TWO YEARS INTO HIS MAYORALTY, Nir Barkat has emerged as a fierce opponent of any division of Jerusalem in the context of a peace deal with the Palestinians. The 51 year-old firsttime mayor has a vision of an open, united city for the greater good of both its Jewish “western” and Arab “eastern” neighborhoods.

A dapper high-tech billionaire, he envisages a bustling, thriving metropolis with 10 million tourists by 2020 and a million residents by 2030, with new businesses, high-quality residential areas and new tourist attractions on both sides of the city.

Critics say his plans to help the Arabs in East Jerusalem are merely a subterfuge to enable more Jews to settle on the Arab side of the city and to Judaize sensitive key areas like the Holy Basin around the Old City.

Some see a wider strategy to create facts on the ground that will make any future division of the city much harder. Others insist that his rezoning plans and calls to stop demolition of illegal Arab housing in the interim are designed, at least partly, to save Beit Yonatan, an illegal seven-story Jewish settler building named for Jewish-American spy Jonathan Pollard and situated in the predominantly Arab suburb of Silwan.

Barkat’s blunt lecturing of top American officials on why Jewish building should not be stopped anywhere in Jerusalem has brought him into conflict with the US Administration.

And his strong right-wing positions have alienated the centrist and left-wing secular Jerusalemites who voted for him in 2008 against his ultra-Orthodox rival Meir Porush.

Interviewed in his office by The Jerusalem Report in mid-November, Barkat is warm and cordial, but prickly when pressed on his policies. The office is filled with smiling, bustling young aides and exudes a sense of goal-oriented urgency. The blinds to the veranda with its stunning views of the city are drawn, presumably so that the mayor can concentrate on his work.

He wears a dark tailored suit and an open lap-top sits on his small, functional desk. The interview starts and ends precisely on time.

Barkat's Jerusalem

"It's against the law to limit Jews or Arabs from living anywhere they choose in the city"