Jerusalem: unified city, divided views
Forty years after the city was unified, it remains split into Arab and Jewish enclaves.
from the May 15, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 4
To most Palestinians, this is a moment for reflection on all they have lost and continue to lose as new Jewish neighborhoods are built and nourished while Arab ones go underfunded and undeveloped by a municipality whose chief concern, in the words of its mayor earlier this week, is that a Jewish majority prevail. The Arab population will make up 40 percent of city residents by 2020, according to projections released last week by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies.
"Jerusalem could, God forbid, end up not under Jewish sovereignty, but that of Hamas," Mayor Uri Lupoliansky said Sunday at a special cabinet meeting marking the 40th anniversary. There, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert – a former mayor of Jerusalem – unveiled a plan to pour 5.75 billion shekels ($1.4 billion) into countering demographic trends that has Israel worried. Hamas, Mr. Lupolianski said, "knows it can capture Jerusalem through demography within 12 years."
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Palestinian leaders express concern about running out of time for a different plan: space for two capitals. "I believe that this is the last minute, that maybe we are losing the opportunity for solutions," says Ziad Abu Ziad, a former cabinet minister in the Palestinian Authority.
"I feel that what is happening on the ground is making the idea of a two-state solution unrealistic," Mr. Ziad adds, "and when I travel around and see the intensive daily activities of expanding Jewish settlements, I feel it is too late, and maybe at the end we will be stuck with each other."
A myth that Arabs 'have it good'
Some argue that Jerusalemite Arabs would be fine with that, given that all holders of Jerusalem ID cards are entitled to work in Israel and get other benefits from the state, such as health care and social security. But Atoon says that the image that people in East Jerusalem "have it good" living under Israeli rule is a myth.
"From the economic standpoint, we can feel that we're part of Israel, but the only moment I feel we're equal is that when we're in line to pay taxes," he says, adding that even then, the differences are pronounced. A recent case in point, he says, was when he went over to a municipal office in West Jerusalem to settle one of his social security payments. They said he couldn't be helped there.
"There, it's a professional office, and here, it's like I'm entering a military camp," says Atoon as he drinks tea with spearmint in his sister's home. Sur Baher, which used to be largely agricultural, is now mostly planted with houses – and memories.
One of his earliest was when he was six years old, during the Six-Day War. With warplanes overhead and the Israeli army moving in, his family fled to a nearby cave and hid for a week. His father took them to Jordan. A few months later they returned.
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