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In the year 2000, JPL brought to fruition one of the most important initiatives our organization has undertaken:
The Rabbinic Call for a Shared Jerusalem. This document, signed by over 300 Rabbis was designed to break through a pathology of political discourse both within Israel and the American Jewish community: the fantasy that there could be a peace agreement with the Palestinians without Israel relinquishing its claim to exclusive sovereignty over all of East Jerusalem.
To our knowledge, no other Jewish group within the United States was prepared to speak the truth about Jerusalem. And within Israel, even parties to the left of the Labor Party (e.g. Meretz) had been afraid to call for any sharing of sovereignty.
In this environment, a bold statement from 300 rabbis was big news. The Rabbinic Call became the subject of a New York Times story, and subsequently The Washington Post and Ha'aretz. The Rabbinic statement was reported in the Israeli press, and JPL was interviewed on BBC and Israel Defense Forces Radio. Throughout the United States, local Jewish papers covered the story, interviewing some of the dozens of rabbis who signed the statement in every major locality.
Up until July 2000, when Prime Minister Barak at Camp David agreed to Palestinian sovereignty within Jerusalem, indeed within the Old City, JPL remained a unique voice for reason on the Jerusalem question. Of course, once the Prime Minister accpeted some sharing of sovereignty, it became immediately clear that policy discourse had been living in an "emperor's new clothes" fantasy world. While we do not know whether the Rabbinic Call affected Barak's thinking, we do know that we succeeded in giving our courageous rabbis a platform from which they were heard round the world - a precise example of JPL at its best.
Contact JPL for more information on Sharing Jerusalem!
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The Rabbinic Call
for a Shared Jerusalem
Media Coverage:
"American Rabbis
Want a Shared Jerusalem"-- Ha'aretz
"300 Rabbis
Say Jerusalem is Shareable" -- NY Times
"Rabbis Join
Call for a Shared Jerusalem" -- Washington Jewish Week
More Jerusalem Resources from JPL:
"On the Temple Mount, God is Key. Sovereignty over Jerusalem Religious
Sites Belongs to God." -- Ha'aretz
"Share Jerusalem"- Shma
"Negotiating
Jerusalem" - University of Maryland
"Two Issues,
One Objective, Nothing more important" - Washington Post
"Defining
Jerusalem; Al Quds & Yerushalayim, Two Names for Two Cities" - Mid-East
Insight
"If it's God's
Land, Let There Be Compromise" - Washington Post |
