of the 12 Tribes? 4. What other tribe's portion included the Beit HaMikdash? Why did they merit this distinc- tion? 5. Who built the current walls around Jerusalem? 6. King David conquered the city from what an- cient tribe? 7. Who built the First and Second Temples? 8. Approximately how many square kilometers is the Old City? 9. Who destroyed the First and Second Temples? 10. After the destruction of the Second Temple, Jews were allowed to enter Jerusalem on only one day of the year. What was that day? 11. In what year did Jews first come to Jerusalem? 12. In what year did the Moslems first come to Jerusalem? 13. After the Roman Empire collapsed, many other peoples controlled Jerusalem; how many can you name? 22 | 14. What were the first neighborhoods built outside the walls of the Old City? 15. Between 1948 and 1967, what was the crossing point between East and West Jerusalem? 16. When Jordan occupied East Jerusalem in 1950, how many countries recognized their authority? 17. Since the Six-Day War, eight new neighborhoods (the“Ring” neighborhoods) have been added to Jerusalem.
    [Show full text]
  • A Liminal Existence in Jerusalem: Al-Baq'a 1949
    It is now 6:45 am and as I lie on my bed next to A Liminal the window, I can see the Jews outside coming Existence in and going; I say to myself when will the people of al-Baq’a return to their homes. Jerusalem: Journal entry by Jeryis al-Salti al-Baq’a 1949 on October 23, 1949. Issam Nassar Sitting in his home in the southwestern suburb of Jerusalem of al-Baq’a, on a side street off the Bethlehem road, Jeryis al-Salti wrote in an unused calendar book from 1937 what became the first line in his year long diary. “We started writing in this diary on Friday May 13, 1949.” It had been a whole year since Salti, or any of the members of his household who remained with him at home, had seen any of their loved ones who departed for, or were living in, what had become the Jordanian side of the city. With him at home were his wife Mudallaleh; his The Salti store in al-Shama’a before 1948. Photographer unknown, the collection of three daughters Adele, Hind and Nada; his Rasha Salti. son Raja; his sister Nazha Sahar and her son [ 34 ] A Liminal Existence in Jerusalem: al-Baq’a 1949 The Mandellbaum Gate from the Jordain side. Source: Israeli Government Press Office. Abdullah; and a second, unnamed sister. Al-Baq’a, along with the other neighboring Arab suburbs of the city–including al-Talbiya and the German Colony–had been until a year before home to some 30,000 Arab inhabitants.
    [Show full text]
  • The Surreptitious History of Raphael Levy the Rise of the Arab Jewish Notables
    The Surreptitious History of Raphael Levy The rise of the Arab Jewish Notables By Natan Odenheimer Advisor: Professor Naghmeh Sohrabi Seniors Honors Thesis Department of Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies Brandeis University 2014-2015 ! 2 Acknowledgements Said Rabbi: A man can learn [well] only that part of the Torah which is his heart's desire, for it is said, But whose desire is in the law of the Lord. Talmud - Mas. Avodah Zarah 19a I fell in love with studying science at the age of sixteen learning physics with great peers and an incredible teacher. Since then I secretly I hoped that one day, I would, too, reveal something new about this world. I carried this wish throughout my years in the army but slowly, as I transitioned into university and divorced from my romantic ideas of studying both physics, mathematics and the humanities, I came to realize how deeply and systematically one should think in order to reveal anything new, even a little piece of a mighty puzzle. Interesting thoughts and a curious mind are simply not enough. I never meant to give up, but working on this honors thesis I was willing to forget about my ambitions to write something great. But Professor Naghmeh Sohrabi had different plans for me. Prof. Sohrabi was attentive enough to hear my heart’s desires. She knew that one’s heart’s desire is the most fruitful ground for learning. From the moment I came up with the idea for this work she mentored me through crossroads, obstacles, frustrations and confusions that are the bread and butter of deeply engaging in an intellectual enterprise, even as modest as mine.
