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Strangling Jerusalem
Posted on October 26, 2015 in Washington Watch
By James Zogby
We
have been witnessing an epidemic of violence in Jerusalem. There have
been killings and near fatal attacks in Israel and elsewhere in the
occupied Palestinian lands, but it is Jerusalem that has been the
epicenter of the violence. This tragedy has been compounded by the fact
that most US analysts and political leaders have been dead wrong in
their simplistic, myopic, or, at times, even bigoted assessments of what
is happening and why.
For example, The Atlantic's Jeffery Goldberg says the
violence has been caused by Palestinian “paranoia” and their refusal to
acknowledge “the national and religious rights” of Jews. Bret Stephens,
writing in the Wall Street Journal, accuses the Palestinians of "blood
lust". For their part, Members of Congress have been jumping all over
each other to see who can issue the harshest denunciations of the
Palestinian Authority for incitement and/or not doing enough to control
the situation.
In reality, the roots of the violence in Jerusalem are
deeper and far more complex. For decades now, Israel has been strangling
East Jerusalem denying its Palestinian inhabitants freedom,
opportunity, dignity, and hope, with devastating impact. Before Israel
closed Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank in 1994, the city
had served as the hub of Palestinian life. Not only was the city
important for its religious role, all of the major Palestinian economic,
social, cultural, educational, medical, and service institutions were
located in the city.http://www.aaiusa.org/strangling_jerusalem?utm_campaign=wwoct26&utm_medium=email&utm_source=aai
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