Download - Projecting Jerusalem
-
8/11/2019 Projecting Jerusalem
1/10
PROJECTING ERUSALEM
EDWARD
W. SAID
In May 1991, was invited
y theUniversityf Capetown o deliver
the
A.W.
Davies
Academic reedom ecturewhich, s its title uggests,
made the claim for cademicfreedom
t
a
timewhen therewas very
little f t.Apartheid adstill
notended, lthough fewmonths arlier
Nelson Mandela had been
released fromprison after wenty-seven
years.t waspossible o meetwithMandelaquitebriefly; e was then t
the
center
f national and
internationalffortso lead
South Africa
from partheid nto
nonracialist ew state.After eeinghim, spent
about
an
hourwithhis
comrade
Walter
isulu who, ike Mandela,had
spent
a
very ong
time n
prison
and
recently
ad been released.We
discussedthe
history
f theAfrican
ational
Congress's truggle,
ow
for
hefirst
ime n its
history
n
the
scendancy;
twas forme a
deeply
illuminatingiscussion
with
bvious
points
fdifference
nd
compari-
son
with he Palestinian
truggle,hen,
s
now, very
much
not
n
the
ascendancy.
The warmth
nd
cordiality
f
my reception y
Sisulu was
slightly
disturbed, owever,y
a
copy
of
Teddy
Kollek's offee-table
ook
about
himself
nd
Jerusalem ropped
up
on
a
table. t
was
the
only
book in
Edward
W.
Said
is
University
rofessor
f
English
nd
comparative
literaturet Columbia
University
nd
the
uthor fnumerous ooks on
a widerangeoftopics, ncludingOrientalism1978), TheQuestionf
Palestine1979),
Culture
nd
Imperialism1993), and,
most
recently,
Representationsf
the
ntellectual:
he
1993
Reith
ectures
1994).
This
paper
s
an
abridged
ersion f
keynote
ddress
given
o a
conference
on
Jerusalem
eld
n
London,15-16
June.
Journalf
Palestinetudies
XV,
o.
1
(Autumn995),pp.
5-14.
-
8/11/2019 Projecting Jerusalem
2/10
6 JOURNAL OF
PALESTINE
STUDIES
sight, o I wasn'twrong, think, o conclude thatwith t Sisulu was
making point ntended orme. Aftermyvisit mentioned o one of
Sisulu's advisers hedissonance felt ecause of Kollek,who to most
Palestinianss a symbol f srael's nnexation olicy. he later oldme
that isulu's dea had been to makeme feelmore t ease by displaying
Kollek'sbook: Kollek, isulu had said, was a representativef liber-
alism and ofArab-Jewishooperation,nd he had wanted o show his
support or
hat
processtoo.
Alas,
never aw
Sisulu againand never ad a chance o nform im,
for
nstance, hat nly
a
fewdays after he sraelis onquered he Old
City
n
earlyJune1967, Kollek, long
with Moshe
Dayan,
threw ut
almost a thousandPalestinians rom heir ncestral wellingsn the
Haret
l-Maghariba,
azedtheir
omes,
nd built hemonumental
laza
that
now
stretches efore
he
Western
Wall,
an
area thathas
thus
be-
come
Arab-rein,urely ewish.
While was
in
South
Africa had
heard
about similar acticsby Afrikaaner fficialsn downtown apetown,
whichhad
formerly
ontained
arge
numbers
f
Black
nd Coloredpeo-
ples, who had been moved out to the townships, heirdistricts e-
stroyed,o
that he nner
ity ould
remain
urelywhite.
How was it that nstead f
seizing
n this
xtremely
imilar
pisode
fromKollek'spast, Sisulu had insteadfastened n his carefullymar-
keted nternational
mage
as
a
humane, iberal, acifyingman?
This
image, of someone whose open-collared isdom and improvisatory
style
ndeared
im
o
the
world,
as madeKollek
he
overridingymbol
of
Jerusalem-Israeli-helderusalem,
t
s
true,
ut somehow
veryone's
mayor
nd honored s such
everywhere.
