ChristiansUnite Forums

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima Party revealed more details of its plans for re-dividing Jerusalem last week at a debate between itself and the other political parties vying for position ahead of this week’s Israeli national election.

The event was held at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies and placed Kadima on par with Labor and Meretz whose views on re-division are based on an earlier contingency plan that would see the Old City and its environs placed under international religious-political rule.

“The Old City, Mount Scopus, the Mount of Olives, the City of David, Sheikh Jarra will remain in our hands, but Kafr Akeb, A-Ram, Shuafat, Hizma, A-Zaim, A-Tur, Abu Dis are not part of historic Jerusalem,” said Otniel Schneller who represented Kadima at the debate.

Schneller explained that Kadima supports “separation between [Israel] and the Palestinians who don't live in the heart of Jerusalem” and when the future Palestinian state is established, those places, which “were never part of [traditional] Jerusalem,” will become its capital.

He added that no concessions on sites that are sacred to Jews would be made.

Labor MK Colette Avital said her party held a similar view and that unlike the Camp David talks in 2000 where former Prime Minister Ehud Barak spoke of giving up parts of the Old City, Israel will not relinquish control over the Temple Mount or other holy sites.

However, like Kadima she said Labor is “certainly prepared to give up many Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.”

Meanwhile, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) said dividing Jerusalem would only perpetuate the conflict, not resolve it.

“I am still holding on to the 'obsolete' Bible, and am adhering to the dream, and believe that we can beat the demographics in Jerusalem and that we must fight and not give up,” he said.

Other opponents of the plan complained it would create an increased security risk for Jerusalem residents and generate chaos in the city, which functions as a single urban entity.

They also criticized any concessions on Israeli sovereignty in the district saying it put Israeli hold on the Old City, Western Wall and Temple Mount into question.

Zec 14:2   For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.






Zec 14:12   And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.