Netanyahu on Jerusalem Day: ‘A city divided in two cannot flourish’

Jerusalem Dispatch presents the full text of PM Netanyahu’s Jerusalem Day speech at Ammunition Hill on Tuesday.

The battle that opened the gates to the reunification of Jerusalem was waged here on this hill…

Until this fateful battle, Jerusalem – the eternal capital of Israel – was divided by barbed wire fences and minefields. Its main streets were hidden behind protective walls built to shield passersby from the enemy’s sniper fire. A foreign army was positioned less than two kilometers from government buildings and the Knesset. Every once in a while, snipers would fire from the walls that divided the city and civilians would be hit.

Since then, everything has changed.

This hill separated the Jerusalem neighborhoods from the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus. In those days, it was impossible to reach Mount Scopus freely. Once every other week, a small convoy would make its way under the protection of the United Nations, in order to travel this short distance. Today thousands of people go this way every day in only two minutes.

Before its reunification, Jerusalem was a divided city. Not one Jew could pray near the Western Wall, and not a single Arab would visit a doctor in Rehavia.

Jerusalem was a sleepy border town, a city on the edge. No new neighborhoods were established; no hotels were erected; and tourists did not rush to visit. A city divided in two cannot flourish or create or develop. And it is impossible to divide or freeze a vibrant, productive city.

The day Jerusalem was liberated was the day that the city heaved a sigh of relief and began to spread its wings, for the benefit of its Arab and Jewish residents alike. Freedom of worship for all religions and freedom of access to the holy places was established for the members of all religions.

We will never again allow Jerusalem to become a separated, bleak and divided city. We will continue to build and be built in Jerusalem. We will continue to plan, develop and create…

The President rightly said that we aspire to peace and we are working towards peace. I also believe we will achieve peace. But whoever presents the problem of peace as the problem of Jerusalem would do well to remember that Jerusalem was once divided and there was no peace – there was war.

It is true that each side presents its demands during negotiations, but ultimately recognition of the Jewish people’s right to live in its homeland and build in its capital is not an obstacle to peace – it is the key to peace and we wish for peace.

Tags: Ammunition Hill, Jerusalem Day, Netanyahu