CIA MEMO ON JERUSALEM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: Library of Congress
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): LOC-HAK-11-6-30-9
• Release Decision: RIPLIM
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 20
• Document Creation Date: January 11, 2017
• Document Release Date: December 16, 2009
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: February 15, 1971
• Content Type: MEMO

Leil A
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W W
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
SECRET
MEMORANDUM FOR DR. KISSINGER
FROM:
Harold H. Saunders 144-
Samuel M. Hoskinson
SUBJECT: CIA Memo on Jerusalem
CIA has produced a fairly concise study on the issue of Jerusalem as
it relates to a peace settlement in the Middle East (attached). You
may find this--particularly the material beginning on p. 4--to be useful
background material on what will ultimately be one of the major issues
of a final settlement. This gives a brief resume of past proposals for
Jerusalem and describes a number of programs the Israelis have under-
taken within the city that seem largely designed to make their control
irreversible.
Att: CIA Intelligence Report, 1/15/71, No. 1257/71, Cy 27 Subj:
Jerusalem: An Issue Without Prospects
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Secret
DIRECTORATE OF
INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence Report
Jerusalem: An Issue Without Prospects
15 January 1971
No. 1257/71
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WARNING
This document contains information affecting the national
defense of the United States, within the meaning of Title
18, sections 793 and 794, of the US Code, as amended.
Its transmission or revelation of its contents to or re-
ceipt by an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
GROUP 1
ZXCLUDED rliOM AUTOMATIC
nowscatAtnt:n ANE)
tOCLASSIPICATION
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Directorate of Intelligence
15 January 1971
INTELLIGENCE REPORT
Jerusalem: An Issue Without Prospects
Introduction
Just after Christmas, the Israelis finally
agreed to return to the Jarring talks, which they
had left in early September to protest Egyptian/
Soviet violations of the terms of the cease-fire
agreement. The negotiations are expected to be
extremely difficult, however, with neither side
showing much inclination to compromise even on
minor matters. There are, many observers believe,
some areas where agreement might eventually be
reached, such as withdrawal by Israel from part ,
of the occupied territory and Arab recognition of
Israel's right of transit through the Suez Canal.
The status of Jerusalem, however, constitutes a
stumbling block on which the entire peace effort
could founder. The Arabs say they cannot agree
to Israeli control of the city, and the Israelis
say they will not give it up. The Israelis have
_further complicated the issue by undertaking a
number of programs within the city that are clearly
designed to make Israeli control irreversible.
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Note: This report was produced by the Office of
Current Intelligence and coordinated within the
'1).iredtoratia of Intelligence.
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Historical Background
1. Traditionally, Jews date their association
with Jerusalem from early Biblical times (perhaps
16th century B.C.), when Abraham was commanded to
Sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah, later known as the
Temple Mount. Historically, their association began
about 1004 B.C., when King David captured the city
from the Jebusites and made it both his capital and
the religious center of the Israelites. The Temple,
completed by David's son Solomon, endowed the city
with a sanctity in Jewish eyes which it has retained
ever since. It has also made Judaism "Jerusalem
oriented." When the Temple was destroyed and the
Israelites were exiled to Babylon (Mesopotamia) in
about 586 B.C., their yearning to return to their
homeland was expressed in the psalm, "If I forget
thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her
cunning."
2. The Jews were allowed to return in 539
B.C. and to rebuild the Temple, but their repeated
[rebellions against the Romans, who conquered Je-
rusalem in 63 B.C.., ultimately led to their expul-
sion from Jerusalem and the surrounding country-
side (from 135 to 205 AD.). In the following
centuries, Palestine--including Jerusalem--was
ruled successively by the Byzantines, Persians,
Arabs, Crusaders, Mamelukes, Ottoman Turks, and
finally the British (from 1917 to 1948). Never,
however, during the many centuries when control
of Jerusalem was denied them, did Jewish feeling
for the city diminish.
? 3. In 1948 the Jews recaptured the western
portion of Jerusalem--now known as the New City--
which they designated as the capital of the new
state of Israel. Until the 1967 war, however, no
Jews were allowed entry to that portion of eastern
Jerusalem controlled by Jordan--the Old City--in
which most of the holy sites of Judaism are located.
For the Jews, the most holy spot of all is the
western wall of the Temple of. Herod, often called
the Wailing Wall, revered because of its proximity
to the "Holy of Holies" (inner sanctum) at the
western end of the Temple.
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-4. -During its turbulent history, Jerusalem
has also developed a very special significance for
Christians and Muslims. For the Muslims, the city
ranks behind only Mecca and Medina as a holy place;
originally, Muslims faced Jerusalem rather than
Mecca when praying. Muslims revere an area adja-
-cent to the Wailing Wall as the place where Muham-
mad tethered his winged horse Al-Buraq before he
-ascended briefly to heaven from a nearby rock, now
covered by the Mosque of Omar, or Dome of the Rock.
5. Toward the end of the 19th century, modern
Jewish settlement began in Palestine, and in 1897
Theodor Herzl formed the Zionist movement with the
aim of establishing a Jewish state. In 1917, Great
Britain issued the Balfour Declaration supporting
"the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people." When Great Britain assumed
its mandate over Palestine in 1920, it was faced
with deciding where in Palestine the Jewish national
home would be established and what should be done
with Jerusalem. At this point, Zionist representa-
tives, although refusing to agree to put the city
under Arab control, did not press for the inclusion
of Jerusalem in a Jewish state. Their position,
however, was a recognition of the realities of the
time and not an indication that'Zionist leaders had
lost interest in the city.
Proposals on Jerusalem
6. During the years of the mandate before
the establishment of the state of Israel, various
plans were evolved for the partition of Palestine
? between the Jews and the Arabs, and most of these
affected the status of Jerusalem. The Peel Commis-
sion (UK Palestine Royal Commission) in 1937 recom-
Inended that Jerusalem, together with several other
towns in Palestine, remain under mandatory rule.
In 1946, the Jewish Agency, the representative of
the World Zionist Organization, proposed a partition
of Palestine establishing frontiers for the Jewish
state that were little different than those actually
effeeted-in 19AP. The Jewish Agency plan, however,
put forth no claim to Jerusalem.
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7. A plan recommended by a majority of the
United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP)
in November 1947 was subsequently adopted with minor
alterations by the General Assembly. This plan
declared that Jerusalem was a neutral area, although
its neutrality was ill-defined and the city was to
remain the responsibility of a UN mission after the
end of the mandate. Fighting broke out in Palestine
shortly after the UN announced its acceptance of the
UNSCOP plan, and in March 1948 a UN commission an-
nounced that the partition scheme had broken down.
Several alternative proposals were put forward by
different countries, including a US suggestion for
temporary trusteeship. Although both Arab and Jew-
ish leaders announced their willingness to accept a
neutral UN commission to carry on the municipal
functions of the city, nothing could be done while
the fighting continued.
? 8. In the summer of 1948, UN mediator Count
Bernadotte proposed that the UNSCOP majority plan
for Jerusalem be abandoned and that the city be
incorporated into Arab territory "with municipal
rights for the Jewish community and special arrange-
ments for the protection of the holy places." This
suggestion was rejected outright by Israel, whose
forces were then in possession of the New City.
