There will be tragedy for as long as hope is absent

More repression in Jerusalem will not cure an ailment that has been caused by too much oppression, says James Zogby.

Israeli moves have taken a profound toll on the soul of Arab Jerusalemites, young and old. Ariel Schalit / AP Photo

There is an epidemic of violence in Jerusalem. There have been killings and attacks elsewhere, but Jerusalem is at the centre of the violence. This tragedy has been compounded by the fact that most analysts have been dead wrong in their assessments of what is happening and why.

For example, The Atlantic’s Jeffery Goldberg says the violence has been caused by Palestinian “paranoia”. Bret Stephens, writing in The Wall Street Journal, accuses the Palestinians of “blood lust”. Some members of Congress have been jumping all over each other to see who can issue the harshest denunciations of the Palestinian Authority.

In reality, the roots of the violence in Jerusalem are far more complex. For decades, Israel has been strangling East Jerusalem and denying its Palestinian inhabitants freedom, opportunity, dignity and hope. Before Israel closed Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank in 1994, the city had served as the hub of Palestinian life.

Jerusalem was Palestine’s heart, and the flow of people in and out was its lifeblood. Its people and its businesses were sustained by Palestinians from the West Bank who entered daily to work or shop, to visit or take advantage of the services it provided. And Palestinians from the rest of the West Bank were, in turn, nourished by all that the city had to offer. The choking impact of the closure was felt almost immediately. It became so difficult to pass through checkpoints to get into Jerusalem, that people stopped making the effort. This was compounded by Israeli orders requiring Palestinian institutions to leave the city and reopen in Ramallah.

Israel didn’t stop with closure. They also intensified the hardships faced by the Arab population of the city. Palestinian residents who couldn’t find work in Jerusalem were forced to look elsewhere for employment. But when Israelis discovered that an Arab was not permanently residing in the city, they revoked his or her residency, denying their right to return to Jerusalem. 14,000 such revocation orders have been issued.

Israel has also confiscated a third of Palestinian-owned land in and around Jerusalem to build Jewish-only colonies. These colonies now house more than 200,000 Jewish settlers. At the same time, Israeli authorities in Jerusalem have routinely denied building permits to Palestinians thus forcing them to build new houses without permission. The Israelis have, at will, issued demolition orders against these “illegal” homes.

Further compounding this state of affairs has been the effort by ultranationalist Israeli groups, supported by American Jewish “charities”, to seize homes and properties in the heart of older Arab neighbourhoods in Jerusalem and the Old City and to populate them with extremist settlers. These seizures often occur in the dark of night under the protection of the Israeli military. In recent years 119 of these provocative “projects” have been settled by almost 2,000 hardliners.

The impact this has had on East Jerusalem’s Palestinian population can been seen in ways both physical and spiritual. Arab Jerusalemites have become impoverished, with three-quarters of them living below the poverty line. Unemployment is around 40 per cent. Educated young Palestinians are given a stark choice – either accept employment as a waiter or a taxi driver or give up residency in Jerusalem to find a job in their field outside Palestine.

This has taken a profound toll on the soul of Arab Jerusalemites, young and old. Denied dignity and hope, both despair and anger have set in. While some older Palestinians in the city have become resigned, younger Palestinians have become angry. They feel humiliated by the settlers who have moved into their neighbourhoods. While Palestinian attacks on Israelis are reported in great detail, the attacks on Palestinians by settlers (140 in October, alone) have been ignored.

Young Palestinians know that their future is devoid of promise. All of this has set the stage for the epidemic of violence that has now unfolded in Jerusalem.

To be sure, the provocative invasions of the Haram Al Sharif by hardline Israeli ministers and their extremist followers have aggravated the situation. But it is unconscionable to identify the root cause of the violence as either Palestinian “incitement”, “blood lust” or “paranoia” and to ignore the profoundly unsettling existential incitement faced by Palestinians.

Make no mistake, the stabbings should be condemned. They accomplish nothing other than to cause harm to others. But the Israeli response is no solution. More repression will not cure an ailment that has been caused by too much oppression.

In many ways, the tragedy unfolding in Jerusalem reminds Palestinians of what has occurred in Hebron.

First, settlements and checkpoints choked off Hebron from its surroundings. Then heavily guarded compounds of fanatics entered the heart of the city, shutting down the main street and killing its commerce.

The final blow came after an extremist settler massacred 29 Muslims at prayer in Hebron’s mosque.

The Israeli response was to divide the mosque into Jewish and Muslim sides. While Jews were able to enter freely, Muslims were forced to endure humiliating security procedures before entering – with the mosque being declared closed to Muslims, whenever the Israelis decide.

Stephens, Goldberg and company see only Israeli victims. They limit their focus to the stabbings and the rock throwing youth and blame them.

But there is a deeper story and that is that these young Palestinians are also victims – of decades of oppression and the denial of hope.

Until it is understood that these Palestinian lives matter and concrete steps are taken to provide them with freedom, opportunity and hope, the tragedy will continue.

James Zogby is the president of the Arab American Institute

On Twitter: @aaiusa