Jerusalem: a Newly-Recognized East-West City

WAYNE MADSEN 

After the Berlin wall fell in 1989, the only major divided capital city in the world was Nicosia, split between its southern Greek part and its northern Turkish sector. Entrepreneurship resulted in the opening of a bar at the United Nations-operated crossing point between the Greek and Turkish sectors called “Checkpoint Charlie II,” a reference to the former crossing point between the American and Soviet sectors in Berlin.

Based on recent diplomatic moves, Nicosia could soon be joined by another officially divided city: Jerusalem.

With recent decisions by the Trump administration and its like-minded ally in Australia, the Scott Morrison government, the ground is being set for international recognition of two Jerusalems: east and west. During a Middle East policy speech in Sydney, Morrison recently announced that Australia was recognizing West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, citing the presence of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) in the western part of the city. However, Morrison also said that Australia was prepared to recognize East Jerusalem, which is claimed by Israel as part of is capital city, as the future capital of a Palestinian state, pending a negotiated settlement on borders between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Morrison said that Australia was going to begin to look for land for a future Australian embassy in West Jerusalem but that the Australian embassy would remain in Tel Aviv until a “final status” determination on Jerusalem was made by the principal parties, Israel and the Palestinians. However, Morrison did state that Australia would soon open a “trade and defense office” in West Jerusalem.

Israel illegally annexed East Jerusalem – including the “Old City” of Jerusalem, holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims – after the 1967 Israeli-Arab war. Previously, East Jerusalem was under the control of Jordan.

In December 2017, Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital but without acknowledging its claim over East Jerusalem. However, by declaring that the United States recognizes only a “united Jerusalem” as Israel’s capital, the Trump administration appeared to be recognizing Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem. Moreover, Trump ordered the US embassy in Tel Aviv moved to West Jerusalem. The United States also closed its Consulate-General for Jerusalem, a diplomatic mission that was always viewed as America’s diplomatic representation to the Palestinians. The Consulate-General’s functions were transferred to the US embassy in Jerusalem.

Making matters worse for East Jerusalem’s status, the Trump administration ordered closed the Palestine Liberation Organization’s mission in Washington, DC, which amounted to a total US rejection of the Oslo Accords of 1993, which led to the Palestinian official diplomatic presence in the US capital.

Morrison’s decision was met with immediate opposition from the Binyamin Netanyahu government. It rejected Australia’s notion that Jerusalem was divided. Palestine’s chief diplomatic negotiator, Saeb Erekat, also rejected Australia’s decision, stating to Reuters, “All of Jerusalem remains a final-status issue for negotiations, while East Jerusalem, under international law, is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory.”

Only Guatemala followed the US lead by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving its embassy to the city from Tel Aviv. Paraguay followed suit, but it soon announced that its embassy was moving back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem.

Australia’s recognition of only West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was similar to a similar declaration by Russia in April 2017. However, Russia also declared that East Jerusalem would be “the capital of the future Palestinian state.” The Israelis were as unhappy with Russia’s demarche as they were with Australia’s.

After initial jubilation by Netanyahu’s government over Morrison’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the details of Australia’s “shift” caused some degree of angst in Israel. Morrison also stated that Australia continues to support United Nations Security Council Resolutions 478 and 2334, both of which condemned Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem as illegal under international law. Morrison also condemned Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Morrison’s condemnation of the settlements was a far cry from the policies enunciated by Trump’s ambassador in Jerusalem, his former lawyer David Friedman, who refers to the West Bank as Israel’s fully-incorporated “provinces” of “Judea and Samaria.” Friedman’s lavish support for Netanyahu’s expansionistic policies is also backed by Trump’s two “envoys” for Middle East “peace” negotiations – his son-in-law Jared Kushner and another former Trump lawyer, Jason Greenblatt. Friedman, Kushner, and Greenblatt only favor “peace” on Israel’s terms, with the Palestinians being relegated to an occupied people devoid of basic human rights, including the inhabitants of East Jerusalem.

Brazil’s incoming far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has promised to move Brazil’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and close the Palestinian embassy in Brasilia. Based on Bolsonaro’s previous comments that reject the existence of a Palestinian people and nation, he may decide that Brazil should be the first country to establish an embassy in contested East Jerusalem, a move that will cost Brazil’s relations with the Arab and Muslim world dearly. The Arab countries annually import from Brazil $6 billion in poultry products. Such trade could suffer if Bolsonaro carries out his plans. Indonesia has already reacted negatively to Australia’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. A free-trade deal between Canberra and Jakarta may be one casualty of Morrison’s decision on Jerusalem.

