International Bigotry Over Jerusalem
Tuesday, May 16, 2017 | Ariel Rudolph ISRAEL TODAY
The world powers, EU and the UN are consistent over one thing. Their bigotry regarding Jerusalem.
On November 29, 1947 the UN passed Resolution 181(II) - the Partition Plan of Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate. The resolution recommended the separation into three parts: an Arab State, a Jewish State and the City of Jerusalem - the Jerusalem Corpus Separatum.
According to the plan, Jews and Arabs living in the Jewish state would become citizens of the Jewish state and Jews and Arabs living in the Arab state would become citizens of the Arab state.
The Plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, despite its perceived limitations while Arab leaders and governments of the surrounding Arab States rejected it and indicated an unwillingness to accept any form of territorial division or to accommodate any form of Jewish State being established in the region.
Immediately after adoption of the Resolution by the General Assembly a civil war broke out, which delayed the implementation of the partition plan. This resistance to the establishment of a Jewish State by the Arab States led to the Declaration of Independence of the nascent State of Israel on May 14, 1948. The next day the combined forces of Lebanon, Syria, the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan, Iraq and Egypt attacked Israel and would "continue fighting until the Zionists were annihilated and driven into the sea".
As a result of this attack on the nascent State of Israel, Jerusalem was attacked and the eastern parts of the city, including the walled Old City of Jerusalem, were occupied by the forces of Transjordan, supported by Iraqi forces. Thus the Arabs were the first entity to occupy any part of the "Jerusalem Corpus Separatum" in contravention of UN Resolution 181 (II).
On January 23, 1950, after the Armistice agreement following the War of Independence, the Israeli Knesset voted that Jerusalem be the capital of the State of Israel by 60 - 2 votes and issued the following declaration: “Whereas with establishment of the state of Israel, Jerusalem once more becomes the capital; Whereas practical difficulties which caused the Knesset and government institutions to be temporarily housed elsewhere have now for the most part been removed and the government is carrying out the transfer of its institutions to Jerusalem; The Knesset expresses the wish that construction of the seat of the government and Knesset in Jerusalem proceed speedily on the site allotted by the government for this purpose.”
During the years 1948 - 1967 there were no condemnations of the Arab occupation of Eastern Jerusalem, in contravention of UN Resolution 181 (II), neither were there any calls for the Arabs to relinquish their control over the city.
Only after the Six Day War in June 1967, where Israel reunited Jerusalem into a single city, did the international forum refer to the Eastern parts of Jerusalem as "occupied".
On Sunday, on the eve of the 69th anniversary of the declaration of war by the Arabs on the "Zionist entity" - the "Nakba" or the "catastrophe" - employees of the US Consulate in Jerusalem, that were involved in advanced preparations of President Trump's official state visit to Israel, once again caused an uproar. As the team approached the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City the American employees turned to the Israeli officials accompanying them stating, "We're asking you to leave, and we need to be left alone. Israeli officials cannot be here; this is not your territory, it's the West Bank."
This outburst, by American State Department employees, is in stark contrast by recent announcements and stated positions by the United State's UN Ambassador Nikki Haley regarding Israel's historical connections to Jerusalem.
PHOTO: Rob Ghost/Flash90
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