I need not dwellfor
ong
on how
poignantly
nd
ironically
his
epi-
sode resonates s we
consider
he
currenttatusof
Jerusalem
nd the
future f the
peace process.
n
1991, Jerusalem lready
had
been an-
nexedby sraelfor wenty-fourears,
ts
topography,nvironment,
nd
historic uramassivelyntervenedn, forcibly hanged,demographi-
cally ampered
ith.Yetwhat
had communicatedtself
f this
unpleas-
ant
history
o the outsideworld
was
a
cheerful
ymbol
f
pioneering,
humane
nterprise.
he first
hing
o
be
noted, hen,
s not
ust
Israel's
power
o do
what t did
n
the
face f
nitial
esistance nd international
demurral-there
ere,
fter
ll,
a number f
United
Nations esolutions
protesting
nilateral
sraeli
measures n
Jerusalem-but
ts
ability
lso
to have
communicatedo the
world hat
what
t
did
so
peremptorily
et
right
ll
the
piddling bjections
hat
might
Only by
first
rojecting
n
have
stopped
othercountries. srael was
idea of
Jerusalem
ould
thus able to
project
n idea of
Jerusalem
Israel then
proceed
othe
thatcontradicted ot
only
ts
history
ut
changes
on the
ground.
its
very
ived
actuality,
urning
t from
multicultural
nd
multireligious
ity
nto
an
eternally nified, rincipally ewish
-
8/11/2019 Projecting Jerusalem
3/10
PROJECTING ERUSALEM
7
city
nder xclusivesraeli
overeignty.nlybydoing o firstn projec-
tions ould tthen
roceed o the hanges n theground
uring he ast
eight rnineyears, hat s, toundertake hemassive rchitectural,em-
ographic, nd politicalmetamorphosishatwould then
orrespond o
the
mages nd projections.
TheLossoftheCity: 948
and 1967
This
processofprojecting
irst, uilding nd displacing ater, egan
in 1948 with
what
was then
known s WestJerusalem,hepartof the
city
n
which
was born nd where or time grew p.
It s crucial o
recallherethat, s RashidKhalidiput t n his 1990Antonius ecture
at St.
Anthony's ollege,
much f
what
today
s
commonly hought f
as
'Israeli West
Jerusalem'
n
factconsistedof
Arabneighborhoods
before
he
fighting
f the
spring
f
1948,
when over
30,000
of their
inhabitants eredriven ut or
fled
rom
heir uarters
ike [Upper nd
Lower]
Baqa', Qatamon
and
Talbiyya,
everal
months
before ome
2,000 Jewswereforced ut
of
the
Jewish uarter f the
Old City.
Before
eturning
or visit n
1992, had lastbeen nTalbiyya, here
the
family
ouse still
tands,
forty-fiveears arlier,
n late
1947. My
oldest ousinYousif emainednthehouse until arly1948, butwith
young nd
pregnant
ife
he
soon found t difficult
o get n and
out
of
Talbiyya,
hich
was in a
different
one from is
businessnear the
Old
City
walls.
He thenmovedto
a
rented
house
in
Baqa'
where he re-
mained
till
ateApril.By then, he
area
had become unlivable:
The
paniccaused
by
the
Dayr
Yasinmassacre n the
outskirts
f
Jerusalem
on
9 April
was
amplified y
thefall
f
Haifa nd the
Palestinian
xodus
from he city ater
n the
month.
ince early pring
Haganah patrols
with
oudspeakers
ould
periodically
make
therounds n West
Jerusa-
lemannouncinghat hewholeareawas abouttofall oJewish orces
and that
esidents hould
eave.
Shooting
nd
bombing
t
night right-
ened the
mostly
narmed nd
totally norganized
alestinian esidents.
What
made matters orsewas that
he
Palestinian
eadershad left
y
the end of
April.
Therewas
no
protection,
nd
the
Mandate
govern-
ment,
till
nominally esponsible
or
roviding
aw and
order,
eemed
also to
haveabandoned hePalestinians o
their
well-armed
nd
organ-
ized
Zionist
pponents.
When
my
cousin took
his wife o
safety
t
the
end of
the
month,
e asked
a
single
male
relative
f
ours to
say
n
the
Baqa' house. In the meantime he house was broken nto by theHaganah, nd because
they
ound
my
cousin's
hunting
un they
irst
beat,
then
mprisoned
he
hapless
relative
or six months.And of
course
they imply
ommandeered
he
property,
ike
all
other
Arab
properties.
None of
this
oncrete
istory
f oss evermade
t
nto
official ecords
of srael'sWar of
ndependence,
s it s
rather
allously alled,
nd the
-
8/11/2019 Projecting Jerusalem
4/10
8
JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES
worldheard ittle
rom eople like
my cousin who, n
the years fter
1948,
were oo engrossed
n
the
daily truggle or urvivaln new and
usuallyhostile nvironments.erusalem,srael, uickly ccountedfor
much of
the world's pprobation fter 948. This,
after ll, was the
mostfamous
ity
f a
country hatwas celebrated s
one of the great
postwar
chievements;
he
country
hatmade the
desert loom,farmed
the
wastelands, edesigned
he
environment,reated
emocracy.t re-
mainedfor
latergeneration f
sraelis, he so-called
evisionistsike
Benny
Morris, om Segev, nd
others, o reveal omeof the costs of
Israel's
creationborne mainly
by
the
essentially ilent nd unheard
Palestinians.Moreover,nly n the
past yearhave some
Israelicabinet
records or 948 come under crutiny.hey, oo, ell taleofprogram-
matic
policies
designed
to remove
Palestinians,fficially
rase their
traces,
onsign
hem o
legal
and
institutional
onexistence.1
It was East
Jerusalem's
urn
n
1967.
Within month f the
June
conquest, he
barrier
etween ast and
Westhad
been
eliminated nd
EastJerusalem
nd its
surrounding illages
had been
engulfed
n
the
city's
new
municipalboundaries,
extended to
twenty-eightquare
miles.Kollek ookover
he
city
ouncil,
heArab
component
as sum-
marilydissolved, nd overtheyearsthe two halves of thecitywereweldedtogether. lthough hePalestinian
opulation doubled
from
70,000
in
1967
to about
150,000
in
the
earlynineties,
hey
were al-
lowed o build
on
no
more han
bout
10 percent
he
and.
Land
expro-
priations
n
and
around
Jerusalem
ave been massive nd
systematic,
but
the
housing
uilthas been
forJews,
otArabs.2
he
ring
fmassive
(and
massively gly)Jewish
ettlementshat urround he
city
domi-
nate the
andscape, tating
he
provocative
dea thatJerusalem
s,
must
be,
will
lways
e a
Jewish ity, espite
he
xistence
f
sizeable,
lbeit
disabled nd encircled alestinianopulation.AlthoughastJerusalem
has
been
annexed,
he Palestinian esidents ave
the
egal
designation
of resident
liens,
nd the
question
of whether r not
they
will
be
allowed o
vote
n the
lections
eingnegotiated y
srael
nd the
Pales-
tinian
AuthorityPA)
has been
a
thorny
ne.
It is
a
sign
of Palestinian
owerlessness
nd,
t mustbe
said,
collec-
tive
ncompetence
hat o this
day
the
story
f
Jerusalem's
oss both
n
1948
and
1967
has not been told
by them,
ut-insofar
s it has been
told
at
all-partially
econstructed
ither
y
Israelis
sympathetic
nd
unsympatheticrbyforeigners.notherwords, otonlyhas there een
no
Palestinian arrativef 1948 and
after hat an at east
challenge he
dominant
sraeli
narrative,
here
as
also been no
collective alestinian
projection
or
Jerusalem
ince its all-too-definitive
oss in
1948 and
again
n
1967.
