Word: harnessed
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Levitin's piece on "Har Homa" was a curious mixture of the ill-informed, the self-contradictory, the vindictive (indeed racist), and--on one issue--the correct...
Levitin maintains that land in Jabal Abu Ghaneim (Har Homa's local, Arab name) has been allocated according to the Arab/Jewish population ratio in Jerusalem. He scoffs at notions of an attempt to "Judaize" (Levitin's term) the city. This is to ignore the fact that the current population ratio in Jerusalem is itself the result of a campaign of ethnically selective development, of which Jabal Abu Ghaneim is merely one of the latest fronts...
This is just the attempt to "Judaize" Jerusalem that Levitin derides. Elsewhere he is eminently clear on the fact, explaining that Har Homa is the final stage of an attempt to surround the city "with a ring of primarily Jewish neighborhoods." This cutting off of Jerusalem from surrounding Palestinian areas is precisely the kind of attempt to pre-empt the status of the city that the Oslo accords were framed to avoid. The status of the city is to be decided. Israel has already made its decision...
...citing that 348 out of the 460 acres of land on Har Homa were owned by Jews prior to 1948, Levitin is playing a dangerous game. Does Levitin think that Israel should re-instate the pre-1948 land ownership contracts...
Levitin is correct when he flexes his legal expertise on the Oslo accords by noting that the building on Har Homa does not violate the literal word of the agreement. However, the accords do state that Jerusalem will be on the agenda of the final status negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel; Israel has agreed that status of Jerusalem is left for bi-lateral negotiations...