For years, the residential neighborhoods in Jerusalem were planned separately for Jews and Arabs, this was the clear limit of coexistence. However, new data offers a different and growing change; it turns out that the number of Arabs who move to Jewish areas for an improved quality of life is three times higher than the number of Jews who move into Arab areas for ideological reasons.
About 10,000 Arabs live on the "Jewish side" of the city, compared to just about 3,000 Jews on the "Arab side". This data is hidden in a document published by The Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research. A comparison with similar data, published about a decade ago by a former member of the City Council shows an increase in both stats. In 2014, 6,570 Arabs were recorded living on the Jewish side, twice as many as the previous year, while the number of Jews increased only slightly to 2,660.
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— Coco Liu (@cocobliu) July 4, 2023
park hamesila
đź“Ťtel aviv, israel
7-km
aka train track park in hebrew, follows the route of the former ottoman railway from jaffa to jerusalem
a symbol of coexistence in the divided city, as it passes through jewish and arab neighborhoods and is used by residents of both pic.twitter.com/HzYHN7Y58s
Yosef Speizer, a member of the City Council of Jerusalem who revealed the data during an interview with “Israel Hayom”, expressed his mixed feelings on the matter. "I'm a liberal, but to tell you I'm happy about this would be an exaggeration.”
"Jerusalem is indeed a mixed city, and anyone can buy or rent an apartment wherever their heart desires and their pocket allows. But as someone who takes seriously the definition of a 'Jewish state' in the Declaration of Independence, a definition that requires a Jewish majority, especially when it comes to Jerusalem, the capital of the state and the Jewish people, the expectation is that we know how to protect the Jewish majority. That's even before we mentioned the danger of friction that arises from time to time in mixed neighborhoods in Jerusalem due to a different mentality, religion, or nationality."
Speizer is currently less afraid of the fact that the Arabs live in the Jewish areas, he seemingly welcomes it, however, the concern he has comes from the apparent gradual abandonment of areas of the city where today there is a Jewish majority, due to the entry of the Arabs into those places. "It has happened in the past, up in the Galil (Galilee) and the city of Lod, and it may happen in Jerusalem as well.” Speizer is referring to the flight of Jews from Jewish neighborhoods because Arabs have begun to move in.
James Zogby has no problem with Arabs living in Jewish neighborhoods. Jews in Arab neighborhoods? Oh no, we can’t have that.
— DolphinKick (@DolphinKick15) April 21, 2022
There are cities like Haifa and Tiberias, where Arabs and Jews share the city in relative peace. Arabs and Jews also live together in the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yaffo and even in relatively new cities like Modi'in, it seems the inclusion of Arabs into communities there has not sparked a minor exodus, rather the property values of the less than 30-year-old Modi'in and Tel Aviv-Yaffo, the result of a merger between the 100-year-old municipality and millennia-old city are still rising, and are amongst the highest in the country.
What are you talking about?
— levi + (@levi_plus_tw) October 29, 2019
There are zero Jewish neighborhoods or any Jews whatsoever living in Area A and Area B. There are no Israeli personnel in the state of Palestine's territory.
Jews and Arabs are living together and both are building in Area C.
The new data on the residence of Arabs in the Jewish neighborhoods come as many in the eastern part of the city with the Arab majority are actively discussing the possibility of participation in the municipal elections that will be held in about four months; an event that they religiously boycotted for 56 years since the Jordanian forces left the city, for fear that this would be interpreted as recognition of Jewish rule and sovereignty in Jerusalem.
