|
bitterlemons-international.org
Middle East Roundtable /
Edition 4
Jerusalem:
The beginnings of a solution
by Gilead Sher and Jonathan Gillis
[DEUTSCH]
The recent decision by Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
to allow the participation of Palestinians residing in East Jerusalem in the
forthcoming Palestinian elections surprised many. It was taken by some as a
sign of a new pragmatism on the part of the Israeli government. The Israeli
right took it as the thin end of a wedge: the phrase "they're about to
divide up Jerusalem" was swiftly dredged up, ironically a slogan originally
coined by Olmert himself and used against former prime minister Shimon
Peres, now a member of Olmert's party.
Pragmatic, yes, but not as part of a wider pragmatism with regard to
Jerusalem: beyond maintaining the present status quo, there has been no
official policy regarding East Jerusalem since the attempt, at the Camp
David talks and in the subsequent Clinton parameters, to present one. On the
other hand, in the present political climate no Israeli government is about
to begin dividing up Jerusalem.
Yet Jerusalem does require urgent action, and the anomalous legal status of
its Palestinian citizens in the forthcoming elections (Palestinian as well
as Israeli) merely highlights this need. Since Camp David, the situation on
the ground has been deteriorating greatly. A burgeoning population,
particularly in the Old City, inadequate (in some areas non-existent)
infrastructure, utilities, and public services, haphazard enforcement of
planning and construction laws, rising poverty and rising crime are together
creating a situation that is becoming ungovernable.
The status quo is no longer tenable.
A myriad of factors have contributed to the situation's present acuity:
legal factors (not least the effects of poorly conceived and poorly applied
Israeli laws creating the anomalous hybrid "permanent residency" status of
East Jerusalem Palestinians), political factors, historical and demographic
factors, and of course the recent effects of the boundary fence. None of the
political solutions broached since the Camp David talks--all variations on
positions taken then and on the Clinton parameters--provides concrete
answers to this plight, except for making a solution to the problems on the
ground contingent on a solution of the wider sovereignty issue. However,
when there is no perceivable Palestinian polity capable of assuming control
and governance over a Palestinian Jerusalem, and no Israeli political
consensus over the desirability of this happening, the likelihood of
anything like it taking place soon is rather remote.
Until this happens, the predicament of East Jerusalem and its population
requires that we look for practical solutions, and at the most basic level.
Since the overriding effects of the current situation are experienced at the
municipal level, it makes sense that the parties also begin seeking workable
solutions to these problems there--first and foremost, by creating bodies
(joint Israeli and Palestinian as well as separate) that could assume
responsibility for decisions over planning, the provision of utilities and
public services, transportation, and the maintenance of law and order.
To do this, we would propose setting up a two-tier system of municipal
government for the East Jerusalem area (the whole of this area, not merely
the area within the walls of the Old City). Boroughs would be established,
each with a council chosen from its population and each council with
representatives on an overall council, or municipal corporation. How the
boroughs would themselves be organized, what powers each would have and how
these might be exercised, and the interface between the overall council or
municipal corporation and existing bodies, are questions that require more
extensive treatment than may be sketched out here. It is the principle
behind the proposal that is presented here: to begin to find, in the
prevailing legal and political circumstances, mechanisms that are legally
and practically workable, which are capable of meeting at least some of the
immediate needs of the population, which avoid as far as possible the stigma
felt in the application of Israeli sovereign law to the area, and which
provide the beginnings of representation for the local population.
The aid of the international community should also be called upon in the
implementation of such a plan. Israel has already embarked on a positive
process of protecting East Jerusalem by applying the principles of the
UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural
Heritage and involving existing UNESCO mechanisms. Applied wisely and in
tandem with a practical plan for the area, UNESCO could prove an important
ally in tackling the area's acute problems as well as ensuring
non-controversial protection for sites of historical, cultural and religious
importance.
It will be argued that none of the above addresses the pressing issues of
the final-status arrangements for the area, the drawing of sovereignty
lines, the establishment of symbols of Palestinian sovereignty in the area
under Palestinian control, or the question of what to do with the Temple
Mount and the other Holy Places. Yet the pursuit of one need not cancel out
the other. The above plan would allow for the creation of the first
mechanisms of cooperation that would in any case be needed to make these
provisions possible.- Published 16/1/2006 © bitterlemons.org
Gilead Sher served as Prime Minister's Bureau head and policy coordinator
and was the Israeli co-chief negotiator in 1999-2001. Sher's book, Within
Reach: the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Negotiations, was recently published in
English by Routledge/Taylor & Francis. Jonathan Gillis is a senior associate
at Aaronsohn, Sher, Aboulafia, Amoday and Co., Law Offices and chairman of
"Bizchut", the Israel Human Rights Center for People with Disabilities.
[DEUTSCH]
Bitterlemons-international.org is an internet
forum for an array of world perspectives on the Middle East and its
specific concerns. It aspires to engender greater understanding about
the Middle East region and open a new common space for world thinkers
and political leaders to present their viewpoints and initiatives on the
region. Editors Ghassan Khatib and Yossi Alpher can be reached at
ghassan@bitterlemons-international.org
and
yossi@bitterlemons-international.org, respectively.
hagalil.com 22-01-2006 |