The effectf his
uite xtraordinary
istorical
nd
polit-
ical neglect
as been
todeprive s
of
Jerusalem
ell
before
he fact.
-
8/11/2019 Projecting Jerusalem
5/10
PROJECTING JERUSALEM
9
Israeli Plans, Palestinian
nsouciance
Meanwhile,srael'sbuilding preeall overJerusalem'sently olling
hills, tsonce green alleys,
ontinues ven s we speak.High-rise otels
and office uildings ight
p against he ancientwallsblot outevery-
thingArab and Muslim
n keepingwith the aims of
the lamentable
Likud mayor hud Olmert,
ho makes one almost entimental
bout
Kollek.Jerusalem
n
its current
xpandedform ccountsfor bout 25
percent f
the
WestBank.Roads, partment ouses,malls,
nd the ike
arecreeping p everywhere,o much o that he five ilometer
urban
distinction etween
ethlehemndJerusalems being
rased.3On the
other and, he losure fJerusalemo the nhabitantsf Gaza and the
restof theWestBank has created reathardship ince,
as Israelwell
knows,
East
Jerusalem
s
thehub
of theWestBank; anydesigntermi-
nallyto fortify,solate, nd incorporatet intothe scheme
of separa-
tion now being pursued
by the Labor governmentn effectmeans
amputating
t
fromtsnatural onnections
ith
herest
fthePalestin-
ian territories,s well as
gouging ut a gapinghole in
the territories
thatwould permanently
mpair
hem.
Butthis, am sorry o say,
s exactly srael'splan which,
n effect,s
an assaultnotonlyonthegeographyfthecity ut also on its culture,
history,nd of coursereligions.
orwhatever lse it maybe, historical
Jerusalem
nd
indeedPalestine
s
a seamless
malgam
f cultures nd
religions ngaged,
ikemembers fthe ame family,n the ame plotof
land
n
which
ll has become ntwined ith ll. Yet o
powerful
nd,
n
my opinion,
o
sociallyrejectionist
s the Zionist
vision
that
t
has
seized on
the
and,
he
past,
nd
the
iving ctuality
f nterrelatedul-
tures nd traditions
n
order o sever,
arve
out,
and
unilaterally os-
sess
a
place
that
t asserts o be
uniquely
ts own. will not
deny
what
many cholars ndreligious xperts ave aid,thatJerusalemccupies
a
specialplace
n the
Jewish eligion
nd
tradition,erhaps
venmore
special
than hat f
any
other
inglegroup.Certainly
or he
ast
3,000
years
here
has been a
Jewish
resence nd,
for short
eriod
before
and
shortly
fter he
beginning
fthe
Christian
ra,
there
was a
Jewish
kingdom
with ts
capital
n
Jerusalem.
ut hecontinuous
Muslim
res-
ence and
rule
in
Jerusalem
has been
longer,
nd
therehas
been a
very
dense
For
Israel
to claim
Jerusalem
Christian
resence
s
well.
ndeed,
during
as its eternalundivided
its recorded istoryf some10,000years capital does injusticeto the
Jerusalem as had
an almost
unimagin:
city' doexture tory
able seriesof
conquerors;
oexisting
radi-
cy
ri
cht tured
so
tions have
maintained their
presence,
of
relgilous,
cultural
and
sometimes
armoniously,
ometime
re-
political significance
cariously.
To override ll this
by saying
that
nly
he
Jews
ave
right
o
exclusive
overeignty
ver he
ity
lies
-
8/11/2019 Projecting Jerusalem
6/10
10
JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES
in the face of historical act. or
srael-afterll a modern tate n the
late twentiethentury-tolaimJerusalems its eternal ndivided api-
tal to the xclusion fthePalestinianopulation oes usticeneither o
thenobility f thecity's nparalleled ura
and grandeur, or to ts un-
equivocally ich-texturedistory f
religious, ultural, nd evenpolit-
ical significance.
But t s one thing o examine hepatterns f thepast and quite an-
other o confronthe
coarse nterjectionsf
thepresent, hose, hat s,
which srael ince 1967 has adopted
n
Jerusalem.srael'splan for eru-
salem snothingess than odispossess
Palestiniansnd turn hem nto
a numerical
minority,
t the same time
mplanting fortifiedewish
presence hatwilldwarf r marginalizelltheother fthecity'smyriad
actualities.srael
s
aided and abetted
n
this
plan by
the
stampede
f
members
f
the
U.S. Congress
who have
started,
s
part
of the
feeding
frenzy
hat
escends
n elected
American
fficialss
the
campaign
ea-
son
approaches,
drive o move he
U.S.
embassy
rom elAviv
o
Jeru-
salem, thereby reaking
with a
constant n
U.S.
foreign olicy
since
1948.
It
is
true
hat combination
f nternal
nd internationalres-
sures
stopped
srael's most recent
xpropriations
n
Jerusalem,
ut
thesemeasureswere
only suspended ending urther inisterial
n-
vestigation,eaving sraelwith heoption ftakingmore and ndiffer-
ent
circumstances
t
a
later
ate. ndeed,what s
remarkable
s
not ust
that,
with he
United tates mploying
ts
Security
ouncilveto o
pro-
tect srael's
delinquent ehavior,
he
international
ommunity
eems
powerless
o
say
or
do
anything,
ut
that
he
Arabs
and Muslims
o-
gether, lus especially
he
Palestinians,
ave
yet
o
mobilize
heir on-
siderableresources.
Why,
for
xample,
was the
Arab
League
summit
organized
s
a
response
o Israel's
announced
xpropriations
umma-
rily
canceled?And
why,despite
ndlessevidence
proving
srael'sbad
faith, oes thePAsupinely roceedwith tsnegotiations,ll thewhile
doing absolutely othing
ither
ocally
or
internationally
o mobilize
Palestinians
gainst
srael's
continued
ssaulton
Jerusalem?
To
answer hesequestions
we mustfirst sk
why
n
the
Declaration
of
Principles DOP)
itself
erusalem,
lready
nnexed
llegally
nd
ag-
gressed gainst
n
all sortsof
ways,
was
split
off rom he
West
Bank
and
Gaza
and
eft,
r
rather
onceded,
o
sraelfrom heoutset
f
nego-
tiations?
he answer
must
ie
n
two
closely
onnected
acts: hat
srael,
being
much
more
powerful
nd backed
to
thehilt
by
the
United
tates,
simply nilaterallyeserved or tself heright odo what t wished n
Jerusalem
nd
elsewhere;
nd that
hePalestiniansmade this
nd
many
other concessions
because
they
were convincedthat
they
had no
alternative.
There s a valuable
nsight
nto
he
mentality
hat
produced
o cata-
strophicallyupine
an
attitude
n
Hanan Ashrawi's
The
Other ide
of
Peace.
Near
the nd
ofthe
book,
Abu
Mazin,
he
chief
alestinian
ego-
-
8/11/2019 Projecting Jerusalem
7/10
PROJECTING
ERUSALEM
11
tiator f the
DOP, tries o allayAshrawi's ismay
t the text y telling
her that fter he
document s signed he can
bargainwith he sraelis
totry o getbackthethings hePalestiniansonceded.BurhanDajani,
in his
scrupulously areful tudy f the Oslo
Accord,4 oes well to re-
mind
us that
t
took the sovereign ountry f
Egypt ive ears o win
back the
one
square kilometerrea of Taba, and thiswith mobilized
foreign ffice,
normous xperience
n
diplomacy,
nd little nterestn
Taba by Israel. t
is also perhapsworth ecalling hatthe PA usually
negotiateswithout
onsultingawyers, ithno experiencewhatsoever
in settling
nternationalisputes, nd withno realconvictionn actu-
allywinning
nything
t
all,except
what srael
might eign o throw ts
way.Theproblem fJerusalemnthepeace processtoday s therefore
largely problem
f the
ncompetence,he
nsouciance,
he
unaccept-
able
negligence
f
the Palestinian
eadership
which
has
in
the first
n-
stance
ctually greed
o et
sraeldo what twishes
n
Jerusalem,5
nd
in the econd
nstance vincesnotthe lightestign hat t s capable of
comprehending,
uch ess
executing,
he
truly
erculean
ask that s
required
efore
he
battle
or
erusalem
an
really e oined.
