Dr. Abdel Wahab El-Messiri says about the Zionist project: "Zionism is a colonial idea with a unique substitutional characteristic," and the occupation has come to be the living expression of this idea.(1) The Zionist project has carried unspoken objectives, which the occupation only reveals after achieving them. This policy has been evident since the beginnings of Zionist settlement in Palestine and continues to this day, as it waits for favorable conditions to transform its aggressions and what it is doing in terms of settlement, infiltration, and displacement into facts and laws.(2)
As for the nature of this project in Jerusalem specifically, the early Zionist vision was based on the direct and complete determination of the city's Arab and Islamic identity. In the speech of Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, at the first conference of the movement in August 1897, he spoke about their vision for the city of Jerusalem, saying: "If we ever obtain Jerusalem, and I am still alive and able to do anything, I will remove everything that is not sacred to the Jews from it, and I will burn the relics that have lasted for centuries.(3)
Hertzel's words were merely a cornerstone upon which the Zionist project built its vision towards Jerusalem. Since the occupation of the western part of the occupied city, the occupation has sought to transform it into its alleged Jewish capital, intending for it to be characterized by Jewish landmarks, identity, and population. David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of the occupation, stated: "There is no meaning to 'Israel' without Jerusalem, and there is no meaning to Jerusalem without the Temple.(4)
This exclusionary vision, which seeks to replace the Jewish identity after the destruction of the Arab and Islamic identity, has manifested in the way the occupation treats Palestine in general and Jerusalem specifically. The occupation's strategies are based on the principles of annexation and expansion; it works on one hand to control the largest possible area of land, while on the other hand, it expels the largest number of Palestinians. The Zionist project in Jerusalem is based on a set of plans and central objectives, and we can highlight the most prominent of these by examining its behavior since the occupation of the two halves of the city until today.
Security Objectives:
Providing a security belt surrounding Jerusalem to completely isolate the city from its Palestinian extensions. The occupation has maintained important military sites in the Jerusalem Heights and its sensitive areas, and has worked to strengthen them, with the latest development being just last week, when it approved the construction of a massive police center overlooking Al-Aqsa Mosque located on Turmus Hill, which is one of the strategic sites. Alongside this primary objective, the occupation has also worked to secure the road leading to Jerusalem from the Jordan River and has enhanced this belt extending along the Jordan River.
Read also: Strategic Israeli Seizure of Palestinian Lands
Demographic Objectives:
The occupation has worked to obstruct the natural urban and population growth of the residents of Jerusalem, hindered their expansion in their surroundings, and confined them to small neighborhoods that are unable to develop socially, economically, and politically.
In light of the comprehensive siege on Palestinian neighborhoods, the occupation has driven Jerusalemites to migrate from within Jerusalem to the city's outskirts or outside it, by transforming Jerusalem into a repulsive city for its residents. This has been achieved through exorbitant fines and high living costs, as well as targeting their health and economic sectors, while easing obstacles for settlers by attracting them and offering them various facilities. Meanwhile, the occupation authorities deprive Jerusalemites of housing by demolishing their homes.
These policies have led to an increase in the number of settlers in Jerusalem since the occupation of the eastern part until today. The occupation has raised the percentage of settlers in the city by increasing the volume and density of settlement construction in occupied Jerusalem and its surroundings. It has also offered them incentives to attract them from within the occupied territories and from abroad to move and live in Jerusalem.
The political and economic objectives:
The occupation has worked to strengthen the status of Jerusalem as the capital of its state, promoting it as a Jewish capital in terms of landmarks and population. In the context of achieving this goal and by increasing the size of the settlement presence, the occupation has separated the northern West Bank from the southern part in order to eliminate any hope of establishing a Palestinian state.
In contrast to this chapter, successive occupation policies have dedicated themselves to unifying the two parts of the city and seeking to establish a "Greater Jerusalem," a unified, eternal Jewish capital not only for the occupying state but for all Jews around the world. As the occupation progresses towards this goal, the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem has posed a significant obstacle to this plan, leading to a series of objectives aimed at targeting the Palestinian presence and its various sectors.
- The dismantling of geographical communication between the neighborhoods of Jerusalem and the isolation of the city from Palestinian cities.
- Subjecting the Jerusalemites' system of living and economy to the system of occupation (economic dependency).
- It undermines the components of resilience of the Jerusalemite community; this is evident in attempts to control the sectors of education and health, and the approval of massive five-year plans aimed at turning Jerusalemites into cheap labor for the occupation and its tech companies.
- Extracting an international recognition that Jerusalem is not occupied, and that it is the capital of 'Israel', is a series that was initiated by the United States by relocating its embassy to occupied Jerusalem, followed by a number of marginal countries.
Read also: Settlement in the West Bank is a tool for Judaization and demographic change.
The religious, cultural, and urban goals:
There is no doubt that a fundamental part of the city's identity is linked to the religious, cultural, and architectural landmarks it contains. This has hindered the plans of the occupation, which intensified the construction of Jewish centers and monuments to give the city a Jewish character and is attempting to distort the urban appearance of the city through this.
As the occupation's attempts to impose its identity escalate, it works to distort Arab and Islamic landmarks, erasing everything that is connected to them, including places, landmarks, mosques, and churches. This extends to constricting Islamic and Christian holy sites and their human components, within the context of enforcing the complete sovereignty of the occupation over these sacred sites.
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(1) Abd al-Wahhab al-Masiri, "Zionist Colonialism and the Normalization of Jewish Identity: Studies on Some Concepts of Zionism and Israeli Practices," Arab Research Foundation, Beirut, 1990, pp. 17-30.
(2) Walid Salem, "Israeli Issues Magazine," Palestinian Center for "Israeli" Issues - Mudar, Issue 83, pp. 84-85.
(3) Research Center for Palestinian and Strategic Studies, https://tinyurl.com/y35ahst3.
(4) Khalid Shaheen, "Zionist Strategies Towards Al-Aqsa Mosque," Jerusalem Studies Magazine, Vol. 21, No. 3, p. 443.