In the wake of revelations over the weekend of the Sheikh Jarrah building project, this apologia for settling Jews in Arab neighborhoods stood out:
The Municipality of Jerusalem’s Planning Committee looks only at the congruence of the planning and the law. According to the High Court of Israel, Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike can purchase land in all parts of the city of Jerusalem. For example, there are Arab residents living in French Hill.
Later on, I learned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sounded a similar theme in his Sunday Cabinet meeting:
in recent years hundreds of apartments in Jewish neighborhoods and in the western part of the city have been purchased by – or rented to – Arab residents and we did not interfere. This says that there is no ban on Arabs buying apartments in the western part of the city and there is no ban on Jews buying or building apartments in the eastern part of the city.
To which, as a longtime Jerusalem resident, I can only say — huh? Arabs in West Jerusalem? Wen? Eyfo?
These statements are plenty murky., but it appears that Bibi and Nir Barkat, Jerusalem’s mayor, are deliberately apples-and-oranges fudging the generations of Arab families who live in Beit Safafa and in Ein Kerem with a spanking new Jews-only building project in the heart of cultural east Jerusalem.
Over at Americans for Peace Now, Lara Friedman has done much of my work for me, with a call to Danny Seidemann of Ir Amim:
Under Israeli law, to qualify to purchase property on “state land” the purchaser must either be a citizen of Israel (Palestinian Jerusalemites are legal residents of the city, not citizens of Israel) or legally entitled to citizenship under the law of return (i.e. Jewish). This means an Israeli or a Jew from anywhere in the world can purchase such property in West Jerusalem, but not a Palestinian resident of the city.
So yes, the small minority of Israeli Arab residents of West Jerusalem may buy properties throughout Jerusalem, but this hardly accounts for the vast majority of Jerusalem Arabs who are not Israeli citizens*, nor, for that better, for West Bank Palestinians. (I should point out that most of the land is "state land.")
So what Bibi and Barkat are trying to pull off here is an elision, and a dishonest one:
Bibi, from this:
Hundreds of apartments in Jewish neighborhoods and in the western part of the city have been purchased by – or rented to – Arab residents.
To this:
This says that there is no ban on Arabs buying apartments in the western part of the city and there is no ban on Jews buying or building apartments in the eastern part of the city.
"Hundreds" represents a tiny percentage of a city of three quarters of a million; and that "or rented to" — as an aside — is utterly deceptive. The few Palestinians living in Jewish neighborhoods are renting. To suggest, via afterthought, that Palestinians living among Jews are there as equal landowners in disingenuous at best.
And here’s the municpality:
According to the High Court of Israel, Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike can purchase land in all parts of the city of Jerusalem. For example, there are Arab residents living in French Hill.
The High Court decision extends to Jewish, Muslim and Christian citizens of Israel; the Arab residents in French Hill are either renters or they are the Palestinian families who have owned homes there for generations.
There may be arguments for Jewish residence in Sheikh Jarrah, but they should be honestly made.
Incidentally, personally, I’m a conservative when it comes to a city’s character. I like walking up to U Street, about 15 minutes from where I type this, and I like that African American culture has thrived there for generations. When I lived in New York, I liked Little Italy, and I liked Chinatown. I liked having to switch to French when I biked east growing up in Montreal. I liked hearing Yiddish when I biked through Snowdon. And, living in Jerusalem 15 years, I liked Sheikh Jarrah’s Palestinian restaurants, its cafes, shops and culture.
Sometimes, communities disappear, naturally: Little Italy has been shrinking for decades. Not much Yiddish to be heard now in Snowdon.
Natural attrition is sad, but, well, natural. When it’s forced — and yes, this is a matter of taste — I think it’s kind of gross.
*Israel, it is true, extended an offer of citizenship to Jerusalem Palestinians after 1967, and it is also true that very few — about 2,000 — took up the offer because of nationalist considerations. But I also know that the offer has been moot for decades. I knew an East Jerusalem Palestinian who genuinely wanted to become an Israeli citizen about 20 years ago, and was laughed out of the Interior Ministry office — the offer was off, he was told. The notion of achieving "one state" through peaceful means first arose in Palestinian circles the mid-1980s, and apparently its prospect spooked Israeli officials into closing any doors opening Israeli citizenship to East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza Palestinians.
