Christians, Jews Upset Over Int'l Slight of Jerusalem Event
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
May 16, 2007

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Evangelical Christians and other pro-Israel groups are taking offense at what they see as a U.S. and international snub of Jerusalem Day celebrations.

Israelis on Wednesday celebrated the 40th anniversary of the reunification of the eastern and western sections of their capital under Israeli sovereignty. Israel Radio replayed broadcasts from 40 years ago, some announcing the army's entry into the walled Old City during the 1967 Six Day War.

An unexpected downpour -- unusual in Israel during the months of April through October -- prompted the cancellation of several planned events, but it was more than the weather that prevented the international community from participating in the celebration.

On Monday, foreign ambassadors were invited to a special session of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, to mark the festivities. Only seven ambassadors showed up -- representing Nigeria, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Congo, the Ivory Coast, Georgia, and Honduras.

U.S. Ambassador Richard Jones was abroad, an embassy spokesman said, and had not received the invitation until the previous day. The spokesman declined to say whether Jones would have attended had he been in the country.

The European Union issued a letter in response to the invitation, saying its member states would not attend "in line with our position regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."

Speaking in the Knesset Wednesday, former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu noted the poor response from diplomats invited to the special session.

"When King David decided to make Jerusalem his capital 3,000 years ago, most of the world's nations and especially those not represented here today, still did not exist," he said.

Netanyahu quoted former Prime Minister David Ben Gurion as saying "there is no state of Israel without Jerusalem. If we don't fight for Jerusalem we won't fight for anything else."

The international community, including the U.S. and E.U., considers eastern Jerusalem to be disputed or occupied territory, with its future status to be settled as part of a broader resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Palestinians want at least the eastern part of the city -- including the Old City and its Temple Mount -- to be the capital of a future independent state.

From the time of the 1948 war -- when Arab nations attacked the new State of Israel in a bid to destroy it -- until 1967, Jerusalem was divided by barbed wire and barriers, with Jordan controlling the eastern portion and Israel the western side.

After Israel captured the eastern section, it declared Jerusalem its "eternal and indivisible" capital, but because of the Arab-Islamic claims to the city, few nations recognize it as Israel's capital, and foreign embassies are universally located in Tel Aviv, a coastal city some 30 miles away.

Twelve years ago, the U.S. Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, requiring that the U.S. move its embassy to Jerusalem. Citing security concerns, Presidents Clinton and Bush signed waivers every six months -- a provision of the legislation -- to hold off the move.

The Israeli government downplayed the decision of foreign nations to stay away, but Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky said anyone who doesn't recognize Jerusalem as the capital doesn't recognize the State of Israel either.

Malcolm Hedding, executive director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, said that his organization was standing with Israel to celebrate the "most remarkable" of many miracles that happened during the Six Day War.

The organization -- established as a direct response to the international community's decision to move their missions out of Jerusalem in 1980 -- says it represents the views of mostly evangelical pro-Israel Christians around the world.

"This was nothing short of a biblical milestone, as the Hebrew prophets had promised that one day the Almighty would return the Jewish people to the heart of Jerusalem and would comfort you here," Hedding said in a letter to Lupoliansky.

"The Jewish restoration to Jerusalem in modern times is one of the clearest cases of historic justice ever, whereby a people longing to return to a land and a holy city from which they were violently uprooted millennia ago finally realized that sustaining dream," Hedding added.

"Yet due to Arab pressures and threats, the Jewish return to Jerusalem has been perversely turned into an immoral act," he said.

Jerusalem 'not mentioned in the Koran'

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), a pro-Israel group in the U.S., criticized the Bush administration for not sending a representative to the ceremonies.

Prior to his election, Bush supported the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, ZOA national President Morton Klein said in a statement. Since then, however, the president has prevented the embassy move by invoking the waiver, he noted.

"This latest decision not to attend the Jerusalem reunification celebrations, like his decision to exercise successive presidential waivers, simply tells the world that President Bush is not serious about recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital," Klein said.

"The president needs to remember that Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Jewish sacred texts, and not once in the Muslim Koran," he added, charging that the U.S. stance was based on "the fear of Palestinian Arab terrorism."

Muslims say Jerusalem is mentioned in the Koran.

They point to a reference to "al-Aqsa" (the farthest mosque) where they believe Mohammed stopped briefly en route to heaven during his "night journey" on a magical steed. That story accounts for the status of the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount as the third holiest site in Islam (after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia).

"Most of the world doesn't understand our existence here and doesn't really accept it," said Galia, 27, who was at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Wednesday and asked that her surname not be used.

No one can argue with the historical fact that the Jews returned to their homeland after 2000 years, she said.

Ezekiel Ben Michael, who hails from California but now lives in Efrat, a town in the disputed West Bank, said it seems reasonable that the U.S. should move its embassy to Jerusalem, because it is strange not to locate an embassy in a country's capital.

David Ribner - also from the U.S., but a Jerusalem resident for nearly 21 years - said that while he was in favor of Israel maintaining Jerusalem as its united capital, he was not "blind" to the international implications.

He said Jerusalem Day "is an Israeli festival, and whether or not other governments choose to participate is fully within their right. I don't think it reflects anyone's support or lack of support for Israel."