The battle for Jerusalem
Can the EU play a role in the Israeli-Palestinian ‘peace process’?
EU foreign ministers are hoping Europe can “forge a high-profile role” in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Twenty-seven foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels this week to discuss a Swedish proposal to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of both Israel and Palestine, the future of the region and how Europe can aid the ‘peace process’.
Last week, the EU issued a previously classified report on Jerusalem.
It accuses the Israeli government of working deliberately to change the city’s demographic balance by issuing Palestinians with substantially fewer building permits than they require.
An Israeli human rights group has said that over 4,500 Arabs had their residency rights removed last year alone – that is about half of the total number since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.
Can the EU play a role in peace making after being marginalised for so long? Or is the battle for Jerusalem already over?
Presenter Sohail Rahman is joined by Mordechai Kedar, a professor of Arabic at Bar Ilan University, Israel, Ali Abunimah, the co-founder of Electronic Intifada, an independent online publication about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to Solve the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, and Ian Black, the Guardian newspaper’s Middle East editor.
This episode of Inside Story aired from Sunday, December 6, 2009.