The meaning of the phrase “complete and united”
Article I of the Basic Law: Jerusalem establishes that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.” Meeting attendees debated the meaning that should be attributed to this sentence...
The meaning of the phrase “complete and united” Article I of the Basic Law: Jerusalem establishes that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.” Meeting attendees debated the meaning that should be attributed to this sentence. Participants pointed out that when the Basic Law was drafted in 1980, the phrase “complete and united” had no definite meaning, since the borders of the city were not detailed in the Basic Law. Professor Ruth Lapidot of the Hebrew University interpreted this to mean that Jerusalem, whose borders would be established by political agreement and which might change from time to time, shall be the capital of Israel. There was, Lapidot claimed, no intention of entrenching any specific set of boundaries. In 2000, however, the Basic Law was amended to include Article 5, which specifically details the municipal borders of Jerusalem to be those established after the six-day war in 1967, including the Old City and Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. The amendments of 2000 also included an entrenchment clause that requires 61 MKs to amend or repeal the Basic Law and, thus, 61 MKs to change Jerusalem’s territorial boundaries. Finally, Article 6 not only established that the transfer of territories requires a special majority, but that such a majority is required even in order to transfer municipal responsibilities from the Jerusalem Municipality to any other body. Thus Israel’s present-day boundaries are now protected – from transfer of either sovereignty or mere municipal authority – from anything less than a 61 member majority in the Knesset. Should the constitution entrench Israel’s boundaries? Many meeting participants expressed dissatisfaction with the current arrangement and proposed alternatives. Committee Chairman MK Michael Eitan (Likud) explained that the Basic Law had been amended under unique political circumstances; specifically, the amendment came as Prime Minister Ehud Barak put Jerusalem on the bargaining table in negotiations with the Palestinians. The amendment was meant to check Barak in his efforts to transfer territory and responsibility in Jerusalem to the Palestinians. However, the current law is broader than that, such that, as MK Eitan pointed out, should the Knesset wish to include Mevasseret Zion, a satellite of Jerusalem, within the city’s municipal boundaries, that too would require a majority vote of 61 MKs. MKs Reshef Chayne (Shinui), Eti Livni (Shinui), and other participants opposed anchoring Jerusalem’s boundaries in the constitution, thereby putting obstacles in the path of future political discussions of Jerusalem’s status. They proposed the constitution simply state that “Jerusalem is the capital of Israel,” and omit the phrase “The complete and united.” MK Gideon Sa’ar (Likud), however, argued that omitting the phrase “Complete and united” in the current political context would weaken Jerusalem’s position as the capital of Israel and would signal a willingness to divide the city. MK Eitan supported, in theory, the position that the constitution should not include the borders of Jerusalem, but agreed with MK Sa’ar’s assessment that the current political situation rendered such a change undesirable. Dr. Hillel Sommer of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya also opposed the specific inclusion of Jerusalem’s borders in the constitution. He recommended the constitution include a section establishing the borders of the entire state and detailing the procedure necessary to change those borders. The borders of the city of Jerusalem, he said, should be covered by general provisions, and not by specific legal provisions as they are today. MK Avraham Burg (Labor), meanwhile, pointed out that this argument was unlikely to have real implications, since any future political agreement dealing with the status of Jerusalem will have to enjoy the support of the majority of the Knesset members, and the same majority which would one day support a final status accord would also vote together to amend the Basic Law: Jerusalem.
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