'Intranational' tension in religious Jerusalem

Examining a 20th century political controversy unlikely to be solved any time soon, Political Science Department Chairperson Ian Lustick spoke yesterday about the Israeli-Arab conflict over Jerusalem during a speech on "Intranational Conflict." Focusing on the conflict between Israel and much of the Arab world over the future status of Jerusalem, Lustick explained his theory of the "fetishizing" of national boundaries in the Middle East based on an area's religious significance. Lustick noted that Jerusalem is seen as holy by both Jews and Muslims, adding that such beliefs have enabled right-wing Jews to work toward arbitrarily expanding the boundaries without inciting resistance from other Israelis. "This is an instance of a problem that is an indivisible pole," explained Lustick, author of Unsettled States, Disputed Lands, a work that looks at the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Elaborating on Israel's refusal to redivide the city -- which had been divided into Jewish and Arab sectors until the 1967 Six Day War -- Lustick quoted Solomon's proverb, "Thou shalt not divide the child." He said the phrase exemplifies the Israeli position that the "whole is more than the sum of its parts." In examining the role of "fetishization" in the Israeli-Arab conflict in recent decades, Lustick made use of 1967 propaganda to illustrate his points. Displaying maps that showed the gradual expansion and "reunification" of Jerusalem to its present size, Lustick explained right-wing Jews' "sabotage of peace negotiations." He showed a "silhouette" of what Jerusalem should have encompassed since the 1840s according to radical Jewish thought. "[Right-wing Jews] arbitrarily expanded the definition of Jerusalem," Lustick said. "[They] infused [it] with symbolic meaning way beyond the little piece of the Old City." Although most Israeli Jews would enthusiastically agree to keeping Jerusalem as the capital of the country, they would not necessarily condemn giving up much of the West Bank, an area mostly populated by Arabs, Lustick explained. Many right-wing Jews, however, are adamantly against giving up any of the West Bank, which they consider to be a God-given inheritance. Such Jews have systematically expanded their definition of Jerusalem to include as much of the West Bank as possible, Lustick said. Lustick added that right-wing Jews' "image of indivisibility" has, in effect, fetishized the city from its natural boundaries as part of a territorial grabbing-spree.