Beyond the wall

The declaration by Netanyahu has already created a wave of speculation, concern and fear for the future among the some 100,000 Arabs living there.

By PEGGY CIDOR
A section of the controversial security barrier beneath the refugee camp of Shuafat (photo credit: REUTERS)
A section of the controversial security barrier beneath the refugee camp of Shuafat
(photo credit: REUTERS)
A declaration by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of a cabinet meeting some three weeks ago has created serious concern among Arab residents living in Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the security barrier.
While it seems that perhaps the prime minister was not aware of all the details of the situation on the ground, his announcement regarding a special session on the issue of canceling residents status in these neighborhoods – in answer to the current Palestinian terror – has already created a wave of speculation, concern and fear for the future among the some 100,000 Arabs living there.
As I previously detailed in In Jerusalem (“Somewhere over the wall,” August 21), these Arab residents live beyond the fence, but in practice, all aspects of their lives are linked to the city – employment, education, business, and the cultural and religious sides as well. The figure of about 100,000 is not, as assumed by Netanyahu, the number of residents in the two neighborhoods that the prime minister wishes to disconnect from Jerusalem – Kafr Akab and the Shuafat refugee camp – but represents the total number of Arab residents living in the six neighborhoods left outside of the fence since 2005. These people generally live in these neighborhoods because housing prices there are lower, but are truly living in the city in all other regards.
For example, 70 percent of the workforce in the Shuafat refugee camp is employed by the municipality, while the total unemployment rate is 25 percent.
Similar rates are found in Kafr Akab, and in almost all of the neighborhoods beyond the security barrier.
(Data: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies and Ir Amim.) Advocate Moien Odeh, who lives in Kafr Akab, says that most of the population was surprised to learn of Netanyahu’s declaration, and that for the moment “there is mostly concern, stupefaction and lots of speculation.” Related NGOs working in the city also found it unexpected, he adds, and have not yet figured out how to proceed.
While it will take time to implement such a decision – with the need for law proposals and expected appeals at the High Court of Justice – Odeh notes, “What is clear now is that all those who planned to buy a house in one of those neighborhoods will back out immediately. Whoever can afford to will try to move back to one of the Arab neighborhoods inside the fence, and, as a result, real-estate prices – already high there – will skyrocket.”
On the Israeli side of the matter, Transportation Minister Israel Katz has asserted that “such a decision means dividing Jerusalem, and this requires a referendum before anything is done.”
Bayit Yehudi city councilman Arieh King offered this reaction: “It’s nonsense. Netanyahu knows perfectly that this is not legally possible; the High Court will never allow it. My suggestion is that instead of looking for non-realistic ways to reduce the number of Arabs in Jerusalem, we consolidate the Jewish neighborhoods and the Jewish residents in the east side.”
Odeh, for his part, is convinced that in the coming weeks we will see a large number of Arab residents moving from these neighborhoods to inside the city.
“That’s the best they can do, until some action is carried out by the NGOs.”