Skip to main content

Annexing East Jerusalem, first step before annexing the West Bank?

According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan, Israel will exclude some Palestinian neighborhoods from the Greater Jerusalem municipality, while annexing other East Jerusalem neighborhoods.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the media at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem May 30, 2019. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun - RC12202A0700

What did US Ambassador David Friedman mean when he hinted in a June 8 New York Times interview of possible Israeli annexation of certain parts of the West Bank? What lies behind the declarations by presidential envoys Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt regarding alternatives to the two-state solution? How can a ruler control lands that are not his without imposing sovereignty over them and make arbitrary decisions about granting or withholding citizenship from the residents? It turns out such a scenario is feasible. See the five-year plan — for supposedly reducing socio-economic inequality between Jews and Arabs — designed to complete the annexation of the core sections of Arab East Jerusalem, and a complementary measure to disengage from the Palestinian neighborhoods on the other side of the separation wall that runs between them and the city.

For over 50 years, ever since the 1967 Six-Day War, the state has tried to draw more Jews into East Jerusalem and to push out the Palestinians. The result is rather grim. According to data issued by the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research on the occasion of Jerusalem Day, which marks the city’s 1967 “unification,” 17,000 residents left the “reunited city” in 2017 while only 11,000 people moved there. Some 96% of those emigrating from the city are Jews. The city’s population numbered some 900,000 at the end of 2017, 62% of them Jews. If these demographic trends persist, the Jews might be a minority in the city by 2045.

Access the Middle East news and analysis you can trust

Join our community of Middle East readers to experience all of Al-Monitor, including 24/7 news, analyses, memos, reports and newsletters.

Subscribe

Only $100 per year.