Jerusalem Mayor Writes to Bush About Soviet Jews Living in City

Mayor Teddy Kollek is trying to convince the Bush administration that Soviet Jews moving into Jerusalem’s new suburbs are not being “settled in the occupied territories.”

Kollek disclosed Wednesday that he has written to President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker, stressing that the newcomers in Jerusalem get none of the cash incentives and other inducements the government offers Israelis to settle in the territories.

To obtain a $400 million U.S. loan guarantee for immigrant housing, Israel pledged not to direct or encourage Soviet immigrants to settle in the territories.

But according to the U.S. government, they are settling there anyway.

The administration reported to Congress recently that 4 percent of the immigrants are settling across the “Green Line,” the boundary separating the territories from Israel proper.

The figures are from Israeli government sources. Broken down into component parts, they show that 3 percent of immigrants settled in the Jerusalem suburbs.

The discrepancy lies in conflicting Israeli and American conceptions of Jerusalem’s status.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, uniting the city and incorporating it, under Israeli law, as part of Israel. But neither the United States nor any other country has recognized the annexation. Washington insists that the status of Jerusalem has to be settled in future negotiations.

Kollek said he did not dwell on their conflicting views in his correspondence with the president and secretary of state.

He said he pointed out, instead, that where as settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip receive loans, grants, low-interest mortgages and significant tax breaks, residents of Jerusalem, in whatever part of the city they live, are considered under Israeli law to be living in Israel proper and get no special benefits.