The political status quo for Jerusalem appears to be similar to that of Nicosia. South Nicosia is the capital of the Republic of Cyprus. North Nicosia is the de facto capital of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a state that only Turkey recognizes as independent.

Israel vents its anger over the political division of Jerusalem, but that is exactly what it and Egypt did to the city of Rafah, which was once divided into a Gaza sector and an Egyptian one. Before Israel withdrew from Sinai in 1982, it destroyed the Gazan sector of Rafah, which included the city’s center. Between 2013 and 2015, Egypt, with Israel’s encouragement, destroyed its sector of Rafah, totally demolishing 3300 buildings, including private homes, in Egyptian Rafah. Thousands of people were forcibly evicted from their homes. The Rafah Crossing Point between Egypt and Gaza is now a militarized sector, with watch towers, sensors, and barbed wire.

Israel, through its draconian policies, seems intent on ridding East Jerusalem of its Arab population, just as Egypt de-populated its part of Rafah. Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Netanyahu, recently posted on Facebook the following:

“There will not be peace here until:

1. All the Jews leave the land of Israel.

2. All the Muslims leave the land of Israel.

I prefer the second option.”

Yair Netanyahu’s opinion is not an outlier in Israel. Many Israeli Jews agree with him.

There are other divided cities, but none stirs the passions of people around the world as does Jerusalem. Even war-torn Somalia has accepted the divided status of the city of Galkayo, split between the self-declared autonomous state of Puntland and the autonomous region of Galmudug.

Jordan, the Arab League, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have called on all countries to recognize the State of Palestine and East Jerusalem as its illegally occupied capital. Australia, in a move that was designed to help Israel, may have opened the door for more nations to recognize East Jerusalem as Palestine’s capital. There is a possibility that Jerusalem, one day, could be a divided city, with West Jerusalem as the internationally-recognized capital of Israel and East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. In that event, an enterprising businessman might open a “Checkpoint Charlie III” bar somewhere near the international crossing point.

The Australian Prime Minister’s Rapture for Jerusalem

by Dr Vacy Vlazna 

Trump’s declaration on recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the Israeli state and the transfer of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is the natural continuation of 100 years of colonization in Palestine and the 1917 Balfour Declaration. It is part and parcel of the ongoing attempt to liquidate Palestinian rights and to accelerate the ethnic cleansing of our people, especially in Jerusalem.Ahmad Sa’adat

Why the sudden Australian foreign policy shift on the matter of Jerusalem?

Initially PM Scott Morrison’s captain’s call to move the Australian embassy to Jerusalem was a desperate ploy to garner the Jewish vote in the October Wentworth by-election. The Morrison government was then warned against changes to Australia’s status on Jerusalem by its own Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Defence Department and ASIO.

The largest Muslim nation, Indonesia, Australia’s neighbour and largest trading partner, expressed its objection indicating the bilateral defence cooperation commitment may be threatened as well as $16.5 billion free trade (trade with Israel is worth $1.5 billion) agreement under negotiation.

At the East Asia Summit in Singapore, Malaysian PM Dr Mahathir’s reasonable prediction that an Australian embassy move was “adding to the cause for terrorism” was met by virulent condemnations of antisemitism by Australia’s Jewish treasurer, Josh Frydenberg.

On 11 December, PM Morrison announced that Australia intended to formally recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but, due to a $200 million cost, would delay moving its embassy from Tel Aviv.

On 15 December, at the pro-Israel Sydney Institute, Morrison announced a quasi-compromise; it recognised West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital preempting Jerusalem’s status as  a corpus separatum to be  resolved solely between Palestine and Israel.

The tone of his speech was like a comedy spoof of Moses carrying aloft divine pronouncements for his daring deliverance of Palestine and Israel – except there was nothing divinely newfangled to be heard. It amounted to a hardshell of the hackneyed ‘conventional wisdom’ replete with ambiguities and hasbara-cliches:

• Repeated slavish adherence to the dead, departed, defunct, belly-up two state solution.
• Israel = victim : Morrison bemoaned that there was “biased and unfair targeting of Israel,” “Israel is bullied” by “anti-Semitic agenda masquerading as defence of human rights” and  “ritual denunciations of Israel, ” Israelis “live under existential threat”

• but he was stridently silent on Palestinian suffering under Israeli brutal occupation. Morrison, the zionist apologist extinguished“what Rabbi Jonathan Sacks called the “five cardinal sins against human rights: racism, apartheid, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide.”

with

• “Think about it: a nation of immigrants; with a free press; parliamentary democracy; financially prosperous; the source of tremendous innovation in the world; and a refuge from persecution and genocide, is somehow the centre of cruelty in the world.”

