By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM– I’ve believed for a long time that the greatest danger that the Jewish state is currently facing doesn’t come from the outer threat of Iranian nukes but from within, particularly from the continued expansion of the settlements.
I thought I saw ample evidence of it when my wife and I spent most of the sixth day of Pesach travelling around Jerusalem by courtesy of Ir Amim (City of Peoples), a “left-wing” organization devoted inter alia to showing locals and visitors how the need for housing for Jews (many haredim among them), motivated by the settler ideology of expanding Jewish Jerusalem at the expense of its Arab residents, is evidence not only of ominous unethical conduct but also a threat to peace in the region.
Our guide suggested repeatedly that it’s not town planners but political ideologues that are shaping the city and they’re doing it in ways that promote Jewish encroachment into Arab areas and de facto fostering the growing disparity in living conditions between Jews and Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Though it’s likely that Palestinians in Jerusalem are better off than their kinsfolk in the West Bank and Gaza, the yawning gap between the way Jews and Arabs are treated by the authorities here is grossly unfair, an affront to Israeli democracy, a threat to the stability of the city and a stumbling block to peace in the region.
The Palestinians may bring much of it on themselves by refusing to vote in municipal elections in Jerusalem, because they want to show that they don’t recognize its administration. The result is that they’re unrepresented and have nobody to speak on their behalf when it comes to allocating budgets for infrastructure and services in their neighborhoods. Victims and victimizers collude in an uncanny manner.
This, in turn, means that Hamas, which is said to effectively exploit the misery in Gaz ainstead of seeking to alleviate it, is gaining strength among disgruntled Palestinian Jerusalemites and may disturb the present delicate and fragile calm in the city. Whether or not you believe that Hamas cares for its people, it states openly and repeatedly that it works for the destruction of Israel, whatever the cost to the Palestinians.
According to Khaled Abu Toameh, the Israeli Arab journalist, it’s this mindset, not the settlements, that threatens peace. He writes: “The major obstacle to peace is the increasing radicalization of the Arab and Islamic masses and the continuing demonization of Jews. As far as many Arabs and Muslims are concerned,Israel is one big settlement that needs to be removed.” I may have been wrong about the greatest danger toIsrael.
Abu Toameh reminds readers that both Arafat and Abbas had negotiated with Israel while settlement (and Jerusalem) construction was going on at full speed. Ironically, most of the building work in Jerusalem and in the West Bank is still done by Palestinian laborers who work for Jewish contractors.
We heard on the tour that even the materials that built the controversial separation wall that’s so prominent in and around Jerusalem came from a firm owned by the president of the Palestinian Authority. No wonder it’s so easy to get confused here.
This in no way justifies Jewish expansion of Jerusalem at the expense of its Arab population but it may explain why Jewish leaders, across most of the political spectrum, condone it. They, too, may believe that settlements are irrelevant for peace making.
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Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. Now dividing his time between Canada and Israel, he may be contacted at dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com