Jerusalem is a city built from walls. Any imaginable division of people finds expression in its physical barriers. Passing through the multitude of divided spaces that make up the city requires varying levels of certification based on a constellation of identity factors. Crossing from West into East Jerusalem is like entering a separate country. It is absurd, on many levels, to refer to the two sides as being part of one city. The level of scrutiny and surveillance, the extent of the segregation, the markers of place on individuals from birth, these have formed out of a dialectic with the physical space. The license plate on my car determines which roads I can drive on. If I can get a license at all, I am fortunate. The Arnona tax and the misallocation of educational resources are two minor examples of the manner in which Jerusalem is not a city populated by citizens. Jerusalem, as a physical space that is the creation of its people and vice versa, is a constellation of rulers, spreading in a network of satellites through settlements, selecting their pathways and demolishing in the name of security. Some spaces are exclusive, some are in a state of controlled diversification, others are too “dangerous” to be passed into. These dangerous spaces are inhabited by Palestinians, bisected by walls, roads and the dehumanizing ideology of the municipal (and national) government.
Security must be sacrificed for its own sake. Only when Palestinians can drive the roads of Jerusalem, exiting the East side of the city without scrutiny, will it become one city and begin to approximate a just city. This means citizenship. This means voting rights. This means empowering the Palestinian people to change the municipal authority as they see fit, and in doing so, change themselves into people with a stake in the survival of the entire community. Schools might be a step to start with. I’m not terribly familiar with the manner in which the education system is administered in Jerusalem, but I can think of some ways it could be changed:
– Have seats of a school board (that’s the term we use in the States) allocated based on the number of school age children in different parts (in DC we would say Wards) of the city. This would lead to far more elected Palestinians with seats on the school board.
– The school board would have authority over the allocation of the city’s educational budget, a right that could not be removed.
– The city tax code should be altered to ensure funding of city educational budget, i.e. ensure there is no option to opt-out (e.g. vouchers).
– The school board can be sued for gross inequitable distribution of educational resources, but will adopt as its mission the goal of raising every school to the highest level of educational achievement possible in the city.
I personally find these specific recommendations laughable, poorly informed and naive, but I do think there is potential to wedge an opening in the doorway to citizenship through education. Still, I am deeply cynical about the potential for justice to come to Jerusalem.
