Palestines 'capital city': Why politicians are

talking about Abu Dis

The fragmented East Jerusalem suburb is again being suggested - despite many
Palestinians being opposed to the plan
A Palestinian protester hits the Israeli separation barrier with a hammer in Abu Dis
in October 2015 (Reuters)

Mustafa Abu Sneineh-Tuesday 19 December 2017

It was once a small rural village, noted for its fields of olive trees and spectacular
views, overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem to the south-west and the Jordan
Valley to the east.
But now Abu Dis is a name spoken by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
as a potential capital of a future Palestinian state, as reported in the New York
Times on 3 December.
This small East Jerusalem suburb was flung into the spotlight a few days later by
Donald Trumps announcement that the United States would recognise Jerusalem
as the capital of Israel.
The decision shook the Palestinian Authority: it hoped that if Washington was
ever to make such a declaration then it would also regard East Jerusalem as the
future capital for a Palestinian state, especially after years of US-sponsored talks
with the Israelis.
But the suggestion that it could instead be Abu Dis flies in the face of the Oslo
Accords of 1993 that foresaw East Jerusalem as the eventual capital of a future
state.
Why is Abu Dis being discussed?
Abu Dis is regarded as a potential home to a Palestinian government for two
reasons.
The first is geographical. Abu Dis is the closest geographical point to the Old City,
which houses some of Islam's holiest sites including the al-Aqsa mosque,
managed and controlled by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, a religious trust.
Israeli guards near the building site of the planned Palestinian Legislative Council
in May 1998 (AFP)
For this reason it was planned as the site of the Palestinian Legislative Council,
which the PA started to build in Abu Dis in 1995. Founded in the wake of the Oslo
Accords, the council was intended to draft Palestinian laws and regulations as well
as administer PA institutions.
The five-storey-high complex occupied 1,300 sqm, cost an estimated $4m at the
time and had a large meeting hall, from which you can see the Dome of the Rock,
surrounded by the minarets of the Old City.
But the Palestinian Legislative Council project came to a halt in 2000, when
Palestinian MPs refused to accept any legislative body which was not based in the
Old City of Jerusalem. Instead they preferred a stop-gap institution based in
Ramallah, at least until a final peace settlement was eventually reached with the
Israelis.
In the same year, the Camp David negotiations between Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat and Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak stalled, followed by the start of the
second Intifada in September.
Abu Dis, which was under Palestinian civil control in 2000, was reported by The
Guardian at the time to be part of the talks, although it is unclear whether it was
offered by the US and the Israelis to Arafat as the Palestinian capital.
Abu Dis was seen as a potential place for Arafat to "look out on to a stunning view
of the Dome of the Rock". But, as the Guardian reported, the Israeli right did not
accept the idea as they wanted Jerusalem as "undivided and eternal".
The second reason Abu Dis is being considered is because of Saudi Arabia. On 3
December, just days before Trump's announcement, The New York Times reported
that the suburb had been suggested to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as a
possible capital by Mohammed bin Salman.
MbS, the paper said, wanted to "force a settlement on Palestinians in order to
cement Israeli cooperation against Iran". Riyadh regards Tehran as a regional rival,
especially in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and is keen for Israeli support against
it.
The Saudi plan, the Times reported, would ensure that "the Palestinians would get
a state of their own but only noncontiguous parts of the West Bank and only
limited sovereignty over their own territory. The vast majority of Israeli
settlements in the West Bank, which most of the world considers illegal, would
remain. The Palestinians would not be given East Jerusalem as their capital, and
there would be no right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants".
All of this would be "sweetened" with vast financial aid from Riyadh to the
PA. Abbas has yet to comment on the idea, but was due to travel to Riyadh on
Wednesday for talks with King Salman and MbS about the US recognition of
Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Crusades, views and weddings
It's a lot of attention for what, to the casual observer, is an average Palestinian
suburb. Abu Dis, whose population currently numbers an estimated 12,600
Palestinians, lies 3.8km from the eastern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem. The
name is believed to have derived from the ancient Greek phrase for "mother of 10
villages".
For centuries, Abu Dis has been a place of contention. In 1187, the army of
Saladin, the Muslim military and political leader, camped on its hills before
liberating Jerusalem from the Crusaders.
A Palestinian couple pose for wedding photos at Israel's security barrier in Abu Dis
in February 2004 (AFP)
Once it was the eastern gateway for Saladin's army: now Abu Dis is surrounded by
other Palestinian suburbs, including At-Tur, Ras Al-Amud, and Al-Eizariya, which
likewise started life as villages.
The views from the east and west of the suburb, which sits 628 metres above sea
level, are breathtaking. On a clear morning, you can see the Dead Sea and the hills
of Jericho with their short red grass. To the west are the walls of the Old City and
the golden Dome of the Rock.
Its expansion started in 1967, following the Arab-Israeli War, when Palestinian
land was confiscated by Israeli authorities. This forced residents of Abu Dis to
build housing on land previously used for agriculture, spurred on by the lack of
sufficient Israeli building permits for Palestinians in East Jerusalem. At-Tur, Ras Al-
Amud, Abu Dis and Al-Eizariya also expanded until they all coalesced to form one
large urban area.
The area was changed, first by the Oslo Accords, which created a patchwork of
control across the West Bank, then by the construction of the Separation Wall
Abu Dis was not noted for its culture until 1984 when the Al-Quds University
opened and students flocked from Jerusalem and Palestinian cities.

But the face of the area was changed, first by the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s,
which created a patchwork of control across the West Bank, then by the
construction of the separation walls from 2002.

