An interesting conference took place abroad last week.

Its hosts were Palestinian human rights activists. The participants were dozens of human rights and peace organizations from around the world. In the course of three crammed days, scores of speakers presented comprehensive and credible information on human rights violations throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

And just where did this conference take place? In the Ambassador hotel in East Jerusalem, across from the stark concrete desert which had once been Mount Scopus.

So why did I say that it took place abroad? Because as far as the Israeli media was concerned, it might as well have taken place not only in a foreign country, and not only on another continent, but on another planet altogether. Not one word was devoted to the conference in any of the media, either printed or broadcast (with the exception of five lines tacked onto another story in one of the newspapers by an enterprising reporter).

From a reporter's point of view, this was not only an exceptionally interesting event, but an important one as well. Israeli right-wingers would have derived great satisfaction from the open criticism of the state of human rights within the Palestinian Authority area; others would have been interested in human rights violations by the settlements, or in the fact that the Palestinians awarded prizes to five Israelis for their efforts on behalf of human rights.

Among other reasons why the conference was particularly fascinating was that it proved the existence within the Palestinian community of serious and vigorous forces working towards the establishment of a democracy and the fortification of human rights. This, despite all the difficult problems facing the Palestinian "state-in-the-making." It bodes well for the future and the quality of the State of Palestine, to be officially proclaimed in May of 1999. Many Palestinians were very eager to hear my recollections of our own struggles during the early years of the State of Israel, until we were successful in ensuring for ourselves (more or less) freedom of the press and human rights.

But as far as Israel was concerned, this event never took place.

It was convened in the heart of annexed Jerusalem, the "unified city", the "eternal capital", a hundred meters away from the Israeli Police Headquarters, two hundred meters from Ramat Eshkol, three hundred meters from the site of the riots of "Ateret Kohanim" and their archeological agents.

In fact, there were some Israeli journalists present. But when asked the following day why not a single word was mentioned in the press on the subject of the conference, the response was unanimous: "My editor said that it was of no interest!" True, why should the Israeli public be interested in an event taking place on another planet?

This reaction is more intriguing to me than anything said at the conference itself. The uniform attitude of the editors of all the TV networks, of all the radio stations and of all of the written press, demonstrates one indisputable fact which cannot be obscured by empty slogans or ridiculous celebrations: East Jerusalem is not part of the State of Israel, its residents and its happenings are not part of the State of Israel, and nothing has been unified. Not one of the many covert efforts of the arch-settler, Teddy Kollek, nor any of the overt provocations of his diligent student, Ehud Olmert, have mattered: East Jerusalem remains an Arab city, a conquered territory which belongs in every practical sense to Palestine. All the editors and all the journalists in Israel know it, and act accordingly.

The hundreds of American and European visitors to the conference were aware of it too. In the course of those three days, they did not see a single Israeli policeman or soldier, and did not encounter any Israelis except for those few who attended the event. They thought that they were staying in the heart of Palestinian territory, and they were not wrong.

If there is any hope for the unification of Jerusalem, then it lives in the proposal of those Israelis and Palestinians who signed the Gush Shalom manifesto which calls for declaring Jerusalem the joint capital of both states, Israel and Palestine.

Incidentally, the attitude of the media toward the participants of the conference changed drastically when a few of the foreign activists traveled to Silvan, to protest the invasion of the settlers there. They were assaulted by the settlers and by the police, beaten and viciously dragged on the rough ground, and some were even injured (none seriously). And lo and behold: All at once the Israeli press acknowledged them, publishing extensive photos all over Israel and around the world, with the note that these foreign trouble-makers had participated in some kind of conference in Jerusalem.