Jerusalem is ours, Israelis and Palestinians Muslims, Christian and Jews.

Our Jerusalem is a mosaic of all the cultures, all the religions and all the periods that enriched the city, from the earliest antiquity to this very day - Canaanites and Jebusites and Israelites - Jews and Hellenes Romans and Byzantines, Christians and Muslims, Arabs and Mamelukes, Othmanlis and Britons, Palestinians and Israelis.

They and all the others who made their contribution to the city have a place in the spiritual and physical landscape of Jerusalem.

Our Jerusalem must be united open to all and belonging to all its inhabitants, without borders and barbed-wire in its midst.

Our Jerusalem must be the capital of the two states that will live side by side in this country, West Jerusalem the capital of the State of Israel and East Jerusalem the capital of the State of Palestine.

Our Jerusalem must be the Capital of Peace

For the above text of the 1995 manifesto in three languages, click here

Statement 13.05.2007:

Jerusalem is not united just as rape is not love, in spite of the false celebrations of our bancrupt government to mark '40 years of united Jerusalem".

The "Our Jerusalem" text remains as valid now as the then taboo-breaking manifesto was when we launched it in 1995, inspired by a speech of the late Feisal Husseini, at a joint Israeli-Palestinian demonstration under the Old City Walls:

"I dream of the day when a Palestinian will say 'Our Jerusalem' and will mean Palestinians and Israelis, and an Israeli will say 'Our Jerusalem' and will mean Israelis and Palestinians" (May 13, 1995).

[Among the signatories:]

70 university professors

131 other faculty members, doctors, lecturers and researchers

89 poets, authors, translators and editors

54 painters, sculptors and other artists

59 journalists

41 actors, moviemakers and theater directors and critics

13 psychiatrists and psychologists

32 jurists

16 architects and town-planners

57 educators

3 rabbis

11 musicians

and many others. Eight signatories are laureates of the prestigious Israel Prize:

educator Lova Eliav,

poet Natan Sach ,

authors A. B. Yehoshua and the late Emil Habibi,

moviemaker Ram Levy,

actress Henna Maron,

critic Dan Miron,

sculptor Danny Karavan.

Another signatory, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, the foremost living musician, is a laureate of the Wolf Prize, Israel's equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

One signatory is a Jerusalem Prize Laureate (the world-famous German-Jewish writer, Stefan Heym).

One signatory is an ex-cabinet minister (Viktor Shem-Tov).

3 more former Knesset members are:

Uri Avnery,

Me'ir Pa'il

Charlie Biton

One is an ex-ambassador (professor Jacob Shim'oni, the Grand Old Man of Israel's orientalists.)

A very representative group of leaders of the Palestinian population in Jerusalem has signed:

Faisal al-Husseini, undisputed leader of this population, has signed publicly at a press-conference.

Hannan Ashrawi, Ziad Abu-Zayad;

deputy minister of the Palestinian National Authority Anis al-Kak;

moviemaker Daoud Kuttab,

The Palestinian ambassador to Australia, Ali Kazak

In a meeting with several of the signatories, Yassir Arafat publidy endorsed the text of the statement.

The signatories have been invited to a collective visit to the beleaguered Orient House, center of the Palestinian presence in East Jerusalem.

It is quite impossible to enumerate all the signatories and their place in Israeli society, culture and public life. A random list would include:

Ruth Dayan, the former wife of Moshe Dayan:

professor Ze'ev Sternhell;

the painter-sculptor Yig'al Tumarkin;

Heart surgeon professor Daniel Goor;

Writers Yoram Kaniuk and Yitzhak Ben-Ner;

Dramatist Hanoch Levin;

Poets Daliah Ravikovitch and Dan Almagor;

Painters Dan Kedar and Ziona Shimshi;

Dr. Ruchama Marton of the renowned Association of Israeli and Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights;

Israel's number 1 television personality Yaron London;

Lawyers Amnon Zichroni and Lea Tsemel;

Jerusalem town planner and former member of the municipa council Sara Kaminker;

renowned feminist professor Alice Shalvi;

Beduin activist Nuri al-Ukbi;

veteran Jerusalem honorary citizen and social worker Thea Natan;

Naomi Shemer-Shamruk, daughter of the German Zionist leader Hans Blumental;

the widely respected oriental Jewish scholar professor Shlomo Elbaz;

Music idol Shlomo Grunich;

Time magazine star-photographer David Rubinger;

Zika Peled , widow of army general and peace activist Matti Peled;

Military historian Me'ir Pa'il