The PLO's Red Lines for a Palestinian state, from the Palestine Papers, part 2: Jerusalem ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Monday, November 16, 2020

The PLO's Red Lines for a Palestinian state, from the Palestine Papers, part 2: Jerusalem

Continuing on with the full text and my commentary of the PLO's NSU Negotiation Principles Matrix:

ISSUE

CORE PRINCIPLES

POSSIBLE FLEXIBILITY

JERUSALEM

Capital of two states

· East Jerusalem, within the pre occupation municipal lines, shall be the capital of Palestine, under full Palestinian sovereignty

· The borders in Jerusalem will be determined in

· Mutually agreed arrangements possible, based on reciprocity, on specified matters such as access rights, burial rights, visitation rights, coordination of municipal services

accordance with the rest of the borders and based on 1967 lines. All principles regarding swaps that apply to the border generally shall also apply in Jerusalem, such as the principle that all swaps must be equal and equitable.

· Land swaps in Jerusalem shall not affect maximum territorial contiguity with the rest of the West Bank

· Land swaps shall not include any Muslim and Christian Palestinian inhabited areas

· Land swaps shall not include individual houses or other small Israeli settlements

· The settlement freeze in Palestinian territories, and including all related infrastructural projects, shall be applied to East Jerusalem

· Land swaps shall not include any Muslim or Christian holy sites and holy places in East Jerusalem

· The Haram al Sharif compound, in its entirety on, above and below ground, shall be under Palestinian sovereignty and administration

· The Western Wall of the Haram, including the Wailing Wall, shall be under Palestinian sovereignty

· Israel can be granted prayer rights to the Wailing Wall (as opposed to the Western Wall) but these rights shall not imply maintenance or other rights to alter the Wall in any way.

The PLO demands ownership of the entire Old City - the Jewish Quarter, the Kotel, everything. If pushed, they will allow Jews to visit, worship and maybe even bury Jews in the Mount of Olives - under heavy guard, they way they visit Josephs' Tomb in Nablus today.

The also distinguish between the "Western Wall" and the "Wailing Wall." They would only give limited rights to Jews to pray at the location of the Kotel, but not in the tunnels adjacent to it, or the "Kotel haKatan" to the north, or the egalitarian praying area to the south.

However, the Palestinians insist on total sovereignty over the entire area, the Kotel, the tunnels.

No Jew who has the slightest pride in their Judaism could possibly agree to any of this.

Religious and cultural significance

· Safeguard the character, holiness, and freedom of worship in the city and its holy sites and places

· Safeguard the unique character of the Old City and promote the welfare of its inhabitants

· Uphold UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List regulations to the Old City

Jerusalem border regime

· The border regime between Palestine and Israel in Jerusalem shall correspond to the general border arrangements

· Specific border arrangements for Jerusalem to take into consideration the special character of Jerusalem and the Old City and with a view to enable the facilitated movement of persons and goods across the two parts of the city.

Jerusalem Coordination and Development Committee

· Establishment of a Jerusalem Coordination and Development Committee to oversee cooperation and coordination between the Palestinian Jerusalem Municipal Authority and the Israeli Jerusalem Municipal Authority

When they say that they will safeguard freedom of worship, what it left unsaid is that this is all subsumed by Islamic religious law. They would never allow Jews to visit the Temple Mount, let alone pray there, and the same would apply to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which Muslims did not allow Jews to visit for hundreds of years.

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