Information Related to "Coming: International Control of Jerusalem?"
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While the court of world opinion wishes to internationalize Jerusalem, many Israelis are absolutely determined to resist such a move.
Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firmly stated: "Israel could not under any circumstances negotiate over any aspect of Jerusalem, anymore than Americans would negotiate over Washington . . . The notion that Jerusalem will be redivided is sheer fantasy."
Yet he acknowledged that "it is not only the Arabs who cling to this fantasy. In practically every foreign ministry in the West, including the U.S. State Department, there are maps that do not include East Jerusalem as a part of a united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty" (A Place Among the Nations, 1993, p. 346).
Still, even under the overseeing Jewish umbrella, in some vital respects the city remains divided. Author Bernard Wasserstein described the situation in Jerusalem in 2001, a situation that has only grown worse since.
". . . In many ways Jerusalem . . . is divided more than ever. Walls and fences were beginning to appear between Jewish and Arab districts. Jewish taxi-drivers were reluctant to take passengers to destinations in Arab neighbourhoods. Israeli ambulance drivers would go into Arab districts only if accompanied by security forces. The [outside] Palestinian Authority's Governor of the Jerusalem District was reported to be exercising effective authority in the Arab community" (Divided Jerusalem, 2002, p. 359).
Israeli writer and intellectual Amos Elon adds: "For the most part, the two main communities, Palestinians and Israelis, still work and live apart from one another, in separate quarters, much as though the city were still divided by minefields and barbed wire" (Jerusalem: City of Mirrors, 1996, p. 47).
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Jerusalem, modern: