City’s centrality to 3 faiths must not be undermined

In the conservative Christian home in which I grew up, television was viewed with skepticism by my father, a Protestant pastor.

Although we watched many cartoons that were all undoubtedly Disney productions, it was the Disney films that seemed to bring our family together -- and got my father's approval. I vividly remember the animation that opened and closed these Disney classics, all using the slogan "the Wonderful World of Disney."

It was only in 1991 that it occurred to me that anything made by Disney would not be as pure as snow.

At the Jerusalem Film Institute, which I headed, we were conducting an animation workshop in coordination with the British Council. The workshop leaders were not all complimentary of Disney. They were not only critical of the Disney cartoon machine, but also the politics of Walt Disney, the company's founder.

Today, of course, Disney is the world's largest and richest media giant. It owns not only an immense stock of films and cartoons but companies like Capital Cities-ABC and its own cable channel and theme parks.

It is in one of these theme parks that Arab and Muslim leaders are engaged in a gruesome battle over the Millennium Pavilion at Florida's Epcot Center. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has poured more than a million dollars into the project to give high profile to Jerusalem as Israel's political and historic capital.

Included is the Old City of Jerusalem, which was occupied in 1967 by Israeli troops, an occupation that has been condemned by the world community.

I first found out about the Disney project through the many Internet mailing lists I subscribe to, mostly organized and run by activists. The threats by Arab and Muslim governments to boycott Disney only followed the public pressure that these activists have succeeded in generating.

The initial pressure on Disney has apparently led it to remove references to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, while the rest of the exhibit, showing the Old City of Jerusalem as part of Israel, has not been altered. Disney has refused to allow American Arab and Muslim leaders to see the exhibit, but apparently there is little reference to the city's Arab and Muslim character.

The Arab leaders have not been satisfied with the Disney changes and believe the company's executives are trying to trick them into thinking that their main objections have been addressed. Israeli leaders, meanwhile, are bragging that they've won the fight and that the exhibit will not be radically altered.

It is not clear how this dispute will finally end, but it has highlighted a number of important issues.

The centrality of Jerusalem in the eyes of Arab and Muslims the world over cannot and should not be belittled. It is not something that can be easily smoothed over with ideas like making Abu Dis, which is near Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state.

Moreover, the power of Arab and Muslim public opinion in America and throughout the world is clearly on the rise. The technological advances have made any person with an Internet connection a potential political rebel. Governments in the Middle East are certainly vulnerable to public pressure that can easily be generated if Arab and Muslim interests are compromised.

While for Palestinian Jerusalemites the reaction to the Disney exhibit is welcome, it is important that we not exaggerate this power because boycotts have only limited effectiveness.

For example, in 1967, when Israel annexed East Jerusalem and unilaterally imposed its rule on the city, we protested. Palestinians have since refused to participate in the municipal elections. This 30-year boycott has left an all-Jewish city council to run the Arab-Jewish city.

Boycotts have another problem:They are negative and reactive. If Jerusalem is so important to Arabs (and this, of course, includes Christian Arabs) around the world, we ought not place all our efforts into reacting to what others do. We need to initiate a proactive policy that begins by maintaining the steadfastness of the city's Palestinian population.

Support for the upkeep of the city's holy places and allocating resources for employment and housing opportunities will help strengthen the Arab and Muslim character of the city. Correcting the world image of Jerusalem should not be confined to boycotting exhibits, but should include promoting media projects about the city and encouraging writers, artists and thinkers to deal more fairly with the city and its history.

Jerusalem is an important city to the world's Christians, Muslims and Jews. It is the home of both Palestinians and Israelis. Attempts to represent Jerusalem as having an exclusively Jewish character will certainly fail, with or without a Disney exhibit.

What is needed is an inclusive look at the city, which takes into consideration its diverse and multinational, multicultural character.