Talk about ‘intellectual fraud’!

• The on-cue regurgitation of Israeli official propaganda that Palestine’s resistance movement under Hamas = terror.

• He stated, ‘the Australian Government has also resolved to acknowledge the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a future state’ but to date Australia has not joined the 137 nations that have recognised the State of Palestine  and under Morrison’s direction Australia abstained  on UN Resolutions that condemn Israel.

• The ‘rancid stalemate’ of Morrison’s moral retardation is no more evident than in his pious insolence that Australia has an entitlement to be an important voice for Israel; ‘We have turned up; we have played our part; we have done our share and we have paid the price through great sacrifice. That’s what gives us a microphone on this topic’. To back this up he rolls out the Battle of Beersheba but not the British -Anzac Sarafand Massacre as well as Australia’s key role in drawing up the partition of Palestine omitting that there was no legal mandate to do so,“The United Nations had no business offering the nation of one people to the people of many nations. Its General Assembly had neither the legal nor the legislative powers to impose such a resolution or to convey title of a territory; Articles 10, 11 and 14 of the UN Charter bestows the right on the General Assembly merely to recommend resolutions.”

It appears that Australian securitypressure has watered down Morrison’s gung ho recognition to only West Jerusalem. On 14 December, the Department of  Foreign Affairs warned Australians going to popular Indonesian holiday destinations to “exercise a high degree of caution” recalling PM Mahathir prediction of possible retaliatory terror attacks  against Australians. On the bright side, Morrison’s  diluted endorsement has unwittingly put his ‘great friend’ in a bind: – of the 610,000 illegal settlers in the West Bank,  215, 000 live in East Jerusalem which was illegally annexed in 1967.

That said, what could be moving Morrison  to doggedly rush Australia to the edge of a political precipice?

Someideas are worth considering:

1. A) There is an alarming racist i.e. OK to be whiteJudeo-Christian arrogance underlying the Morrison government that overlooks the religious significance of the Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem on which stands the third holiest site in Islam where the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven for 1.8 billion devoted Muslims, and underestimates their intelligence to see that the Australian ratification of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is identical to moving its embassy to Jerusalem and is therefore a political and religious threat.

1. B) The right-wing conservative coupin August replaced the quasi-secular PM Malcolm Turnbull who refused to move the Australian embassy in respect for the UN position

“The abiding position of the United Nations on Jerusalem was that the city remained a final status issue to be determined through a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to be negotiated between the two sides concerned on the basis of relevant United Nations resolutions and other agreements”

withtheir man, Scott Morrison, who openly identifies as an evangelical and pentecostal member of the The Australian Christian  Churches.

Morrison stressed that “politics is about doing what you believe in”.. of concern is what he and his evangelical brethren believe:

Pentecostalism is a charismatic evangelical faith. Evangelical Christians take the authority of the Bible as absolute and believe in the fulfilment of”the “prophecy” of the conversion of the Jews, the second coming of Jesus, the final judgment, and the end of the world — the events referred to as the biblical apocalypse” when only believers would rise in Rapture with Jesus to heaven.

Unconverted Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists Sikhs, Jews, Athiests, Taoists etc etc will perish in hell.

About 15 million American Christian Zionists, such as US vice-president Pence, together with the Jewish Lobby have a powerful political influence on the White House that advances Israel’s violent expansionism in Palestine,

“evangelicals who backed Donald Trump in the presidential election have since been pressuring him to pursue policies in line with positions embraced by the settler movement. These include moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and enabling new settlement construction in the West Bank.”Haaretz

Millions of evangelical dollars are directed to the illegal settlements and invested in the very settlement businesses that the Palestinian BDS movement targets. The mutually exploitative relations between the evangelicals and Jewish Israelis is like two cannibals greedily feasting on each other,

Persico explains why evangelicals are such avid supporters of Israeli settlers and Jewish claims to the entire West Bank. For these groups, he says, “it is essential that Israel control Jerusalem and the entire Promised Land, in order to set in motion the events of the much anticipated Armageddon. The settlers, of course, do not believe this narrative, but they are happy to take advantage of evangelical beliefs in it.”Haaretz

Ideologically, assuming Jesus died to save all humanity, then the essence of Christianity is Agapic equality. So, logically the flaw within the evangelical fulfilment of biblical prophecy is that it is radically exclusive therefore UnChristian. So following on, disrespecting Jerusalem as a Muslim Holy Site and abandoning the political and human rights of Palestinian families to save your own skin is UnChristian, immoral and repugnant (and fantastical).

