Israel Matzav: Arabs moving into Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem

Arabs moving into Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem

I warned as far back as 2006 that Arabs were moving into Jewish neighborhoods on the edge between the Jewish and Arab parts of the city - neighborhoods like Pisgat Zev and French Hill. Of course, you won't hear any outcry about it from the US or the EU. No pious platitudes about how they're predetermining the outcome of 'negotiations.' No complaints about how they're changing the city's demographics. I leave it to the reader to decide why.

It wasn't so much the politics of this contested city that drew Majlaton to Pisgat Zeev, however; it was the prospect of escaping the potholed roads and scant municipal services he endured for 19 years while renting in an Arab neighborhood.

"You see that air conditioner?" he said, pointing to the large wall unit cooling his living room. "In the Arab areas, the electricity is too weak to run one that big."

Majlaton, 50, says some Jewish neighbors are warming up to him, but the influx bothers others, who say they're thinking of moving out or refuse to sell or rent to Arabs.

This is much more than a simple matter of real estate. Demographics could figure heavily in how Jerusalem is partitioned in a future peace deal. If that happens, it is expected the city will be split along ethnic lines - Jewish neighborhoods to Israel, Arab neighborhoods to Palestine.

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In 2007, the latest year with available statistics, about 1,300 of Pisgat Zeev's 42,000 residents were Arabs. In nearby French Hill, population 7,000, nearly one-sixth are Arabs, among them students at the neighboring Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Neve Yaakov, with 20,000 people, had 600 Arabs, according to the Israel Center for Jerusalem Studies, a respected think tank.

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Israel Matzav: Arabs moving into Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem