A leading expert on the geopolitics of Jerusalem explained causes behind unrest in the city and their relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at a J Street U event Thursday.
Citizens of East Jerusalem have recently started organizing violent protests within the city against the government of Israel. The protests are in part from the culmination of tensions regarding the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which includes the regional dispute over the occupation of the West Bank by the Israeli military and the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, among other issues.
Over the summer, about 1,880 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, and about 70 Israelis were killed in the most recent conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to The New York Times.
J Street U at UCLA is the university’s chapter of a national organization that seeks to develop peace and social justice in Israel, Palestine and the Middle East through the development of a two-state solution.
The speaker, Daniel Seidemann, has been an attorney in Jerusalem since 1987 and has argued more than 20 cases related to the city before the Israeli Supreme Court. He is also the founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem, a nonprofit organization that promotes Israeli-Palestinian peace, as well as Ir Amim, a nongovernmental organization that monitors Israeli government actions in Jerusalem.
Seidemann said he thinks many of the protests have occurred because the citizens of East Jerusalem feel that the Israeli government views them as a suspect people and because the younger generation fears that they will have limited freedom in the future.
“The kids who are clashing with the police are also clashing with their parents because their parents can’t promise them a future. They are not Israeli. They have no rights,” Seidemann said. “Kids believe, ‘We are dust in the eyes of Israel.'”
He added that a large percentage of the recent arrests in Israel have been disproportionately concentrated in Jerusalem rather than spread out across the region. Seidemann, a former member of the Israeli army, said he and his family have lived in the region since 1973 and have seen the conflict firsthand.
“I took a rock to the head a year ago,” Seidemann said. “I have three daughters in the military service. I have no illusions about Palestinian violence.”
In looking toward the future of the Middle East, Seidemann said he predicts that tensions will be reduced, but never totally eliminated.
In the last half of the speech, audience members asked questions about housing construction and demolition in East Jerusalem, as well as the specific origins of tension in the city. They also asked how the unrest related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and tangible ways they could potentially be resolved.
When asked how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began, Seidemann said he thinks no particular group is to blame.
“This was spontaneous combustion. Nobody had the power to start it, and no one can stop it. At best, you can inflame things,” Seidemann said. “The underlying cause of this is independent of the words of leaders on either side.”
About 10 people attended the event, and most were members from J Street U.
Compiled by Jillian Frankel, Bruin contributor.