Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Third Intifada?

BY AMOS

If the recent unrest in Jerusalem spirals out of control, the international news media will surely rush to find some symbolic spark. Perhaps, they will blame the announcement of the Ramat Shlomo expansion. Or maybe the dedication of the restored Hurva Synagogue in the eastern part of the city. They will ignore the wave of Jerusalem-related incitement in the past year, and especially in the last few months, by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and the Arab states, including countries allied or enjoying in-the-closet relations with Israel. The rhetoric, which includes a smear campaign alleging that Israel plans to "Judaize" Jerusalem by destroying Muslim antiquities, has been employed by the nationalists as well as the Islamists. It has gone hand-in-hand with the patently absurd efforts to deny any legitimate Jewish religious claims to Jerusalem and other sites. In all of this, Jewish attachment to places such as Hebron is dismissed as extremist political posturing by settlers - as if the religious sentiments of Jewish settlers have less legitimacy than those of Palestinian Muslims.

4 comments:

Noah S. said...

Is it that the religious claims of Jews and Muslims to holy sites are seen as unequally legitimate, or is it that the social groups the two religions represent are seen as unequally empowered to turn those claims into law?

Amos said...

Noah,

Hmm... I see what you mean. You're saying that the antipathy toward Jewish claims is really about the power differential? That might be true for some outside observers, but I think the arguments in the Arab press are basically theological in nature and really do not recognize the Jewish claims. About this power differential - the Waqf controls the Temple Mount and Israeli sovereignty is very circumscribed there.

But maybe I am not understanding your comment correctly...tell me more.

Noah K said...

The announcement of the Ramat Shlomo expansion turns out to have been a big deal. I still don't understand what the US is doing with it. Trying to make it a "game-changer?" The holy site stuff seems like small potatoes when you look at what's going on in Turkey, the state of affairs with Iran, and how big this Ramat Shlomo-gate thing with the US has become. Israel made a huge miscalculation, there, obviously.

"Control" of the Temple Mount is a weird thing, right. The Waqf has authority up there, allowing some serious archaeological malfeasance, as I understand it. On the other hand, the IDF has 100% power over who goes in and who goes out, no? That's also probably true of the Hebron sites...

Amos said...

Israel Police can put temporary restrictions on who may enter it. The Waqf can also unilaterally declare parts of it off-limits to Jews or Christians. Both are subject to public opinion (domestic and international) and various diplomatic considerations.