    [Show full text]
  • 69Years Since the Nakba 50Years of Israel's Occupation the Continued Expulsion of Palestinian Jerusalemites
    State of Palestine Palestine Liberation Organization Negotiations Affairs Department 69 YEARS SINCE THE NAKBA 50 YEARS OF Israel’s OCCUPATION The Continued Expulsion of Palestinian Jerusalemites Photo ©Mahmoud Elayan: (To avoid the threat of arrest and financial penalty, Azam Al-Afifi was forced to self-demolish his home on 24 May 2012 following an order by the Israeli authorities). nad.ps @nadplo /PLOMEDIA1 Table of contents INTRODUCTION 4 HISTORICAL CONTEXT 5 MAkINg JERUsALEM “ ThE ETERNAL AND UNDIvIDED CAPITAL Of ThE JEwIsh 7 PEOPLe ” I. DECREAsINg ThE PALEsTINIAN POPULATION: IsRAELI LAws, PRETExTs AND 8 POLICIES -“This is no longer your cenTer of life” 8 -“YOU MARRIED SOMEONE NOT from here” 10 -“YOU BUILT WITHOUT A PERMIT” 11 -“YOU ARE ABSENT FROM YOUR PROPERTy” 13 -“This properTY BELONGED To Jews before 1948” 14 -“We’re TAKING YOUR LAND FOR PUBLIC OR SECURITy reasons” 15 I I . INCREAsINg ThE JEwIsh POPULATION 17 COOPERATION bETwEEN ThE IsRAELI gOvERNMENT AND sETTLERs’ gROUPs 19 I I I. IsOLATINg EAsT JERUsALEM 20 CONCLUsION 21 INTRODUCTION source: web Almost 70 years after the Nakba, and exactly 50 years after Israel occupied the west bank and gaza strip, Palestinians are not only still being denied the right to return to their homes, but are actively being expelled from their homes and homeland. This process of expulsion is particularly evident in Jerusalem, which Israel seeks to make the “eternal and undivided capital of the Jewish people”. The main focus of this brief is on the pretexts used by Israeli authorities in order to expel Palestinians from Jerusalem (section I). however, it is impossible to separate the forcible transfer of Palestinians from the corresponding policy of replacing that population with an Israeli Jewish population, while physically and administratively isolating the city from the rest of the occupied west bank.
    [Show full text]
  • The Events of 1948 and the Palestinian Refugees
    The Events of 1948 and the Palestinian Refugees Summary by Ron Stockton We can learn much about history from first-hand reports. What follows are two types of reports: contemporary documents and the perspectives of those who were present, and the results of recent scholarship. There is an exceptional amount of rhetoric around these events. A polemic is an argument designed to prove that you are right and some rival group is wrong. There is a Jewish-Arab polemic and a Jewish-Jewish polemic [between the Ben-Gurion/Haganah/Labour left and the Begin/Herut/Likud right]. These polemics are only marginally included. Tessler discusses them more fully. The New Historians : When Menachem Begin became Prime Minister in 1977, he was so stung by allegations that he was a terrorist that he began to open the state archives to researchers. More archives were opened under the 50-year rule in 1997 and 1998. These produced a wave of new research based on documents, journals, reports, minutes. Israelis saw themselves as peaceful and accommodating and the Arab side as the problem. Four books shook the way Israelis saw this history. These were Simha Flapan’s The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities; Benny Morris’ The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949; Ilan Pappe’s Britain and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-1951; Avi Shlain’s Collusion Across the Jordan: King Abdullah, The Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine; and Tom Segev, 1949:The First Israelis. Background: Fighting in Palestine went through three distinct stages with different characteristics and different military forces.
    [Show full text]
  • Liberation of Jerusalem
    Liberation of Jerusalem On November 29, 1947, it was decided in the UN Partition Plan that Jerusalem would be under international control. However, when the War of Independence broke out, both sides – the Jews and the Arabs – tried to take control of the city. The Arab forces blocked the passage to Jerusalem to Jews, and cut off the water supply to the city. Only convoys of armored vehicles succeeded, at a heavy cost in human lives, in breaking through to the city and bringing supplies to its residents. On May 14, 1948, upon the departure of the British from the country, the Israeli forces began to take over compounds held by the Mandatory government. On May 18, the Arab Legion reached Jerusalem and entered the Old City. On May 19, a Palmach force managed to enter the Jewish Quarter through Zion Gate and bring supplies and reinforcements, but on the next day the Arab troops took control of the Zion Gate area again, and the siege on the Jewish Quarter resumed. On May 28, the Jewish Quarter fell into the hands of the Jordanians, its defenders were taken prisoner and its synagogues were demolished. On June 1, 1948, Burma Road was opened, and the siege on Jerusalem began to weaken. Jerusalem was divided for 19 years; Israel held the western part of the city, while Jordan held its eastern part, containing the Old City, including the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. Mount Scopus – the site of Hadassah Hospital, the Hebrew University and the British military cemetery – remained an enclave under Israeli control in the eastern part of the city.
    [Show full text]
  • Musrara, the Center of the World the House Called Bayarti
    As essential as water or the air we breathe, Musrara, the Center streets are the corridors of the soul of the World and the dark trajectories of memory. —Paul Virilio, Panic City1 Paola Caridi “The Cypresses are still there.” Michel looks at them, high up behind the wall that surrounds a four-story white building, and his eyes begin to wander, thirsty, trying to recognize the little that remains from his distant childhood.2 They are ancient eyes, Michel’s, folded under the weight of an eighty-year-old man. He is already tired from the walk uphill along a little street in the center of Jerusalem, just outside the ancient walls of the Old City. But his breathing is light, concealed by the slightest of smiles, gentle and innocent, because that anonymous little street in the old quarter of Musrara is Michel’s memory lane. That is what he calls it in his impeccable British English: the street of his memory. The memory of his childhood and of the fixed images of 1948 that marked a before and an after, the hiatus in his life. And the hiatus of Jerusalem. Michel looks around like a stranger. He looks like the passers-by who use the little street to get to the offices of the Jerusalem city hall, just over the hill where a large square opens up. Michel, however, has no urgent business at city hall. His arrival point is his memory lane. He is there, after decades, only to remember. Memories rush from the mouth of that bent old man with the tidily combed white hair.
    [Show full text]
  • In Occupied Jerusalem: Theodore “Teddy” Kollek, the Palestinians, and the Organizing Principles of Israeli Municipal Policy, 1967- 1987
    ‘Adjusting to Powerlessness’ in Occupied Jerusalem: Theodore “Teddy” Kollek, the Palestinians, and the Organizing Principles of Israeli Municipal Policy, 1967- 1987. By Oscar Jarzmik A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations University of Toronto © Copyright by Oscar Jarzmik 2016 ii ‘Adjusting to Powerless’ in Occupied Jerusalem: Theodore “Teddy” Kollek, the Palestinians, and the Organizing Principles of Israeli Municipal Policy, 1967-1987. Oscar Jarzmik Doctor of Philosophy Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations University of Toronto 2016 Abstract This dissertation examines the art of government on the part of the Israeli Municipality in Jerusalem by tracking its rationalization and implementation from the beginning of the occupation in June 1967 until the breakout of the first Palestinian intifada in December 1987. I argue that local policymakers assumed a uniqueness to the history and sociality of Jerusalem and posited a primordial set of political and cultural traditions among Palestinian residents. These preconceptions encouraged them to develop a particular structure for local government and concomitant blueprint for social/administrative relations. Architects of these policies were Mayor Theodore “Teddy” Kollek and an allied group of municipal functionaries who variously identified their policies as “national-pluralist,” “bi-cultural,” and “mosaic” oriented. They believed that an approach towards consolidating
    [Show full text]
  • The Case of Sheikh Jarrah
    ENFORCING HOUSING RIGHTS: THE CASE OF SHEIKH JARRAH Report of the fact-finding mission to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory May 2011 Enforcing Housing Rights: The Case of Sheikh Jarrah Report of the fact-finding mission to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory May 2011 1 © Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) May 2011 ASF has given mandate to a delegation of English lawyers to prepare an independent report examining the legal situation in Sheikh Jarrah. The views expressed in this report do not necessarily represent those of ASF, or those of the donor, the Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Kingdom of Belgium. Avocats Sans Frontières Rue de Namur 72 1000 Brussels - Belgium Tel: +32 2 223 36 54 WWW.ASF.BE Cover photo: the demolition of the Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah, 9 January 2011. ©Atef Safadi Printed: Graffikka, Belgium. [email protected] 2 Acknowledgement The delegation would like to thank everyone who contributed to the making of this report, in particular Stijn Denayer, who coordinated the project for ASF, and Valentina Azarov, who accompanied the mission in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The delegation wishes to express its gratitude to all the people and organisations who met with the mission during its visit in December 2010, including the evicted Sheikh Jarrah families. The delegation would also like to thank photographer Atef Safadi. With the support of KINGDOM OF BELGIUM Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation 3 Table of Contents Acronyms 6 1. Introduction 7 1.1. Context of intervention 7 1.2. ASF’s fact-finding mission and objectives 8 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Iisssrrraaaeeelll'''sss Sstttooorrryyy Iinnn Mmaaapppss
    MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS JERUSALEM IIssrraaeell’’ss SSttoorryy iinn MMaappss INTRODUCTION The Arab-Israel conflict and the peace process have for decades been a focus for world-wide attention – on the part of the media, academia, political and governmental institutions, NGOs, religious groups, the business world, and the public at large. With the passage of time, some of Israel's critics have increasingly allowed their approach to the problem to be shaped by myths, slogans, prejudices and lack of knowledge, rather than by solid facts. This has been seen, for example, in matters pertaining to the territories in dispute between Israel and the Palestinians: the historical background is often either unknown or ignored. Moreover, even when dealing with the present situation – the problem of terrorism, regional dangers, and the impact of topography on borders – the context is often not taken into account. The purpose of this publication is to provide factual and background material through maps and graphs which address key aspects about Israel, the Arab-Israel conflict, and the peace process. This publication does not presume to address all issues, but does address many of them. It is hoped that through the illustrations and data provided here, a better and more factual understanding – of past events, the present reality, and future opportunities for peace – may be achieved. Jerusalem, 2006 CONTENTS ANCIENT MAPS Yom Kippur War Cease-Fire Lines (October 24, 1973) 24 Golan Heights – Cease-Fire Lines (October 1973) .......... 25 The Kingdoms of David and Solomon (1077–997 BCE) .7 Israel-Syria – Disengagement Agreement (May 1974) ..... 25 The Herodian Period (30 BCE to 70 CE) ............................
    [Show full text]