Over the next several months, official Israeli
opinion gradually hardened with respect to the
division and control of the city. By December
1948, the Israeli position, as set forth by Presi-
dent Weizmann, was that special arrangements might
be made for the Old City, but that it was unthinkable
that the New City should revert to foreign rule. *
9. The adamant Israeli stand did not stem
the offers of alternative proposals, but none af-
fected the de facto status of the city. In the
spring of 1949, when armistice agreements were
signed between Israel and the various Arab countries
(except Iraq), Jordan's King Abdullah announced his
intention of claiming the Old City for his country
(then Transjordan). In August 1949, Arab delegates
to the UN Conciliation Commission in the Middle
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?-East approved in principle the internationalization
of the city. A month later, the Conciliation Com-
mission published its plan, which suggested that
Israeli and Jordanian sovereignty in Jerusalem be
limited to purely local municipal administration
in their respective zones. The city would be ad-
ministered as a whole by a UN-appointed commissioner
who would preside over a 14-member General Council
of advisory nature only. The functions of the com-
missioner would be limited to the protection of the
holy places and to the supervision of the rights of
access. Because a principal intention of the plan
was to prevent any change in the demographic makeup
of the city, Israel, already in possession of the
New City, refused to agree.
10. A compromise proposal by the Netherlands
and Sweden called for recognizing the sovereignty
of-Israel and Jordan in their respective areas and
limiting the power of the international representa-
tive to supervision of the holy places and the au-
thority to suspend the application of laws and
regulations. The entire city was to be demilita-
rized, and both Jordan and Israel were to be for-
bidden from establishing their capitals in the
city. The General Assembly rejected this proposal,
however, and instead passed an Australian proposal
similar to the November 1947 plan to neutralize the
city and place it under a UN mission.
11. In January 1950, the Israelis formally
proclaimed Jerusalem (i.e., the New City) to be
the capital of Israel. Most foreign governments,
including the US, refused to accept the Israeli
action, and events during the next 17 years did
not alter the status of the city. Since 1948 the
Israelis have conducted a continuous campaign to
persuade or maneuver other governments into rec-
ognizing Jerusalem as its capital.
12. In the course of the 1967 war, Israel
occupied the West Bank of Jordan, the Golan Heights,
Sinai, and Gaza. When the fighting ended, the Is-
-raeli-Government stated -that the -future of Jerusalem
evou 14"1'
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Jews Flock to Wailing Wall After
Capture by Israel in 1967
Israelis Demolish Arab Homes Near Wailing Wall in 1969
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unlike that of the other occupied territories, was
not negotiable. As a result, the UN General As-
sembly in July 1967 voted a resolution to the ef-
fect that the Israeli measures to change the status
of Jerusalem were invalid and should be rescinded.
In May 1968, the UN Security Council adopted a
resolution that deplored Israel's ignoring of the
earlier General Assembly appeal not to change the
status of Jerusalem and called on Israel "to re-
scind all such measures already taken, and to
desist forthwith from taking any further action
which tends to change the status of Jerusalem."
Israel's confiscation and demolition of properties
in the vicinity of the Wailing Wall resulted in a
similar Security Council resolution in July 1969,
for which the US voted.
Israeli Actions Affecting Jerusalem Since 1967
13. Despite protests from the outside and
resistance on the inside, the Israelis have moved
steadily and implacably forward in the Israelization
/of the city. In order to consolidate its control
lover East Jerusalem--the Old City--the government
has extended Israeli law to the area, exercised
eminent domain to requisition land for public pur-
poses, and settled Israeli citizens in the area.
14. The Israeli Knesset extended the appli-
cation of Israeli law to East Jerusalem in June
1968 after having earlier redefined the boundaries
of the united city, greatly expanding them both
north and south of the original limits. Since that
time, Israeli Government and Jerusalem municipality
laws have been applied, at least to some degree,
especially in the fields of taxation, labor law,
licensing requirements, and presumably, criminal
law. Not only have Israeli courts supplanted
Jordanian lower civil courts, but the Jordanian
Appeals Court has been removed to Ramallah and has
been deprived of its jurisdiction over East Jeru-
salem. Muslim religious courts in East Jerusalem,
which derive their authority from the Jordanian
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sovereign, have not acknowledged Israeli authority
and their judgements are therefore not enforced.
The residents of East Jerusalem areincluded in
Israeli population statistics, but they are not
legally regarded as citizens. In the 1969 elec-
tions, East Jerusalem residents were permitted
and encouraged to vote in municipal elections, but
prohibited from voting for national office.