Now Abu Dis is crammed with tower blocks. A single road runs through from Al-
Eizariya to the north. Both suburbs are used as wedding locations, a place where
Palestinians from Hebron, Bethlehem and Ramallah who hold PA-issued green ID
cards - and so are denied entry to the Old City - meet with friends and family from
East Jerusalem, who hold the Israeli blue ID cards.

How Abu Dis lost control

Talk of Abu Dis as a Palestinian capital seems optimistic on paper for several
reasons, not least the fractured nature of the suburb.

The area, like elsewhere on the West Bank, is now a series of zones where
Palestinian rights are precarious or non-existent as ownership of the land has
been eaten away by Israeli priorities over the years.

According to 2012 report by the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem, Abu Dis
town area is currently 23.6 sq km.
In 1967, it, like the West Bank and Gaza, fell under Israeli occupation. Since then,
there have been a series of land confiscations for Israeli settlements, military
bases and the separation wall.

In 1975, Israel seized one square kilometre to build the Maale Admum
settlement, followed by a further 0.4sq km in 1980 to create the Mizpe Yedud
settlement.
Then there is the separation wall, which Israel started building in 2002, and
divides Abu Dis from the Old City and extends more than eight kilometres around
the suburb.

The wall has also made it much harder for residents to reach the Old City. Now
Palestinians have to drive in the opposite direction to their destination, then veer
north through Area C, which is under full Israeli military and administrative
control. They then take the road connecting Jerusalem with Jericho, before
passing the Al-Za'im checkpoint, a major checkpoint on the West Bank.

Israeli settlers outside their new house in Abu Dis in May 2004 (AFP)

Before the wall, the 4km journey took 15 minutes. That drive has now telescoped
to almost 18 km and takes at least 40 minutes.

The Oslo II Interim Agreement of 1995 classified land on the West Bank as falling
under Area A (where the Palestinian Authority has full civil and security control),
Area B (where the Palestinian Authority shares full civil and joint security control
with Israeli authorities) or Area C (where the Israeli authorities have full civil and
security control).

Around 3.5 km sq of Abu Dis - or 14.8 percent - is classified as Area B. But most of
the suburb - around 20 sq km or 85 percent - is classified as Area C and under
Israeli control.
It has left residents with little land on which to develop housing and
infrastructure. Palestinians are prohibited from building and managing their land
in Area C without a permit from the Israeli Civil Administration, a body led by a
military commander in the West Bank.
The 2012 report by the Applied Research Institute said that following the
completion of the segregation wall, almost 11.1 sq km - or 47 percent - of Abu Dis
would be isolated, including urban areas, agricultural land and open spaces.

To the west, the report said, would be a section of the wall, isolating it from
Jerusalem. To the east would be another wall, with the Israeli settlement of
Ma'ale Adumim to the north.

The Dome of the Rock as seen from Abu Dis in December 2017 (Reuters)
This fragmentation has meant that Abu Dis has been unable to develop any of the
future infrastructure and services expected of a capital-in-waiting, including a
hospital, police force, ministry buildings and airport.

Take health care. The separation wall prevents Palestinian from driving 10 minutes
to the Al-Makassed Hospital at the Mount of Olives. Instead, they have to travel to
Ramallah or Bethlehem to seek medical treatment, a journey that takes at least an
hour driving along Israeli-controlled roads to get to the PA-controlled areas.

Palestinians condemn proposal

The majority of Palestinians oppose Abu Dis as their capital. So when news leaked
of the Saudi offer, the reaction was quick - and sharp. Many retweeted hashtags
which said that Jerusalem (Al-Quds) is the capital of Palestine, which gained in
popularity after Trump's recognition announcement.

Haifa Wehbe, one of the most famous Arab pop stars, said that "Jerusalem is the
eternal capital of Palestine"...
View image on Twitter
 Haifa Wehbe
@HaifaWehbe
#___

#HaifaWehbe #Palestine
7:16 AM - Dec 7, 2017

216216 Replies
898898 Retweets
2,7902,790 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy
...while others showed their support through art...
View image on Twitter

Ali Dahmash
@AliDahmash

__# :

6:15 AM - Dec 15, 2017
651651 likes
577 people are talking about this
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Translation: A mural in occupied Palestine, stronger than all slogans: I can see.
Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine.
Ahmed Azem, a political analyst at Birzeit University, said that offering Abu Dis as
the capital is not new. It was circulated in 2000 before the talks of Camp David to
make Abu Dis as the Palestinian state capital, but this did not happen.
Palestinian protesters climb the barrier dividing Abu Dis from Jerusalem in
November 2014 (Reuters)
This idea is non-practical, and it will not succeed. You cannot solve Jerusalem
issue without solving other essential Palestinian matters such as borders,
terminals, and sovereignty.
Rana al-Sheikh Qasem, a media graduate from Al-Quds University, said that "the
journey to and from Jerusalem to Abu Dis is extremely long and exhausting. The
Israeli occupation made it hard for us to visit the Old City. Israel does not want
Palestinians in Jerusalem. All these settlements, checkpoints and the separation
wall are there to push us to live on a minimum portion of land."
I cant but see Jerusalem as the capital for all Arabs and Palestinians
- Heba Erekat
Even residents of Abu Dis are not taken by the idea.
Heba Erekat, 31, said: "My school was a seven-minute drive from my house, but
because of the Israeli separation wall, the journey became at least an hour's drive.
This is a pathetic proposal, and we consider it as a joke. Although I am proud
being a resident of Abu Dis, I cant but see Jerusalem as the capital for all Arabs
and Palestinians."
Posted by Thavam