1. Introduction: A call for the normalisation of relations.

A mere eleven minutes after Israel declared its independence in 1948, US President Harry Truman recognised the newly created state.  That instantaneous public support has never really wavered and ever since then the two countries have shared a "special relationship", one that is unlike any other. America has stood by Israel through thick and thin; right or wrong; supporting it on all fronts: financially, politically, diplomatically and militarily. However, many observers have for a long time now believed that this has become a toxic association, whereby America's entrenched and unwavering support for Israel is actually doing the United States more harm than good. In 2003 the European Commission conducted a poll across Europe in which 59% of those interviewed said they felt that Israel, America's staunchest ally, was in fact the greatest threat to world peace.

The Judaization of Jerusalem: A review of Israel’s escalating campaign of land seizures, house demolitions and eviction of Palestinians

By
Samira Quraishy
Analyst, Middle East Monitor, MEMO, London

Summary Points:

• Since its illegal annexation in 1967, East Jerusalem has been submerged in administrative, legal and bureaucratic milieu of laws to change its physical, cultural and spiritual character through a process of Judaization.
  
  
• The unrestricted expansion and funding of settlements, dispossession and demolition of Palestinian property and the Separation Wall surrounding the city has changed the demographics of city from a Palestinian to Jewish majority.
  
  
• The prominence given to Jewish settler organisations threaten the physical and demographic landscape of Jerusalem.
  
  
• The religious and cultural character of the city, including areas of worship are under imminent threat of destruction through excavation and sabotage.
  
  
• Israel’s policy of conquest by architectural means and the establishment of ‘facts on the ground’ should not be used as an excuse not to return the land and property to their rightful owners.