The day before Thanksgiving, I ran across an AP article online about the settlement issue in East Jerusalem. I knew that East Jerusalem had been annexed by Israel after the 1967 war, but I didn't realize that no other nation recognized this annexation. Thus, I understand why the Palestinians view the East Jerusalem Jewish neighborhoods as illegal settlements. This is a much more heated issue than the settlements in the West Bank. I have spoken to many Jews here (although they have mostly been the international students at Rothberg) who oppose the occupation and who are in favor of a two-state solution in which Israel would withdraw from settlements in the West Bank. However, not all of the people who support that also support the division of Jerusalem, with East Jerusalem for the capital of the new Palestinian state. I would speculate that most Jews believe that Jerusalem should remain united and under Israeli control, with equal access to the Old City/holy sites. This is also a much more tangible issue for me, and the other international students, because I basically live in one of the so-called "Jewish neighborhoods" of East Jerusalem. The Hebrew University Mount Scopus campus has always been under Israeli control (although it was closed from 1948-1967 due to its location in East Jerusalem), and I assume that the kfar was built on land that originally belonged to Hebrew U. But when I exit through the north gate to go to the store or to catch a bus, I am in French Hill, which is a post-1967 neighborhood. At least, unlike like some of the other "neighborhoods" in East Jerusalem, the French Hill area (from what I have read) was not occupied by Arabs prior to the construction of the neighborhood. (Of course, I have also been told that there was nothing in Israel between the expulsion of the Jews after the Bar Kochba revolt and the Zionist movement that led to Jewish immigration...)
Now I have never been shy about the fact that I am pro-Palestine (although I still maintain that one can be pro-Palestine without being anti-Israel, and presumably, vice versa), and the issue of East Jerusalem is no different. I previously (naively) assumed that East Jerusalem would be granted to Palestine in any two-state solution. Any claim to Jerusalem as the rightful Jewish capital is null when it comes to East Jerusalem. Jerusalem, under Hebrew/Israelite/Jewish control, never included East Jerusalem. At most, the biblical Jerusalem included the modern-day City of David, Temple Mount and Western Hill (essentially, the land directly south of the Temple Mount and the Old City). There is no historical reason why the Palestinians should not be granted East Jerusalem as their capital. Of course, for political reasons, having the Israeli and Palestinian capitals literally on top of each other could be volatile, but the original UN partition of 1948 divided Jerusalem so that both states could have it as their capital.
Of course, it is easy for me to sit here and loudly proclaim into cyberspace that the settlements must go. It doesn't really affect me in the least. Peace (a two-state solution) will not be reached while I am living here, and while I plan to visit Israel in the future, perhaps even for extended stays (say, as I am working on my dissertation), the personal impact on me will be minimal. I am not a resident of a settlement or of an East Jerusalem Jewish neighborhood. There is no threat of me being permanently displaced. So it's easy for me to say that East Jerusalem should go to the Palestinians and that the settlements need to be disbanded ASAP. I don't have to deal with the logistical nightmare that accompanies such a plan - What do you do with all of those now-homeless residents? Is a "simple" house-swap (Palestinian to Israeli and vice versa) feasible? (Are there enough homes on both sides of the equation? Are they of comparable size and worth?) What kind of impact would it have on the economy and on the job situation? (although, from my understanding, many settlers work in Israel, not the West Bank, so that wouldn't be so much an issue for them) How will it affect the children who are ripped from their homes, their schools and their friends? How do the refugees factor into all of this? and so on and so forth.
But the bottom line, I believe, is that regardless of the headaches it might cause in the mean time, a two-state solution is much preferable to the alternative - increasing violence and war. And while I do not have anything to gain or lose in how the land is shuffled around, I have a lot at stake when it comes the need for peace in the Middle East. We all do. This land is holy, and not just because blood is continuously split on it. It is at the heart of the three major religions of the world, and we all deserve safe and equal access to our spiritual homeland. It is not fair for the Jewish people to claim it as their own - nor would it be fair for the Muslims or Christians to do likewise. We all go back to Abraham, and therefore, this land belongs to all of us. While our religions are different, our God is the same. For that reason alone, we must learn how to get along, how to love our neighbor, whether they be Jewish, Muslim or Christian, both here in Israel and in the greater world - but especially here in Israel.
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