The recent escalation in Jerusalem prompted the Israeli government to convene an emergency security Cabinet meeting to seal off some Arab neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem in a desperate attempt to contain the violence.

Never before has Israel moved to effectively divide Jerusalem by blocking off Arab parts of the city, occupied in the 1967 war, from West Jerusalem, inhabited mostly by Israelis ever since its capture in the 1948 war.

Considering the idea of separating the Arab Eastern part of Jerusalem from the Western zone is in itself a de facto admission that Jerusalem is not a united city, and can never be.

Israel must yield to this logic and to the facts on the ground if it wishes to spare its citizens the violence witnessed lately.

A spate of attacks, mainly by knife-wielding frustrated Palestinian youths, has raised fears of a full-blown Intifada. The result so far: 29 Palestinians killed and thousands wounded, while on the Israeli side, seven were killed and dozens were wounded.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Israel to carry out a review of whether its forces are resorting to excessive force against Palestinians living under its military rule.

The division of Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians seems imminent, despite Israel’s sustained efforts to discourage the presence of the indigenous Palestinians in East Jerusalem by denying them house-building permits, permits to establish businesses or work opportunities.

The restrictions imposed on Arab residents of East Jerusalem have failed to dislodge the Palestinians from their place of birth, the city where their ancestors put down roots millennia ago.

Cutting off East Jerusalem and its residents from West Jerusalem lays the foundation for recognising East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state, a sine qua non for any permanent and just settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It is sad to know that only the spilling of blood can lead to this inevitable move, but if it happens, as it should, at least the blood will not have been shed in vain.