WhatCan Be
Done?
If, then,Jerusalem
as been takenfrom he
Palestinians y Israel,
dispossessing
hem f
t,
what are
thevalues and
principles hatneed
to be
asserted?
What
are
waysby
which
t
can be
repossessed
n
the
future?erusalem,
or ll
itsvaunted
anctity
nd
importance,
s
no dif-
ferent
rom
he
other
ccupied
erritories
n
principle:
hat
s, according
to nternational
aw,
t
s not
srael's lone to
disposeof,
r to build
n,
or to
exploit
o theexclusion f Palestinians nd others. rom he out-
set, hen,
we need
a clear tatementf
purpose
o
guideour-way,
nd
if
this neffectnvolves ethinkingndredoingOslo,then o be it. srael
has been
reinterpreting,
r rather
iolating,
slo all
along.
But
imply
o
speak
aboutEastJerusalem
echanically
s
Arab s not
enough. myself
o notat
all
believe
t s
in
our nterestss a
people
to
introduce nother ivision
n a
city
hat
has remained
thnicallyepa-
ratedalbeit
municipally lued together
n
the manner hat srael has
done
it;
think
t wouldbe
much
better
o set an
example
nd
provide
an alternative
o such methods s
Israel's
by projecting
n
image
ofthe
whole
of
Jerusalem
hat
s
truer
o its
complex
mixture
f
religions,
histories,nd cultureshan heone ofJerusalems somethinghatwe
would
ike
to sliceback nto wo
parts.
Of
courseEast
Jerusalem
s
part
of
the
occupied
West
Bank,
nd this
point
needs to be
made
over nd
over
gain;
as
such
therefore
t
has to be reconnected
iththe
whole
issue of
iberating
alestinians
rom
he
burdens
f
sraeli
occupation.
But
beyond
hatJerusalem
s the
one
place,which,
or hereasons
gave
earlier, eally
an be a siteof coexistence nd
sharing
etween
s and
-
8/11/2019 Projecting Jerusalem
8/10
12 JOURNAL F PALESTINE TUDIES
the sraelis.
or
that eason,we should nsist n speaking fJerusalem
as a citywith oint sovereigntynd a joint and cooperative ision, nd
in factwe are already oing o, based on theprinciple four self-deter-
mination nd independence s a people and as a society.
Thepresent A s, of course, ncapable fproviding guiding ision
onJerusalem ecause
t has
become heprisoner,fnot also thedutiful
enforcer,
f
the sraeli
occupation egime. am firmlyonvinced hat
Israeland theUnited tateshave factoredn Mr.Arafat's hronic isa-
bilities nd
incompetencies
nd now
count
on him
to continue o do
whathehasalways one,with he ameterribly ixed-I speak euphe-
mistically,f course-results.
