Amid War in Gaza, Israel Outlines New Future for Jerusalem—and Palestinians

Israel's deputy mayor for Jerusalem outlined to Newsweek a new vision for the holy city along with Palestinians and Israeli Arabs whom she argued were growing increasingly disillusioned with a binary choice between rival leaderships in Gaza and the West Bank.

With the current conflict largely concentrated near the Gaza Strip and Israel's northern border with Lebanon, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum said a city that is "normally the hotbed of the conflict has become a city of refuge" for Israelis fleeing active war zones across the nation.

Now, she's arguing for a future in which Jerusalem would serve as a haven not only for Jews but also for Israeli Arabs who reject the Islamist Hamas movement with whom Israel is at war in Gaza, as well as the secular Palestinian National Authority faced with its own challenges in the West Bank.

"If you were to tell me what has changed in Jerusalem in the last 10 years, I would say that there has been a rapprochement between Jews and Arabs," Hassan-Nahoum said. "We're in the same cafes, we're in the same parks. There's more Arab young men and women in universities than ever.

"I'm not saying they're going to become Zionist tomorrow, but I think they have realized that their salvation is not going to come from the Palestinian leadership. So, they might as well take advantage of the opportunities of a free country like Israel and a city like Jerusalem—and they are my constituents, too—and bring opportunity and prosperity to their people."

As for Palestinians living under one of two factions in Gaza and the West Bank, she argued that a third option was needed, one for which she believed Israel and its international partners should set the stage.

"I think Israel and the West need to foster and empower the leaders that have shown we can do business with them," Hassan-Nahoum said. "Those are the people who should be dealing with the Palestinian people."

But, in her view, this would preclude democratic processes for Palestinians, as well as others across the Arab world, for fear of an Islamist resurgence.

"I don't think democratic rule is in the cards, as Hamas would do very well," Hassan-Nahoum said. "I don't think the Arab world is ready for democracy. I hate to say this as a person who is basically a liberal Democrat, but let's face the fact that a democratic process in these countries would only empower the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas."

This vision and its accompanying narrative remain deeply controversial among segments of Arab and Palestinian communities aspiring for an independent path to establishing an internationally recognized sovereign state with East Jerusalem, internationally recognized as part of the West Bank but administered by Israel, as its capital. The plan is also challenged by the active threat of unrest breaking out in a city long on the frontlines.

Jerusalem in many ways remains at the center of the current conflict. Hamas has referred to its unprecedented October 7 surprise attack and the subsequent war being waged against Israel as the battle of "Al-Aqsa Flood" after the sacred mosque in the Old City compound home to sacred sites revered by Jews, Muslims and Christians.

Calls for asserting Muslim control over Jerusalem, known as "Al-Quds" in Arabic, can be seen and heard throughout the region, from Palestinian Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades active in the current conflict to Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, which has forged close ties with militias across the Middle East against Israel.

Though Jerusalem has so far evaded the scenes of mass unrest witnessed during some previous flare-ups of Israeli-Palestinian violence, the current war comes amid what was already the deadliest year for Palestinians killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the neighboring West Bank and a record high in attacks, often conducted by lone wolf militants. Sudden episodes of violence have continued to emerge in Jerusalem, including a fatal shooting last week by alleged Hamas operatives against IDF soldiers at a checkpoint just south of the city.

Hassan-Nahoum acknowledged that such incidents, along with the presence of "sleeper cells of Islamic groups in Jerusalem," represent a concern, though she believed the situation was still trending toward stability.

"Yes, there are bad apples. Yes, we know who they are. We're keeping our eyes on them," she said. "Every Friday, my heart is in my throat, 'Let's see what's going to happen with Friday prayers.' And every Friday I breathe a sigh of relief at 2:30 in the afternoon when nothing has happened, so far."

Lingering hostility, she argued, was the product of a toxic educational system that "is inciting against Israel" as well as of frustrations over a "corrupt leadership in the West Bank."

Such accusations, along with arguments for greater Israeli intervention in Palestinian affairs, are vehemently rejected by current leadership in the West Bank, represented by the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), both of which are led by Mahmoud Abbas and his ruling Fatah party.

The PLO's Department of Jerusalem Affairs told Newsweek that it was Israel that has disrupted Palestinian democracy, arguing that "the Palestinian elections, which were held more than once over three decades, were national experiences in which democracy was demonstrated in all its aspects."

"Jerusalemites exercised their Palestinian affiliation by participating in the Palestinian elections in 1996, 2005 and 2006," the PLO Jerusalem Affairs Department said, "but occupation authorities refused to allow the presidential and legislative elections that were scheduled for 2022 to be held in the city of Jerusalem or for Jerusalemites to participate in them.

"This Israeli refusal prompted the Palestinian leadership to adhere to international legitimacy and laws and insist on the participation of the people of Jerusalem in them, as well as the determination to hold elections in the city of Jerusalem in accordance with the agreements signed between the Palestinian and Israeli sides."

Faisal Aranki, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, also weighed in, telling Newsweek that Israel's own democracy "has brought to them a hideous racist right-wing government that practices the worst types of persecution, pain and oppression, killing innocents, destroying their homes, uprooting their stability."

Aranki also defended Palestinians' views of their leaders along with their "firm political line" in support of "our freedom and sincerity from the occupation and its practices by implementing the resolutions of international legitimacy."

"We exercise our full freedom and our leadership respects humanity and abhors the inhumane, immoral and undemocratic practices practiced by the occupation against an educated, civilized and creative people," Aranki said.

As Newsweek reported just weeks before the current war erupted, however, Abbas and the Palestinian National Authority have continued to face a historic crisis of support and popular legitimacy. Polls also show mounting frustration over a lack of elections since the last vote in January 2006, when Hamas came out ahead in legislative elections that ultimately led to a violent rift with Fatah and the Islamists' takeover of Gaza.

That vote came just months after the IDF withdrew from a near-four-decade occupation of Gaza, which was seized from Egypt along with East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War. The IDF and Hamas have since fought numerous conflicts and five all-out wars, the current one deadlier for both sides than all previous engagements combined.

Israeli officials estimate that 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed amid Hamas' initial attack and that 66 soldiers have been killed since ground operations began. The Palestinian government media office in Hamas-led Gaza has counted more than 14,500 Palestinians dead, though it does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

More than 200 more Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the war began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The IDF has also arrested about 1,800 Palestinians across the West Bank, and attacks by Jewish settlers have also been on the rise.

Meanwhile, Palestinians officials in the West Bank and Gaza have continued to highlight the centrality of Jerusalem in their messaging.

The PLO Jerusalem Affairs Department asserted that "Palestinians, led by the people of the city of Jerusalem, do not feel any despair over the surrounding circumstances because they believe in their Arab-Palestinian affiliation and adhere to their sanctity, their Palestinianness, their Arabism, their Islamic and Christian sanctities, and they yearn for freedom and liberation from the occupation and its slavery.

"On the contrary, they have every hope for an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and to live in safety and security in their land and the land of their fathers and grandfathers."

This came, according to the PLO Jerusalem Affairs Department, as Israel was seizing property from Palestinians in Jerusalem and restricting their movement in a bid to shift the demographics of the disputed city.

As for Hamas, even after a deal was reached Tuesday to secure the release of 50 hostages held by the group in Gaza in exchange for the freedom of 150 prisoners in Israeli jails, a temporary ceasefire and an increase in humanitarian aid, its officials affirmed commitment to the goal of defeating Israel and taking Jerusalem.

"We promise our people that we will remain loyal to their blood, their sacrifices, their patience, their bond, and their aspirations for liberation, freedom, the restoration of rights, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, God willing," Hamas said.

Prior to the current conflict, Hassan-Nahoum's portfolio included initiatives for encouraging tourism in Jerusalem and fostering closer ties between Jews and Arabs in the city and other parts of the region, including the United Arab Emirates. Today, these projects are on hold, and she has focused her efforts on conducting diplomacy on behalf of her city and country.

"A lot of people always saw Jerusalem as the ground zero of the conflict, but I actually see Jerusalem as the laboratory of the solution," Hassan-Nahoum said. "If we can actually find a way to build the bridges and find of way of living with each other in Jerusalem, I think that could permeate not just to the country but to the region."

Amid this endeavor, she said it was up to Palestinian leadership to assert their priorities.

"Is the priority for them destroying Israel, or is the priority for them building a state? I don't think they've decided that yet," Hassan-Nahoum said. "I don't think they've really got an answer. I think innocent people have been indoctrinated to think that all of their problems are not theirs.

"And I think this infantilization of Palestinians is the real racism. It's the bigotry of low expectations. Why don't you think that these people can actually be accountable for their own actions? And why is nobody holding them accountable?"

Aranki argued that Palestinians were looking to take control of their future.

"We are an educated and conscious people, and we do not want to be bait used by anyone in international conflicts," Aranki said. "We hate wars, we want to live in freedom and peace with our neighbors, we want our right to freedom on our land, we want full cooperation with any people, participation in scientific progress and economic benefits, and cooperation with all peoples of the world in cultural and moral progress.

"We aspire to freedom and peace."