While Israel has stood strong against the reopening of a US diplomatic mission to the Palestinian Authority, the State Department has sneaked in a new position that promotes US-PA relations – and could undermine Israeli sovereignty in its own capital.

Hady Amr, leaving his post as deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, will become the new special representative for Palestinian affairs – the first time the US has created such a position.

Abu Mazen (now in his 18^th year as PA president, though he was elected for a four-year term) originally objected to the new position. He demanded that the US reopen its consulate in Jerusalem, which would essentially serve as an embassy to the PA.

However, “as the President reiterated in Israel and the West Bank,” a State Department official said, “we remain committed to re-opening our Consulate General in Jerusalem and to the vision of a two-state solution.”

The correlation, then, that this position has with Jerusalem raises very critical questions: “Does the new post include purview over eastern Jerusalem? Are Arab residents of Israel in eastern Jerusalem supposed to engage with his office, or with the US Embassy to Israel?”

We referred precisely these questions to the US Office of Palestinian Affairs, which then referred us to its press office in Washington. No answer has yet been forthcoming, which is not surprising – because the issues are potentially explosive. For if in fact Arab citizens of Israel need not turn to the US Embassy in Israel but rather to a “stand-in” for a PA consulate/embassy, this would be nothing less than what Israel has called all along the undermining of Israeli sovereignty in its own capital.

Can it even be imagined that France, let’s say, would open an office in Washington for Native Indian affairs? This would be as if saying, “The Indians deserve their own identity, independent of the United States.” The only difference is that the Indians are no longer fighting for their independence and land, while the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority most definitely are.

Over a year ago, when the issue of reopening the American consulate for the PA first arose, former Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said that it “means recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine … a red line that cannot be crossed.” Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Aryeh King called the initiative “a spiteful move that seeks to undermine Israel’s absolute sovereignty over Jerusalem” – sovereignty that continues to be under fire from those who wish to see Jerusalem become the capital of a new Arab state.

Furthermore, the very initiative of establishing a high-level position to upgrade the PA’s US relations and standing in Washington encourages it not to make concessions and thus perpetuates the state of non-peace – or worse.

KeepJerusalem calls upon the Israeli government to ensure that Hady Amr’s job remains only to encourage the PA to “undertake serious reforms” – one of the challenges that former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk reportedly said Amr would face in his new post.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Municipality published the zoning description for the future US Embassy to Israel earlier this month – and PA figures have begun to accuse Israel of stealing the land on which it is to be built.

PA prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh demands that the US cancel its plans to build the new embassy complex. He told his cabinet ministers that the designated land – smack in the middle of western Jerusalem – was “illegally confiscated” by Israeli authorities in 1950.

The facts are, however, that the confiscation was not only legal, but in keeping with a just, moral, and duly-passed Knesset law: the 1950 Absentee Property Law, which transferred the property of absentee Arab land-owners into the possession of the State of Israel.

Who were these land-owners? On the whole, they were Arabs who had run away from the battlefront before and during the 1948 War of Independence, with encouragement and promises from the attacking Arab countries that they would soon be able to return in victory over the Jewish entity. *They were thus accomplices in the Arab war effort to destroy Israel.*

On June 8, 1951, for instance, the Secretary-General of the Arab League wrote that during the war, the League “assured the Arab peoples that [victory over the Jews] would be as simple as a military promenade…” This  underscored that which a Jordanian daily wrote on February 19, 1949: “The Arab states… encouraged the Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies.”

Thus, the homes and lands were abandoned specifically in order to facilitate Israel’s destruction. Just like it is well understood that Israel need not accept Arab Palestinian “refugees” into its population, the Absentee Property Law has the same justification: Israel need not allow people to return to their homes so that they might finish off, from within, that which they sought in 1948, namely, the destruction of Israel.

The new US Embassy is to be built just off Derech Hebron,  in an area known by its British Mandate-era name as “Camp Allenby.”

Despite what are expected to be increasing claims of illegality by left-wing organizations, the law in question has even been upheld by Israel’s Supreme Court, which takes international law into significant account.

These two dangerous developments – the upgrade of Washington’s relations with the PA, and the outrageous claims against Israeli law – present potentially great challenges to Israeli sovereignty in its united and historic capital. If and when we overcome them, the national rewards will be historic. 

Defense Min. decides to continue funding security coordinators in settlements surrounding Jerusalem until end of the year

Western Wall Foundation, Herzog Hospital, and United Hatzalah team up to bring hospital-confined child to Western Wall

Officers in good to moderate condition after attack by 20-year-old in Old City; one cop was hurt by so-called friendly fire

Rishi Sunak, who will be the new British new prime minister after becoming Conservative party leader on Monday, is considered a strong supporter of Israel and a friend of the UK’s Jewish community.

At a Conservative Friends of Israel event in August, Sunak declared Jerusalem is “indisputably the historic capital” of Israel and that there was a “very strong case” for moving the UK embassy from its current location in Tel Aviv.

“It’s something I’d like to do,” he said.

Full article here

Police on Sunday published bodycam footage of an officer chasing and eventually shooting a Palestinian teen on Saturday after he allegedly stabbed and seriously hurt an Israeli man in East Jerusalem.

The footage showed the officer chasing after the suspect in a soccer field in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, as dozens of young Arab children were playing and holding soccer practice.

As the officer shouted at the suspect in Arabic to stop, the teenager is seen running off, leading the officer to set off in pursuit.

Full article here

Former Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard married his fiancé, Rivka Abrahams-Donin, in a ceremony held at the Heichal Ya’akov synagogue in Jerusalem’s Kiryat Moshe neighborhood Thursday evening.

The wedding was conducted by Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, and former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Amar, at the synagogue of the late Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, whom Pollard consulted during his imprisonment from the 1980s until Rabbi Eliyahu’s death in 2010.

A limited number of guests, including close family and friends, attended the wedding.

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Full article here

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion said the changes he is making in the city – from increasing recycling, reducing pollution and adding hi-tech office space, to investing in infrastructure – are intended to benefit both Jews and Arabs equally.

Speaking at The Jerusalem Post Conference in New York on Monday, Lion said that this is best evidenced by a 2,000 square-meter technology hub that the municipality is building in east Jerusalem, that, he predicted, would bring opportunity and investment from both Israeli and international firms. 

In recent years, the capital has been transformed into a hi-tech center, said the mayor, with more than 600 hi-tech firms headquartered in the city that employ more than 20,000 people. To that end, Lion said the city is building 1.6 million square meters of hi-tech work and office space throughout the city, both in east and west Jerusalem, over the next three years.

Lion noted that Jerusalem is a mosaic of cultures, traditions and identities. He told conference attendees it is his responsibility to ensure that the disparate groups which make up the city’s population have the space and opportunity to build a shared future in the city.

Full article here

8 people were wounded when Al-Sidawi opened fire at a bus stop at close range.

The Jerusalem District Prosecution Service has issued an indictment against Amir Al-Sidawi, a 26-year-old Jerusalem Arab, who has admitted to committing a shooting attack last month in the Old City of Jerusalem. Eight people were wounded in the attack including two seriously – a 38-year-old woman who was pregnant at the time and whose baby was delivered at 26 weeks, and a man in his forties. The baby survived but needed emergency treatment including mechanical ventilation and will likely face health consequences in the future.

According to the terms of the indictment, in May of this year the terrorist acquired a gun and rounds of ammunition. Around a month ago, when he was still under house arrest under restrictive conditions, he headed to the Old City with the gun and ammunition as well as a knife, intending to commit a terrorist attack.

Full article here

The Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage has launched the “Culture at Mt. of Olives Festival” with a gala performance by famed Jerusalem singer Yehoram Gaon. Over 1,000 people came to take part, followed a few days later by nearly the same amount at a concert by Hassidic-music singing star Avraham Fried. The visitors were also treated to unique tours of the mountain and a spectacular view of the Old City and the Temple Mount just across the Kidron Valley.

Dozens of events are scheduled at Mt. of Olives (Har HaZeitim, Israel’s 11^th-highest mountain) for this month of Elul preceding the High Holidays, from Sep. 15 to Oct. 3. The Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage is investing millions of shekels in the project, carried out under the auspices of the East Jerusalem Development Company (Pami).

Visitors will pay a nominal fee to take part in tours and lectures, focusing on the people and events that have shaped Jerusalem over the past 3,000 years. A particular focus will be placed on some of the illustrious Jews buried in the Mt. of Olives cemetery, including Rav Kook, Menachem Begin, Rav Shlomo Goren, Nobel Prize winner Shai Agnon, the martyrs of the 1929 Hebron massacre, Pinchas Kehati, Henrietta Szold, and 100,000 more beginning at least during the First Temple period.

Under Jordanian rule, between 1948 and 1967, Jewish access to the mount was illegally and strong-handedly prohibited, despite Jordan’s commitment in the Israeli-Jordanian Armistice Agreement. In addition, the Jordanians smashed to pieces or otherwise desecrated some 38,000 tombstones and gravesites there. Since Jerusalem’s reunification in the Six Day War, burial ceremonies have been renewed at the site and large sections of the cemetery rehabilitated. A dozen burial societies are currently active there.

This is not to say that Arab attempts to damage the cemetery or attack victors have totally abated. The past two weeks alone saw at least four such attacks, after a relatively quiet period. Nevertheless, it is clear that Israeli security efforts have had a positive effect.

Jewish Presence Increasing

Most importantly, the Jewish presence in the area of the Mt. of Olives, and throughout eastern Jerusalem, has grown significantly in recent years. Among the new neighborhoods are Beit Orot (24 families), HaChoshen (two adjacent buildings atop Har HaZeitim), the City of David (nearly 90 families), Kidmat Tzion, the Yemenite Quarter in Silwan (35 families, with six more soon to move in), and more – but the largest of all is Maaleh HaZeitim, with close to 150 families.

It is important to remember the mountain’s critical importance in Judaism: The Red Heifer ceremony was performed there, King David earmarked it for prayer, and it was a Jewish pilgrimage site for long after the Second Temple was destroyed. Not only that, the oil from Mt. of Olives’ olive trees was used for the Menorah in the Holy Temple across the valley, and the torch-lightings signaling that a New Moon (new month) had been declared began there.

Perhaps most importantly, the last prophecy of Zecharia speaks of the day when G-d will fight on behalf of Jerusalem and the Mt. of Olives will split open from north to south.

The objective of the Mt. of Olives Festival is to enhance the area and solidify its standing as a preeminent and safe cultural and tourist center. A state-of-the-art Visitors’ Center will soon be built, and many security and environmental measures have been upgraded.

“Our goal is to solidify Mt. of Olives as a place of history, Judaism, and culture,” says Netanel Izak, Director of the Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage, “and to thus strengthen Israeli sovereignty and authority throughout Jerusalem.”

“Har HaZeitim is among the most important Jewish sites in Yerushalayim,” says Jerusalem Minister Elkin, “and it also has significant strategic importance. We wish to instill this special site in the hearts of the entire population. I invite the general public to come to the tours and events at Har HaZeitim and enjoy a unique and safe experience.”

Its Role in Maintaining Sovereignty

In order to ensure continued future Israeli sovereignty over the entire city of Jerusalem, certain facts on the ground must be guaranteed. In the case of the all-important Mt. of Olives – and can we even conceive of a Jewish Jerusalem without the Mt. of Olives?! – Israel must make sure to guarantee and facilitate Jewish access and presence there. Jews must feel safe there, and must feel free to frequent the site, not only for funerals and to visit gravesites, but to visit friends, enjoy the view, stop off at the Visitors’ Center, remember its history, and more. The current Culture Festival should do much to attain this goal.