YALAIM,
YALAIM
Given that East Jerusalem under international law is occupied and
the Palestineans have a right to self-determination pending final status
negotiations, the question arises how to proceed, so that stabilisation can be
wrought out of the crackdown, prompted by Turkish, Iranian and Iraki meddling
into Israeli affairs. Suffice to say,
securitisation-cum-Bantustani-policy will lead Israelis to become Jews banging
their heads against the Wailing Wall. In Europe,
we will not stand idle by , if the situation is exploited by each party’s
demons or accept violations contrary to a peaceful solution to the
Israelo-Palestinean conflict let alone a wider conflagaration in an already
turbulent neigh-bourhood. IDF’s plan to pinch out the Palestineans from East
Jerusalem short of reconquest of the West Bank
is particularly worrisome. Increasingly, the Security Wall is serving not
merely as a remedy for Israeli complaints about the PNA but also as a cover for
the accumulation of discrimina-tory laws and policies belonging to a bygone
era; politicide is the term coined by Baruch Kimmer-ling.
A more
forward looking approach is needed, without prejudice to final status
negotiations. From the perspective of Europe,
this could be conceived in terms of a discussion about how arrangements for
power sharing, wealth-sharing and inclusion could become integral to a positive
logic in the Middle Eastern Peace Process. Peace and conflict management,
however, tend to be separate entities in the Holy Land,
reserved for peace negotiators. They should become integral to transitional
conflict-management in a daily power practice, which is subtle yet not without
horizon.
In terms of
power-sharing the Geneva-agreement evolved essentially out
of a political dialogue on power-sharing wrought out in an informal setting, so
as to provide a template for a solution of the conflict to an extent that it is
considered difficult to improve on, although implementation & verification
mechanisms as well as an international separation-of-forces was contemplated as
well. The Geneva-accord helped inspiring the UNSCR’s, granting the
Palestinean’s a right to a state. For the part of Arab East Jerusalem, I should
like to make it understood the Arab areas could be organi-sed as municipal
districts under an East Jerusalem Congregation of Mayors. The departure point
for this could be the existing Arab municipalities under titular
administration, who would then be re-sponsible for the management of local
affairs. The district mayors of East Jerusalem would then gather in the
Congregation of Mayors led by a well-respected Arab Jerusalem personality, who
would then coordinate the collective in-put of the Arab sector into the Jerusalem Town-Hall policy-making and planning
process, in order to ensure a more proportional allocation of funds and
posi-tions to Arabs, in so far as municipal affairs are concerned.
Resuscitating local government in Arab East Jerusalem would tend to underpin
peace-building in a positive way. Consider also relocating
J’lem M.I.T
Vision Group to this entity. Sooner or later elections would have to be held,
albeit experiences are not unequivocal. As long as Israel
considers East Jerusalem annexed qudsi Arabs have minority rights – so do the
Arab Christians in both Israel
and PNA-land. Thus, we shall pro-vide the conditions for a strengthening of
secular Palestinean Arab leadership in terms of democra-cy-building in the Arab
world. For this properly working Palestinian institutions are needed – can you
follow me ?
In time, I
hope the inter-ministerial commission on Jerusalem of the Israeli cabinet will
become ob-solete, in so far as its tasks would be delegated to a well-governed
capitolinian city, a city where a few statal institutions of Palestine would
located in East Jerusalem, and Jerusalem be united in terms of bi-communal
dialogue and interaction.
In the
interim, I propose a change to the labels, behind which Israel covers-up her encirclement
po-licy in the Greater Jerusalem Area. Enter the dissolution of the Commission for the Completion of Plans.
The Office of the Guardian of Absentee
Property should be led by an Israeli Arab, and the staff equally
represented by Jews and Arabs. The Israeli Law
on Home Demolition ought to be rescinded. The draft Law on Jews Praying on the Temple Mount should be withdrawn or
declared null and void in terms of UNSCR252 & 478 or indeed at ICJ. That is
to say, all territories occupied have a non-status under international law
pending negotiations as a matter of principle, a principle which will form the
departure point for negotiations.
In terms of
wealth-sharing, the Paris-protocol
outlines provisions for international aid, strengthened Israelo-Palestinean
economic relations, provisions for foreign and private investment as well as
Pa-lestinean access to foreign markets. The Paris-protocol hasn’t worked
satisfactorily for reasons of the state of the Palestinian economy and their
policies as well as Israeli actions, whilst problems remain with accepting
current WTO law, a requirement for the smooth operation of the Euro-MED FTA.
Both parties are unhappy with the workings of their Customs Union, whilst Israel
has curtai-led the relative independence of Palestinean civil society in Arab
East Jerusalem in a manner, which is changing the character of the city and
strangulating the prospects for peace – a Bremer-moment. Suffice to say,
interdependence minimizes the risk for warfare and tend to work in favour of
con-flict transformation, most comparative studies of conflicts suggest. The
question concerning the inter-connections with the West Bank hinterland would
likely have to be deferred, albeit changes to the Security Wall in and around
Jerusalem could be considered and the uses of new technology could be taken
under study facilitating urban development, seamless access and trade and
exchange, without prejudice to final status negotiations. Let plans for a new
municipal headquarters be drawn-up in a new Jerusalem, more capable of
competing with Tel Aviv, a common desire by most Jerusa-lemites Arab and Jews
alike unlike the provincial back-water, the Ottomans and the British made of
the Holy Basin. In the meantime, Amman
and Cairo could
accede to the Global Urban Power Index-network pending the resumption of
negotiations in the bilateral track.
