Op-Ed: Remembering East Jerusalem On Jerusalem Day

The UN earned all of the ire it received in February from the likes of Secretary State Mike Pompeo, Ambassador Nikki Haley, and others over the release of the Human Rights Council’s anti-Israel “blacklist” of 112 companies operating in Judea and Samaria. And yet, one of the UN’s offenses was been missed by its critics at the time. 

 The UN has labeled Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem as settlements. The boycott “database” is made up of, the UN states “business enterprises involved in … Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem…”

 This is very curious because, after all, “East Jerusalem” does not actually exist. At least not yet. Let’s remember that “East Jerusalem” is what the Bible means when it refers to Jerusalem.

Words, and especially names, have meaning. Especially in the Middle East. The UN obviously chose the terms utilized by Israel’s enemies deliberately. So, just what is “East Jerusalem” and why is adding the word “East” to describe part of Judaism’s holiest city and Israel’s capital of any serious magnitude?

The very name Jerusalem means city of peace, city of completeness, and city of perfection. In fact, there is no “eastern”or “western” when we talk about Jerusalem. There’s just one Jerusalem.  

 American policy on Jerusalem had veered horribly off course until President Trump followed United States law, and upheld the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, by relocating the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The late US Senator Jesse Helms wrote in 1996 that “Israel is the only nation in the world denied the right to choose its own capital. This second-class citizenship among nations must end.”

 Helms was right. It is up to friends of Israel in America to make sure that the US embassy stays put where it belongs in Jerusalem.