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May, 2003
To: Officers, Rabbis, Key Contacts
From: Richard B. Stone, Chairman
Betty Ehrenberg, Director, International and Communal Affairs
Re: Jerusalem – Talking Points II
As Yom Yerushalayim of 5763 approaches, we call upon our members to help
educate community, political, and media leaders, as well as the public at
large about the centrality of Jerusalem in Jewish life as the eternal,
undivided capital of Israel. Below are questions and answers that can help
you in your communications to political and media outlets:
Q: What are some facts about the history of the Jewish presence in
Jerusalem?
A: Jews have constituted the largest ethnic and religious community in
Jerusalem since at least 1840. At the start of the 19th century, the
population was estimated at 6,000. Some time between the 1840s and the
1870s, Jews became an absolute majority in the city’s population. Before
1865, the entire population lived behind the Old City’s walls. By 1917,
the population was 60,000 and more than 30,000 of those inhabitants were
Jewish. By 1948, the population had reached 165,000, 100,000 of whom were
Jewish. During the 19 year Arab rule of the eastern part of the city, the
Arab population remained static; it has doubled since 1967. In 1990, the
population of the city was 515,000, 370,000 of whom were Jews.
Q: Is Jerusalem equally holy to both Muslims and Jews?
A: Mecca and Medina are the first and second holiest cities for Muslims to
which Muslims are obliged to make pilgrimage, while Jerusalem is third.
The Muslim claim of connection to Jerusalem comes from the Muslim belief
that Mohammed, after his death, ascended to Heaven from the site of the
Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, although he never visited it during his
lifetime. Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Koran, yet mentioned
hundreds of times in the Bible. Jerusalem was never a provincial capital
nor a major cultural or economic center under Islamic rule, and, in fact,
remained a small, impoverished town under Muslim control. For Jews, there
is no earthly comparison to Jerusalem. It is Judaism’s holiest city and
has been so for more than 3,000 years, embodying the history, hopes, and
longing of the Jewish people.
Q: The Palestinians claim that Jerusalem is their capital – what is the
basis for that?
A: For the Palestinian Arabs, as well as all Moslems, the question of
“whose capital?” has only recently become relevant. Even in the heyday of
Arab sovereignty in the Middle East, when the Arab empire stretched from
Baghdad in the east to Morocco and Spain in the west, the capital was
always Baghdad or Damascus or Cairo, and never Jerusalem. Until 1967, East
Jerusalem was governed by Jordan, but the Jordanians did not see fit to
make it their capital. The Jordanians poured their efforts into the
development and expansion of Amman and Jerusalem was allowed to fall into
decay. During the Six Day War in 1967, the once-divided city was liberated
and reunited under Israeli sovereignty.
Israel declared Jerusalem its capital in 1948. This was reiterated by the
government in July 1967. In 1980, the Knesset reaffirmed the status of the
reunified city as Israel’s capital, however this did not meet with
international approval, and many countries pulled their embassies out of
Jerusalem and moved them to Tel Aviv. Even the United States to this day
chose not to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the unified city.
Jerusalem is viewed as “occupied territory” by the UN and many Western
governments.
The Arab claim to East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state is
unfortunately gaining support. Islamic holy sites are not, as a rule, the
capital of the country. The most obvious example is Saudi Arabia whose
capital is Riyadh and not Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. The capital of
Turkey is Ankara, and not Istanbul where their most important mosques are
located. Amman remained the capital of Jordan and not Jerusalem.
Q: Can Israel and the Palestinians share Jerusalem as capital of two
states?
A: The Israeli and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem do share and live
together in the city, but nowhere in the world does one city serve as the
capital of two countries. It is simply not feasible. In the case of
Jerusalem, it would inevitably lead to re-dividing the city and the
building of a wall, and the return of frontier barriers and barbed wire.
Former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek said, “I do not believe that having
two sovereignties in one city is a feasible idea. Two sets of laws, two
rates of customs and taxation, two police forces – they are an invitation
to a boundary, and a boundary is an invitation to a wall. I for one have
not forgotten what a sad city Jerusalem was when it was divided.”
Israelis across the political spectrum agree that Jerusalem should remain
the undivided capital of Israel. Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres of the
Labor Party said, “Jerusalem will not be re-divided. It will not be a
Berlin. We shall establish neither barriers nor walls there. A city can
only be the capital of one country. One cannot have two capitals in one
city, because that would mean a division of Jerusalem. It is the
historical capital of Israel and Israel’s capital today… I would say in
the political sense, the issue of Jerusalem is closed and will remain the
united capital of Israel, whereas, from the religious aspect, it will
remain an open, spiritual center for three monotheistic religions”
(Interview with Israel TV, June 10, 1994).
On July 13, 1992, Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin stated to the Knesset,
“This government, like all of its predecessors, believes there is no
disagreement in this house about Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the
Jewish people, under Israeli sovereignty, a focus of the dreams and
longings of every Jew. The government is firm in its resolve that
Jerusalem will not be open to negotiation. The coming years will also be
marked by the extension of construction in Greater Jerusalem.”
More sources for this and additional information are:
www.mfa.gov.il
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
www.jerusalem-archives.org
www.myrova.com
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