On July 31st 2009, Palestinian religious and political dignitaries, and representatives of the Palestinian Authority (PA) gave a press briefing in Jerusalem ahead of the conference ´Jerusalem: History of the Future.´ The conferences was organized by the Institute for Jerusalem Studies as part of its annual conference series with support from hbs. The opening day was followed by two days of presentations in six panels at Bir Zeit University. An additional day with three panels was held in the city of Nazareth.

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Dr. Nabil Qassis, President of Bir Zeit University opened the conference on August the 1st. Prime Minister Fayyad stressed the importance and necessity to reach a political solution for the city of Jerusalem within the borders of 1967 in any negotiated settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He expressed the dedication of the PA to preserving the collective memory of the Palestinians and called on participants to contribute to the formulation of clear policies for Jerusalem. Jerusalem must be an open city for all humanity, stated Fayyad. The director of the PA´s President office, Rafiq Husseini called for the preservation of East Jerusalem’s identity as an Arab city.

The following panels focused on international political positions on the question of Jerusalem, the demographic development and Israeli law, urban planning and settlements, the social and economic situation of the Palestinian population in East Jerusalem, the city’s religious and historical dimensions and the situation of Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem.

The first panel analyzed current political developments after US President Barack Obama’s administration took office. Dr. Rashid Khalid, director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia’s school of International and Public Affairs, opened the panel with an assessment of the new US administration’s policy. He argued that the call for a settlement freeze including Jerusalem constitutes a shift in US policies and came as a surprise to many. It is uncertain if this trend in the US policy towards Israel and Jerusalem will continue. A freeze of settlements inside Jerusalem would be a clear push towards a two state solution.

Joachim Paul, director of Heinrich Boell Stiftungen in Ramallah focused on the apparent gaps between the EU’s declaratory policy towards Jerusalem and the actual situation on the ground. EU foreign policy approaches have to be assessed in the framework of transatlantic relations. The EU is seeking close alignment with US policies and understands its massive financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority as a declaration of its political will.

Mahdi Abdul Hadi, director of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA) analyzed the historical evolution of political positions taken by Arab states towards the question of Jerusalem from pan-Arab nationalist approaches towards the concept of East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state that has yet to emerge.

According to Walid Omary, the Jerusalem Bureau Chief of the al-Jazeera TV network, modern visual media plays a crucial role in shaping public discourses of Jerusalem. He described the depiction of religious political symbols and criticized the way Jerusalem is presented in the international media.

The fifth panel examined the meaning and reshaping of space, history and culture in Jerusalem’s recent history. Salim Tamari, director of the Institute of Jerusalem Studies and editor of the “Jerusalem Quarterly”, pointed out that modern concepts of urban planning were introduced during the period of Ottoman reforms in the late 19th century. Modern infrastructure was built, such as the Hijaz railway and public spaces were transformed and re-shaped by Ottoman planners. The British administration focused later on a communal notion of religiosity and perceived the old city as religious heritage to be preserved and separated from its surroundings.

Program of the Conference