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If You Only Knew Today... Issue 39 - Winter 2006 by Naim Ateek 1 p. 1 Justice for Jerusalem By Hind Khoury p. 4 The Planning Problem in East Jerusalem by Raffoul Rofa p. 5 In This Issue This In Jerusalem Residency Rights by Maya Johnston p. 7 Have a Good Day Issue 39 - Winter 2006 by Raja Shehadeh p. 8 Impairing Social Services in Jerusalem by Dyala Husseini p. 9 The Colonizing of East Jerusalem by Nazmi Al-Ju’beh p. 10 O JERUSALEM! The Walls of Jerusalem by Clarence Musgrave p. 12 The Impact of the Wall on Education in East Jerusalem by Agnes Hanania p. 14 The Wall Inside Jerusalem IF YOU ONLY by Kenneth Cragg p. 15 In Person ... KNEW TODAY ... Douglas Dicks p. 17 by Naim Ateek violence and bloodshed for many innocent power, blinded by a narrow interpretation people. of Jerusalem’s past history, and with Jerusalem remains the key to peace. impunity disregards the rights of others as Ultimately it is what happens to Jerusalem Therefore, there is a fundamental it slights international law. The tragedy that will determine whether a viable peace statement to which we must adhere. Peace of the Israeli government today is the fact is achieved or not. Unless the is only possible when the principle of that it does not know how to make peace. international community can build peace justice and fairness as expressed in It is good at making and winning wars, on a just foundation, it is difficult to international law is exercised. Left alone but it is bad at making peace. It cannot imagine a permanent resolution of the Israel cannot do this. It is already up to its even imagine peace without domination. conflict. It is important to say from the neck in this quagmire. It has lost the It has no vision of peace without exclusive outset that without the ability of the ability to discern the basic requirements sovereignty and control. It is obvious to international community to override the for peace and what is good for its own many people that Israel’s claim to policies of the government of Israel people. It has become drunk by its military Jerusalem is narcissistic and exclusive and towards Jerusalem and curb its illegal cannot embrace the Palestinians. The actions, peace will always be a mirage, and Psalmist said that he places Jerusalem disaster will always loom on the horizon. above his highest joy (Psalm 137:6). In If Israel continues to violate international other words, the only way forward is to law through its unilateral actions of set Jerusalem above our own narrow and “Judaizing” Jerusalem then the pain and exclusive selfish desires and consider what difficulties incurred in any future solution is appropriate for it and for all of its would be much greater. The international children. Any approach to Jerusalem that community must make it very explicit that stems from an egotistic nationalist desire without applying the principle of sharing is dangerous because it shuts out the other. the city by Palestinians and Israelis there is no hope for settling the conflict. Any With the benefit of historical hindsight proposition that gives an edge to Israeli one can say that Jerusalem has three rights over the rights of the Palestinians is children whom she adopted at different doomed to failure and the tragic price is intervals in her long history. Her motherly 2 Issue 39 - Winter 2006 love embraces all three without bias or has evolved and developed. This is the distinction. If any of them is negated or reality of Jerusalem today as many of us marginalized, Jerusalem suffers a tragic loss see it. This is the reality we need to address and its beauty is marred. Tragically, if we are serious about peace. We need to however, the three children have never stand against any of the three heirs that been able to share their equal patrimony. attempts to define Jerusalem in an ethnic Whenever one of them assumed and exclusive way. Ultimately Jerusalem sovereignty, he denied and suppressed his itself would repudiate and repel such an brothers’ rights. This is the way western attempt. It is doomed to fail. Christians behaved during the Byzantine and Crusader periods. This is the way A PROPHETIC Muslims behaved during their long rule PARADIGM FOR PEACE of the city, and this is the way Israel behaves today. Although all like to claim a higher Psalm 87 provides us with a prophetic morality when they governed the city, paradigm for Jerusalem that critiques history attests to the fact that none of them Israeli government policy for the city and practiced it. We must, therefore, begin by can guide our vision for the future of a general confession that all three have Jerusalem. This Psalm must have been sinned against each other and against their written by an inspired poet, a liberation mother city. Whenever in control, we all theologian who had a vision of Jerusalem acted with military arrogance, religious that embraced all of God’s children superiority, and prejudice against others. without excluding any of them. Biblical scholars believe that this Psalm was written Israel’s control of Jerusalem came with the after the Jewish Exile in the 6th century 1967 war. It, too, wanted to reclaim its B.C. The poet transcended any exclusive, rightful patrimony from which it had been has been doing to the whole land. In fact, narrow nationalist, or xenophobic denied. One would have expected the whereas today under international pressure theology of his day when he pictured God government of Israel, that claimed to be Israel is beginning to concede a small area as saying, democratic, to practice a higher morality of land on the West Bank for a Palestinian “I will include Egypt and Babylonia by making the city truly a city of peace. state, in its avarice, it is devouring when I list the nations that obey me; Instead it embarked on a course that would Jerusalem totally and completely. What the people of Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia ‘Judaize’ the city and make it exclusively Israel is doing to Jerusalem will never I will number among the inhabitants of its own. Instead of using modern produce peace. Through its own doing, Jerusalem. Of Zion it will be said that all technology for the benefit of creating a Israel is building its own future of pain nations belong there and that the Almighty Jerusalem that can be a paradigm of peace, and instability and inviting greater hatred, will make her strong. they embarked on implementing a policy violence and bloodshed. Israel refuses to The Lord will write a list of the peoples that is as exclusive and chauvinistic as other learn from Jerusalem’s history believing and include them all as citizens of conquerors have done before. Israel denied that it is capable of reversing that history Jerusalem.” (Psalm 87:4-6 GNB) most Christians and Muslims of the West and charting a new course that no one in Bank and Gaza Strip access to the City. the future can reverse. It is acting as if The Psalmist envisages Jerusalem as a city They cannot even go to worship in their Jerusalem still exists in a B.C. era, as if that includes among its inhabitants even holy places. Furthermore, it allowed a neither Christianity nor Islam has emerged the worst enemies of ancient Israel, Egypt number of extremist religious settlers, with as equal heirs. What Israel is doing today and Babylonia. (The latter was the unlimited funding at their disposal, to can only be a recipe for disaster. country that destroyed Jerusalem in 586 dispossess Palestinian Muslims and B.C.) It is a city that people of many Christians through bribery, deception, Jerusalem is the patrimony of its three different racial and ethnic backgrounds can distortion, threats, and the terrorization of children. Jerusalem did not stop evolving claim affiliation to, as though they were women and children, and to replace them after David conquered it a thousand years born in it. It is a city of peace that with Jewish settlers in the heart of the before Christ according to the biblical welcomes people as citizens. It is God who Muslim and Christian quarters of the city. record. Her motherly love embraced her grants them citizenship in the city. Such Israel has been designing and shaping three children and gave them roots in the words provide a refreshing vision of peace Jerusalem for the benefit of the Jewish city. If we seek a genuine peace, it is futile that comes out of the Hebrew tradition. community. What Israel has been doing to argue who of the three has a greater It is indeed tragic that such a vision has to Jerusalem is the same policy that Israel claim. We must accept the way history not impacted Israeli decision-makers. Issue 39 - Winter 2006 3 could follow approximately the 1967 line. City must be considered null and void. AN INCLUSIVE VISION OF PEACE Certain adjustments might be necessary 5. Access to the holy places must be IN THE POLITICAL ARENA but it must be subject to the principle of protected and guaranteed for all people fairness and equality. of faith. Therefore, how can we translate an inclusive vision of peace into the political Religious Needs This vision carries within it the seeds for arena? I would like to present an outline peace because it seeks to establish it on the of a vision, the sort of approach that takes In order to satisfy the religious needs of basis of justice and fairness for all.

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