Since the beginning of the conflict between Hamas and Israel, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, deputy mayor of Jerusalem, has wanted to tell the Spanish-speaking world her vision of the war. This Gibraltarian, a member of Likud, the party of Israeli President Beniamin Netanyahu, became mayor of Jerusalem in 2018. After the signing of the Abraham Accords between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel in 2020, Fleur was one of the main promoters of trade between these countries. The agreements meant that the signatory countries normalized their relations with Israel, thus distancing themselves from the Arab League Peace Initiative, which proposes recognizing the State of Israel in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian State. During a recent visit to Spain, La Vanguardia spoke with Fleur about this and other issues.
How do you see the future of cooperation with the Abraham Accord countries?
It's interesting, that's the key to why Hamas attacked on October 7. Israel was about to make peace with Saudi Arabia and that did not suit Iran. On the other hand, I am optimistic about the Abraham Accords. If those countries have made peace with Israel, they are not going to change their minds because they want the region to move towards prosperity and peace. And they know that the other option is to fall into the destruction and fundamentalism that Iran seeks. Now everything is a bit cold, they cannot show that they support Israel because the Palestinian cause is something that moves a lot in the Muslim world. But I think this continues.
What do you think of the management of the war? His government is receiving a lot of criticism for the lack of progress in freeing the hostages.
I am not going to criticize because they are trying to get the kidnapped people out. I am with the families, I do not believe that this would have been a war priority without the very effective campaign they have carried out. Since the conflict began we have had a unity government, there is a broader coalition that also includes the opposition. We arrived at October 7 with a very divided country, the least I expect from the government is that during the war it is responsible for maintaining unity.
How do you deal with the negative image of Israel that is being formed by the war in Gaza?
It is very difficult because that is what Hamas wanted. What country would not have sought to dismantle a terrorist regime that has attacked them so brutally? It seems people have forgotten October 7th, all they see is Israel bombing Gaza.
What impression do you have of the Spanish vision of the current conflict?
From the beginning of the war I knew that the world's empathy with Israel would last 48 hours. That's how it was, after a few days they blamed us as if we had started it. The Spanish media were not far behind, but during this trip I have not encountered a combative atmosphere.
What measures has the Jerusalem mayor taken since the October 7 attacks?
We have the city with the largest Muslim population in the entire country, 40%. Since the beginning of the war we were afraid that Jerusalem would become another focus of the conflict, but we have been quite calm. In addition, we have become a city of refuge for 50,000 evacuees coming mainly from the border with Lebanon. We are very busy helping those families.
The Palestinian community in Jerusalem is much poorer than the Jewish community. How do they combat this inequality?
We are making a lot of efforts in education. The Palestinians in Jerusalem follow the same program as in Gaza, full of hatred and anti-Semitism. They also do not learn Hebrew because the Palestinian leadership does not want its population to integrate. We are trying to implement a system where Arabic is studied as a first language and Hebrew as a second. But it is very hard because if we force people they will say that we want to erase their identity. We also promote economic development, we are building a high-tech enterprise zone in East Jerusalem. We have empowerment programs for Arab and Jewish women. We have been very deliberately strengthening ties between the Jews and Arabs of Jerusalem for 10 years.
How do you make these coexistence initiatives compatible with the construction of settlements in East Jerusalem? [The area east of Jerusalem, which according to Israeli authorities is part of the Jerusalem Municipality, was annexed in the 1967 war by Israel. In 2016, the UN Security Council declared that settlements in this area of the city are a violation of international law.]
In Jerusalem there are no settlements, they are neighborhoods. There are Arabs who live in the west part of Jerusalem and Jews who live in the east part of Jerusalem. Someone tells me “hey, there are some Arabs who have moved next door to your house”, I would say welcome and hope it would be the same in the opposite case. Otherwise it would be racism.