In terms of
inclusion, it is important to define
the actors, power and interest and to respect existing agreements. Israel
may have erred on the side of caution, and needs to rethink its approach.
Societies struck by terror may find temporary relief in barriers, yet to heal
multipronged strategies at several levels are necessary. This has proven a
conceptual and emotional challenge before a political one to shifting Israeli
governments, some of whom have adopted a security-first
approach at the rhetorical level and distanced themselves from the Oslo
Accords, without providing a genuine alternative – consociationalism ? – even
as they have applied themselves to address the problem in terms of the tank
battles of the past – Sinai and Kursk – in a bi-communal, urban setting. The
result is visible to all. More people-to-people programmes could be relevant to
broaden participation during transition. There is the UNCTAD -study concerning
the necessary policies an occupying power would need to service a subjected
populace, which could serve as an aide memoire for a better management of
anti-poverty policies. In redistributional terms, there are implications for
the working arrangements of the current civil organisations , into which Arab
East Jerusalem society have been relegated or quarantined. The departure point
for this could be a return to status quo
ante in terms of the operation of educational institutions, unions and
cultu-ral institutions and the development of infrastructures under the new
Arab administrative units in order to provide the conditions for relevant trade-offs during peace negotiations.
Inclusion also means narration of the stories of the Palestinians and Israelis,
both of whose societies are under-going fundamental change these years – the
Israeli largely to the better, the Palestinian largely to the worse.
As long as Israel and the Palestinians remains at
logger-horns, it will become difficult for Israel to fully integrate into the
Middle Eastern mainstream. To obtain a perspective it might be useful to
recognise that a first-past-the-vote-voting
system inside Israel
in place of the current dual voting system, would be useful following solution
of the conflict, only. Thus, a representative system could come into place,
without prejudice to the manipulation of settlement patterns inside Israel
and the co-existence of pluralist societies would be safeguarded, even as the
Israeli party landscape could be reinforced under a two state, two
democracies-model of governance. Consider a higher cut-off at 5% for the monkey
cage as well.
Now, ‘when
you are exceeded by traditional values, man tends to orient himself towards
ideologies, which deny them. And it is by their negative force they seduce
rather than their positive formulas’, comparable to an engineered revolutionary
moment. So, in many ways this is a conflict between traditionalists and
modernisers. Hamas is steering-up trouble, yet tend to adjust its vision of
con-trolled violence and co-existence under a maximalist formula as a function
of the government in place in Israel,
entangled as the rivals are. Miscalculations and opportunism are also very much
present – on both sides. In addition, there are people who are prepared to use
political violence in both Israel
and Palestine
in order to capture the state. The solution to this is diplomatic, political
and economic engagement. This is the least unlikely manner to address spoilers,
manipulators and insti-gators, which are also present in the Holy
Land. Above all, the parties’ need to pay greater attention to how
processes of reasoning intervenes in other people’s lives, and legitimises and
require stale-mate.
And so, the
parties should refrain from undertakings, which will lead to the collapse of
the peace process. Indeed, the combined measures of a functioning political
dialogue at all levels, political comity in J’lem as well as an increase in
economic interdependence and investments will enhance the quality of
peace-building, yet the street and Hamas will remain a challenge in this
seemingly intractable conflict. Suffice to say, the MEPP is in need of more
discipline on the concepts and theories it uses in building peace, and to
delineate those from peace negotiations proper. Transitio-nal management is an ardous task. Enter then EU’s call
for substantial steps towards de-escalation.
In the
alternative, the parties may agree to disagree and then move pragmatically
onwards with a modernisation of the three remaining Armenian, Arab and
Christian quarters of Old
Town intro muros . The practical work should be delegated to a UNESCO
office and back-rolled primarily by Israel. This collective effort is
supported by all members of the different communities in the Old Town and
might even attract more business, while leading to pavements less charred for
the tou-rists, who matters for Jerusalem’s
economy, and to a rise in living standards and housing prices. On this basis, a
micro-cosmos would have been created pending the return of calm. This is a
gentle approach. Enter also the use of faith-based peace building.
Enlightened
self-interest should guide wider policy reviews. This applies to policies
concerning the incentives and disincentives provided the dissident settlement
movements, Victim Advisory, Con-flict & Dialogue Centers, anti-poverty
strategies, the prerogatives of the Waqf in its Old Town precinct, policies
concerning the Israeli Arab minority, crime reduction policies, the rise in
organi-sed crime, a Bedouin Policy Center, an ombudsman for administrative and
consumer affairs, confe-rencing on contending modernities in the Holy Land.
This is what all competent and effective Israeli political leaderships would be
concerned about developing resolute policies for.
Should a
gap between perception and actual behaviour persist in the Middle East, and Israel
con-tinue to ‘manage the conflict’ in a primitive , regressive , provocative
and one-sided manner, the gloves will come off. EU could then together with the
U.S. Administration seek to provide the conditions for a restructuring of the
domestic Israeli coalition, which is fascist in its origin and undemocratic to
no small extent also in its power practices.
CHRISTIAN ILCUS
