Projections of the National situation over Jerusalem according to scenarios

The first scenario represents the situation nowadays, where Jerusalem is severely subdivided and cannot normally function as a metropolis. Jerusalem carries the great potential of connection due to its physical centrality but is currently functioning as a buffer, while Palestinian urban continuity is prevented.

An Autonomous Palestinian authority as well as two states for two nations both hold in store a dominative division of Jerusalem, while its advantage and potential as a physical center is used to support the behalf of both sides. In an autonomous Palestinian authority Jerusalem will be the hub for civil domination.

East Jerusalem would become the capital of Palestine in the two states scenario, while the western side would remain the capital of Israel.

One multinational state would provide Jerusalem with the significant status of a dominative, cultural, historic, and economic hub.

Political overview

According to the Oslo 2 agreement signed at 28/9/95 the West Bank and Gaza strip were divided and classified as three different territories:

A: territories under both civil and security domination of the Palestinian authority.
B: territories under the Palestinian authority civil domination and Israeli security domination.
C: territories under both civil and security domination of Israel.

This categorical subdivision of space has extreme influence on all aspects of life on these lands. The dynamic nature of the conflict over these contested lands leads to urban consequences of fragmentary Palestinian territories via the separation wall as well as other domination means (barriers, forbidden roads etc.).

There are 4 main scenarios for the future habitation continuity of Palestinians and Israelis on these lands:

Security domination and terror – The state of Israel rules over the Palestinians and the Arab residents of Israel, which leads to political instability and terror.
A stable Palestinian autonomy – The state of Israel remains Jewish and non-democratic, along with a civil independent Palestinian authority.
A multinational state – disclamation of the Jewish state and creation of a multicultural state.
Two states for two Nations – A stable political arrangement.

Jerusalem, as a critical component of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, will be drastically affected by the scenarios presented above (and vice versa – Jerusalem might set an example for a nationwide future solution).

WALLS

They form the frontiers between the political and the private. They divide the world into two realms: the big outer one where history happens, and the small inner one where the concrete experience of life is centered. But they divide in a curios way: they create the private realm by dividing. Were it not for walls, everything would be political (which means totalitarian in a very obnoxious sense of the word). Through this curiously dividing character, the walls pose a typically human choice (typically human, because it allows for no decision): either to leave the walls in order to conquer the world outside, or to stay within the walls in order to find oneself. The walls show clearly: to conquer the world outside means to lose oneself, and to find oneself means to lose the world. This is so because the walls are compact and allow for no osmosis.

This vision of culture becomes even more enlightening if we imagine one of the four walls torn down and thus transformed into a glassless window. The three remaining walls become a stage on which the tragic-comedy of culture, with man on a stage as an actor. What is truly historic about this vision is its representational (symbolic) character, and the fact that it is temporarily limited process. Culture thus appears as a "fiction"… the three remaining walls enclose the pathos of man's attempt to impose his will upon nature, and the possibility of this final defeat by universal inertia – for the three remaining walls themselves will come down in the end.

Villem Flusser