The Palestinian Authority is acting as if it were the sovereign power in eastern Jerusalem, Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush warned Thursday. Despite official Israeli rule in the city, the PA is openly holding events and greeting diplomats without interference, he said.
As an example, Porush described an official PA ceremony greeting a visiting Egyptian diplomat. Senior PA officials and leading members of Fatah participated in the ceremony, which was held in a Jerusalem hotel.
During the ceremony, the Egyptian diplomat told assembled PA officials, “The Arab world will not allow the Judaization of Jerusalem.”
The ceremony was meant to send the message that, sooner or later, Jerusalem will be under PA control, Porush said. “And the fact that this was publicized in the media with no significant public response proves that an erosion has begun, a gnawing away at the Israeli consensus that sees united Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish people,” he added.
Porush, of the hareidi-religious United Torah Judaism party, ran for mayor of Jerusalem in the most recent city elections, but lost to current Mayor Nir Barkat.
Porush blamed the current situation in Jerusalem on the Kadima-led government under former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Olmert offered the PA control of much of Jerusalem, he said. According to United States media, Olmert even offered to give up Israeli sovereignty over holy sites in historic Jerusalem and turn control of the area over to an international authority led in part by the PA and Saudi Arabia.
"Who knows what else Olmert promised them?” Porush asked.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his government must immediately work to fix the damage Olmert caused with his promises to the PA regarding Jerusalem, Porush said. He called on the government to crack down on activities conducted by the PA and Fatah in the capital city.
In addition, Israel must begin a public relations campaign aimed at repeating the message that united Jerusalem belongs exclusively to the Jewish people, he said.
Preventing the PA from creating the image of Arab sovereignty in Jerusalem is particularly relevant right now, as the Jewish people enter the traditional three weeks of mourning for the fall of the first and second Temples, Porush said. “We must remain faithful to the spiritual and physical unity of the city,” he concluded.
PA Police, Fatah Forces in City
Porush's warning follows several recent reports of PA and Fatah activity in Jerusalem neighborhoods. In March, Jerusalem police admitted to allowing PA forces to operate in some Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem in order to solve clan disputes and similar matters.
In June, Ichud Leumi MKs Aryeh Eldad and Uri Ariel, and Jerusalem activist Aryeh King, were attacked by PA officers in an Arab neighborhood inside the Jerusalem municipal boundaries.
Two weeks ago, Fatah officials were involved in preventing Jews from entering a Jewish-owned home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem.
On Saturday, heavy fighting broke out between rival Arab clans in the Mei Shiloach (Silwan) neighborhood of Jerusalem. According to Arab residents of the neighborhood, plainclothes PA police attempted to intervene in the fighting.