A leading Israeli government minister is promoting a “greater Jerusalem” plan that he hopes will lead to increasing Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) spoke at length to Women in Green’s Sovereignty journal. The interview with him appears in Issue #4, which is being released this week in 100,000 copies in Hebrew, 50,000 copies in English, and on the Internet.
At present, and since 1967, Judea and Samaria (Yesha) have been governed by the IDF and are not officially under Israeli sovereignty. In 1993, the Oslo Accords divided Yesha into three districts: Area C, under full Israeli control; Area B, under Israeli military control and PLO administrative control; and Area A, under security and administrative control of the Palestinian Authority. This has led many to believe that Israel has already agreed to a future Palestinian state in Areas A and B – whereas in fact this is far from the truth.
Over the last couple of years the notion of instituting Israeli sovereignty over significant areas of Yesha has been making headway among the Israeli public as well as Cabinet ministers and Knesset members. It is in this context that Katz told the Sovereignty journal he supports a gradual application of sovereignty, beginning with Area C – and that the best place to begin is the capital city, Jerusalem.
But, Katz emphasized, he’s not talking about just present-day Jerusalem. As the first step in the battle for sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria, he believes that present-day Jerusalem should become “Greater Jerusalem,” extending considerably over the post-1967 Green Line border. The new Yerushalayim, Katz says, should include Givat Zev to the north, Maaleh Adumim to the east, and Beitar Ilit and Gush Etzion to the south. Full Israeli sovereignty must first be applied in all of these areas – for they were all under Jordanian occupation between 1949 and 1967.
The next step in the Katz plan is to combine all of these areas’ logistical issues, such as traffic and infrastructures, under one municipal roof.
Katz says every resident of London and Paris knows from personal experience their cities include outlying suburban areas. There is therefore no reason this arrangement should not be copied in Israel, and accepted internationally, as well.
The idea of a master plan for a Greater Jerusalem has been raised in the past. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, for instance, has published a paper, titled “Demography, Geopolitics, and the Future of Israel’s Capital: Jerusalem’s Proposed Master Plan,” by Nadav Shragai – respected journalist, Jerusalem expert, and grandson of the Israeli capital’s second mayor. His paper emphasizes housing issues, highlighting the need to plan housing for the Jewish and Arab populations to ensure unimpeded Jewish growth while also sustaining Jewish territorial contiguity
Our own organization, Im Eshkachech – Keep Jerusalem, is working on a policy paper that will help develop a “tool chest” for use over the next 20 years. The goal is to ensure that Jerusalem remain united and Israeli, with a growing Jewish majority. The paper is being developed on many planes, with an eye toward formulating a comprehensive policy to direct trends in demographics, security, housing, public relations, tourism, transportation, and much more. (More on that in a future column.)
Katz feels that Israelis both left and right agree that Maaleh Adumim, Gush Etzion, etc., will always remain Israeli no matter what future agreement is signed with the Palestinian Authority. Therefore, the only objections that might be raised domestically have to do with the timing of the release and/or implementation of the plan.
“This will require a political and PR battle,” Katz acknowledges – but he is not backing down.