A Small, Important American Decision Regarding Eastern Jerusalem and Its Implications

The movement to oppose Israeli settlements and boycott products made by those settlements spreads almost every day as we can see in the European Union, and this increasingly is a cause for Israeli concern. The Netanyahu government has put aside 100 million Israeli shekels (approximately $26 million) to fight the campaign to boycott Israel and has also put great diplomatic effort into preventing a European decision which would include Israeli settlement-produced goods within the framework of the general boycott.

This campaign has also spread from the EU to China, which has stipulated that any future Chinese workers in Israel can only be employed within the Green Line and not in the settlements.*

This comes as Israel tries, in what is clearly a farce, to “import” thousands of Chinese workers to work on various projects, especially in construction, despite the availability of large numbers of workers who are Palestinians or African immigrants, both of whom Israel is attempting to exclude from the country.

In the context of the settlement boycotts and the refusal to recognize the legitimacy of some Israeli practices, there is an important American development, although it is a political development without any real consequences. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to recognize that Jerusalem-born Jews who hold U.S. citizenship were born in Israel, as the Supreme Court refuses to recognize that Israel includes Jerusalem.

Officially, the United States has considered East Jerusalem part of the occupied territories since 1967. This court decision, coming at this time, generally strengthens the campaign against Israeli practices and settlements, but Washington’s stated position and actual position are far apart. While the United States says that it does not consider Jerusalem part of Israel, it does nothing, while at the same time it supports Israel politically, economically and militarily, giving Israel all it needs to succeed militarily and to continue its arrogance and refusal to accept any political solution. America refuses to include Jerusalem in Israel, but at the same time it sees what Israel does — the settlements, the “Judaization” of Jerusalem, the forced evacuation of Jerusalem’s people — and itself does nothing. America sees Israel’s settlement plans, land confiscation plans and its plans to cut off links in the West Bank, but America does nothing but increase support for Israel.

The Obama administration, in particular, sees Israeli President Netanyahu’s contempt for it and sees what Netanyahu has done, and continues to do, in opposition to the president’s administration, but has done nothing serious. The administration has put no pressure on Israel to stop its illegal international practices. Accordingly, Israel is able to continue its activities, and America continues its talk about rejecting settlements, not including Jerusalem in Israel, and the necessity of the two-state solution. The simple and clear reason for this is that this administration, as well as past and future administrations, are subjugated to Jewish power and Israeli support and are unable to deal with Israel in real terms.

The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court remains an indication of the general American public’s opinion, and that of the international community in general, and deepens the rejection of Israeli practices … and this is what gives it some importance.

*Editor’s Note: The Green Line refers to the pre-1967 boundary between Israel and the West Bank.