Daily Alert Archives

Hands Off Jerusalem's Gilo Neighborhood

(Jerusalem Post) Editorial - Last week's U.S. State Department condemnation of Jerusalem's decision to approve new housing for residents of its Gilo neighborhood heralds yet another unnecessary confrontation between our countries. The Jerusalem Municipality approved the addition of 181 housing units for the capital's southwestern neighborhood of Gilo, home to some 40,000 residents. Housing construction in a long-established Jerusalem neighborhood - Gilo was founded in 1973 - is not in a "settlement." Almost half a century since Israel reunited its divided capital city - divided, like Berlin once was, by war - the media ignorantly parrot the Palestinian narrative that claims east Jerusalem as its future capital, as if the section of the city that Jordan occupied for 19 years had been an historic entity. Consistent with this warped view, the foreign media insistently refer to Jews living in the heart of their historic capital as "settlers." They capitalize the term "East Jerusalem" as if it were a historical fact, but Gilo is on the other side of town, built on land purchased by Dov Joseph for the Jewish National Fund during the 1930s. Gilo was once indeed occupied territory: it was Jordanian-occupied Israeli territory from 1949 to 1967, after which its Israeli sovereignty was restored. Australia's attorney-general, George Brandis, told the Senate last week that Australia will no longer refer to east Jerusalem as "occupied" territory: "The description of east Jerusalem as "Occupied East Jerusalem" is a term freighted with pejorative implications, which is neither appropriate nor useful." For three millennia, Jerusalem has been the capital of three native Jewish states - Judah, Judea and Israel. Jews have constituted the majority of Jerusalem's residents since the pre-Zionist 19th century. In contrast, Palestinian Arabs have not ruled Jerusalem for a single day. Political influence over language is also reflected in the use of the term "West Bank." The Jordan River is only a few meters wide. The claim that its western bank extends for some 65 km., encompassing Judea and Samaria, demonstrates how politicized terminology drives the conflict. Its use began when the Jordanian government marketed the term in the 1950s in an attempt to legitimize its occupation of the region between 1949 and 1967. Before Israel's War of Independence, the British Mandatory authorities referred to the region as Judea and Samaria. The expansion of Jerusalem's neighborhoods to accommodate the city's growing population is a matter for the municipality. It is not the concern of third parties such as the U.S. State Department.
2016-11-07 00:00:00
Full Article