All Quiet on the Palestine-Israel Front

On November 18, 2014 cousins Abed Abu Jamal and Mohammed Abu Jamal from the Palestinian village of Jabel Mukabbir in East Jerusalem, armed with axes, knives and guns, burst into Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Hof district, killing five and wounding seven worshippers. The international community, including Russia, vehemently condemned this monstrous act of terrorism. Although the global media coverage of the tensions and violence in Jerusalem was sufficiently detailed, not many have properly identified the location of the crime.

On November 18, 2014 cousins Abed Abu Jamal and Mohammed Abu Jamal from the Palestinian village of Jabel Mukabbir in East Jerusalem, armed with axes, knives and guns, burst into Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Hof district, killing five and wounding seven worshippers. Both assailants were shot dead by police.

The international community, including Russia, vehemently condemned this monstrous act of terrorism. Irrespective of the motive, murdering peaceful citizens is a crime that cannot be justified by any political or religious aims. Naturally, the Israeli authorities responded in their traditional manner by issuing orders to demolish the attackers’ houses, deport their relatives and reinforce police and security forces in East Jerusalem.

Although the global media coverage of the tensions and violence in Jerusalem was sufficiently detailed, not many have properly identified the location of the crime. Before the 1948-1949 Arab-Israeli conflict, what is now Har Nof had been the Arab village Deir Yassin, whose residents used to be on good terms with their Jewish neighbors, and generally did not get involved in skirmishes between Jewish and Arab combatants [1]. However, the heights above the village were of strategic significance and on April 7, 1948 members of Irgun Zevai Leumi and Lohamei Herut Israel [2] annihilated the village, killing between 107 and 240 peasants, mostly children, women and the elderly [3]. The settlement was razed to the ground, and survivors evicted to Jordan. This atrocious crime sparked indignation in the global Jewish intellectual elite including Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Rabbi Cardozo and many others [4].

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The ruins of Deir Yassin had long been a no man’s land, and it was only in 1980 that the Hardelim, the religious ultra-orthodox nationalists that form the vanguard of the Israeli settlers' movement, began building their homes there in order to achieve their earthly mission of cleansing the entire territory of Eretz Israel [5], primarily Jerusalem, of the infidel, i.e. Arabs [6]. Currently, the former Deir Yassin has several dozen houses for about 20,000 Jews. During the 1949-1967 period of separated Jerusalem, 40 villages and 10,000 Palestinian homes were destroyed, with 64,000 Palestinians forcibly moved to its eastern part [7]. After East Jerusalem was occupied during the 1967 war, the Palestinians were systematically driven out of the city. Today, the Jewish sector of East Jerusalem is home to 211,500 Jews and 247,800 Arabs [8], with the Jewish population growing during the past five years by over 40,000 [9]. This trend is definitely stimulated by the Israeli government, and in 2015 the Jewish population may exceed that of the Arabs, which is of course worrisome for Palestinian society.

The situation is aggravated by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government's policy of stepping up construction on the West Bank, with the number of Jewish settlements there, including East Jerusalem, reaching 150 with a total population of 520,000 [10]. After elections in January 2013, Netanyahu's new government rapidly approved 84 additional construction projects, and stressed its resolve neither to freeze nor wind up its incursion into Palestinian territories [11]. The ruling Likud bloc is willing to adopt a law on "the Jewish essence of the State of Israel", with the controversial bill approved by the Israeli government and about to be introduced in the Knesset [12].

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The Israeli delegation’s demand to recognize the "Jewish essence of the State of Israel" virtually undermined U.S.-mediated Palestinian-Israeli talks held from July 29, 2013 to April 24, 2014. The legitimization of the "Jewish national state" status for Israel and Jerusalem will obviously deprive the Palestinians of their spiritual, cultural and historical center and kill the very idea of building a Palestinian state.

Should the bill be approved by the Knesset, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations will be rendered meaningless. During the meeting of foreign ministers of Arab states on November 29, the Palestinian Authority’s leader Mahmud Abbas explicitly confirmed that that "the Palestinians will never recognize Israel as the Jewish state" [13]. The same refers to the one-million-plus Palestinians who make up 20.7 percent of Israel's population [14].

With Likud office, Israel will never take constructive steps to resolve the Palestinian conflict within the "two states for two peoples" formula. The most likely scenario for Israeli leaders seems to be achieving a balance between peace and war in parallel with intensive settlement construction to exploit the instability and win time until the situation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem becomes irreversible. In the near future, a plan to designate up 50-60 percent of the West Bank territory for the establishment of a politically and economically dependent demilitarized state surrounded by Israel is likely to be imposed upon the Palestinians, as was the case with demarcation of Gaza Strip in 2005. The implementation of this scheme will be undeniably followed by the establishment of the Gaza-like regime with full external control over the territory and population of the West Bank.

Notes

1. Levi, Yitzhak. Nine Measures, Tel-Aviv: Maarachot, Тhe Israel Defense Army Press, 1986. РР. 340—341.

2. Irgun Zevai Leumi was a military organization of the Palestinian Jewish community headed 1943 by Menachem Begin (Israeli prime-minister in 1977-1983). Lohamei Herut Israel was an underground military organization set up in 1940 and for some time led by Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli prime-minister in 1983-1984 and 1988-1992.

3. Kana'ana S., Zeitawi N. The Village of Deir Yassin, Destroyed Village Series, Berzeit University Press, 1988. – Р. 57; Tveit O. K. Anna's House. The American Colony in Jerusalem. Rimal Publications. РР. - 380-381; The New York Times, 13.05.1948.

4. New Palestine Party: Visit of Menachem Begin and Aims of Political Movement Discussed. The New York Times, 12/04/1948.

5. Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel) is described by the Old Testament as the territory granted by the Lord to Abraham and his descendants, with the Promised Land stretching from the River of Egypt to the River of Euphrates (Genesis 15:18). The Exodus describes the south-to-north limits of Eretz Israel, i.e. from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean (Exodus 23:31). For settling the tribes of Israel, the Bible also mentions the territory of modern Jordan and southern parts of Lebanon and Syria (Numbers 32:33-42; 34:3-12; Deuteronomy 3:8-17; Joshua 14-17).

6. Eldar A., Zertal I. Lords of the Land: The War for Israel's Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007, New York, Nation Books, 2007. РР. 28-29.

7. PASSIA Diary. Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, East Jerusalem, 2009. – Р. 394.

8. Statistical Yearbook for Jerusalem, 2007-2008. Jerusalem: Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies, 2008. Population in Israel and in Jerusalem, by Religion, 1988-2007. Table III/10; Population of Jerusalem, вy Аge, Religion and Geographical Spreading, 2007. Table III/11.

9. Ibid. Sources of Population Growth in Jerusalem, by Population Groups and Statistical Areas, 2007. Table III//9.

10. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs occupied Palestinian territory. The Humanitarian Impact of Israeli Settlements Policies, December 2012.

11. Krylov A.V. The Forthcoming Israeli Elections and Future Middle East Settlement. MGIMO-University website http://www.mgimo.ru/news/experts/document229148.phtml

12. Netanyahu's cabinet approves controversial bill enshrining Israel as “Jewish nation-state” , Ha-Aretz, 11/23/2014.

13. Abbas: We will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state, The Jerusalem Post, 11/30/2014.

14. Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. April 14, 2013. Retrieved December 6, 2013.