JAIPURIAR: Israel is a country with people from all walks of life. There are differences in religion, politics, culture… and with so many differences, there are bound to be disagreements.
And now there’s one more thing for people to disagree about.
CSPAN: It is time to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Since president Donald Trump’s announcement in December, the process of relocating the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has been in full swing.
But things have been far from smooth sailing.
For fifty years the American embassy here in Tel Aviv was prime real estate. Located in one of Israel’s most cosmopolitan cities, on beachfront property.
It’s at the end of a street called Shalom Alechem, meaning peace be upon you. But peace, especially in this region, is easier said than done.
From the calm waves of the Mediterranean sea, to a political tsunami in Jerusalem, this relocation comes at a hefty political price.
Jerusalem more than anything else is a city that has carried on her back 3000 years of history. That’s the reason why people walk like this.
According to Jerusalem native Nathan Landau, this history is what makes the embassy move so significant.
LANDAU: We need to separate between two separate things - Jerusalem as a concept and Jerusalem as a city. Because Jerusalem as a concept is a holy city for Christians, Muslims and Jews. That’s the place where the Prophet Mohammed was ascended to heaven, the place where Jesus was ascended and Jesus was crucified, that’s the place of the First and Second temple, the place where Abraham took his first son and was willing to sacrifice him to God...”)
JAIPURIAR: But this holy city isn’t just a big deal in the history books or religious texts of the past... Jerusalem is also a living, breathing city.
HERSCHMAN: Jerusalem is the current home and the future capital of two peoples.
Betty Herschman is an advocate for two capitals -- one in east Jerusalem for Palestinians, and one in west Jerusalem for Israelis... She says Trump’s announcement fails the Palestinian people, who make up forty percent of Jerusalem’s population.
HERSCHMAN: It’s a complete slap in the face to the Palestinians. It’s an open declaration that in no way acknowledges their national, political, cultural attachments to Jerusalem… They live here, they work here, they pay taxes here, their neighborhoods are an integral part of the urban fabric… they have long standing familial, social, cultural, familial ties to the city, just as Israelis do...It’s their home as well”)
LANDAU: Who does Jerusalem belong to? All of us.
JAIPURIAR: But that’s where the root of the conflict lies… the ultimate question of who this city belongs to.
DROMI: Look, everything in Israel, in the Middle East is about whose land this is, who owns something, who was first… we were here thousands of years before you guys… So every party needs some confirmation for their claims for legitimacy, for ownership, etc.
JAIPURIAR: And with the American embassy moving, it’s just another pat on the back for Israel from the United States.
HERSCHMAN: It’s another affirmation of Israeli hegemony over Jerusalem.
DROMI: Time will tell though if it’s really an act of a genius, or just one of those Trump-esque erratic moves.
JAIPURIAR: Uri Dromi has worked for former Israeli prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. While most Israelis are celebrating the embassy move, Dromi says he is one of the few skeptics of Trump’s decision.
DROMI: It might surprise you, but as an Israeli, I’m saying he gave us something, he gave the Palestinian nothing, and he pushes the Palestinian into despair. Plus alienates the world, which will backfire on Israel.
JAIPURIAR: He’s thinking in the long term. With his previous role in government, he saw the peace negotiations of the nineties unfold right before his eyes.
DROMI: You can’t reject such a generous gift.
JAIPURIAR: But he says that gift could be detrimental to future peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.
DROMI: It will discredit the United States as an honest broker... And eventually it’s us the Israelis who are left with this mess, and we will have to clean up after.
JAIPURIAR: But before you can clean up, you have to set up… and that’s not any easier. Even the basic logistics of moving the embassy are as controversial as the idea of having one.
At first, the ambassador and a small staff will be temporarily moving into the consulate compound in Jerusalem… a u-s embassy spokeswoman said their timeline for creating a new embassy in Jerusalem is a process that could take up to nine years.
In her statement she said: “we have started the search for a site for our permanent embassy to Israel, the planning and construction of which will be a longer-term undertaking. We are considering a number of options, including use of land already leased or owned by the U.S. government in Jerusalem.”
One of those options could potentially be the diplomat hotel… which despite its name is actually a housing center for senior citizens.
SVETLOVA: It’s a roof under the head of the people who don’t have any other options, so they are they used to living in this place.
JAIPURIAR: The u-s government actually purchased the property in 2014, and since then has been leasing it out to the ministry of absorption. But that lease ends in 2020… leaving Ksenia Svetlova and others scrambling for alternative housing options...
BELLA: This building is our home – we live here.
JAIPURIAR: I’m here in front of the diplomat hotel right next to the us consulate in Jerusalem. Right now there are about 500 senior citizens living here in this building, most of them citizens from Russia. Now I’m told that they have a strong sense of community, they’ve been living together for thirty years. But with the plans for the embassy moving here they could be left without a home.
SVETLOVA: They want to know, where will we live...what will happen to us... There is no concrete answers. So they feel abandoned, they are nervous, they don’t buy into this ‘it will be okay.’ They want to know practical solutions.
JAIPURIAR: In fact, when Svetlova immigrated to Israel from Russia at the age of 14… it was this very building that took her in.
SVETLOVA: It was my first home in Israel…. I lived there with my family, my mother and grandmother in a small room. It was overwhelming you know; it was first encounter with Israel...my mother stayed in touch with many people who live there to this day.
