A Muslim Skeptic

Jerusalem is the Key

By Hasan Zillur Rahim

The dream of a homeland defined Palestinian aspirations for almost half a century. The focal point of this dream has been Jerusalem. Whether the current "declaration of principles" between Israel and the PLO can be sustained or not depends to a large extent on what happens with this ancient city, now under Israeli control and sacred to the world's one billion Muslims, one billion Christians, and 16 million Jews. The key to enduring peace in the Middle East lies in fact with Jerusalem.

"Jerusalem has to be shared," said Ahmad Al-Helew, 38, a Palestinian-American software engineer working in Silicon Valley, CA. "We equate Jerusalem with justice. If the peace accord is to lead to a sovereign state for us, and it must for peace to take root in the Middle East, East Jerusalem should become the capital of the new nation."

East Jerusalem is predominantly Arab and the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque, alluded to in the Qur'anic verse:

Limitless in His Glory is He who transported His servant [Muhammad] by night from the inviolable House of Worship [in Mecca] to the Remote House of Worship [at Jerusalem], the environs of which We blessed. [17:1]

The Arabic for "remote" or "the farthest" is Al-Aqsa. Ever since Islam flowered in the desert of Arabia in the seventh century, the Arabic name for Jerusalem has been Al-Bayt al-Muqaddas, or "the sacred house," which Muslims revere, next to Mecca and Medina, as one of their three holy sites.

In Mr. Al-Helew's view, West Jerusalem could remain under Israeli jurisdiction; however, if Israel continued to claim the whole city as its "eternal and indivisible" capital, given to it by God, the current treaty would not only go nowhere, it would bury the prospect for peace in the region.

On the eve of signing the peace accord in Washington, DC on Sept. 13, Yasser Arafat expressed the hope that it will eventually lead to a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem. Yitzhak Rabin responded with: ''I assure Mr. Arafat that the Palestinian flag will not be over Jerusalem. . . He can forget about it.'' During the signing ceremony itself, Rabin reiterated his inflexible position on Jerusalem. Afterwards, in an interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw, he said the current status of Jerusalem would not change in his lifetime. Arafat, however, scored points with CNN's Larry King when he said that he and Rabin were clearly talking about two different Jerusalems. The Jerusalem that he, Arafat, was thinking about was one that was consistent with the U.S. position on the holy city.

Perhaps the most compelling and spiritual argument against the exclusivist Israeli vow that Jerusalem will ''forever remain the eternal capital of the state of Israel'' came from the great Muslim scholar Muhammad Asad, who wrote in 1982: "This undisguised return to the conception of Jerusalem as the exclusive patrimony of the Jewish people betrays, of course, a total disregard of a most important lesson of history and philosophy: the lesson that in human affairs there is no such thing as 'never' or 'always' or 'forever,' and that eternity is an attribute of God alone."

Ahmad Al-Helew was wary about the prospect for a settlement on Jerusalem, but said he was willing to wait for the two years stipulated in the accord before the issue was put on the table. But he also felt there had to be early indications that Israel would respect the Palestinian desire to share Jerusalem.

This view was consistent with that of Dr. Manuel S. Hassassian, a member of the Christian Churches of Palestine, who recently completed a lecture tour of the United States to acquaint Americans with the need for a Palestinian homeland. He, too, envisioned an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. ''Israel cannot control Jerusalem alone; all three monotheistic faiths must have a say over the destiny of that holy city," he said. At that time he felt that Israel's creeping annexation of Jerusalem and attempts to change its demography were the major obstacles to peace.

After a telephone conversation, AlHelew reported that his brother, Yusef AlHelew, 41, a mechanic in the West Bank town of Howwarah, 40 miles northwest of Jericho, ''felt excluded and frustrated that the entire West Bank wasn't included in the agreement. He couldn't understand why the issue of Jerusalem had to wait for two years,'' Ahmad Al-Helew said. ''But he felt that things couldn't be much worse than they were and had taken a wait-and-see approach to the whole thing. That's pretty much how I feel.''

Other Palestinian Americans expressed deep uncertainty mixed with cautious optimism about the peace initiative, but wondered about its fate if the Likud party were to return to power in Israel or if Arafat vanished from the scene. Things could deteriorate, they felt, unless the U.S. enforced terms of the treaty, especially on Israel, whose aggressive policies the U.S. had supported for so long.

Jerusalem is sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. Its special status requires that adherents of all three Abrahamic faiths feel free to live and worship there in freedom and dignity. More than a city, given its recent past, it is a symbol entwined with the joys and sorrows of Muslims, especially Palestinians. Whether East and West Jerusalem ultimately end up belonging to Palestine and Israel respectively, or whether the negotiating parties agree to Jerusalem's status as an undivided city under bi-national administration, operating perhaps under international guarantees, the issue of Jerusalem will play a critical role in the peace, not only between Israel and the PLO but also between Israel and other nations of the region, such as Jordan and Syria.

If Rabin, however, remains adamant about Israel's sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, history will come to regard his peace overture to Arafat as a cruel and cynical ploy to deceive the world, while consolidating the Jewish settlers in occupied Palestinian territories so assiduously cultivated by the Likud government. On the other hand, if he continues to act on the noble impulses that have brought him and his nation this far, he could ensure his place in history, and Jerusalem could once again regain its ancient St. Pt's as a shining symbol of hope for Jews, Christians and Muslims, and indeed for all people of the world to coexist in peace and justice.

Hasan Zillur Rahim is the editor of IQRA, the bimonthly newsletter of the South Bay Islamic Association in San Jose, CA.