Reader Judith tipped me off to this story in the Jerusalem Post about the opposition of Israeli Arabs to dividing Jerusalem.
Now, it’s been the traditional assumption that, in the Mideast conflict, the Jews want an undivided Jerusalem under Israel control, and the Arabs want either an internationalized Jerusalem or a divided one, or some combination thereof. But it’s of course a faulty assumption to lump the two “sides” into homogeneous groups, all with the same opinion. But as proof that many Israel Arabs aren’t exactly enamoured with the Palestinian Authority, a group has launched a campaign against dividing Jerusalem:
Dividing Jerusalem would mean bringing Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Force 17, and the Tanzim into the Arab-controlled parts of the city, a group of Jerusalem Arabs warned Saturday.
Members of the group, headed by Zuheir Hamdan, one of the mukhtars of the Sur Baher neighborhood, met over the weekend to discuss the Labor Party’s new platform, according to which the city would be divided.
[. . .]
“It’s strange to see that many Israelis haven’t drawn the lessons from the events of the last two years,” Hamdan told The Jerusalem Post. “An Israeli withdrawal [from east Jerusalem] would bring all the gunmen of Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Popular Front to Damascus Gate, Mount Scopus and Mount of Olives. They will turn Jerusalem into Gaza.”
Hamdan, who spearheaded a campaign against the division of Jerusalem during the Barak government, said he now planned to launch a similar drive “to explain the dangers involved in bringing the Palestinian Authority into the city.”
[. . .]
“I believe the majority doesn’t believe in Arafat’s corrupt and tyrannical rule. Look what he’s done in Lebanon, Jordan, and now in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He has brought one disaster after another on his people.”
[ . . .]
“We are also going to send messages to US President George Bush, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdallah telling them that Jerusalem and the Aksa Mosque don’t belong to Arafat,” he said.
“We will tell them that there should be a referendum among the Arabs in Jerusalem so they would be able to decide on their own future,” the mukhtar said. “We won’t accept a situation where we are led like sheep to the slaughterhouse.”
The above article just serves as another warning about the dangers of making sweeping assumptions.
I would like to see 60 minutes do a piece
on this guy. Also, all three of the big
networks should cover this story.
I also hope this guy isn’t assasinated
by Arafat’s thugs.
There was also an interesting story in
the Jerusalem Post about how Fatah in Hebron
is threatening to cut of the arms and legs
of thieves in that town.