Mapping Jerusalem
Amos Gil said his October 26th Harris School presentation on Jerusalem’s political geography might as well be called “What the hell is really going on in Jerusalem?” The city has been sliced and stretched so much in recent decades that many are unsure of its exact boundaries.
Gil, a former executive director and founding member Ir-Amim and a captain in the Israeli defense force, explained the territory Jerusalem encompasses. He also outlined the political and social complexities that Israeli leaders must keep in mind if they are to work out a two-state solution with their Palestinian adversaries.
Ir-Amim endorses the two-state solution but does not see it as a “rosy future tomorrow morning,” without consideration for the geographic and social challenges both Israelis and Palestinians stand to face.
After the 1967 Six-Day War, the Israeli government unilaterally decided to expand Jerusalem’s boundaries, he said. They stretched the city limits further south just above Bethlehem, a predominantly Palestinian territory. The new boundary also extended further east into Jordanian territory and slightly further north to encompass Israeli settlements. One of the reasons for this expansion was to make sure that Israel had as much land as possible around West Jerusalem. The Israeli government also wanted to exclude as many Palestinian towns as possible, which is why the southern boundary extended just short of Bethlehem. The third reason was to exploit the military advantages of the surrounding mountainous terrain. “It had nothing to do with holiness, or the sanctity of the city,” Gil said.
As a result, more than 70,000 Palestinians living on the Jordan side of the border now had permanent residence in Israel but no citizenship rights, such as the right to vote or the right to government representation.
After this expansion, violent conflicts arose between the Palestinians and Israelis within the new boundaries. In 2003 after the second Intifadah, Israeli leadership erected a physical border around the expanded Jerusalem. This ostensibly was to protect Israel from the growing Palestinian population and subsequent conflicts, not to make a political statement, Gil explained. However, the fence expanded the borders of Jerusalem even more, farther into the north and West Bank.
“It said to the world that if you have not recognized the new border, then now it will be clear,” Gill said. “For the first time Palestinians were completely cut off from the West Bank.”
Gill said his organization questioned whether this strategy would be effective in negotiating a two-state solution and whether this would put Israelis more at risk. They were enclosed with their Palestinian neighbors, making violent conflicts harder to escape. Because Jerusalem is now a mixture of both Palestinian and Israeli communities, slicing the land in two is not a viable option.
Ir-Amim’s goal is to analyze the shifts in boundaries and population as the two-state resolution is promoted. “We want to give this information to Israeli leaders,” Gill said, “so they will understand the implications of their decisions before they make them.” -Kadesha Thomas
