Jerusalem is a holy city solely because of Judaism. Christianity inherits this Biblical tradition, it did not originate it but like so much else in Christianity derives it solely from the Jews and the Jewish religion. Muhammad likewise derived a great deal of his own religion from Judaism. There is no explicit mention however of Jerusalem in the Qur'an, and it has been largely ignored for the whole past millenium. It never was a Muslim cultural centre, just a backwater town in ruins. Muslim pilgrimage to it was rare. It never was a capital of a Muslim kingdom or province, and there was certainly no Arab state of "Palestine" at any time. For centuries the Jews have been the largest single group in Jerusalem. They became the outright majority in the 19th century. Today there are twice as many Jews resident there as all non-Jews together.

Literally the only time that the worship of all three faiths has been fully respected and supported, in the past two thousand years, has been under the recent Israeli sovereignty. Before that time, Jewish shrines and synagogues were trashed or appropriated by both Christian and Muslim authorities, and Christian churches and shrines by Muslim ones.

Rev. Williams claims to want a just peace and an end to conflict. Alas, displacement theology, and complicit silence about Palestinian antisemitic hate-incitement and glorification of terrorism, in schools, pulpits, media and political declarations, and one-sided blaming of Israel, only encourages bloodshed. If the Secretary General really wants peace, I invite him, and the Uniting Church generally, to join Jews in demanding the Palestinians drop their governmental decree that there are no Jewish holy sites or roots anywhere in the Holy Land. This makes a lie out of the Jewish Bible, presence and State: peace is then impossible. Christian Scriptures testify to Jewish holy sites, including the Temple Mount, so not only Judaism and Jews are slandered, but Christians and Christianity as well. Jews and Christians working together for peace rather than against each other can make a real difference.

Palestinians of East-Jerusalem are permanent residents of Israel.

This implies that they may buy property and live anywhere in Israel they like, including Western-Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the Israeli-Arab towns and villages. It also implies that they can apply at any time for Israeli citizenship. Obtaining citizenship takes on average 22 months and involves:

1. Producing documents, including proof of living in Israel for at least 3 out of the last 5 years.
2. Surrendering one's Jordanian citizenship.
3. An interview which includes an easy test of one's basic Hebrew-language skills.
4. Passing security and police clearance checks.
5. Declaring allegiance to the state of Israel.

Except for having to forfeit their Jordanian passport, the above is comparable to Australia (in not-too-distant history, Australia also used to demand forfeiting all other passports).

Sadly, so far out of about 400,000 only a 4-digit number of Eastern-Jerusalemites applied for Israeli citizenship. If they only cared to apply and demand their rights, then use it to vote for the Israeli Knesset (parliament) along with the other Israeli Arabs, then they could have tipped the balance and Israel could have looked so different today and so much more tolerant and peaceful.

One gave up on expecting factual accuracy and clear thinking from the poor old Uniting Church years ago. It's sad, really. They seem to be more interested today in 'proving' that they are still, in some way 'relevant' by catching passing (in both senses) fashionable trams.

Tonyo

In response to Yututsu, it is a telling fact that actually a plurality of what we can loosely term East Jerusalem Arabs, including those in townships actually outside the municipality in P.A. territory, when the chips are down, and contrary to Yututsu's implied claim, prefer to be citizens of Israel, and not of any "Palestine" state established by the corrupt and violent leaders of Fatah or Hamas. This came out in a Pechter poll reported in January of 2011. Only 30% of E. Jerusalem Arabs would choose to be citizens of a prospective "Palestine," 35% elected Israeli citizenship, and the rest were "undecided" (i.e., they avoided stating their views publicly). 40% of respondents said they would even consider moving to another neighbourhood in order to become a citizen of Israel rather than Palestine, and 54% said that if their neighbourhood was assigned to Israel, they would not move from it. Actually Arabs have more freedoms and suffer less discrimination in Israel than in any other Middle Eastern country. It is particularly striking to contrast their situation with that of "Palestinian refugees" in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, or even -- most remarkably -- in the P.A. itself (including Gaza), where "Palestinian refugees" are segregated and forbidden work and citizenship and are instead ghettoized permanently in "refugee" camps.

