{"id":139110,"date":"2017-12-14T04:31:29","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T09:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=139110"},"modified":"2017-12-14T04:31:29","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T09:31:29","slug":"palestinians-a-large-jerusalem-minority-feel-trump-snub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/14\/palestinians-a-large-jerusalem-minority-feel-trump-snub\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinians, a large Jerusalem minority, feel Trump snub"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pedestrians<\/a>
Pedestrians walk on a thick layer of soot from tires set ablaze in frequent clashes with Israeli troops. Cars navigate around potholes in streets littered with garbage. Motorists honk in a traffic jam near an Israeli checkpoint that is framed by the towering cement slabs of Israel’s separation barrier. (Seen in this photo is a small village and Palestinian town on the hill behind separation wall on the West Bank in Israel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

JERUSALEM\u2014Pedestrians walk on a thick layer of soot from tires set ablaze in frequent clashes with Israeli troops. Cars navigate around potholes in streets littered with garbage. Motorists honk in a traffic jam near an Israeli checkpoint that is framed by the towering cement slabs of Israel’s separation barrier.<\/p>\n

It’s morning rush hour in Ras Khamis, a neglected, restive Arab neighbourhood of Jerusalem where President Donald Trump’s recent recognition of the contested city as Israel’s capital has been met by cynicism, defiance and new fears that Palestinians will increasingly be marginalized.<\/p>\n

Trump’s pivot on Jerusalem \u201cis regrettable, saddening and unfair,\u201d said Yasser Khatib, 42, who runs a supermarket across the street from the barrier that separates several Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem from the rest of the city.<\/p>\n

Khatib said he has strong religious ties to the city and that his family’s roots go back generations. \u201cWe have no life without Jerusalem,\u201d he said as he sold snacks to school children. \u201cTrump can say whatever he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palestinians make up 37 per cent of Jerusalem’s population of 866,000, up from 26 per cent in 1967 when Israel captured east Jerusalem, expanded the city’s boundaries into the West Bank and annexed the enlarged municipal area to its capital.<\/p>\n

The international community says east Jerusalem is occupied territory and that the city’s fate must be determined in negotiations with the Palestinians who seek a capital in the eastern sector.<\/p>\n

Trump couched his Jerusalem comments \u2014 viewed in the Arab world as a show of pro-Israel bias \u2014 by saying he is not taking a position on the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city.<\/p>\n

Yet he made no specific mention of the city’s large Palestinian population, which could reach 44 per cent by 2040, according to the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research think-tank .<\/p>\n

Despite Israel’s portrayal of Jerusalem as united, there are stark differences between Arab and Jewish areas after what critics say is half a century of neglect and discrimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the ground, Israel is not investing much in developing the Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem,\u201d said Yitzhak Reiter, in charge of the Jerusalem Institute’s mapping of the physical and social infrastructure of Arab neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n

In many spheres, \u201cthe city is still divided, with two different transport systems, two different policies on building and construction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel would have to invest billions of dollars in Arab areas to reach parity with Jewish neighbourhoods, he said.<\/p>\n

For now, 79 per cent of Arab residents fall below the poverty line, compared to 27 per cent of Jews, according to Jerusalem Institute figures.<\/p>\n

Welfare services maintain four offices in the Arab east, compared to 19 offices in Jewish areas, said the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Arab schools have a shortage of hundreds of classrooms, ACRI said. The west has 34 post offices, compared to nine in the east.<\/p>\n

Mayor Nir Barkat’s office said he developed a plan \u201cunprecedented in scope and budget allocation to reduce gaps in east Jerusalem\u201d and made progress in alleviating \u201c50 years of neglect\u201d inherited from predecessors. Among other things, the city opened more than 800 classrooms in Arab schools, with 1,000 more in the pipeline, the statement said.<\/p>\n

ACRI said the added classrooms included many spaces rented in existing residential buildings.<\/p>\n

Jerusalem is the largest mixed city in the Holy Land, and Arabs and Jews interact in daily life, including in malls and hospitals. Many Palestinians work in shops and restaurants in west Jerusalem, typically earning more there than on the east side.<\/p>\n

Yet east-west infrastructure gaps remain wide.<\/p>\n

Israel may be unwilling to invest heavily in areas that could one day come under Palestinian rule, said Reiter, adding that efforts to maintain a strong Jewish majority may also play a role.<\/p>\n

Palestinians claim Israel is trying to drive Arabs out of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Ziad Hammouri, a community organizer, said Trump’s new position on Jerusalem boosts Israel’s attempts to \u201ccontrol east Jerusalem and to exclude Palestinians from Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n

One plan floated by a Cabinet minister \u2014 and opposed by Barkat \u2014 would place tens of thousands of Palestinians who live inside the municipal boundaries but beyond the separation barrier under a new Israeli-run municipality, thus sharply reducing the number of Palestinians counted as Jerusalemites.<\/p>\n

These areas, including Ras Khamis, have seen apartment towers rise in recent years as Israel stopped enforcing building restrictions there.<\/p>\n

East Jerusalemites desperate for housing moved there in large numbers, despite fears that they would eventually be \u201czoned out\u201d of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

On the \u201cJerusalem side\u201d of the barrier, it’s difficult for Palestinians to obtain building permits, because of lack of outline plans or discriminatory zoning, said Israeli rights groups. Many Palestinians built without permits, and 88 homes were demolished in 2016, the most in a decade, ACRI said.<\/p>\n

Barkat’s office said a low share of permit application come from Arab neighbourhoods, and that a high percentage of those are approved.<\/p>\n

Since 1967, Israel has built large neighbourhoods for Jews in the annexed east, now home to 212,000 Israelis.<\/p>\n

Palestinian Ismail Siam said a one-story home he built on his land for two adult children was demolished by Israel twice in 14 months, on grounds that he did not have a building permit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to expel us from the city,\u201d said Siam, 54, standing near patches of floor tiles left from the demolished house.<\/p>\n

The plot faces large construction sites for Jewish neighbourhoods across a ravine.<\/p>\n

Most Palestinians in Jerusalem have residency status.<\/p>\n

After 1967, most Palestinians didn’t consider the more secure citizenship option, which would have meant recognizing Israeli rule. In recent years, growing numbers have applied, but increasingly encountered bureaucratic hurdles.<\/p>\n

Prolonged absence can put Palestinian residents at risk of expulsion; close to 15,000 have been stripped of residency rights since 1967.<\/p>\n

Palestinians in the city can vote in local elections, but have largely refrained from doing so, to avoid the perception that they accept Israeli rule.<\/p>\n

East Jerusalem residents also feel increasingly abandoned by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s West Bank self-rule government. Israel clamps down on Palestinian Authority activities in Jerusalem, limiting Abbas’ influence in the city.<\/p>\n

The leadership vacuum was briefly filled over the summer when Muslim clerics led a successful grassroots campaign against metal detectors Israel had installed at east Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque compound. Islam’s third-holiest shrine, built on the remnants of Judaism’s holiest site, is a frequent flashpoint of violence.<\/p>\n

After Trump’s decision, city residents mounted only small protests, compared to larger marches in the West Bank and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Activist Yara Hawari said rallying large crowds is difficult when there is no narrow objective, such as removing the metal detectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are asking is simple, an end to colonization,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it’s not as tangible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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