T. Belman. I see no benefit to Israel retaining these lands as part of Jerusalem. Of course these people work in Jerusalem and will have to be allowed in through check points to work. A barrier must be constructed separating the parts we don’t want from the parts we do want.
It was originally thought that these Arabs would opt for citizenship and thus cement our hold on all the annexed parts. But it didn’t work out this way. I doubt if the leaders at the time envisioned our present reality, they would never have annexed.
This will free us up to build anywhere else in remaining lands annexed to Jerusalem and will remove the uncertainly in planning for infrastructure.
Op-ed: It’s time to fix the tragic mistake made in 1967 and remove most of the 28 Palestinian villages from Jerusalem’s municipal area, thereby returning 200,000- 250,000 of the city’s Palestinian residents to the West Bank.
Politicians from most Zionist parties swear nearly every day that “Jerusalem is united. The city joined together will never be divided.”
In their foolishness, ignorance and political fear, they are ignoring – knowingly or unknowingly – the known truth: The vast majority of what are called today “the East Jerusalem neighborhoods” were never part of the city in any historical era, so there is no justification for them being part of Israel’s capital today.
The 28 villages were annexed to Jerusalem in a strange process after the Six-Day War. With the thrust of a loss of judgment, the Palestinians became one-quarter of “greater” Jerusalem’s residents. It was, undoubtedly, one of the most foolish acts in the history of Zionism, and we have been paying a heavy, bloody price for it. Israel’s capital today has more Palestinians than Zionist Jews.
Those who sanctify the current situation are basically supporting the alleged “greater” Jerusalem, which includes Jabel Mukaber, the Shuafat refugee camp, Qalandiya, Sur Baher, Walajeh and everything between them. Today, there are more than 300,000 Palestinians living there, making up 37.5 percent of the residents of the city which has been joined together.
Even more serious is the fact that the Arabs make up 57 percent of the group of educational system ages – the ages of kindergarten, elementary school and high school in the capital. Amazing? Terrifying? Well, that’s the way it is.
And if that were not enough, an overwhelming majority of these young Palestinians study according to an “updated” Palestinian curriculum, which includes, at best, clear anti-Zionist content, and in other cases, incitement and lies. Occasionally, it is fully funded by the Israeli taxpayer.
The Seam Line area between the Palestinian villages and Jewish Jerusalem has become a no man’s land from a security and criminal perspective. We have recently been exposed to a horrifying number: From 2006 to 2014, there were 800 sexual assaults of Jewish girls, mostly by Palestinians. And that is only part of the expressions of violence and hostility.
The Netanyahu government is continuing to perpetuate and institutionalize the current situation. It is paying pensions and social grants, amounting to NIS 2 billion (about $520,000) a year, but is neglecting the Palestinian neighborhoods in all other areas of life, is failing to supervise the educational system and is preventing the municipality and police, and even the Border Guard and the other arms of the law, from entering these villages.
The Palestinian incitement elements are infiltrating this void, and on the margins of Netanyahu’s greater Jerusalem, armed forces of the Fatah brigades, who no one has control over, are walking around, openly even.
This absurd and intolerable situation must be changed, immediately. The government must decide as soon as possible that the tragic mistake made in 1967 has to be fixed and remove most of the 28 Palestinian villages from the Israeli sovereign area and Jerusalem’s municipal area, thereby returning 200,000 to 250,000 of Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents to the West Bank. It’s obvious that as a result, these residents will lose their entitlement to Israeli identity cards and their rights as permanent residents of Jerusalem and Israel.
The security status of these villages will be similar to the other villages near Jerusalem, like Abu Dis and al-Eizariya. A massive separation fence, a continuation of the existing separation barrier from Qalandiya to Shuafat, will be erected between them and the real historic Jerusalem, which includes West Jerusalem and the Old City, Mount Scopus, the Mount of Olives and neighborhoods like Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah.
All the villages that will return to the West Bank will be under the responsibility of the Israeli security forces, in a similar deployment to the one in Areas C and B.
All we have to do now is to amend Basic Law: Jerusalem so that all the Palestinian villages will return to the West Bank, and Jerusalem – with a large Jewish majority and the Holy Basin within its boundaries – will be under Israeli sovereignty. That is the way to restore security for the citizens of Jerusalem and all of Israel.
Haim Ramon served as a Knesset member and minister from 1983 to 2009 on behalf of the Labor Party and Kadima.
Shmuel Sackett has observed every Jewish politician in the Knesset supports a Band-Aid solution.
Basically, they all favor papering over the real problem and fervently hoping the Arabs will go back to their accustomed role of being hewers of wood and carriers of water.
Its a little late for that – the Arabs have rejected the Jews and want to expel them from the country.
For them, a two state solution is merely another way to perpetuate Israeli colonialism.
The Israeli elite is slow to get the message the old formula so dear to them no longer works – and they’re at a loss on how to respond to the Arab challenge.
Israel has two rational choices to the conflict. No one is not a two state solution for two people as the Palestinians do not accept the permanence of the Jews.
One is try and minimize damage caused by the Palestinians and keep fighting with one hand tied behind its back when the Palestinians try their various forms of attack periodically as advocated by Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ya’alon.
The second option is drive out forcibly all terrorists and their supporters. Allow Arabs who demonstrate loyalty (such as the Druze and many Bedoin) to keep enjoying full civil rights. Palestinian polls say 70% of the population of East Jerusalem, Gaza and Judah/Samaria (West Bank) would like to emigrate to the west. Assistance to these people should be extended to fulfill their desire to emigrate. This would allow for actual peace between Israel and the remaining Arabs.