1. C) Is Morrison rushing through the controversial recognition of the biblical capital because he may only a small window of opportunity before he is likely defeated in the 2019 May election?

If religious expedience is a factor overriding the serious consequences of the conservatives’ recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state, then Morrison’s zealousrapture for Jerusalem is challenging the separation of church and state in the Australian democracy, challenging Australian political and economic relationships with neighbouring Asian partners, challenging world peace and may well shake up an Australia’s political apocalypse.

Dr. Vacy Vlazna is Coordinator of Justice for Palestine Matters and editor of a volume of Palestinian poetry, I remember my name.She was Human Rights Advisor to the GAM team in the second round of the Acheh peace talks, Helsinki, February 2005 then withdrew on principle. Vacy was convenor of  Australia East Timor Association and coordinator of the East Timor Justice Lobby as well as serving in East Timor with UNAMET and UNTAET from 1999-2001.

Potentials, Challenges ahead of Muslims’ Reaction to US Embassy Move to Al-Quds

Alwaght- the US President Donald Trump's moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to al-Quds (Jerusalem), his presidential campaign promise, gas bring the Palestinian cause as the top issue in the whole region and the Muslim world.

Many countries around the world voiced their opposition or concerns over Washington's provocative move. Regarding the Muslim countries, despite their unified stance against the US measure, some states have a history of the inconsistency of views and actions, short-living protests, and use of inefficient instruments to deal with Palestinian case which makes them practically unable to protect the Palestinian rights and deter the Israeli regime's crimes.

However, due to fact that Israeli regime is implementing a long-designed roadmap to fully occupy the Palestinian lands including al-Quds, where hosts one of the holiest sites in Islam, Muslim governments have decided to support the Palestinians. According to the Turkish officials whose country currently presides over the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the member-states in their recent emergency conference on May 18 have considered a set of mechanisms to take practical steps against the US embassy relocation and Israeli regime's violation of Palestinians' rights.

But what potentials do Muslim states have to realize their pro-Palestinian agenda. Here is only a short list of them: 

- Accounting for about 25 percent of the global population

- Having 12 percent share of the global trade

- Presence in the international organizations with 57 states

- being located in strategic regions such as West Asia

- Enjoying the very rich energy and mineral resources, and also huge military development capacities

If united, Muslims not only would be able to eliminate the hardest challenges and risks in political, economic, and military terms but also they could pursue their national interests together more powerfully. However, Muslim states are not as united as they could be and some of them are even at loggerheads with each other.

One of hurdles ahead of Muslim states to force Israeli regime to end its crimes against Palestinians is the unwavering US support in diplomatic and military terms for Tel Aviv. Since Trump assumed the power at the White House in early 2017, the US as a superpower very openly unveiled its pro-Israeli biased policy in mediating the so-called peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis. This element works as a firm deterrence to the functionality of any punitive measures taken by the Muslim states to counter the embassy moving. The US has a right of veto, which means the Muslim-proposed anti-Israeli, pro-Palestinian resolutions at the United Nations Security Council are totally ineffective. The great economic strength is another factor coming to the US help to make up for any possible damages coming from any boycott imposed on the countries siding with the US in its controversial diplomatic mission relocation.

On the other side, there is another significant hurdle making any confrontational measures impossible to function properly and it is the existence of dictatorships profoundly reliant on the West and particularly Washington whose dictates are precisely followed by them in favor of the Israeli regime. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and even Egypt are the main states with huge reliance on the US.

Despite these roadblocks, once the Muslim states decide to push forward with penal steps against those providing backing to the US illegitimate transfer of embassy, Trump’s project will suffer a hard blow.

Clearly, Donald Trump won the presidential race with a set of promises, first of them was boosting the economic and living conditions of the American citizens under the “America first” slogan, followed by a pledge to scale down the US expenditures as well as aids to the international organizations and foreign countries. Therefore, Muslim states could sanction Guatemala and Paraguay that followed the US suit to relocate their embassy to al-Quds as a deterrent measure against few countries that mull doing the same.

Moreover, the US is enjoying the veto power at the UNSC. But frequent vetoing of massively-supported resolutions comes with political prices to Washington. Additionally, Muslims can raise the case to the International Court of Justices based in Hague. A potential verdict against the US move that recognizes the embassy transfer illegal, could prevent small countries from taking steps akin to Washington’s.

All in all, if the Muslim world fails to firmly respond to such small countries as Paraguay and Guatemala for their embassy moving, very definitely more small states will prospectively bribed or forced into recognizing al-Quds as the capital of the Israeli regime.