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.
Background Information
Historically an important city for the three Abrahamic faiths, Jerusalem has been at the centre of many defining moments in history, with the establishment of empires and structures of great religious importance. Bearing the visible scars from epic wars, the city today is a source of extreme injustice and discrimination for the Palestinian people.
For the Jews, the city bears a concoction of historical, political and spiritual symbolism that has now become manifest in their political and ideological agenda to unify Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Christians also have a claim to Jerusalem, as according to tradition, Jesus lived and died in the ‘holy land’ as well as having a spiritual connection to the Mount of Olives and Mount Zion1.
To the Islamic world, Al-Quds is an integral part of its faith, being the home of its third holiest mosque after the Scared Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s in Madinah respectively. The Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount and the Al-‘Aqsa Mosque are closely associated with Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) night journey and ascension to Paradise2.
Judaization of Jerusalem begins
The 1967 six-day war ended with the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem. Israel claims it had been a legal expansion of its municipal borders creating a ‘Greater Jerusalem’, but critics of the regime state it had been an illegal annexation from its very conception. At the time, the Levi Eshkol government vehemently denied that East Jerusalem had been annexed. On the contrary it claimed that it had imposed the subsequent system of laws so that the practical requirements of the inhabitants in the affected area could be met effectively3.
Back then, any hint of an official annexation would have severely damaged Israel’s image and would have resulted in a confrontation with the international community due to the historical, symbolic and religious significance of the city. Furthermore, the legal implications of an annexation within the international legal framework would have been difficult to overcome4 together with political and ideological difficulties arising within the Israeli government itself5. Finally, a direct annexation would have required the government to enforce Israeli citizenship on the inhabitants, which would not have boded well with their original plans of ‘gaining the land without its people’.
On the final day of the six-day war, the government ordered for the Moroccan Quarter in the Old City to be demolished - to allow for easier public access to the Western Wall. The aftermath left 650 inhabitants homeless, many others dead under the rubble6, the destruction of two mosques and other religious or cultural sites, setting the tone for what lay ahead in the coming decades.
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