15. .Israel has progressively extended income
and real estate taxation to East Jerusalem. Dur-
ing the first year of occupation, the Israelis
agreed to accept less than the full amount assessed,
although they endeavored to force the Arab resi-
dents of East Jerusalem to make some payment as
an acknowledgement of the Israeli right to tax
them. Early in 1969, the Israelis adopted a firmer
tax policy and began a program of enforcement that
by 1971 would bring the rates of residents of East
Jerusalem up to those of the residents of West
Jerusalem. Although some Arab businessmen in East
Jerusalem claim that they have not and will not
pay taxes to the Israelis, probably many of them
actually go along with the Israeli assessments
because the renewal of business licenses has been
linked to the payment of taxes.
16. Israeli regulations regarding minimum
wages and work conditions have been applied to East
Jerusalem since 1968 and are gradually being en-
forced. The wage level in East Jerusalem is still
substantially lower than in Israel, however, and
conditions of work, customs, and management-labor
relations remain vastly different in the tradi-
tional and paternal Arab East Jerusalem than in
Israel. In spite of the difficulties the Israeli
Government has consequently faced in attempting
to enforce minimum wage levels in the eastern sec-
tor, it is persevering in its efforts. In early
1970, for example, the Israeli Ministry of Labor,
ruling on a dispute between an Arab-owned hotel
in East Jerusalem and its employees, ordered the
hotel gradually to increase its pay scale to that
paid to hotel workers in West Jerusalem.
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qc`r 1? PM 111,
17. In June 1969, several East Jerusalem
businesses were unilaterally registered as Israeli
companies under the provisions of a newly passed
law that set forth a number of regulations applying
to individuals and licensed professions, trades,
and occupations. The Israelis allege that the
formal registration of businesses in East Jerusalem
is essential to facilitate normal commercial trans-
actions.
18. Israel has taken over land in East Jeru-
salem for public (as distinguished from defense)
purposes. In January 1968, 832 acres of largely
undeveloped land in the area of Mt. Scopus was
requisitioned for a housing development and a pub-
lic building center. A few months later, the gov-
ernment took over a smaller area that included the
entire so-called Jewish Quarter of the Old City as
well as Newe Ya'aqov, the site of a pre-1948 Jewish
settlement. Approximately 800 Arabs who had been
living in the Jewish Quarter were moved out, mostly
to the city's suburbs. They were reportedly com-
pensated at the rate of 1,000 Israeli pounds per
room vacated.
19. In August 1970, the Israelis expropriated
about 3,000 acres of land 'within the enlarged
boundaries of Jerusalem. With the exception of an
area around Government House, all of this land was
within Jordan's 1967 borders. According to Israeli
sources, only 20 Arab dwelling units and no culti-
vated land or religious property were taken. The
Ministry of Housing subsequently announced that,
beginning in early 1971, 2,600 new apartment units
were to be built on the requisitioned land; the new
units are only the first of a projected 25,000
apartments. In announcing the project, the minister
of housing said that the new construction was vital
not only to provide housing for newcomers to the
city, but also to ensure that the city remained
united and indivisible.
20. Beginning in the summer of 1967, the
Israelis demolished a number of buildings in the
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ISRAEL-JORDAN
JERUSALEM ADMINISTRATION
BEFORE JUNE 1967 HOSTILITIES
? ?UN Armistice Line (April 1949)
Municipal boundary (1947)
Built-nm area
AFTER HOSTILITIES
. Israeli-administered municipal area
(28 June 1967)
C:1,3 Israell-expropriated land
To Rainallah-13 kms.
Jerusafefll
Airport
t At Rim
0 5.000 10,000 15.000 Feet
2.000 3,000 Mt..*
?
Hanins
JORDAN
Bald list
Shulit
'Anita
To Tel Aviv-Thin
71 kms.
Scopus
Mendelian Rete.4\01
New
::ert
tiaSavel
Che're)o the Hole Sepulcher
\ Dome pf the Rock
Wtl
'Ayeeriyen
SiMir.?).?
