Table Of ContentNEGOTIATING JERUSALEM
SUNY series in Israeli Studies
Russell Stone, editor
Negotiating
Jerusalem
Jerome M. Segal
Shlomit Levy
Nader lzzat Sa'id
Elihu Katz
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2000 State University of New York Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Negotiating Jerusalem / Jerome M. Segal ... let aLl.
p. cm. - (SUNY series in Israeli studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-4537-2 Calk. paper) - ISBN 0-7914-4538-0 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Jerusalem-International status. 2. Arab-Israeli conflict-1993-Peace.
1. Segal, Jerome M., 1943- II. Series.
DS109.94.N45 2000
341.2/9'09569442-dc21 99-041586
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Contents
Preface vii
Part I. The Status of Jerusalem in the Eyes of Israeli.Jews
and Palestinians: A Policy Perspective
Jerome M. Segal
A. Israeli Jews 5
B. Palestinians 35
Part II. The Status of Jerusalem in the Eyes of Israeli.Jews:
A Survey Research Perspective
Shlomit Levy and Elihu Katz 57
An Analysis of Israeli Jewish Opinion on the
Status ofJerusalem
Shlomit Levy 59
Highlights and Commentary
Elihu Katz 123
Part III. The Status of Jerusalem in the Eyes of Palestinians:
A Survey Research Perspective
Nader Izzat Sa'id 135
An Analysis of Palestinian Opinion on the
Status of Jerusalem 137
Central Findings and Conclusions 181
Part IV. Is Jerusalem Negotiable?
Jerome M. Segal 183
v
vi Contents
Appendix A: Data from Study of Israeli-Jews 223
Appendix A-I: Questionnaire and distribution of responses
in percentages for the national sample and the settler sample 223
Appendix A-2: Cross-tabulation of all replies by ideological
tendency 240
Appendix A-3: Cross-tabulation of all replies by religious
observance 269
Appendix B: Data from Study of Palestinians 299
Appendix B-1: National sample and region 299
Appendix B-2: Cross-tabulation by political affiliation 311
Appendix B-3: Cross-tabulation by religiosity 320
Appendix B-4: Cross-tabulation by religion 329
About the Authors 337
Index 339
Preface
I
t is widely believed that the Jerusalem issue is unique, the one issue on which
the two peoples are so far apart that any political leadership which even sought
to compromise would be swept aside. Within Israel, Jerusalem is viewed as the
third rail of Israeli politics. To date, no major political party has proposed sharing
sovereignty with the Palestinians. Yet, among Palestinians, some 94% say that
even if it were the only way that a Palestinian state could come into being, they
would not accept Israel's claim that it alone is sovereign over all of Jerusalem.
Were the PLO to abandon Jerusalem, Palestinians would abandon the PLO.
Negotiating Jerusalem explores the potential (and limits) for resolving the
Jerusalem issue. Unlike much writing on the Jerusalem question, it does not con
cern itself with the positions of the Israeli government or the PLO. Nor does it
seek to identify theoretically possible solutions to the Jerusalem question. Instead,
it focuses on the beliefs, values, and attitudes of ordinary people, specifically
Israeli Jews living in Israel and in settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, and
Palestinians living in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. Only after examining
the orientations of the two peoples does the book tum to the question of policy: Is
it possible to arrive at a negotiated solution to the Jerusalem question, and if so,
what might such a solution look like?
The final policy section of the book, "Is Jerusalem Negotiable?", was written
by Jerome Segal (speaking only for himself). It builds on the study of Israeli Jews
undertaken by Shlomit Levy, Elihu Katz, and Jerome Segal and the study of
Palestinians undertake by Nader Sa'id and Jerome Segal, each of which involved
an extensive research effort that went far beyond any previous studies of public
attitudes toward Jerusalem. On the Israeli side, some 1,530 door-to-door inter
views were conducted. Each interview consisted of almost 100 questions, all
focused on the Jerusalem issue. On the Palestinian side, a parallel effort was under
taken, interviewing some 870 Palestinians.
These two studies emerged from distinct and separate research efforts, one
representing an Israeli-American collaboration and one representing a Palestinian-
vii
viii Preface
American collaboration. While distinct investigations, they form a coherent body
of inquiry. The Israeli Jewish study was conducted first, in 1995-96 and in devel
oping the Palestinian study, to enable comparison, a very similar questionnaire,
often with identical questions, was used in 1996. Jerome Segal was a member of
both research teams.
The overall product is unique. Standing individually, each of the research
projects provides a major leap forward in what was known about the attitudes of
both Palestinians and Israeli Jews toward Jerusalem. Taken together, and with the
final section "Is Jerusalem Negotiable!", the volume offers a comprehensive assess
ment of the extent to which public opinion constitutes a barrier to the potential
negotiability of the Jerusalem question.
Some of what we found confirms the widespread belief that it will be extra
ordinarily difficult to successfully negotiate the permanent status of Jerusalem. For
instance, we found that the overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews are opposed to
negotiations on Jerusalem and a majority say that no concessions should be made
at all. On the Palestinian side, as already noted, we found that 94% of Palestinians
would not be willing to accept Israel's claim that it alone is sovereign over all of
Jerusalem, even if this were the only way a Palestinian state could come into being.
And parallel to Israeli Jewish attitudes, the overwhelming majority of Palestinians
said there should be no concessions at all with respect to Jerusalem.
The key to understanding this strong anticoncession response is to note that
such questions were asked about Jerusalem as a whole. One of the central features
of our studies is that we "dis aggregated" the Jerusalem question, asking many ques
tions about specific parts of the city. Once that was done, a quite different picture
emerged.
• A plurality of Israeli Jews (45%) would seriously consider Pale
stinian sovereignty over Arab settlements and villages previously in
the West Bank which are now within the borders of Jerusalem (e.g.,
Shuafat, Um Tuba, Zur Baher, Beit Hanina).
• Most Palestinians would seriously consider a proposal in which West
Jerusalem would be under Israeli sovereignty and East Jerusalem
would be under Palestinian sovereignty, with a special arrangement
for Israeli control of the Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. The
Old City would be dealt with separately.
More generally we found, that once you disaggegate the city, contrary to
popular belief, there is no overall consensus among either Israelis or Palestinians
on Jerusalem. Thus, the Jerusalem issue begins to look much more like the other
issues in the conflict (i.e., both Israelis and Palestinians are split on what to do).
In an effort to better understand the nature of the strong Israeli and Pale
stinian attachments to the city, we asked people how important to them "as Jeru
salem" various parts of the city were. Here the responses were quite striking:
