The first major misconception is that East Jerusalem is and has always been a purely Arab area.

The recent demand by the Obama Administration that Israel halt all building in East Jerusalem brought up once again the question of what has actually been happening in Jerusalem over the forty- three years since the City was unified in early June 1967. It too once again involved the invocation of a number of major misconceptions which generally hold sway when Jerusalem is considered in discussions of the peace – process.
 

1)      The first major misconception is that East Jerusalem is and has always been a purely Arab area. The fact is that even before the 1947-48 hostilities there were Jewish neighborhoods in the eastern part of the City. Not only was Neve Yaakov on the outskirts a Jewish area but the Mt.Scopus university campus had been dedicated in 1925. The attack on the convoy of doctors and nurses to Mt. Scopus which took seventy- eight lives was one of the major incidents prior to the 1948 War. Today there are over two- hundred thousand Jews living in those areas the Obama Administration demands Jews no longer build in.

2)      A second misconception is that before 1967 Jerusalem was the capital of an Arab state, Palestine. There has never been an Arab state of Palestine and under Jordanian control from 1948 to 1967 far more investment was made in Amman by the Jordanians than in Jerusalem. Jerusalem under the Jordanians was a backwater and only came to life again under Jewish rule.

3)      A third misconception is that Israel has thwarted the Arab population in the city and has prevented its growth. In fact since 1967 the Arab population has grown at  a far more rapid rate than the Jewish one. The Arab population has grown three- hundred percent since 1967. The Arab population was in 1967 one- fourth of the Jewish population and today consists in more than one third. Projections are that it will continue to be a larger and larger share of the population in the decades ahead.

4)      A fourth misconception is that the illegal building which is done in the city is done primarily by Jews. Time and again we hear media reports about illegal Jewish building. In fact the illegal building in the Arab sector is epidemic. Justus Reid Weiner in a JCPA study of the subject indicates thousands of units have been illegally built in the city in the past four years alone. Often criminal elements are involved especially in regard to high- rise structures.

5)      A fifth misconception which comes out of all of this is that it is thus possible to readily make peace by dividing the city into two areas, one Jewish and one Arab. This misconception not only disregards the intermingling of the populations in various parts of the city it totally ignores the security issues which would be involved in such a division. It should be remembered that Israel’s recent experience with withdrawal is not positive. Withdrawal from Lebanon and from Gaza did not bring peace to the adjacent Israeli areas but rather increased hostilities and violence.

6)      A sixth misconception about the City is that recent Israeli governments have been ensuring the successful development of Jerusalem as capital of all the people of Israel. In fact there has for years now been an erosion in the secular,working , young population of Jerusalem. This has damaged the economic life and the tax base of the city. A major failure of every Israeli government has been to both bring major industry to the City, and to provide reasonably priced housing for young couples.

7)      A seventh major conception is that recent Israeli governments have been ensuring the Zionist Jewish majority in the capital. In fact it is not only the non- Jewish proportion of the population which is increasing. Within the Jewish population itself those elements supporting and contributing both to the defense of the country and the economy are in decline.

It is doubtful that major media bias against Israel based in part of their misconceptions of what has actually gone in Jerusalem will readily change.

It is all doubtful that the Obama Administration will wake up and realize that their pressure on Israel to halt building

Israel’s recent experience with withdrawal is not positive.

 of homes for Jews in Jerusalem is not simply unfair and discriminatory but also self- defeating. It will not bring Peace closer.

Finally, it is questionable whether the Israeli government will really be able to properly contend with the social and demographic processes which are casting a shadow on the future security and well- being of the capital. It is questionable that the Israeli government will, pressured as it is from without and within, successfully promote the kind of building the City desperately needs. And this though the young and enterprising Mayor Nir Barkat says the masterplan he has for the City promises that in ten years the proportion of sixty- five percent Jews and thirty- five percent Arabs will still hold in the unified City.