something bad is happening in Jerusalem in the last couple of years. as mentioned in my previous post about the city, political inspirations are threatening to bring the city and the region on a verge of explosion.
some facts: in 2008 the population of the city was 774.000 inhabitants (the biggest in Israel). of which around 478.000 are Jews, 261.000 are Muslims and the rest are Christians or nonreligious 35.000.
by the end of the British Mandate in 1947, the UN Partition Plan recommended the creation of an international area that include Jerusalem and Bethlehem - corpus separatum under the administration of the UN. the 1948 war between Israel and the Arabs brought instead to the devision of the city between west (Israeli) and East (Jordanian). in 1967 Israel occupied the west bank and east Jerusalem declaring the reunification of the city. unlike the west bank, east Jerusalem was annexed to Israel, so it is actually under Israeli law. although it is officially the Capital City of Israel, it is not recognized as one by the rest of the world and there are no embassies in the city.
the urban development of the city under the Israeli law is different for the two populations, while the jewish population gets new construction of neighborhoods and infrastructure, in the west and in the east parts, the arab quarters of the city are lacking any urban planing and they have an 'organic' urban development with no infrastructure.
the political inspirations makes thing even more complicated. since 1967 the Israeli governments encouraged the construction of new jewish neighborhoods in the annexed area of the city in order to establish the reunification of the city. the separation between the populations however was kept and there is hardly no interaction. any try to apply the Israeli construction law in the arab quarters (mainly for demolition of buildings with no permits) gets a strong international protest, since the UN doesn't recognize the annexation of the east part of the city by Israel. in the last couple of years, right wing extremests in Israel, are trying to buy or get properties inside the arab quarters in order to fail any future talks on the devision of the city based on neighborhoods or quarters. their aim is to create a strong opposition in the Israeli society against any withdrawal in case of agreement.
based on these conditions, plus the fact that it is an economically poor city, the future is grim. as far as i and many others who hold a pragmatic political view can see, there is no escape from a peaceful division of the city between Jews and Arabs. the 'Holy Basin' which includes the Old City and the adjacent areas of common interest (Mt. Zion and Mt. of olives) should have a separate common administration (corpus separatum...) possibly with international supervision, which will guarantee a free access to everyone. the city will only earn from this challenging situation, it will allow a sane urban development, free of political influence and will enhance its cultural richness. due to the separated populations and the topography, the division is already there, someone just has to be brave enough to give it names before the Nothing begins to consume the Ivory tower (the never ending story)...