JAIPURIAR: At a parliament meeting in march, Svetlova discussed the fate of the diplomat and its residents… right now, she says the options for them include a brand new building that would need to go up in a hurry….
SVETLOVA: You know, I never knew that in Israel, we could build buildings in two years without having any plans, or land available for such a building. So this option also seems problematic.
JAIPURIAR: …Or spreading them out into different hostels throughout the city.
SVETLOVA: From what we know, from the reps of the Jerusalem municipality, from the last discussion, they told as that there is no place for 500.
BELLA: They won’t throw us out onto the street. But they’ll give us somewhere else to live.
JAIPURIAR: The embassy move doesn’t just affect the residents of the diplomat.
Not everyone in the neighborhood is happy about the new folks moving in.
In early April, local residents spoke out against the greater security changes required for an embassy…
But despite these complaints, the plans are moving right along… especially with trump’s may deadline, the Israeli government is fast tracking the process. And in fact, finance minister Moshe Kahlon said:
“as we promised, we won’t let unnecessary bureaucracy delay the move of the American embassy to Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital.”
Originally, the embassy was supposed to move in 2019… but the trump administration decided to speed things up, changing the move in date to this may, to coincide with Israel’s seventieth anniversary of independence. But some say even this timing is problematic.
ZANANIRI: Most of the Palestinians will be very much pissed off, angry, and will look at it as a very unfortunate move, especially since Trump decided to do it on the 15th of May. The 15th of May is the day of the Palestinian Nakba.
JAIPURIAR: On that day, 700,000 Palestinians fled or got expelled from their homes during the war of 1948.
ZANANIRI: So to cut a wound by declaring your intention to move the embassy instead of giving some time for that wound to heal, you just rub it with salt and pepper but that’s not a wise move at all and I hope that someone in Trump’s administration will tell him hey you’re playing with fire.”)
ANAS: Trump (is) trying to change our capital. We didn’t like him. He (is) trying to change our mother. Anybody didn’t like it. So F*** Trump. Someday we will take our Palestine.
ZANANIRI: I think it was very unfortunate the way he said it.
JAIPURIAR: Elias Zananiri, who is a committee chairman for the plo, said the semantics of trump’s announcement could be open to interpretation… since trump never addressed the issue of Israel’s sovereignty.
ZANANIRI: When he said that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, immediately afterwards, said the borders of Israeli jurisdiction are to be agreed upon in negotiations. That was a hint that means, not all of Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. He could have said it differently; he could have said West Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and East Jerusalem would be the capital of the state of Palestine in the event of a two-state solution.
JAIPURIAR: But that’s a discussion for another time…
DROMI: Unfortunately, there’s no peace process right now.
JAIPURIAR: Since Israel and Palestine aren’t even at the negotiation table right now… that leaves the status of Jerusalem still very contested.
But some argue that there’s nothing to contest… The new embassy just reaffirms a universally acknowledged truth in Israel.
DROMI: For many people, for years, we’ve been told that Jerusalem is not your capital. It is our capital. Where is our Knesset? Where is the Prime Minister? It is the capital, period.
JAIPURIAR: Technically, this has been the case since 1995… back then congress passed the Jerusalem embassy act, which calls for Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. It also sets aside funds for the embassy to be moved from Tel Aviv.
But because this has been such a contentious piece of legislation… the past three American presidents have refused to even touch it. Since 1995, they’ve continually passed 6-month waivers to delay the act from going into effect.
CSPAN: Presidents issued these waivers under the belief that delaying the recognition of Jerusalem would advance the cause of peace...
JAIPURIAR: Trump has been the first president to bite the bullet.
CSPAN: After more than two decades of waivers, we are no closer to a lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
DROMI: Trump decision is definitely revolutionary, and by the way, if it succeeds, I’m eating my hat, and I’m admitting I don’t know nothing about anything here.
JAIPURIAR: And it’s clear that this decision has been the talk of the town… just in the past few months, the embassy move has been causing uproar… in a region already saturated with controversy.
From future peace negotiations…
HERSCHMAN: …It prejudices the outcome…
JAIPURIAR: …To what happens Jerusalem’s most vulnerable…
SVETLOVA: For now there are no options.
JAIPURIAR: There’s nothing new about controversy in Israel… almost everyone disagrees about everything… but one decision, about one building, has stirred the pot, just a little bit more.
LANDAU: When you come from abroad you say, ‘Israel is a crazy place. How can you live there?’ But when you come closer, you realize, well Israel is a normal place but Jerusalem is a crazy place’… so you’re living in a city which is definitely not normal.
JAIPURIAR: This is the way things are… and always have been. It just comes with the territory.
Reporting from Jerusalem… Rashika Jaipuriar, n-c-c news.
A view of the Jerusalem skyline at dusk
VIDEO: American Embassy moving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
By Rashika Jaipuriar
Story By
Rashika Jaipuriar
Rashika is a rising senior from Cincinnati, Ohio. Along with studying broadcast and digital journalism in Newhouse, she is in the Maxwell school’s Citizenship and Civic Engagement Program. On campus, she is involved with various media outlets, including The Daily Orange and Jerk Magazine. In the fall semester of her junior year, she studied abroad in in Sydney, Australia and spent two weeks traveling Thailand. Her favorite parts of the Israel trip were getting to talk to real Israelis and Palestinians, learning more about the Syrian War at the Golan Heights, and of course working on her Embassy story.
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