--On March 25, 1999, two Israeli reports were issued almost simultaneously on Jerusalem

--One report describes accounts by intelligence sources on the increased influence, services and credibility of the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem (Israel Wire, Thursday, March 25).

--The other report, emanating from the “extraordinary” government session held in Jerusalem, paints a grim picture of systematic, deliberate and long-term neglect of Palestinian Jerusalem reaching the point of an almost total breakdown in services and infrastructure (Ha’aretz).

--Although the racist apartheid conditions in Jerusalem have been quite visible to all objective observers as a stark statement of discrimination, Netanyahu and his government seem to have been taken by surprise at their discovery.

--As an occupying power, Israel has been exercising its authority since 1967, mainly in the levying of exorbitant taxes and restrictive control over Jerusalem, while carrying out a systematic policy of withholding building permits from Palestinians, rezoning and confiscating Palestinian land, withdrawing Palestinian Jerusalem ID’s, and strangling the city with Israeli Jewish settlements as well as an ongoing siege designed to isolate it from its Palestinian environment.

--At the same time, minimal, if any, services were extended to Palestinians in all aspects of life.

--Thus while West Jerusalem prospered, East Jerusalem began to show increasing signs of disintegration. The divide could not have been more apparent.

--Despite Netanyahu’s vociferous protestations at having succeeded in creating a “unified” Jerusalem, the only reality he (and earlier Israeli governments) succeeded in creating is the very visible dualism of apartheid.

--Netanyahu also claims to have obliterated Palestinian activities in Jerusalem, yet he simultaneously protests these increasing activities.

--He claims to be committed to the peace process and signed agreements, yet he unilaterally erases Jerusalem from the agenda of permanent status talks and denies the written Israeli assurances on the Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem.

--While claiming to have annexed the city, he continues to behave like an occupier imposing collective punitive and repressive measures on Palestinian Jerusalemites.

--Having dismissed the Orient House meeting between Palestinian public figures and international diplomatic representatives and members of the media as insignificant and ordinary, he then declares the meeting as an act of provocation and imposes punitive measures on the Palestinian participants.

--Faced with Palestinian and European rejection of his illegal exercise of sovereignty on Jerusalem, he hurriedly reacts by convening a cabinet meeting in the city in a feeble and unconvincing gesture.

--It is understandable that Netanyahu will escalate the rhetoric of his election campaign, particularly to pander to his extremist constituency; nevertheless his public pronouncements are beginning to show signs of strain.

--In particular, they strain the credulity of his audience who is beginning to see through his empty gesturing and contradictory claims.