To Our Readers

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.

From Teheran comes the cry, "Jerusalem cannot remain under Zionist control." In Riyadh, Yasser Arafat promises Saudi control over Al Aqsa Mosque and declares his readiness to share Jerusalem as the joint, undivided capital of Israel and Palestine. In Amman and Washington, Jordan's King Hussein calls for return of East Jerusalem to Arab rule and religious sovereignty over the city's holy places.

Clearly, Jerusalem's status will not be decided solely through Israeli-Palestinian or even Arab-Israeli diplomacy. The holy sites of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity have for centuries generated international interest in the destiny of the city. All those parties with a claim on the city are seeking to assure that their vision prevails.

The international community has made clear its opposition to Israel's occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem through numerous resolutions of the UN and other multilateral groupings.

Public declarations and the numerous plans being devised by think tanks, planners, and pundits, however, often do not fully take into account the forces at work today that are changing the city.

Israelis and Palestinians man the front lines of the contest for control of Jerusalem--a contest defined by Israel's massive, state-sponsored program of housing construction in new and existing settlements for its citizens in and around the city, most of it in Arab East Jerusalem.

Will this policy of "creating facts" permit consensus among Israelis opposed to any diminution of their control over the city and its environs in the future? Or do statements supporting Palestinian rights in the city by Israeli political leaders--such as Minister of the Environment Yossi Sarid and Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin--foreshadow a weakening of what Professor Ian Lustick, in a recent Foreign Policy article, calls Israel's "fetish of a 'united Jerusalem'"?

Israel's program of housing construction, like the current borders of the city itself, is motivated by a political aim, namely the establishment of "united Jerusalem" as the eternal capital of Israel. It symbolizes the continuing insecurity of Israeli leaders over being able to reach their goal in the face of Palestinian, Arab, and international opposition.

This special issue of the Settlement Report examines the Rabin government's current efforts to preempt expected challenges to Israeli sovereignty over annexed East Jerusalem and its environs that are certain to be on the negotiating table.