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Photo: AFP
This is the time to visit Jerusalem and increase the Jewish presence in it
Photo: AFP

Jerusalem is undividable

Op-ed: Instead of dividing Israel’s capital, we must expand it and strengthen its Jewish majority. How? Annexing Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem will dramatically affect the demography in the city. This is the proper response to terrorism.

Voices of despair were heard this week. Voices calling for the construction of a separation wall in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. Unintentionally, these voices seek to give terror a sweet victory. Where the knife, or the murderous truck, passes – that is where the border will pass. That is the meaning of their proposal.

 

 

In the past, the guideline was different: The border will pass where a community is established. But today, we are afraid to hold on to the land and like to escape, leave our problems behind a fence or a wall and create a virtual reality for ourselves. We did so in Lebanon, which turned into Hezbollahland; we did so in Gaza, which turned into Hamastan; we did so in Judea and Samaria, which turned into Fatahland (before returning to Israel security control in Operation Defensive Shield). Now they want to copy this failed model to Jerusalem, and build a wall in the heart of the city. Divide Jerusalem.

 

Jewish neighborhood overlooking Jabel Muakber. Jerusalem’s Arabs cannot be denied their freedom of movement and freedom of choice (Photo: Amit Shabi)
Jewish neighborhood overlooking Jabel Muakber. Jerusalem’s Arabs cannot be denied their freedom of movement and freedom of choice (Photo: Amit Shabi)

 

With the wall, these voices also seek to revoke the identity cards and National Insurance allowance of hundreds of thousands of citizens of the state, Jerusalem’s Arab residents. It’s unthinkable that people carrying an Israeli identity card will be able to walk around freely and carry out attacks undisturbed, say those who support the separation. Why keep 22 villages around Jerusalem, within the city’s jurisdiction, they ask, and turn Jerusalem into a city where most young people are Arabs?

 

Those are good, difficult questions. The answer to these questions is not withdrawing and rewarding terror – because those who know Jerusalem well know that there is no way to separate between the different populations living together in the city. Today Arabs live inside Jewish neighborhoods like Pisgat Ze’ev and Ramat Eshkol, and residents of Jabel Mukaber work in East Talpiot. How can we create a separation in a city where Jews and Arabs live and work together every day? How can we separate between two populations that are hospitalized side by side, with Arab and Jewish doctors curing everyone? We can’t.

 

Whoever says this is possible is selling an illusion which cannot be implemented in reality. Jerusalem’s Arabs cannot be denied their freedom of movement and freedom of choice, and we cannot lead a move of racial-based revocation of citizenship. It’s so strange seeing left-wing people, who speak highly of human rights, supporting such an immoral move. We can and we must revoke the citizenship of individuals who support terror, but most of Jerusalem’s Arabs do not support terror. On the other hand, we must lead an educational revolution in the Arab educational institutions in the city, fight incitement, implement the sovereignty by enforcing the planning and building laws and invest in infrastructures. We must deal with the problems instead of sweeping them under the wall.

 

The demographic problem can be solved in the opposite way: Instead of dividing Jerusalem, expanding it and strengthening the Jewish majority in it. How? Annexing Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem will have a dramatic effect on the demography in the city. This is the proper response to terror. The terrorists and their supporters who hand out candy wish to see the Jews fleeing Jerusalem – and instead, Jerusalem will be expanded by Jews joining the city.

 

To all the lovers of Jerusalem, I would just like to say that this is the time to visit the city and increase the Jewish presence in it. At the enchanted East Talpiot promenade, in the alleys of the Old City market, in the museums, in the cafés and cinemas. It’s freezing in Jerusalem, yet it warms one’s heart to walk around constructed and united Jerusalem.

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.12.17, 23:40
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