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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2019
The U.S. decision in December 2017 to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem recognizes the latter as the capital of Israel. While violating several UN resolutions and international law, it has in the short-term impacted the negotiations between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel. In the longer term we can see that the impact of the decision is also more complex and nuanced. There are three main areas which suggest this to be the case: First, the lack of clarity over the decision itself; second, the varying degrees of sovereignty exercised by Israel in different parts of Jerusalem due to the city's long and religiously diverse history; and thirdly, the contradictions inherent in imposing a nationalist ideology upon a cosmopolitan and heterodox city.
Michael (Mick) Dumper is a Professor in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter. In addition to his most recent book, Jerusalem Unbound: Geography, History, and the Future of the Holy City (Columbia University Press, 2014), he is also author of The Politics of Jerusalem Since 1967 (Columbia University Press, 1997) and The Politics of Sacred Space: The Old City of Jerusalem and the Middle East Conflict, 1967-2000, (Lynne Rienner, 2001) and a number of other books on Palestinian refugees and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He has just completed a Leverhulme Trust Fellowship project comparing religious conflicts in cities in Europe, Asia and the Middle East during which time he edited Contested Holy Cities: Urban Dimensions of Religious Conflicts (Routledge, forthcoming 2019). His book on the project, Power, Piety and People: Holy Cities in the 21st Century will be published by Columbia University Press in 2020.
2 The key texts that deal with U.S. policies toward Jerusalem are: Adler, Stephen, “The United States and the Jerusalem Issue,” Middle East Review 17, no. 4 (Summer 1985)Google Scholar; Boudreault, Jody and Salaam, Yasser, eds., US Official Statements: The Status of Jerusalem (Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992)Google Scholar. Feintuch, Yossi, US Policy in Jerusalem (New York: Greenwood Press, 1987)Google Scholar; Neff, Donald, “Jerusalem in U.S. Policy,” Journal of Palestine Studies 23, no. 89 (Autumn 1993): 20–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Slonim, Shlomo, “The United States and the Status of Jerusalem, 1947–1984,” Israel Law Review 19, no. 2 (Spring 1984): 179–252CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a summary of U.S. policy on Jerusalem see Dumper, Michael, Jerusalem Unbound: Geography, History and the Future of the Holy City (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014), 76–180Google Scholar.
3 “Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995,” 104th Congress- 1st Session, effective November 8, 1995, accessed March 26, 2019, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-104s1322es/pdf/BILLS-104s1322es.pdf. See also Walid Khalidi, “The ownership of the US Embassy Site in Jerusalem,” Journal of Palestine Studies 29, no. 4 (Summer 2000): 80–101.
4 The previous policy caused enormous difficulties for the United States in reconciling its position on keeping the Embassy in Tel Aviv with its strong support for Israel in all other matters. See Natasha Mozgovaya, “What's the capital of Israel? Don't ask the U.S. State Department,” Haaretz, March 28, 2012, last accessed February 19, 2019, https://www.haaretz.com/1.5209356. The U.S. Embassy was officially opened on May 14, 2018, on the site of the former U.S. consulate in West Jerusalem.
5 The President of the United States of America, “Recognizing Jerusalem as the Capital of the State of Israel and Relocating the United States Embassy to Israel to Jerusalem,” Federal Register 82, no. 236 (December 11, 2017).
6 Ofer Zalzberg and Nathan Thrall, “Counting the Costs of U.S. Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's Capital,” International Crisis Group, December 7, 2017, last accessed February 19, 2019, https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/eastern-mediterranean/israelpalestine/counting-costs-us-recognition-jerusalem-israels-capital.
7 Ian Lustick, “Has Israel Annexed Jerusalem?,” Middle East Policy 5, no. 1 (January 1997): 34–45.
8 Laws of the State of Israel: 1948-1989, authorized translation by the Ministry of Justice (Jerusalem: Government Printer).
