Jerusalem,
Al Quds, Yerushalaym
By Bisan Abou
Gharbiyeh
19 June 2004
The electronic Intifada
The
other day I was surfing the internet when I accidentally came across
an online discussion group hosted by a representative of the Socialist
Party in the Dutch Senate. A variety of topics are placed online for
open discussion, amongst which an article that caught my attention:
"Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel anymore, Washington is".
Upon reading the comments placed by participants of the discussion group,
I was alarmed that everyone went into the content of the article. Not
one commentator paused for a second to critically look at the title,
which in and of itself is reason for concern.
More reason for
concern is observing how the local Dutch and international news channels
cover events in occupied Palestine. Camera lenses focus on the Gaza
Strip and the West Bank as if these areas are the only areas that represent
occupied Palestinian territories. This methodology is completely oblivious
to one of the many important issues for Palestinians, and that is Jerusalem.
Ever since the occupation commenced Palestinian Jerusalemites became
victims of a torturous process of ethnic cleansing, yet rarely, if at
all, are they represented by mass media, whether in the United States
or Europe. House demolitions, land confiscations, illegal administrative
detentions, disproportionate taxation, unlawful citizenship-rights withdrawals,
and more recently the apartheid wall are considered daily routine to
the Palestinian Jerusalemite. Despite these practices the international
community and the media choose to play the ostrich.
The purpose of these
practices is complete eradication of a majority Palestinian presence
or claim to the city of Jerusalem confining them to two areas, namely
the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This is done, in order for Israeli
occupying forces to gain the demographic upper hand in the city of Jerusalem
so as to claim it as its capital.
Today the building
of the apartheid wall topples all methods by excluding the majority
of Palestinian Jerusalemites, keeping them outside the wall, thereby
constantly drawing and redrawing the border lines at the convenience
of the occupation. Former mayor of Jerusalem and currently vice Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert makes no secret of this. He has clearly stated
that Palestinian presence in the city may not exceed 22% thereby forcing
upon them a new reality which is to become an ethnic minority in the
city of Jerusalem.
Today the extension
of the apartheid wall is going to exclude 70,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites
from residency in Jerusalem. Jerusalemite Palestinians are not even
considered citizens, rather residents. People with hundreds of years
of family roots in the city are considered 'residing tourists' but not
citizens. This residency is symbolized by a blue identity card, in contrast
with an orange one for West Bank, and Red for the Gaza Strip. These
are all discriminatory measures imposed on the Palestinian people in
and out of Jerusalem.
The media (both
local Dutch news broadcasting stations and international ones such as
BBC or CNN) are involved in an ongoing process of constructing hyper-realities.
These hyper-realities are dangerous because they are not realities.
However they slowly become realities because the audience believe and
act on basis of these constructions, which causes people to drift away
from authentic experience.
After years of observing
the media, one might conclude that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are
Palestinian areas and the rest (including Jerusalem) is Israeli. For
example, when the media chooses to report on an Israeli military plunder
of the Gaza Strip, Palestinians are usually placed to represent their
point of view either from Ramallah or the Gaza Strip, while the representatives
of the Israeli occupation forces and reporters on the other hand are
placed to do so from Jerusalem. Another example is that the daily practices
of Israeli occupation forces with regards to cleansing the city of its
Palestinian inhabitants are hardly ever reported or covered.
For the untrained
eye there seems to be nothing wrong with such image constructions. It
is then no wonder that viewers internationally do not know any better
and simply assume based on what they hear and see through media representation.
However a more in-depth look into the politics of that region tells
us otherwise. It tells us that a virtual reality is being created which
is completely contradictory to the actual reality on the ground especially
with regards to the status of Jerusalem and the status of its inhabitants.
It tells us that war is not only waged by triggering an M-16, plundering
villages by bulldozers and tanks, or eliminating human beings from up
above by apache helicopters. It tells us that the media is an accomplice
to a complementary war which is more subtle and less bloody but equally
unjust and inhumane, if not worse, because the consequences of this
kind of propaganda machine is in fact genocide. If Palestinians are
constantly portrayed as perpetrators when in fact they are being occupied,
or, when Palestinians are portrayed as non-existent in the city of Jerusalem
for example, then eradication or elimination is either justified or
takes place unnoticed.
If anything, up
to this date, the city of Jerusalem is disputed territory. One need
only research historical facts and UN resolutions contradicting and
condemning occupation tactics claiming the city as its capital. Even
the United States, renowned for its unconditional support to the Israeli
occupation of Palestine has refrained from situating its Embassy in
the city of Jerusalem, likewise other international Embassies.
Palestinians in
Palestine are undergoing a slow and systematic process of genocide and
ethnic cleansing, a fact that is supported by visual, verbal, written,
actual, explicit and implicit collaboration, and that is a crime. Throughout
history the city has known wars and blood-shed, however one should learn
from that history and not repeat it. The city of Jerusalem, the whole
city of Jerusalem, has always known a diverse presence and that is the
way it should remain, whereby secular, Muslim or Christian Palestinians
should have as much right to the city as its Jewish inhabitants.
Bisan Abou Gharbiyeh
is a Palestinian freelance journalist based in the Netherlands.