Negotiating Jerusalem PDF
Preview Negotiating Jerusalem
NEGOTIATING JERUSALEM SUNY series in Israeli Studies Russell Stone, editor Negotiating Jerusalem Jerome M. Segal Shlomit Levy Nader lzzat Sa'id Elihu Katz STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2000 State University of New York Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, N.Y., 12246 Production by Cathleen Collins Marketing by Patrick Durocher Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Negotiating Jerusalem / Jerome M. Segal ... let aLl. p. cm. - (SUNY series in Israeli studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-4537-2 Calk. paper) - ISBN 0-7914-4538-0 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Jerusalem-International status. 2. Arab-Israeli conflict-1993-Peace. 1. Segal, Jerome M., 1943- II. Series. DS109.94.N45 2000 341.2/9'09569442-dc21 99-041586 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Contents Preface vii Part I. The Status of Jerusalem in the Eyes of Israeli.Jews and Palestinians: A Policy Perspective Jerome M. Segal A. Israeli Jews 5 B. Palestinians 35 Part II. The Status of Jerusalem in the Eyes of Israeli.Jews: A Survey Research Perspective Shlomit Levy and Elihu Katz 57 An Analysis of Israeli Jewish Opinion on the Status ofJerusalem Shlomit Levy 59 Highlights and Commentary Elihu Katz 123 Part III. The Status of Jerusalem in the Eyes of Palestinians: A Survey Research Perspective Nader Izzat Sa'id 135 An Analysis of Palestinian Opinion on the Status of Jerusalem 137 Central Findings and Conclusions 181 Part IV. Is Jerusalem Negotiable? Jerome M. Segal 183 v vi Contents Appendix A: Data from Study of Israeli-Jews 223 Appendix A-I: Questionnaire and distribution of responses in percentages for the national sample and the settler sample 223 Appendix A-2: Cross-tabulation of all replies by ideological tendency 240 Appendix A-3: Cross-tabulation of all replies by religious observance 269 Appendix B: Data from Study of Palestinians 299 Appendix B-1: National sample and region 299 Appendix B-2: Cross-tabulation by political affiliation 311 Appendix B-3: Cross-tabulation by religiosity 320 Appendix B-4: Cross-tabulation by religion 329 About the Authors 337 Index 339 Preface I t is widely believed that the Jerusalem issue is unique, the one issue on which the two peoples are so far apart that any political leadership which even sought to compromise would be swept aside. Within Israel, Jerusalem is viewed as the third rail of Israeli politics. To date, no major political party has proposed sharing sovereignty with the Palestinians. Yet, among Palestinians, some 94% say that even if it were the only way that a Palestinian state could come into being, they would not accept Israel's claim that it alone is sovereign over all of Jerusalem. Were the PLO to abandon Jerusalem, Palestinians would abandon the PLO. Negotiating Jerusalem explores the potential (and limits) for resolving the Jerusalem issue. Unlike much writing on the Jerusalem question, it does not con cern itself with the positions of the Israeli government or the PLO. Nor does it seek to identify theoretically possible solutions to the Jerusalem question. Instead, it focuses on the beliefs, values, and attitudes of ordinary people, specifically Israeli Jews living in Israel and in settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, and Palestinians living in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. Only after examining the orientations of the two peoples does the book tum to the question of policy: Is it possible to arrive at a negotiated solution to the Jerusalem question, and if so, what might such a solution look like? The final policy section of the book, "Is Jerusalem Negotiable?", was written by Jerome Segal (speaking only for himself). It builds on the study of Israeli Jews undertaken by Shlomit Levy, Elihu Katz, and Jerome Segal and the study of Palestinians undertake by Nader Sa'id and Jerome Segal, each of which involved an extensive research effort that went far beyond any previous studies of public attitudes toward Jerusalem. On the Israeli side, some 1,530 door-to-door inter views were conducted. Each interview consisted of almost 100 questions, all focused on the Jerusalem issue. On the Palestinian side, a parallel effort was under taken, interviewing some 870 Palestinians. These two studies emerged from distinct and separate research efforts, one representing an Israeli-American collaboration and one representing a Palestinian- vii viii Preface American collaboration. While distinct investigations, they form a coherent body of inquiry. The Israeli Jewish study was conducted first, in 1995-96 and in devel oping the Palestinian study, to enable comparison, a very similar questionnaire, often with identical questions, was used in 1996. Jerome Segal was a member of both research teams. The overall product is unique. Standing individually, each of the research projects provides a major leap forward in what was known about the attitudes of both Palestinians and Israeli Jews toward Jerusalem. Taken together, and with the final section "Is Jerusalem Negotiable!", the volume offers a comprehensive assess ment of the extent to which public opinion constitutes a barrier to the potential negotiability of the Jerusalem question. Some of what we found confirms the widespread belief that it will be extra ordinarily difficult to successfully negotiate the permanent status of Jerusalem. For instance, we found that the overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews are opposed to negotiations on Jerusalem and a majority say that no concessions should be made at all. On the Palestinian side, as already noted, we found that 94% of Palestinians would not be willing to accept Israel's claim that it alone is sovereign over all of Jerusalem, even if this were the only way a Palestinian state could come into being. And parallel to Israeli Jewish attitudes, the overwhelming majority of Palestinians said there should be no concessions at all with respect to Jerusalem. The key to understanding this strong anticoncession response is to note that such questions were asked about Jerusalem as a whole. One of the central features of our studies is that we "dis aggregated" the Jerusalem question, asking many ques tions about specific parts of the city. Once that was done, a quite different picture emerged. • A plurality of Israeli Jews (45%) would seriously consider Pale stinian sovereignty over Arab settlements and villages previously in the West Bank which are now within the borders of Jerusalem (e.g., Shuafat, Um Tuba, Zur Baher, Beit Hanina). • Most Palestinians would seriously consider a proposal in which West Jerusalem would be under Israeli sovereignty and East Jerusalem would be under Palestinian sovereignty, with a special arrangement for Israeli control of the Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. The Old City would be dealt with separately. More generally we found, that once you disaggegate the city, contrary to popular belief, there is no overall consensus among either Israelis or Palestinians on Jerusalem. Thus, the Jerusalem issue begins to look much more like the other issues in the conflict (i.e., both Israelis and Palestinians are split on what to do). In an effort to better understand the nature of the strong Israeli and Pale stinian attachments to the city, we asked people how important to them "as Jeru salem" various parts of the city were. Here the responses were quite striking:
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