Oct 22 2015
To calm the situation in Jerusalem
By Daoud Kuttab
The question asked by political leaders and pundits is how to end the current wave of violence in Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied territories.
As in any conflict resolution effort, one needs to look at the root of the problem that caused this wave of anger that cause people to sacrifice their lives to make a point.
In searching for the roots of the problem, one can obviously point to the 47 years of Israeli occupation, but that would not necessarily explain the specificities of the current protests.
However, a close look at the source of the current anger brings one to focus on East Jerusalem, in general, and on the status of Al Haram Al Sharif, in particular.
Jerusalem’s status has been deteriorating since the Oslo Accords, which dealt with many land issues, exception for Jerusalem.
The idea of the architects of the Palestinian-Israeli agreement signed at the White House in 1993 was that the five-year transitional period would be long enough to resolve all permanent-status issues. Jerusalem, which was one of these five issues (in addition to borders, refugees, settlements and economic agreements), was privately and publicly declared by many as one of the hardest nuts to crack and therefore left as the lowest priority.
The five-year transitional period has become two decades.