?
To Jericho
f'? 26 kills.
a Pis
Area between the lines
tea) MAN'S LAND(
".?
swoop I-71
To 0ethlehem-5 kms
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vicinity of the Wailing Wall in order to enlarge
the prayer area. The Israeli Ministry of Religi-
ous Affairs stated that the clearing of "this
sacred site" was undertaken because the buildings
in question were structurally unsafe. Other build-
ings in the Wailing Wall area were requisitioned
for security purposes following terrorist bombings
in the area in mid-1969.
21. The Israelis have extended their control
to include the municipal administration and civil
service. The Arab City Council was dissolved by
Israeli order in June 1967 because it refused to
sit with the Israeli Jerusalem Municipal Council
after Israeli law was extended to East Jerusalem.
The Arab mayor was deported to Amman in March 1968,
but the Israeli municipal administration employs
several hundred Arab Jerusalemites, many of whom
were former employees of the Jordanian Jerusalem
municipality. Several hundred other Arab residents
of East Jerusalem are employed by various Israeli
Iministries, principally in the fields of public
;health, communications, and public works.
22. The former Jordanian schools, virtually
all of which have been reopened, use the same text
books as those in Israel's Arab schools. The con-
version of the East Jerusalem schools to the Israeli
Arab system, however, has resulted in a dramatic
decline in enrollment in the two government second-
ary schools. East Jerusalem parents and students
claim that by de-emphasizing Arab history and
geography the Israelis have made it virtually im-
possible for students graduating from the govern-
ment schools to meet the requirements for Arab
universities.
Israeli and Arab positions Appear Irreconcilable
23. In the face of pressure from a number
of countries, including the US, the Israeli Gov-
ernment has somewhat modified its position--adopted
immediately following the 1967 war--that the status
of Jerusalem was not negotiable by acknowledging
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that Jerusalem would be one of the subjects to be
included in any peace neaotiations. The Israelis
have continued to make it abundantly clear, how-
ever, that they have no intention of giving up
control of the city. They are also adamantly
opposed to any internationalization of the city--
although they promise free access to the holy
places for all faiths. As recently as December
1970, Prime Minister Golda Meir said that her gov-
ernment would not make peace with the Arabs unless
it got "defensible" frontiers and retained control
of a united Jerusalem.
? 24. The Arabs, at least in public, remain
unswervingly against continued Israeli rule of
Jerusalem. King Husayn has been quoted as saying
that Israel could have either peace or territory,
but not both. King Faysal of Saudi Arabia, guard-
ian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, also
very strongly believes that--by extension--he
holds the same position with regard to Jerusalem
and its holy sites. He therefore leads other ele-
ments in Arab society that strongly object to any
Israeli presence in the Old City. Even if some
Arab leaders became personally inclined to accept
a compromise according them some control over the
holy places--something Israel has not offered--
they would be deterred by the fact that large num-
bers of their fellow Arabs would consider any such
arrangement as traitorous.
Formal US Position
25. Between 1947 and 1967, the US position
toward Jerusalem was based on the UN resolution
calling for the internationalization of Jerusalem.
At the same time, the US attempted to deal in a
practical manner with the Israeli and Jordanian
authorities in their respective sectors of the city.
Since June 1967, the US has regarded Israel's pres-
ence in the former Jordanian-held sector as a mil-
itary occupation and has opposed unilateral acts
tending to create basic changes in the organization,
administration, and nature of the city. Although
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Israelis at Dome of the Rock Mosque
the US has agreed with
Israel that the city
should remain unified, it
maintains that Jordan
should also have a role
and that the final status
of the city should be de-
termined by negotiations
as part of a package set-
tlement between Israel and
Jordan. The US has also
emphasized the need for
arrangements to safeguard
the interests of Christi-
anity, Judaism, and Islam
in Jerusalem and to guar-
antee free access for all
to the city.
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