The Peace FAQ:

"Arab East Jerusalem"

Frequently Asked Questions:

• Is the term 'Arab East Jerusalem' or even 'East Jerusalem' accurate?
• Shouldn't we use the term simply because it reflects the situation 'on the ground'?

Is the term 'Arab East Jerusalem' or even 'East Jerusalem' accurate?

• "East Jerusalem refers only to the part of the city which was taken forcibly for 19 years (1948-67) by Jordan. ...to try and identify that part of Jerusalem which is East of the Green Line as "Arab" is to ignore all the hundreds and thousands of years of history before and after the period of 1948-1967."

  - Itay Sharon

Shouldn't we use the term simply because it reflects the situation 'on the ground'?

• No, besides being inacurate, it is an anti-zionist propaganda term meant to obscure the inconvenient fact that Jews have been a majority in Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem, since at least 1840 when the first Ottoman census was taken [Jews were a plurality at that time]. In 1948, after the UN voted to give Israel statehood, Jordan and 6 other Arab countries invaded the reborn Jewish homeland. Jordan was able to capture what is now known as the "West Bank", including the easern half of Jerusalem and murdered or expelled EVERY single Jew living there. Those Jewish homes were given to Jordanians, who only much later started calling themselves "Palestinians" for political reasons. The term "Arab East Jerusalem" is nothing more than a celebration of the "ethnic cleansing" of Jews. The term is therefore offensive and meant to offend. Use it at your own risk.

  - The Society for Rational Peace

• RELATED SECTIONS:

  Jerusalem, War of Independence, Six-Day War, Jordan, Ethnic Cleansing, Demographics, Media Bias, Palestine, Arabs, Occupied Territories, The West Bank, Settlements

• WWW RESOURCES:

• BOOKS & PRINTED MATERIAL:
  • O Jerusalem, by Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • Reply, by Eli E. Hertz [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • Dying for Jerusalem: The Past, Present and Future of the Holiest City, by Walter Laqueur [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century, by Martin Gilbert [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • Poems of Jerusalem and Love Poems, by Yehuda Amichai [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • Raquela, by Ruth Gruber [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times, by Judy Lash Balint [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine, by Joan Peters [VIEW BOOK HERE]