Judaization of Jerusalem (;) is the view that Israel has sought to transform the physical and demographic landscape of Jerusalem to enhance its Jewish character at the expense of its Muslim and Christian ones. This also often involves the increasing Jewish presence in Jerusalem in the modern era, referring to the Jewish Old Yishuv becoming increasingly dominant since the Ottoman era; this process continued until Jews became the largest ethnoreligious group in Jerusalem since the mid-19th century and until the 1948 War when East Jerusalem became under Jordanian control.
Background
The demography of Jerusalem has undergone successive waves of Judaization, Hellenization, Romanization, Christianization, Arabization and Islamization over the course of its history. The city's Jewish character first emerged as the capital of the Kingdom of Judah during the Iron Age, which saw the construction of the First Temple as a symbolic center of Jewish worship. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE, and many of its elites exiled, only to return decades later following the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid Empire, who allowed the building of the Second Temple.
Jerusalem was once again placed at the center of Jewish religious and national life during the Second Temple period, which lasted between 516 BCE and 70 CE. During this period the city was also influenced by Hellenistic elements under the Ptolemies and the Seleucids as well as Roman culture under first the Roman Republic and then Roman Empire; nevertheless, it retained its Jewish character and identity. During the second and first centuries BCE, Jerusalem briefly served as the capital of a Jewish kingdom under the Hasmonean dynasty. During this period, the city's size and population peaked at an estimated 200,000 people.
In 70 CE, the city was besieged and destroyed by the Romans at the height of the First Jewish-Roman War. The destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple marked a major turning point in Jewish history. In 130 CE, following the Bar Kokhba revolt, Hadrian re-founded the city as a Roman colony named Aelia Capitolina and Jews were banned from entering the city. During early Middle Ages, the demography of Jerusalem underwent successive waves of Christianization under the Byzantine Empire and Arabization and Islamization following the Muslim conquest of the Levant, before Christianization again under the rule of Crusader states following the First Crusade, followed by further Islamization process under the Ayyubid dynasty and Mamluk Sultanate. By the early 16th century, Jerusalem was largely Muslim but gradually gained Jewish and Christian populations—giving rise to the still-existing division of the Old City of Jerusalem into Christian, Armenian, Jewish and Muslim Quarters. Since the mid-19th century, Jews had become the largest group in Jerusalem, which continued into the British Mandate period and until the 1948 war.
After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jordan controlled the Eastern part of Jerusalem while Israel controlled the Western part, resulting in a division of the city. On 2 August 1948, by the declaration of the Minister of Defence, Israel applied its laws to the areas of Jerusalem under its control. Displaced peoples, both Arabs and Jews, were not allowed to cross the armistice lines to return to vacated homes. Jewish Israelis took possession of many of the vacant homes in Western Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees populated the Jewish quarter until they were evicted in the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel captured East Jerusalem, which had been under Jordanian administration since 1948-49. Via the Jerusalem Law, Israel united the city and expanded the city limits to include adjacent parts of the West Bank. Israeli law was applied to the areas and the inhabitants of the lands annexed by Israel.MFA, 13 Law and Administration Ordinance -Amendment No 11- Law This action was immediately condemned in a Security Council Resolution. Palestinian refugees were disallowed return by both Jordan and Israel, and Jewish Israelis occupied many of the homes left by the refugees. Palestinians who had remained in East Jerusalem until then were offered full Israeli citizenship. Those who declined citizenship were given permanent residency status.
Defining Judaization
Judaization can be defined as either the conversion of persons to the Jewish religion and the acquisition of Jewish cultural and religious beliefs and values or the transformation of an area to give it a predominant Jewish character, primarily by creating the largest possible Jewish majority. The creation of a Jewish majority in Jerusalem has always been a high priority of the Israeli government, after 1947 in West Jerusalem and after 1967 in East Jerusalem. The rejection of the Palestinian right of return is motivated in part by the intention to maintain a Jewish majority, in Israel as well as in Jerusalem.
Judaization in territorial terms is characterized by Oren Yiftachel as a form of "ethnicization," which he argues is "the main force in shaping ethnocratic regimes". Yiftachel identifies Judaization as a state strategy and project in Israel, not confined to Jerusalem alone. He also characterizes the goals of those pursuing a "Greater Israel" or "Greater Palestine" as being driven by "ethnicization," in this case by "Judaization" and "Arabization" respectively.Oren Yiftachel, in
Speaking before the United Nations General Assembly in 2011, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "I often hear them accuse Israel of Judaizing Jerusalem. That's like accusing America of Americanizing Washington or the British of Anglicizing London. Do you know why we're called "Jews"? Because we come from Judea."
Judaization versus Israelization While the term Judaization is used to denote the conversion from non-Jewish to Jewish, the term Israelization is sometimes used to refer to the adaption of non-Israelis to Israeli law and culture, for example, by the application for an Israeli ID card/Israeli citizenship to acquire more rights, or the use of Israeli education.
