[tz] Proposal to use Asia/Tel_Aviv for Israel - Jerusalem is not internationally recognized as part of Israel

Ephraim Silverberg ephraim at cse.huji.ac.il
Thu May 9 07:12:29 UTC 2013


With regard to the populations of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, there are
two municipal entities: the Municipality of Jerusalem and the
Municipality of Tel-Aviv-Jafo (note that Tel-Aviv and Jafo are one
municipal entity so perhaps Asia/Tel_Aviv_Jafo would be a better
way to express this alias to Asia/Jerusalem) -- see http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/

There concepts Greater/Metro Jerusalem and  Greater/Metro Tel-Aviv are
literary and, perhaps, political concepts but do not represent any real
municipal boundaries.  The term "Greater Jerusalem" would include cities
such as Bethlehem, Mevaseret Zion and perhaps the "E1" areas between
Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumin.  So too "Greater Tel Aviv" would include
the adjacent cities Givatayim, Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak and perhaps Petach
Tikva.  However, these concepts have no actual governing bodies and each
of the adjacent cities have there own distinct and independent municipality.

The Central Bureau of Statistics records the population of Jerusalem
as 772,982 while the population of Tel-Aviv-Jafo is 403,738.

The whole discussion of the de jure status of Jerusalem is disingenuous
since the vast majority of the world countries de facto have regarded
the west portion of Jerusalem not only as part of Israel but the seat
of its government since February 1949.

Foreign dignitaries and heads of state are received at government
offices in western Jerusalem.  Presidents Carter, Clinton and
George W. Bush have addressed the Knesset directly as well as
German Chancellor Angela Merkel.  Moreover, Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat addressed the Knesset in November 1977 _prior_ to the
signing of the Camp David peace accords.

All ambassadors to Israel present their credentials to Israel's
President at the Presidential Residence in western Jerusalem.

It is correct that most foreign officials avoiding meeting
Israeli officials at offices in eastern Jerusalem although
this rule too has its exceptions as in the case of Canada's
Foreign Minister John Baird meeting with Israel's Justice
Minister Tzipi Livni at her eastern Jerusalem office last month.

I could bring a wealth of quotes that foreign officials have stated
with regard to Jerusalem and western Jerusalem in particular over the
years.  However, I regards this forum as a professional forum for
discussing timezone changes past, present and future as well as the
maintenance of the timezone files themselves and the C code for the
timezone software and, hence, view all discussions of a political nature
as raising the noise/signal ration here.  There are a plethora of forums
for debating such issues for those who wish to do so.
_____________________________________
Ephraim Silverberg, CSE System Group,
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
Phone/Fax number:     +972-2-5494521


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