It thereforealls o thediasporaPalestinians, ho constitutehema-
jority
f
Palestinians
n
the world nd who
producedthe PLO
in
the
first lace, to take
the nitiative n
Jerusalem
nd the
other ccupied
territories.
e cannot
accept
the
ogic
that
the
only
role leftforthe
Palestinians
s to
capitulate
nd
accept
hedictates f he
trong,
r that
since the
agenda
is now
peace-albeit peace
on Israeli and American
terms-wemust
forget
ur
history
f sacrifice.We
cannot emain ilent
aboutreparations
nd restitution
uringnegotiations
hat
virtuallye-
quire
us to
giveup
our own
identityust
to
satisfy
he
paranoid de-
mands of Israel'ssecurity bsession.We must, believe,n our own
minds akethat ery mportant
irst
tep,
which s to tell
ourselves hat
our
goals
are realizable nd can-indeed
must-be
worked
or.
After
ll,
Resolutions
42 and
338,
the
supposed
basis of
peace
between
Arabs
and
Israelis,
re
being
contravened
very ay by
srael:Can
these
reso-
lutions
not ever
gain
be
mentioned?
n
addition,
we
need
some fair
and
reasonable ccounting
f our assets. There
s,
as
I
mentioned,
considerable
alestinian
ump
n
the
diaspora, group
thathas
pro-
duced much
that
oday's
alestinians
ossess, materially
nd
morally.
We constitute a formidable nongovern-
mental esource,
nd
thismust t last
be
Jerusalem
S now
the front
mobilized.Jerusalem, o central to the
Plesinith
s
lef
land
itself,
s
now the front ine in the
Plesteinatian.
elstruggle
for
alestinian elf-determination.
Therefore
t
mustbe the
hub of
all
our ef-
forts-subsidized, ramatized,
nd cam-
paigned
or
nstintingly,ollectively.
hatever
lse
t
maybe,Jerusalem
has the
merit f
lluminating
he
difference
etween n
exclusivist,
ar-
rowly deological erceptionfhistory
nd
society,
nd one we need
to
formulatendwork
for,
visionthat s
catholic, nclusive,
nd liberat-
ing.
And it is also the
place
where
he sraelishave staked
theirmost
determined,
ost
uncompromising
fforts.
I
do not
see how
anything
an
be done to nhibit r somehow ffect
Israel'smeasures
n
Jerusalem
ithout
ttending
o the nformational-
ideological
frameworkt has erected round the
city.
For it is
in
the
-
8/11/2019 Projecting Jerusalem
9/10
PROJECTING ERUSALEM 13
conceptual rameworkroundJerusalemhat srael s mostvulnerable
to ntellectualnd moralmobilization y ts opponents. coordinated,
well-plannednformationampaignmustbe devised o bring he facts
to the ttentionfJerusalem'snormous orldwide onstituency.s no
one needs to be
reminded, acts ever peak for hemselves. heymust
be
articulated,isseminated,eiterated,nd recirculated. e must ake
seriously
he enormous
mpact
of
preparingminds and heartswith
facts ndfigures, ithnformationhat ounteractshepernicious alsi-
fications bout Palestinians nd Jerusalem hat srael has put about.
This is something hat, or easons that find ompletelymysterious,
Palestinian eaders have
alwaysmisunderstood,articularlyt times
likethis,when sraelrelies o heavily n thevirtual bsenceofPalestin-
ian voices and counterrepresentations.hy, or xample, ave srael's
plans for he festival elebrating erusalem's 3,000 years s
a
Jewish
capital gone
without serious
organized esponse
from
alestinians
and
others?
o
suggest
hat here
as been
an
unbroken
,000 years
f
Jewish overeignty
n
thecity
s a
fancifulrojection oisted n minds
assumed
o
be
ignorant
nd
gullible.
Unless srael's ssertion hatJeru-
salem is and
always
was an
essentially ewish ity
s shown forthe
fraudulentlaim t s; unlessJerusalems reprojectednd represented
as a jointlyheldcapital,not as an exclusively ewish apital, hecity
will
continue o be hostage o Israel'sdeeplyoffensiveesigns.
There s, in short, generously clectichistory fJerusalem o be
excavated nd insertedntothedebatenow dominated
y srael;there
is
also a redoubtable et ofother, on-Jewishnterests
o be made
clear;
and
there
s,
at the
very east,
truer
map
to
be drawn
nd clarified
nd
mobilized round.
