An interesting conference took place abroad last week.
Its hosts were Palestinian human rights activists. The participants weredozens of human rights and peace organizations from around the world. Inthe course of three crammed days, scores of speakers presentedcomprehensive and credible information on human rights violationsthroughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
And just where did this conference take place? In the Ambassador hotel inEast Jerusalem, across from the stark concrete desert which had once beenMount Scopus.
So why did I say that it took place abroad? Because as far as theIsraeli media was concerned, it might as well have taken place not only ina foreign country, and not only on another continent, but on anotherplanet altogether. Not one word was devoted to the conference in any ofthe media, either printed or broadcast (with the exception of five linestacked onto another story in one of the newspapers by an enterprisingreporter).
From a reporter’s point of view, this was not only an exceptionallyinteresting event, but an important one as well. Israeli right-wingerswould have derived great satisfaction from the open criticism of the stateof human rights within the Palestinian Authority area; others would havebeen interested in human rights violations by the settlements, or in thefact that the Palestinians awarded prizes to five Israelis for theirefforts on behalf of human rights.
Among other reasons why the conference was particularly fascinating wasthat it proved the existence within the Palestinian community of seriousand vigorous forces working towards the establishment of a democracy andthe fortification of human rights. This, despite all the difficultproblems facing the Palestinian “state-in-the-making.” It bodes well forthe future and the quality of the State of Palestine, to be officiallyproclaimed in May of 1999. Many Palestinians were very eager to hear myrecollections of our own struggles during the early years of the State ofIsrael, until we were successful in ensuring for ourselves (more or less)freedom of the press and human rights.
But as far as Israel was concerned, this event never took place.
It was convened in the heart of annexed Jerusalem, the “unified city”, the”eternal capital”, a hundred meters away from the Israeli PoliceHeadquarters, two hundred meters from Ramat Eshkol, three hundred metersfrom the site of the riots of “Ateret Kohanim” and their archeologicalagents.
In fact, there were some Israeli journalists present. But when asked thefollowing day why not a single word was mentioned in the press on thesubject of the conference, the response was unanimous: “My editor saidthat it was of no interest!” True, why should the Israeli public beinterested in an event taking place on another planet?
This reaction is more intriguing to me than anything said at theconference itself. The uniform attitude of the editors of all theTV networks, of all the radio stations and of all of the written press,demonstrates one indisputable fact which cannot be obscured by emptyslogans or ridiculous celebrations: East Jerusalem is not part of theState of Israel, its residents and its happenings are not part of theState of Israel, and nothing has been unified. Not one of the many covertefforts of the arch-settler, Teddy Kollek, nor any of the overtprovocations of his diligent student, Ehud Olmert, have mattered: EastJerusalem remains an Arab city, a conquered territory which belongs inevery practical sense to Palestine. All the editors and all thejournalists in Israel know it, and act accordingly.
The hundreds of American and European visitors to the conference wereaware of it too. In the course of those three days, they did not see asingle Israeli policeman or soldier, and did not encounter any Israelisexcept for those few who attended the event. They thought that they werestaying in the heart of Palestinian territory, and they were not wrong.
If there is any hope for the unification of Jerusalem, then it lives inthe proposal of those Israelis and Palestinians who signed the Gush Shalommanifesto which calls for declaring Jerusalem the joint capital of bothstates, Israel and Palestine.
Incidentally, the attitude of the media toward the participants of theconference changed drastically when a few of the foreign activiststraveled to Silvan, to protest the invasion of the settlers there. Theywere assaulted by the settlers and by the police, beaten and viciouslydragged on the rough ground, and some were even injured (none seriously).And lo and behold: All at once the Israeli press acknowledged them,publishing extensive photos all over Israel and around the world, with thenote that these foreign trouble-makers had participated in some kind ofconference in Jerusalem.