Yututsu also seems to think that Israel's present policies are misguided and against peace and that more Israeli Arabs might make it "better." That is rubbish. If the Palestinians want peace, the Palestinians themselves will simply have to stop their hate incitement, their glorification of terrorism and mass murder of Jews, and in short to come to terms with Israel, including acceptance that it is a Jewish state and legitimately will remain that way. That means they must also give up their "refugee right of return" demands and honestly admit that Jews do indeed have holy sites and shrines throughout the Holy Land including on the Temple Mount and at Machpeleh, etc. It is the Palestinians who have been the sole barrier to peace for two generations, including after 1994.

Dear Sadler,

Both Jews and Palestinians are guilty of violence. One's guilt cannot be excused by their rival's.

An individual Palestinian living in Eastern Jerusalem cannot be held responsible for terrorism in Gaza. In order to become an Israeli citizen one must definitely denounce terrorism, stop hate incitement and renounce allegiance to external powers, but the extra demand to accept Israel as a Jewish state is unreasonable. As part of the internal political debate within Israel, many Israeli citizens by birth, including Jews, do not support the idea of Israel remaining a Jewish state, so why should they? This is essentially a condition on citizenship whereby one may become a citizen only if their views are closer to a particular political camp. As far as I can tell we never made similar demands in Australia.

While loyal to their new country and not compromising its security or supporting its enemies, it is perfectly valid to attempt to change the character of the state from within by democratic means.

Israelis have a perfect right to say, and reflect that in their ballots, "Yes, we once wanted a Jewish state, but it proved to be a failure, especially a moral failure, so we changed our mind and no longer wish Israel to remain Jewish". Other Israelis, especially Haredim, never even wanted a Jewish state to begin with.

As for the right of the Jews over their holy sites, if indeed they have such right, it is unrelated to sovereignty of the state of Israel over those places. The state of Israel is a secular entity and it is a superstition to believe that the territory held by a secular/civil entity can ever have religious implications. Moreover, the state of Israel neither represents all Jews, nor only Jews. Nothing for example, in principle and even according to Jewish law, prevents sovereignty over the same holy sites or any part thereof to be held by a different Jewish state.

Yuyutsu, you seem consistently to substitute your own wishes for the actual realities. That is delusional thinking. You say, with false even-handedness, that "both Jews and Palestinians are guilty of violence." But this immorally equates Israel's legitimate self-defense with the terrorist aggressions of Palestinians. Extreme bias is shown by your remark that it is debatable whether Jews have any rights over their own holy sites. You also deny that protection of Jewish sites has any necessary connection to Israel, although the Palestinians have trashed all Jewish holy sites they control, and the UN has capitulated to the Muslim lobby, with even UNESCO echoing its denial of Jewish holy sites.

You fantasize that Israelis are increasingly concluding that Israel's creation was a mistake, that it has been a failure and especially a moral failure, so they no longer wish Israel to remain Jewish. Allegedly, they "reflect that in their ballots." But in the real world, in the last elections, the usual overwhelming support went to Zionist parties: Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu continued yet again as Prime Minister. Poll after poll show that Israelis are very patriotic and proud of their country, and justifiably think it a marvellous success story, especially morally. It remains the only stable liberal democracy in the Middle East, a beacon of hope; even Israeli Arabs have more freedoms and better life conditions than in any other M-E country. Israeli innovations have changed your own computer, its medical advances have improved lives around the world, its agricultural inventions have averted global famine, etc. etc. A recent UN global survey of countries ranking them in terms of human development (health, education, work, social cohesion, low crime, cultural richness, etc.) put Israel 15th out of about 180 countries, closely behind Switzerland. Israelis ranked 13th in a survey of global happiness. An Israel Hayom poll in May, 2012 reported that 93% of Israelis are proud to live there, and the majority, 70%, are "very proud." 83% planned to fly the Israeli flag from their homes or cars on Independence Day. You have a lot to learn, Yuyutsu.