Alleged Judaization under Israeli occupation and annexation Changing the demographics
According to Mel Frykberg, the Israeli government is attempting to Judaise East Jerusalem and maintain a Jewish majority against the demographic threat of a higher Palestinian birth rate."Israel Moves to Judaise East Jerusalem". Mel Frykberg, IPS, 9 September 2008
Despite the rapid growth of the Jewish population since 1967, its relative size has decreased due to a higher growth rate among the Arab population. The Jewish population dropped from 74% in 1967 to 66% in 2005. Researchers at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies called this "a contradiction between the reality in Jerusalem and the declared government policy of maintaining the Jewish majority in Jerusalem since the city's reunification." To reverse this trend, they suggested expanding Jerusalem's border to the west (meaning the addition of Jewish population centres) or removing Arab neighbourhoods from the city's municipal area.
Revocation or denying of residency rights Some of how the Israeli government is "Judaizing Jerusalem," according to Leilani Farha, are via the revocation of residency rights, absentee property laws, and tax policies.Farha in Merali and Oosterveld, 2001, p. 254, note #6. Palestinians residing outside Jerusalem for seven or more years can lose their Jerusalem residency status. According to UN figures, in 2006, at least 1,360 Palestinians had their ID cards revoked.
Since 1982, the Israeli Interior Ministry has not permitted the registration of Palestinian children as Jerusalem residents if the child's father does not hold a Jerusalem ID card, even if the mother is a Jerusalem ID cardholder. In 2003, the Citizenship and Entry into Israel law was enacted, which denies spouses from the occupied Palestinian territories who are married to Israeli citizens or permanent residents (Jerusalem ID card holders) the right to acquire citizenship or residency status, and thus the opportunity to live with their partners in Israel and Jerusalem. In Israel, foreign spouses who are Jewish are automatically granted citizenship under Israel's Law of Return.
Changing Arab into Jewish zones Urban planning has been an instrument to change the demographics of Jerusalem. By allotting zones for Jewish purposes and subsidizing Jewish projects, an increase in the Jewish population is promoted while withholding building permits for Palestinians curtails the development of Palestinian areas. Three days after the end of the Six-Day War, the Moroccan Quarter in the Old City was demolished by the Israeli army to improve access to the Western Wall.
Building Jewish settlements The Israeli government has sought to increase the Jewish population by establishing Jewish neighbourhoods, viewed by the International Community and Left-Wing Parties and NGOs within Israel as illegal Israeli settlements, in and around Jerusalem. Redrawing Jerusalem's municipal boundaries has incorporated such neighbourhoods. In peace negotiations, Israel has consistently demanded their legalization and proposed Israeli annexation of settlements outside Jerusalem to include them in the municipality. In a speech on 8 November 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak said: "Maintaining our sovereignty over Jerusalem and boosting its Jewish majority has been our chief aims, and toward this end, Israel constructed large Jewish neighbourhoods in the eastern part of the city, which house 180,000 residents, and large settlements on the periphery of Jerusalem, like the city of Ma'ale Adumim and Giv'at Ze'ev. The principle that guided me in the negotiations at Camp David was to preserve the unity of Jerusalem and to strengthen its Jewish majority for generations to come."
Over roughly three decades, from 1967 to 1995, of 76,151 housing units built in Jerusalem, 64,867 (88%) were allocated for Jewish residents, with 59% of these units built in East Jerusalem as new Jewish settlements.Tovi Fenster, The Global City and the Holy City: Narratives on Planning, Knowledge, and Diversity, Pearson Education, 2004 p.103, citing a B'tselem report 1997.
Yiftachel writes that by 2001, Judaization in Jerusalem had entailed the incorporation of of surrounding land into the city's boundaries and the construction of 8 settlements in East Jerusalem housing a total of 206,000 Jewish settlers. In an essay he coauthored with Haim Yaacobi, they write that "Israel would like the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to see Judaization as 'inevitable,' a fact to be accepted passively as part of the modern development of the metropolis."Oren Yiftachel and Haim Yaacobi in
Plans are underway to construct a new Israeli settlement in the last piece of open land linking East Jerusalem to the West Bank that will house about 45,000 residents on a land area larger than Tel Aviv, the second-largest Israeli city. According to Al Ghad, a Jordanian newspaper, the Israeli government elected in 2009 is soliciting tenders for the biggest settlement plans in West Bank. These plans have been described by the Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti as "an announcement against peace and against the Palestinian state and it means the Israeli government is not a partner for peace." This settlement is considered by Palestinians as one method by which to Judaize the city.
Rubenberg also cites settlement construction as an example of the Judaization of Jerusalem, citing in particular the construction of bypass roads that connect Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem with those in the West Bank to create a newly expanded Jerusalem metropolis integrally linked with Israel proper.
West Bank barrier