Tacit
acceptance
or
silence
n
the face
of uncon-
tested ssertionsmustbe
dispelled
nd dissolved. his means
explicitly
advancing
much
clearer,
more
principled
alestinian
iew of
peace
and,at the sametime, igorouslyriticizingheorigins s wellas the
course
of
Palestinian
articipation
n
the
negotiations.
Such
a
program
oes
not seem
to me either
quixotic
r an
unrealis-
tic
strategy
o
pursue.
We have a
gigantic
slamic
and Arab constitu-
ency,
a Western
constituency,
Christian
one. There is also
a
considerable,hough artly ubmerged,
eadiness n
the
part
of other
Europeans, mericans,
ome
Jews,
nd others o isten
o an
alternative,
less
unpleasant
ourse
by
whichreal
peace
can be achieved.
t
is also
the asethatmanyArabs nEgypt, ordan, yria,North frica,heGulf,
and
elsewhere
re not
ready imply
o normalize
r
complacently
all
into
bed with
srael,
no
matterwhat the various autocrats
ay
who
somewhat
mysteriously
un
things
n a
politically
ssified
Arabworld.
Obviously
here s
apprehension
bout
stimulatingor
even
olerating)
debate
on
ideology,
ince that
might pill
over nto criticism
f Arab
governmentalolicies
on civil
ife, ationality,
nd human
ights.
ut
-
8/11/2019 Projecting Jerusalem
10/10
14
JOURNAL OF
PALESTINE STUDIES
realcampaign
or erusalemannot, n
my pinion, e deterredy uch
considerations, or
will
t be.
Forperhaps the time t lastapproacheswhen the Arabworldcan
begin to free
tself rom hemiserable, mpoverishing,nd
undemo-
cratic ife
mposed
on it
by
ts eaders.
A
campaign or
erusalem f the
sort
havebeen speaking bout s part
of thatprocess, nd
it is cer-
tainly
strong
ntidote o the
drifting,mpossibly nwise
coursenow
being
undertaken
y
the
Arabs, sraelis, nd Americans
eneaththe
tattered anners f the
peace process. do not see thatoverly
raised
and
defended rocess
s
leading
o thekind of
peace
most
people
can
livewith or
ny ength
f
ime: he
tensions, isequilibrium,
nd dislo-
cationsgenerated y Israel'spartially ealizeddesigns nJerusalem
prove his, ince
Jerusalem
s notthe
xception
uttherealruleofwhat
the
deologicalmperative
ictates.
PerhapsJerusalem, ith ts thousands f new
Jewish esidents,
ts
dislodged
Arabs,
nd its
llegally cquired
paces,
s
already
ost.
f t
s,
then
peace
in
this
generation
s not
at hand. This needs
to
be
clearly
understood
nd
acted
on with
ntelligent
etermination.n
the other
hand,
t
is never oo late
for
vitalized nd
energized olitical
will
to
spring
nto
ction,
nd then
maybe-just
maybe-a
better
eace
can oc-
cur, lthoughwemaynever ee itwithour owneyes.
NOTES
1. See Benny Morris,
Falsifying he Record: A
FreshLook at Zionist
Documentation f
1948,
JPS
24, no. 3 (Spring 1995), pp. 44-62.
2. See Housing-in astJerusalem, 994, prepared
by the Jerusalem nformation enter
and repro-
duced
in
JPS 24,
no. 4
(Summer 1995), p.
142.
3. See the recent eportApril 1995) in theWash-
ington
ost
by
Elaine RuthFletcher.
4. Burhan ajani, The September
993 Israeli-
PLO Documents: Textual nalysis,
PS 3,no. 3
(Spring 994),p. 17.
5. Accordingo Yedi'ot haranot,7 January995,
Arafatoncededn a press onference
hat erusa-
lemwas
an
internalsraelimatter.