Death, taxes, and anti-Israel resolutions at the UN are pretty much the only three constants in this world. Nonetheless, some lessons can be learned from the latest screed issued by the nations gathered in Manhattan’s Turtle Bay.
The most notable part of UN General Assembly Resolution 12626 was its demand that all Jews be expelled from the Old City section of Jerusalem within one year.
The text also threw in expelling all Jews from Judea-Samaria, withholding military equipment from Israel that might be used there or in Gaza, and boycotting all Israeli products from beyond the 1949 Armistice lines. All of this, of course, is outrageous and despicable. But it’s the Jerusalem section that warrants the most attention.
The countries that voted in favor of the resolution claim to oppose “apartheid.” But then they insist on what is, in effect, an anti-Jewish apartheid system for what they call “East Jerusalem.”
A place of all faiths
They say that Jerusalem should be a city for all faiths. They then demand the expulsion of members of one faith from the area of the city where their holy sites are located.
Anybody who knows even a little of the history and geography of the region knows that “East Jerusalem” does not exist. That’s because in Israel, “East” and “West” are not simple geographic terms as they are in the United States. Northeast Philadelphia, the Upper East Side in Manhattan, and East LA are names that are used to denote neighborhoods and sections of a city.
Arab propagandists and their media sympathizers invented the term “East Jerusalem” to downplay Jerusalem’s Jewish identity.
By “East Jerusalem,” they mean the heart of Jerusalem, the walled Old City section where the Western Wall and the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, are located; the part of the city where the Jordanians destroyed 58 synagogues and desecrated thousands of Jewish gravestones in the Mount of Olives cemetery; the area where Jordan practiced real-life apartheid by preventing Jews from entering for 19 long years.
'East Jerusalem' is just Jerusalem
Every mention of a specific location in Jerusalem in the Christian Bible refers to an area that the UN wants Israel to surrender. The term “East Jerusalem” cannot be found in a Christian Bible because “East Jerusalem” is about as real as The Twilight Zone.
The words “Next Year in Jerusalem!” that Jews the world over will proclaim at the end of the Yom Kippur service, which is also a highlight of the Passover Seder, refer to the ancient parts of Jerusalem that the UN includes as part of the mythical creation of “East Jerusalem.” In Judaism, there is no such thing as “East Jerusalem.”
Wikipedia may not have all the answers, but its entry on the subject acknowledges the basic fact that “East Jerusalem” actually refers to the portion of Jerusalem that Jordan held after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, while Israel held “West Jerusalem.” In other words, “East Jerusalem” is Jerusalem’s Old City and its surrounding neighborhoods; the original and oldest parts of Jerusalem are in “East Jerusalem.”
Lessons to be learned
WHAT LESSONS can we learn from this? Here are three:
First, Israel’s Jordanian “peace partners” are rank hypocrites. They occupied, despoiled, and desecrated Jerusalem’s Old City for 19 years and barred Jews from entering, and now they sponsor a resolution demanding that Jews again be barred.
Second, the hypocrisy of the American Jewish Left is equally appalling. J Street claims to support a united Jerusalem, but it failed to issue even a single measly press release challenging the UN’s attempt to divide Jerusalem.
Third, perhaps it’s time for American Jewish tourists to reconsider their upcoming travel destinations. Many countries that voted “yes” are eager for Jewish tourists. Yet the resolution they supported would prevent any American Jewish parent from organizing a bar or bat mitzvah ceremony at the Western Wall – because the Wall is in “occupied East Jerusalem.”
American friends of Israel should note the names of those countries and think twice before spending tourist dollars there: Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and New Zealand.
The writer is national chairman of Americans For A Safe Israel, a pro-Israel advocacy and education organization.