Jerusalem: Dangers of Division

A principal argument of those who support the division of Israel's capital is the need to improve the city's demographic balance between Jews and Arabs in favor of Jews. They assert that this should be achieved by "removing" Arab neighborhoods and residents to outside the city limits.

However, a higher Arab birthrate is not the primary cause for the decrease in the Jewish majority in Jerusalem. Rather, the main reason is that large numbers of Jews are leaving the city due to housing and employment difficulties. Each year some 16,000 Jews leave the city; the total over the past 20 years is 300,000.

To reverse Jewish emigration from Jerusalem, government intervention is required in the areas of housing and employment. The city must be declared an area of national priority of the highest order.

Furthermore, separation inside Jerusalem entails many risks: • The existing reality in Jerusalem is one of dense, unbroken urban continuity, with Jewish and Arab areas mixed together. Should Jerusalem be physically divided according to its Arab neighborhoods, the separation line would also become the border between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, or a future Palestinian state, as distinct from the current situation where the border is farther away from most of the city's Jewish residents.

• The distances between many Jewish neighborhoods in the city and Arab neighborhoods slated for "separation" are within light-weapon range, from tens to hundreds of meters, and certainly within machinegun range. With the outbreak of the Second Intifada, firing began from the Palestinian Authority town of Beit Jalla toward the homes of Jewish residents in Jerusalem's nearby Gilo neighborhood. The firing began in September 2000 and continued intermittently until 2005.

• A summary report for 2003 issued by the Communications Division of the Prime Minister's Office concluded, among other things, that eastern Jerusalem Arabs continued to be a significant factor in executing mass-murder attacks in Israel, with an emphasis on Jerusalem. The report also concluded that Hamas was the leading organization in recruiting and activating eastern Jerusalem Arabs.

• Today, with the prospect of "separation" from Arab neighborhoods and villages, security circles warn that a relaxation or loss of control within those areas could result in terror attacks originating from those areas. The previous withdrawal of Israeli forces from towns and villages in the West Bank brought about increased attacks on nearby Israeli targets.

• Following division and a change in status of many neighborhoods to border neighborhoods, tens of thousands of Jews might leave the city. This happened after the 1948 division, when one-fourth of Jerusalem's Jewish population (some 25,000 people at that time) moved away from the city. Many residents threatened similar action in 2000 when, following the Camp David summit, division seemed to be likely.

"Jewish" and "Arab" Jerusalem currently enjoy a single infrastructure system and it is difficult and perhaps impossible to separate the two. Main and subsidiary roads connect all neighborhoods and sections. There are unified water, electrical, sewage, and telephone systems throughout. The city's health systems and hospitals also serve both populations, as do various banking and commercial networks. Even the Jerusalem light rail currently runs through the Arab neighborhood of Shu'afat, one of the objects of a possible separation. Immediately after the Six-Day War, the aim of Israel's massive building in eastern Jerusalem was to establish Jewish control in strategic areas and prevent any possibility of future separation of various sections of the city. Israel built so as to "heal" municipal rifts; to expand Jerusalem, populate areas, and make sure it would not be possible to divide the city again. For over three decades, Israelis believed that everything should be done to unify Jerusalem and avoid dividing the city again. In that spirit, new neighborhoods were built in eastern Jerusalem that today house some 190,000 Jews and contain official state institutions built on land that was annexed to the city in 1967. They include the government compound at Sheikh Jarrah; the Hebrew University campus and Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus; and hotels along Route 1. Land and properties were bought by the government, by private individuals, and by nonprofit organizations, all with the goal of "redeeming" Jerusalem.

Dr. Robbie Sabel, former legal counsel to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, examined the legal aspect of possible Israeli separation from Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods for the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies before the Annapolis Conference. He felt that forcing eastern Jerusalem residents to surrender the resident status that was granted by Israel, and the rights inherent therein, would be problematic.

Furthermore, in Sabel's opinion, eastern Jerusalem residents would have the option of moving to some other part of Israel and thereby retaining their status as Israeli residents. The construction of the separation fence along the Jerusalem's northern limits has already resulted in a wave of tens of thousands of Palestinians moving to the "Israeli side" of the fence. This calls into doubt the demographic gain that proponents of separation hope to obtain from it.

In addition, the same study found that it is not realistic to expect the Israeli government to be released from the burden of various payments to eastern Jerusalem Arabs due to both legal and moral restrictions.

Eastern Jerusalem Arabs have a sense of national affinity with the PA and their brethren in the West Bank. Yet many will find it difficult to surrender their freedom of movement and expression, employment options, and the wide range of material benefits to which they are currently entitled by virtue of their resident status. They have expressed those feelings in many rounds of unofficial talks. Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Rafi Eitan reported in February 2008 that a survey showed the majority of eastern Jerusalem residents do not wish to leave Israeli rule.

Finally, division of Jerusalem would compromise the exercise of Jewish and Christian rights as they relate to the city's historical core, sanctity, and holy sites.

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