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Jerusalem - One City, Undivided

[Boston Globe] Jeff Jacoby - Last week, the U.S. demanded that the Israeli government pull the plug on a planned housing development near the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem because Sheikh Jarrah is in a largely Arab section of Jerusalem, and the developers of the planned apartments are Jews. The administration would never demand that Israel prevent Arabs from moving into a Jewish neighborhood. In the 21st century, segregation is unthinkable - except, it seems, when it comes to housing Jews in Jerusalem. During Israel's War of Independence in 1948, the Jordanian Arab Legion invaded eastern Jerusalem and expelled all its Jews - many from families that had lived in the city for centuries. For the next 19 years, eastern Jerusalem was barred to Jews. Dozens of Jewish holy places, including synagogues hundreds of years old, were desecrated or destroyed. Jerusalem's most sacred Jewish shrine, the Western Wall, became a slum. In 1967, after Jordan was routed in the Six-Day War, Jerusalem was reunited under Israeli sovereignty and religious freedom restored to all. U.S. policy, laid out in the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, recognizes Jerusalem as "a united city administered by Israel" and formally declares that "Jerusalem must remain an undivided city." As a presidential candidate, Obama said the same thing: "Jerusalem will remain Israel's capital, and no one should want or expect it to be re-divided."
2009-07-22 06:00:00
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