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November 17, 2000/Heshvan 19, 5761, Vol. 53, No.8
Jerusalem's fate
The Palestinian Authority wants to negate Jewish claims to Judaism's holiest city
RABBI ROBERT L. KRAVITZ
Special to Jewish News
When Israelis and Palestinians find a way to return to negotiations on final status issues, Jerusalem again will loom as large as it did last July when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat met at Camp David.
At the time, Israel was willing to consider for discussion far-reaching compromises. Arafat balked, insisting that the Old City of Jerusalem, including the holiest sites in Judaism, come under exclusive Palestinian control.
The tragic and senseless violence of the past month - and the concomitant calls for a holy war against Israel and Jews worldwide - has set back the chances for concluding in the near term a permanent Israeli-Palestinian agreement. It certainly has made it much more difficult for Israel to consider the proposed solutions for Jerusalem that were being contemplated a few months ago.
Durable Israeli-Palestinian peace - indeed, a permanent end to the Arab-Israeli conflict - can only be achieved on the basis of mutual political recognition, mutual respect, and education for peace.
Mutual recognition was achieved in 1993, when Israel and the PLO agreed to embark on an intensive new phase of the peace process, setting the stage for an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza and launching a potentially new era of peaceful cooperation. From the beginning, both sides agreed that Jerusalem, the most complex issue on the table, would be left for the final stage of negotiations. That would presumably allow for the development of greater trust between Israelis and Palestinians.
But during the past seven years, the Palestinian Authority launched a pernicious campaign to negate any Jewish claims whatsoever to Judaism's holiest city, Jerusalem. Propagation of the false view that the Temple Mount is exclusive to Islam began long before Knesset member Ariel Sharon's visit on Sept. 28.
This campaign has intensified since Camp David. Members of Arafat's cabinet have publicly asserted that the First and Second Temples never existed, a bizarre claim, especially since they are mentioned in the Koran. Nevertheless, through the Palestinian Authority Web site, in media releases and in mosques in Palestinian-controlled areas, assertions flow claiming exclusive right to the Temple Mount. Myth is being rewritten as history before the world's eyes. So much for mutual respect and education for peace.
To support this campaign, the Palestinian Authority, using the Sharon visit as a pretext for renewed violence, has encouraged attacks on Israelis by spreading through Palestinian media and schools malicious rumors about the al-Aksa mosque, busing Palestinian children to violent demonstrations and thereby carelessly putting them directly in harm's way. Palestinian police did nothing to quell the brutal violence, and some used their weapons to participate in the assaults.
Too many in the international community bought the simplistic story of Israeli persecution and excessive use of force without ever asking the tough questions about Palestinian behavior or motives. Too many politicians and journalists also lost sight of the significance of Jerusalem to Judaism, not just to Islam. Somehow, they have forgotten or conveniently ignored Jerusalem's centrality to Jewish history and identity for over 3,000 years. They have ignored the 19-year period after Israel's independence in 1948 when Jews were denied any access to their holiest places and the revered Western Wall was nothing more than an alleyway strewn with refuse.
In total contrast, Israel has always recognized the sacred Islamic tie to the Temple Mount, allowing, since 1967, Muslim control of the two mosques while making every effort to assure free access for all faiths to their holy places throughout Jerusalem.
Arafat's uncompromising stance on Jerusalem has revealed the Palestinians' deep desire to return to those days of exclusive Islamic control over the cornerstone of Judaism, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, and once again raised profound security concerns about longer-term Arab and Palestinian goals as well.
Jerusalem, as well as the other issues on the table for a permanent agreement, can be resolved, but not through incendiary rhetoric and the calculated use of violence to regain international sympathy and put pressure on Israel for still further compromise.
Rabbi Robert L. Kravitz, D.D., is area director of the American Jewish Committee in Phoenix.
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