9 Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, Jerusalem: Facts and Trends 2018: The State of the City and Changing Trends, 2018, http://en.jerusaleminstitute.org.il/.upload/jerusalem/Jeruslaem%20Facts%20and%20Trends%202018-%202.Population.pdf. Further details can also be found in Michael Dumper, The Politics of Jerusalem since 1967 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 53–88; and Dumper, Jerusalem Unbound, 23–39.
10 Amira Haas, “EU Heads of Missions’ Annual Report on East Jerusalem,” The European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine, April 1, 2014, accessed March 29, 2019, http://www.eccpalestine.org/eu-diplomats-warn-of-regional-conflagration-over-temple-mount/. See also “East Jerusalem-The Current Planning Situation: A Survey of Municipal Plans and Planning Policy,” Ir Shalem, n.d. Different sources identify a date between 1997 and 2001 for the “East Jerusalem report.” Although the non-governmental organization Ir shalem, which translates to “whole city,” does not cite a specific author, it lists Seidemann as its “adviser,” who eventually founded Terrestrial Jerusalem, an “Israeli non-governmental organization that works to identify and track the full spectrum of developments in Jerusalem that could impact either the political process or permanent status options, destabilize the city or spark violence, or create humanitarian crises.” See, “About Terrestrial Jerusalem,” Terrestrial Jerusalem, accessed March 30, 2019, http://t-j.org.il/AboutTJ.aspx.
11 Peter Beaumont, “Jerusalem at boiling point of polarisation and violence – EU report,” The Guardian, March 20, 2015, accessed March 30, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/20/jerusalem-at-boiling-point-of-polarisation-and-violence-eu-report.
12 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) secretariat, The Palestinian War-Torn Economy: Aid, Development and State Formation (April 5, 2006), 13–15, https://unctad.org/en/Docs/gdsapp20061_en.pdf.
13 See for example, Segal, Jerome M., et al. , eds., Negotiating Jerusalem (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000)Google Scholar; and Israel Kimhi, Maya Choshen and Yair Assaf-Shapira, Jerusalem as a Component of Israel's National Security: Indicators of the State of the Capital, and a View to the Future (Position Paper submitted to the 6th Herzliya Conference, Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, January 2006), 15.
14 Dumper, The Politics of Jerusalem, 43–46; Rempel, Terry, “The Significance of Israel's Partial Annexation of East Jerusalem,” Middle East Journal 51, no. 4 (Autumn 1977): 520-534Google Scholar.
15 For further details see, Asali, Rawan Nuseibeh, Political Conflict and Exclusion in Jerusalem: The Provision of Education and Social Services (London: Routledge, 2016)Google Scholar.
16 Cheshin, Amir S., Hutman, Bill, and Melamed, Avi, Separate and Unequal: The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 410Google Scholar. Palestinian Jerusalemites pay the same tax rates as their Israeli counterparts whose per capita income is approximately eight times higher.
17 An EU report in December 2008 suggested that as little as 5–10 percent of Jerusalem's municipal budget is spent in Palestinian East Jerusalem. See, Rory McCarthy, “Israel annexing East Jerusalem, says EU,” Guardian, March 6, 2009, accessed March 30, 2019, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/07/israel-palestine-eu-report-jerusalem.
18 “Foul Play: Neglect of Wastewater Treatment in the West Bank,” B'Tselem, June 2009, http://www.btselem.org/Download/200906_Foul_Play_eng.pdf.
19 Cheshin, Hutman, and Melamed, Separate and Unequal, 405.
20 Klein, Menachem, Jerusalem: The Contested City, trans. Watzmanv, Haim (New York: New York University Press in association with the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies), 214ffGoogle Scholar.
21 Dumper, Michael, Power, Piety and People: Holy Cities in the 21st Century (Columbia University Press), forthcomingGoogle Scholar.
22 The Guatemalan and Australian governments have also recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. However, only Guatemala has moved its embassy to Jerusalem.