Thinking about Jerusalem, with Teddy Kollek

His part: In July 1968 the “boroughs plan” for Jerusalem was raised at a gathering Gazit initiated, or, in another study’s account, in a group of senior officials set up by Teddy Kollek and chaired by him. In 1974 the working paper on the holy places reached his office.

Jerusalem was with him even in Washington. In July 1962 he took strong exception, in talks at the State Department, to the American reference to Jerusalem as a corpus separatum, a separate international entity. He also raised the use of “Jerusalem, Palestine” in the passports of American officials in the city.

In Washington he and Teddy Kollek already sat on the same side of the table. In June 1964, during Prime Minister Levi Eshkol’s visit, the American record of a talk with the Acting Secretary of State on tanks for Israel lists them both among those present: Kollek as Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office, Gazit as Minister at the embassy. The record attributes no remarks to either of them.

After the city’s unification in 1967 the thinking about its future went on, and Gazit was part of it. On 2 July 1968 Meron Benvenisti, then the mayor’s adviser on East Jerusalem affairs, put forward the “boroughs plan”: a metropolitan framework with five sub-municipalities, for Jewish Jerusalem, Arab Jerusalem, the villages, Bethlehem and Beit Jala, with an element of local self-government. He submitted the proposal in his own name only.

Two studies published by the Jerusalem Institute describe the setting in which the proposal was raised, each stressing a different side. According to Moshe Hirsch and Deborah Housen-Couriel, it was raised at a gathering initiated by Gazit, who was then an adviser at the Foreign Ministry.

According to Amnon Ramon, it came up in a think team set up by Teddy Kollek, made up of senior government representatives and chaired by Gazit. Either way, Gazit stood where the city’s leadership met the foreign-policy establishment. Nothing in these sources supports crediting him with writing the plan, or tells us what he thought of it.

Jerusalem stayed with him as Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office. In April 1974 a secret working paper reached his office from a government team headed by Zvi Terlo, Director-General of the Justice Ministry: “Holy places, other religious sites and religious bodies in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria”.

The team included Yehoshua Palmon, adviser to Mayor Kollek, and Yael Vered of the Foreign Ministry. The paper surveys the places holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, the status quo and the positions of the communities in Jerusalem. It did not recommend a single solution, but set out the options with their advantages and drawbacks. The copy from his office file is kept at the State Archives.

The paper shows how far “the Jerusalem question” had already broken down into practical questions. Six options were examined for the Temple Mount, from continuing the status quo to dividing the city or placing the Mount outside any sovereignty, each with its advantages and drawbacks for Israel and for the Arabs.

One option proposed a special planning committee for the holy places, chaired by the mayor and including representatives of the Chief Rabbinate, the Muslims and the main Christian communities. It also considered anchoring the arrangement in a Basic Law and an international convention. These were options the team mapped for discussion, not adopted policy.

The file holds no letter or note by Gazit showing which of them he preferred.5 sources+

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