Perilous Times
Israeli plan to build a new Jerusalem gate condemned by
Palestinian government
The Palestinian Authority has denounced a potentially explosive Israeli
plan to build a gate in the Ottoman walls of Jerusalem's storied Old
City as a provocative move that could undermine peace talks.
By Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem
Published: 5:19PM BST 10 Oct 2010
The Palestinian Authority has denounced a potentially explosive Israeli
plan to build a gate in the Ottoman walls of Jerusalem's storied Old
City as a provocative move that could undermine peace talks.
Western Wall plaza and the Al-Aqsa mosque compound (background) in
Jerusalem's old city Photo: AFP
Jewish municipal officials last week unveiled a proposal to breach the
Old City's walls for the first time in 112 years, a project that
threatens to jeopardise the delicate status quo in one of the world's
most sensitive and disputed religious sites.
The row comes when the negotiations, launched in Washington last month,
are already in deep crisis following the expiry of an Israeli
moratorium on Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
Having already threatened to abandon the talks, Mahmoud Abbas, the
Palestinian leader, raised the stakes further over the weekend by
calling on the United States to support the creation of an independent
Palestinian state in the West Bank.
Although an Arab League decision to give the United States another
month to resolve the settlement dispute raised hopes that the talks
could still be salvaged, Mr Abbas's appeal suggests that he is already
looking beyond negotiations.
Palestinian officials have said they could seek a UN Security Council
resolution supporting independence next year if peace talks fail, a
move that would complicate the prospect of there ever being a
negotiated peace deal with Israel.
If the ever-fraught issue of Jewish settlements is behind the present
impasse, the prospect of architectural changes in the Old City could
prove even more incendiary.
For Israeli officials, the matter is merely one of urban planning. They
want to build a gate leading to a new underground car park to improve
access to the Wailing Wall, the most revered surviving structure in
Judaism, and to an equally contentious multi-purpose centre that is to
be built in front of it.
But for Palestinians, the proposal represents a further assault on
their claims to the Old City, home to some of the holiest sites in
Islam, and with it the real possibility of a violent backlash from
their supporters.
Since they were built by Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman sultan,
472 years ago, the walls of the Old City have only been breached four
times – most recently in 1898 to create access for a large entourage
led by Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Since Israel's capture of the Old City and surrounding areas of East
Jerusalem in 1967, there has been good reason to retain this policy of
architectural diffidence.
In 1996, 80 people were killed in three days of Palestinian riots after
Israel began construction on a tunnel close to the Temple Mount, the
site of the two Jewish temples of antiquity which are now home to the
Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest in Islam.
Jews regard the mount as their holiest religious site and mourning the
temple's most recent destruction, by the Romans in AD70, is a central
tenet of their faith.
Further underground construction is likely, however, to renew a
long-standing belief by some Palestinians that Israel is intent on
tearing down the mosques to build the Third Temple, a suspicion that
even many critics of Israel say is unfounded.
But although the Wailing Wall, which is part of the surviving western
perimeter of the Temple, is likely to remain under Jewish sovereignty
under any peace deal, the Palestinian cabinet said on Sunday that
building there now would compromise one of the most delicate elements
of the negotiations.
It gave warning that the proposal would have "negative" consequences
for the negotiations.
"This is not only illegal under international law, it is provocative
and will increase tensions," said Ghassan Khatib, a spokesman for the
Palestinian Authority. "It is pre-empting the negotiations by changing
the situation on the ground in a way that is prejudicial to a two state
solution."
There are doubts that the construction – which could also jeopardise
the Old City's status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site – will even go
ahead. But even though plans are at a very preliminary stage, they
still have the potential to cause significant anger, whether or not
they come to fruition.
"Perceived threats are often as volatile as real threats," said Daniel
Seidemann, an Israeli activist who campaigns for an equitable solution
to the issue of Jerusalem.
"You have the tectonic plates of civilisation meeting in this one place
so that even the most innocent plans can cause serious repercussions."
In a separate development that could further raise tensions, the
Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved a bill that would force all
Palestinians wishing to become citizens of Israel to swear an oath to
the country as a "Jewish state".
The proposed legislation has been widely condemned by leaders of
Israel's Arab minority as racist.