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Jerusalem mayor spending bi~~ 1~5"
to prolllote Jewish sovereignty
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By REUBEN LOEWY
Spe-.ial to Tbe Glube and MaIl
Jeru..'IIllem
AME the "eternal. united capital of the sovereign State of Israel and the J ewish peo ple.~ Hint: It is "a very special city, which is holy to millions of believ ers," Mayor EIl1.1d almeli says. rf you haven't guessed the answer i yet go to the back of the class. Israeli Jews have been learning " thlB lesson diligently since their par .a troopers captured (or liberated, de, I pending on which way you look at 'I it) the eastern half of Jerusalem in . the 1967 Six·Day War. I Now Mr. Ohllert, a member of par liament for the right-wing national j ist Likud OPPOSItiOn. is spending $7 I million (U.S.) in an attempt to dnun home the message of Jewish sover I eignty in Jerusalem. to the rest of i the world as well. Given the tense relations between Jerusalem's Jewish and Palestinian inhabitants, Jerusalem 3000, a 15 month schedule of events celebrat ing the trimiJlenniai anniversary of King David's conquest of the city, was unlikely to pass without inci dent. But coming at a time when both groups ore jostling fiercely to bolster their respective claims to sover cignty prior to negotiations on the I final status of the city under the tenns of the 1993 peace treaty be , tween Israel and the PW. the , ·'birthday party , launcbed this week with a spectacular fireworks and laser display already is provilJg to be controversial, divisive and a public relations flop. fn the wake of its treaty with the Palestine Liberation Organization, Israel is enjoying a period of unprec edented success on the diplomatic
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front, with relations being renewed and forged at an impressive rate. Ec onomically. the country is flouriSh ing, and tourism also is booming. Why then has Israel chosen to provoke friends and n eighbours by throwing an extravagant party to mark exclusive Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem'! Predictably, the roughly 160,000 Palestinian Arabs still living in east· ern Jerusalem are boycotting the party Not that they were invited in the first place. "It's not my cele bration," said Osama, a 32-year·old resident of Silwan, a Palestinian Arab village acijacent to the ancient City of David. Foreign ambassadors -- wishing to avoid association with an overtly political celebration. and virtually without exceptioll not recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital stayed away In droves from this week's opening ceremony. The conspicuous absence of U.s. Ambassador Martin Indyks partic. ularly irked Israell officials. It pro voked an ilTitated response from Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and a vHriolic editorial outburst in the right-wing English daily Jerusalem fust , which scorned Mr. Indyks's apologies of prior engagements as patronizing and an insult to the in telligence ofIsl'aelis. Officials of the Canadian em bassy. located in 'le! Aviv, are in a blissful state of diplomatic limbo be tween former ambassador Nonnan
Spector and the yet·to-be-accredited David Berger, and were thus com· pletely spared the dilemma of whether to attend. Not so the European Union, which decided last month to boycott all Jerusalem 3000 celebrations, on the grounds that "they do not reflect the distinct contribution of all relig ious groups In the city." The Jerusalem Post dismissed the decision as another Insult, a laugha· ble, self-deprecating bow to politi· cally correct multiculbtrallsm. "Coming from a background whose lustory attests to the Spanish Inquisition. World Wars I and n. the Holocaust, and lately the massacres in Bosnia, this organization has now gotten on its high horse to tell us it wants n o part of our celebration. " Jerusalem 3000 was not the brain· chlld of Mr. OJmert, whQ assumed office in 1994, but of his predecessor, 1eddy Kollek, who ran the city gov ernment for 27 years. Mr. Konek, a staunch dove and Labour supporter. preacbed tolerance toward Jerusa lem's Palestinian Arab population while practicing a policy of benevo lent paternalism. His successor, however. is Widely accused of acting with undisclosed arrogance. antagonism and, at best, Indifference toward the Palestinian Arab inhabItants of annexed eastern Jerusalem. Where Mr. Kollek, in his own words, had Intended th,e cele brations to focus on the history and centrality of the city to the three monotheistic religiOns, he now charges Mr. Olmert with "concen· trating on another direction. " Surprisingly for a country with such disparate views on most politi cal issues, there is virtual unanimity among Israeli Jews on the question of Jprnsalem. being the eternal and united capital of Israel and the Jew· ish people. But right-wing na tionalist oppo nents of the current peace process are seemingly obsessed with going further. 'Ibgether with Mr. Olmert, they view with horror the Palestinian goal of establishing the capi.tal of their future state in East Jerusalem According to the Bible, David con quered Jerusalem and made it the centre of the Jewish national cult. But while the ancient Israelites shared the city with other peoples, the present rulers seem to be opting for exclusivity rather than plura· lism. This ro/umn on the Middle East appears as a regular Friday lea ; ture.
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