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A Jewish Obligation to Live in Jerusalem

[bitterlemons.org-Jerusalem Post] Mordechai Kedar - The struggle over the construction of a Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem is at heart a struggle over Israeli sovereignty in the city, based on 3,000 years of Jewish history in the holy city, long before Washington was the capital of the U.S., Paris the capital of France and Cairo the capital of Egypt. Zionism is based on the idea of returning to Zion, meaning to Jerusalem, not to Beersheva or Haifa or Jaffa. Jerusalem never was, even for a day, the capital of a Palestinian or Arab entity. After the Muslim conquest in the seventh century, the capital was Ramle, located 40 km. from Jerusalem. Even Jordan, which ruled eastern Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967, did not make it its capital. Accordingly, the Palestinian demand to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine has no basis in history. Concessions offered in neighborhoods adjacent to Jerusalem would place the capital of Israel within range of light weapons, enable snipers to target pedestrians, and return the city back to the pre-1967 days of protective walls. The territory of eastern Jerusalem was never under internationally recognized Jordanian sovereignty. Hence it is impossible to argue that it is "occupied territory." At most this is disputed territory and Israel has a considerable judicial advantage in seeking recognition of its annexation. The entire city of Jerusalem should be developed on the basis of Jewish-Arab equality. The writer is a lecturer in the Department of Arabic and a research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University.
2009-08-07 06:00:00
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