Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories

Jerusalem is a city of many, often competing definitions. It is a spiritual center for Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, the "reunified" capital of the State of Israel, and the focus of Palestinian aspirations for political independence.

As the Report on Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories begins its fourth year of publication, the future of Jerusalem is finally emerging as a central issue for debate and eventual negotiation.

The term "Greater Jerusalem" has entered the lexicon of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The United States acknowledged this when, for the first time, the State Department, in an April 1993 report to Congress, noted that "the [Rabin] Government also has affirmed its intention to continue settlement construction in a 100-square mile surrounding area termed 'Greater Jerusalem.'"

The United States has compiled a record of diplomatic pronouncements on Jerusalem spanning almost half a century. During this time, U.S. policy has evolved from adherence to the concept of an internationalized Jerusalem, to acceptance if not recognition of Jerusalem's division, to the current de facto acknowledgment of Israeli control of the entire city and acceptance of a negotiated solution to final status.

"Greater Jerusalem" is a political rather than a geographic concept--rooted in Israel's vision of a metropolitan Jerusalem extending well into the city's West Bank environs, beyond even those areas annexed in June 1967.

Meron Benvenisti, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem and a well-known expert on Israel's settlement policies, speaks about the significance of greater Jerusalem in the following interview which appeared in Ha'aretz on July 6, 1993.