ELECTIONS/ISRAEL-JERUSALEM Jerusalem on agenda of Israeli leaders ahead of election

Record ID: 399216

  • Title: ELECTIONS/ISRAEL-JERUSALEM Jerusalem on agenda of Israeli leaders ahead of election
  • Date: 25th February 2015
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (RECENT) (REUTERS) PALESTINIAN WOMAN WALKING PAST ISRAELI SECURITY FORCES IN OLD CITY JERUSALEM'S WESTERN WALL WITH AL AQSA MOSQUE AND DOME OF THE ROCK SEEN ABOVE IT AL AQSA MOSQUE ISRAELI FLAG NEAR WESTERN WALL JEWISH WORSHIPPERS AT WESTERN WALL
  • Embargoed: 12th March 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9IYFWIHFHKPDMTWTAGEEBQKGV
  • Story Text: Israeli leaders who face a general election on March 17, have recently traded blows over the status of Jerusalem - a flashpoint city which is holy to Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
    While not being a focal point of the campaigning of each party, the seemingly unsolvable issue of Jerusalem has always been on the agenda of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, both diplomatically and on the ground, with the most recent wave of violence in the city straining ties between Israel and Jordan, and adding to Israeli fears of another Palestinian uprising.
    If there is a low-level war under way in the city, its driving force has become the ancient marble-and-stone compound that houses the al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest site, and the seventh century Dome of the Rock, the golden-domed shrine from where Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammad ascended to heaven. Those sites are located on a religious plaza known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, where two Jewish temples once stood.
    Since Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally, Jews have been allowed to visit the site that they revere as Temple Mount, but they are forbidden to pray there.
    Jewish prayers have been taking place at the Western Wall which stands underneath the plaza. Considered Judaism's holiest site, it is a remnant of the compound of the Second Jewish Temple built by King Herod the Great, that was destroyed in 70 AD.
    Visiting the Western Wall recently, Tzipi Livni who is challenging Netanyahu on a joint election ticket with opposition leader Isaac Herzog, emphasized their "Zionist Union" party's stance on Jerusalem.
    "This place, this holy place, the place which is our umbilical cord, this place is the place of the people's unity. And in this place we make a commitment that in any situation this place will remain ours, this place will remain belonging to the people of Israel, this place will remain under the sovereignty of the state of Israel," she said in December.
    Netanyahu has criticised the Zionist Union's statement, saying it would be impossible to keep control of Jerusalem or securely reach Judaism's holy sites if it were willing to let the Palestinians have a capital there.
    He also slammed his main challengers' position regarding construction in Jerusalem, where tenders for new housing units on land Palestinians seek for a state were recently issued.
    "Tzipi Livni recently said that she would negotiate on Jerusalem. Previously, in October, she condemned the construction we did in the Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem. She said it was irresponsible construction. I think this says everything. It says that the choice on March 17 is between a government of the Likud in my leadership that will stand against the many pressures we're under regarding Jerusalem and will continue to develop Jerusalem, and between the left government of Tzipi and Buji (nickname for Issac Herzog) that will crumble under the pressures," Netanyahu said on Monday (February 23) speaking against the backdrop of the Old City.
    Several months ago, a campaign to overturn the Jewish prayer ban in Jerusalem's disputed holy plaza, led by settler activists, has raised alarm among Palestinians and Muslims further afield who fear that the Islamic oversight of the compound that has existed since the crusades is threatened.
    Netanyahu has insisted the status quo will not change, but his reassurances have done little to calm nerves or religious sensitivities.
    Jordan, whose officials run the holy compound, has pulled its envoy from Israel in protest, but said on February he would return.
    This has added to already existing tension in the city whose roots are many: From the killing in July of a Palestinian teenager by Jewish extremists -- apparently in revenge for the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers by Palestinians -- to increased settlement building in East Jerusalem, and the war in Gaza.
    It resulted in the greatest period of unrest the city has experienced since the second Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, began in 2000, a five-year period of conflict that left some 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis dead.
    Israel has sought to contain al-Aqsa violence by limiting Palestinian access at times.
    The upheaval has largely been confined to half a dozen neighborhoods in the hills and valleys to the south and east of the Old City and has largely subsided, but East Jerusalem residents are still angry.
    Condemned by the United States and the European Union, Netanyahu has pushed ahead with settlement building in East Jerusalem, which opponents say heightens tensions, is illegal under international law, and makes it even harder to negotiate a two-state solution to the conflict.
    Palestinians see their neighborhoods changing as a result of the settlement drive. Silwan, where around 40,000 Palestinians live, now has around 500 Jewish settlers in it, with nine new buildings bought by wealthy pro-settler groups in the past two months with the aim of making the area more Jewish.
    Locals see the move as a provocation, made more acute by the fact that their neighborhoods receive fewer services than Jewish districts in West Jerusalem.
    On the ground in Silwan, Palestinians say no solution is possible in Jerusalem.
    "From my point of view, there cannot be a solution because the Jews naturally don't want to solve it. Because they, from our experience with them, we feel that Jerusalem for them is an important issue. And for us it is also an important issue," said resident Ahmed Hasoun.
    "There is no solution. We should slaughter them so that they will go away from here. There is no solution, this is the solution. A peaceful solution - no, what was taken by force will be taken back only by force. Palestine is an Islamic, Arabic land, not Hebrew and all of this," said resident Diyah Shweiki.
    Israelis in Jerusalem voiced sceptical views.
    "Now I think there is no solution, because the argument between Jews and Palestinians is too deep. So there is no side that can solve the problem, that want to give away," said Karin, an Israeli woman who came to visit the Western Wall.
    "Down (below) it's our temple from 3,500 years (ago), so nobody can tell us it's not belong to you, Jerusalem belongs to the Arab people, for the Muslim people, it's belong first of all to the Jewish people. Then I believe that everybody can live together here but without problems, without fight, without killing people. We can do it. The other problem is we don't have negotiations with people that we can do something with them," said another Israeli visitor to the site, Daniel Ginat.
    Many world powers support the Palestinians' goal of setting up their own future capital in East Jerusalem. Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in April.
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