<nettime> "Jerusalem, Capital of the Two States" campaign

[florian schneider <fls@kein.org>]

From: "Gush Shalom - Israeli Peace Bloc" 
<info@gush-shalom.org>

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - 
http://www.gush-shalom.org/

Press release, July 20, 2000
===================================================== 
Gush Shalom renews its "Jerusalem, Capital of the Two States" campaign
Calls on PM Barak: The people are ripe for a historical decision.
=====================================================

The Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc) movement renews its "Jerusalem,
Capital of the Two States" campaign. This campaign was started, in the
year 1995, when there still seemed to be among the Jewish public a total
taboo on such ideas, and the delusionary concept of a unilaterally
"united" Jerusalem was considered a concensus. But Gush Shalom
nevertheless succeeded in getting 875 public figures, leading
intellectuals and artists to agree publicly that:

"Our Jerusalem must be united, open to all and belonging to all its 			
inhabitants, without borders and barbed-wire in its midst. Our Jerusalem
must be the capital of the two states that will live side by side in
this country - West Jerusalem the capital of the State of Israel and
East Jerusalem the capital of the State of Palestine." [Full text in
Hebrew, Arabic and English:
http://www.webcom.com/gush/gush-shalom/jerusalem/index.html]

Today the false concensus about a "United Jerusalem" - which was as
distant from being actually united, as rape is from love - is now
visibly fragmenting and crumbling, as evident even in Barak's own
proposal for municipal autonomy of the city's Arab neighborhoods. But
the Prime Minister is still hesitant to take the next logical and
indispensable step: accepting already now that East-Jerusalem will be
the capital of Palestine while Israel will have its capital in
West-Jerusalem. So, because of clinging to the remnants of an old,
bancrupt ideology PM Barak is now putting at risk the chance for peace,
with the possibility that the disappointment will result in a renewed
cycle of violence and bloodshed taking a terrible toll from both peoples
- which incidentally would mean the end of Barak's own political career
as well.

The campaign of Gush Shalom is aimed at mobilizing public support for
the concept of Jerusalem as capital of two states and convincing the
government that the Israeli public is indeed ripe to accept it, to give
up in favour of peace a fictional Israeli sovereignty in neighborhoods
where in any case hardly any Israeli ever sets foot. In the main Israeli
papers of tomorrow will appear ads, and bumper stickers "Jerusalem,
Capital of the Two States" are being prepared. 

Further details: spokesperson Adam Keller, 
ph: +972-(0)3-5565804 
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For information about Gush Shalom visit the website:  			     
http://www.gush-shalom.org/       
(including the Boycott List of Products of Settlements) 			      
email: info@gush-shalom.org; 		 		
Online donations:   		
https://www.givetocharity.com/cgi-bin/give.pl?CODE=11505 
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    THE OTHER ISRAEL - Bi-monthly Newsletter since 1983 		
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pob 2542, Holon 58125, Israel - ph/fx: +972-3-5565804; 
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