The Palestinian Authority has been working intensely to establish eastern Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state by 2030, drawing up elaborate plans for the expropriation of Israeli land for the project, Yediot Ahronot reported on Friday.
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According to the report, the Palestinian Authority has been attempting over the past two years to implement a plan created in 2020 that would see parts of the Oslo Accords appealed. The vision includes PA police stations and a separate PA municipality within Israel’s capital city and large-scale construction of Arab neighborhoods
The “Spatial Development Strategic Framework for Jerusalem Governorate (2030)” plan begins by clearly stating its vision for the future, which would see “Jerusalem, the Capital of the State of Palestine, its beating heart, and its foremost metropolitan area.”
The plan envisions the eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods of Kfar Aqab, Beit Hanina, Tzur Baher, Beit Safafa, a-Tur, Silwan and Jabal Mukaber as part of Palestinian-controlled Jerusalem, alongside the nearby Jewish city of Ma’aleh Adumim in Judea.
“It is necessary to move from a state of response to a state of initiative,” wrote Adnan Ghaith, the Palestinian Authority Governor of Jerusalem. “[It’s time] to create facts on the ground and strengthen the resilience of the [Arab] residents of Jerusalem.”
A passage in the document floats the idea of the Palestinian Authority asserting sovereignty over a portion of the Dead Sea, which would see Israeli companies currently using minerals from the site pay fees or taxes for their continued operation.
Chaim Silberstein, chair and founder of the Keep Jerusalem NGO, said the plan should signal to Israeli authorities that the time has come to apply greater sovereignty to the Jerusalem area, in order to strengthen its foothold in the area.
“This a political subversion of a foreign entity that operates within the sovereign territory of Israel,” Silberstein told Ynet.
“We must move from a narrow view of the city’s municipal boundaries to a spatial view of Greater Jerusalem.”
“On the eve of the [Jerusalem Day] holiday, we will clarify the obvious,” wrote Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion on Twitter Thursday, in response to the Ynet report.
“Jerusalem will remain the undivided capital of Israel. Period.”
The document, which liberally uses the symbols of the European Union and United Nations to insinuate that those entities support the project, notes in small print that the bodies may not formally approve “the borders, names shown, and designations employed on the maps provided [within the plan].”
Meanwhile, prominent Religious Zionist Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Tzfat (Safed), called on the Israeli public to join the flag march in Jerusalem on Sunday morning in honor of Jerusalem Day — the Hebrew anniversary of the reunification of the city during the 1967 Six Day War — saying that participating in the parade was of paramount importance to emphasize Israeli sovereignty.
It is “a special mitzvah [commandment] to go up to the flag parade this year, as our Arab enemies are trying to threaten us not to enter the Old City, the area where the Temple Mount is located,” Eliyahu said. “They want to [drive us out of] the whole country and especially from this part of Jerusalem, to say you have no part and land in the Old City of Jerusalem.
An absolute NO!
The only reason the Palestinians want East Jerusalem as their capital is because it belongs to the Jews for the last three millennia. Recognizing the unification of Jerusalem under Israeli authority isn’t what causes violence between Israel and its neighboring Muslim enemies. It’s the anti-Semitic religious fervor, as called for in Islam. Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Qur’an while Medina and Mecca, their holy sites, are mentioned often.