BREAKING NEWS: Jerusalem divided
The Annapolis conference convened today, bringing together delegations from around the world. Many expected (indeed, some hoped) that nothing would be accomplished at the conference. However, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has shocked everyone by pushing through his radical left-wing agenda of dividing Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people. Not only has the division of Jerusalem been ratified, but it has already been implemented in the space of less than a day, with an efficiency uncharacteristic for Israel.
From here in Jerusalem, we can look around and see what the peaceniks have wrought. Traffic was insane today with all the moving trucks driving around the formerly undivided capital, but now that everything has settled, the Jewish and Arab residents of Jerusalem are now living almost entirely in separate neighborhoods. (However, in an apparent concession to parties like Yisrael Beiteinu that had threatened to quit the coalition, Olmert has agreed that municipal services will be provided primarily to the Jewish neighborhoods.) In clear defiance of the will of the many Zionist organizations who opposed the division of Jerusalem, Jewish and Arab students are now attending almost entirely separate school systems. And the anti-Zionist left has shown that it means business, by placing some neighborhoods outside the separation barrier, to create a physical rupture in the everlasting unity of our 3000-year-old holy city. Construction crews have been working triple shifts to ensure that all of this is carried out as soon as possible, ever since the order arrived from Annapolis just a few hours ago.
The anti-Zionist left isn’t content merely with dividing Jerusalem; their agenda also includes weakening the city. To this end, they have begun encouraging Jewish residents of Jerusalem to move to fast-growing outlying neighborhoods on Jerusalem’s periphery, and away from the city center, to ensure that central Jerusalem (associated with the Zionist entity) will not see economic development.
In further evidence of a left-wing anti-Israel conspiracy, population studies show that Jews will soon be a minority of the total population of all land under Israeli control, posing a threat to the future of the Jewish state.
How will supporters of Israel respond to these latest provocations?
Screw Hillary and Obama, I am now a BZ ’08 backer.
what’s your source on this?
It is common knowledge that all these things are true about Jerusalem today. Given the vehemence in recent weeks opposing any “division” of Jerusalem, I can only conclude that these things must not have been true before today.
Um what are you talking about? This isnt on any REAL news site. I am currently IN jerusalem, and there is nothing to indicate this.
David and ROKHL, I think you’ve both missed the point of this post. BZ has satirically painted a picture of what already exists in Jerusalem today (and has for years). Jerusalem already is a divided city. “40 years of unification” is a joke.
BZ, any news sites that can back this up or give more info? if this is true i’d like to know what is going to who and such.
Sigh…nobody understands satire anymore…
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if you didnt see the new video you must
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Brilliant. Just Brilliant. : )
BZ, you never cease to amaze me.
ps: getting more and more people hooked on mahrabu…
People are so dense… LOL.
BZ, you rock.
amazing.
The source for this news is called “a walk around the neighborhood.”
I need to throw up a gallery of my photos from giving tours of East and West Jerusalem — people really don’t get this until they see it.
I don’t understand people who don’t believe this. Uh, I live in Jerusalem and never go into E. Jerusalem – why? it’s all Arab!
Where’s my news source? It’s out my window!
And yet, when Jews try to end the division by moving into houses they own in Arab parts of the city, we call them “illegal colonizers”.
So who is it who wants Jerusalem divided, and who, despite the satire, is doing their best to unite it?
Oh no! I’m shocked! This news is going to drastically change my life here in West Jerusalem!
The glee with which some look forward to the castration of Jerusalem is amazing.
Incorrect: Have you been to Jerusalem? I live here, and it’s already “castrated”. There are separate bus companies that serve East and West Jerusalem, cab drivers will not infrequently refuse to drive from West to East Jerusalem, and in East Jerusalem hordes of kids don’t go to school because Israel won’t build/let them build enough schools, emergency medical services are iffy, and trash collection is scarce. But cross the invisible border into West Jerusalem and there are magically enough schools (albeit without kids in them right now), top notch health care, adequate sanitation, beautiful landscaping, and wide streets.
One of the things that I think people don’t realize when talking about East Jerusalem is that it is absolutely enormous, including many, many more areas than just the Old City. There are places in East Jerusalem that feel much more like being in a small village than in the city. (And for good reason– the Jerusalem municipal border has expanded greatly since 1967 to incorporate previously independent Arab villages.) How many Jews know that “the city of Jerusalem” also includes the Shuafat refugee camp?
And a more mundane example: the Jerusalem municipality has been celebrating “40 years of unification [sic]” with special restaurant menus, tours, etc. Exactly how many restaurants in East Jerusalem do you think are participating in this stirring historical event? Right. None.
Jerusalem is already a divided city. I don’t get how that isn’t obvious, unless people have never spent significant time here before.
Because most people think they can be armchair activists. True Israel education – of facts, figures, reality- not political views on either the left or right – is severely lacking. Sadly, too, I think that there are actually less right wing programs that spend a significant amount of time in Israel than left-wing (though this is anecdotal) besides yeshivot, which I’m all for Torah lishma but spending time on Ben Yehuda and Emek Rafeim and (only) haredi neighborhoods isn’t exactly going to give one a full view of Israel.
Rooftopper, you’re right but we ignore how many – including the heads of the hasbara and Israel advocacy groups abroad – spend very little time in Israel outside of 5 star missions and the Inbal Hotel (and, I admit, I work nearby, but still).
Rooftopper, you may be entirely correct, I haven’t been to Israel in several years. But my observation is to the emotional framework of so many here (and on the left in general), instead of being mournful over the status of Jerusalem as you describe it, or morose over the prospect that realpolitik may force Israel to lop off part of our ancestral core centre (and that is up to the Israeli’s, they have to live and die over those decisions), they exhibit huge glee over the prospect – it says something about the state of mind of the left – and it’s not pretty.
Dude, if you think even half of what is inside the post-1967 municipal boundaries of Jerusalem is anywhere near the “ancestral core centre”, then you REALLY haven’t been to Israel in a while.
Incorrect- To the extent that people are feeling hopeful (or whatever), that positive feeling is about the prospect of perhaps FINALLY beginning a true, negotiated process of separation from the Palestinians that might catalyze some peace and healing in this part of the world.
I care about Israel. I don’t want it to rule quixotically and corruptly over another people anymore. It’s a drain on Israeli society financially, emotionally, ethically, and human resources-wise. I would gladly see Beit Hanina, Jabel Mukaber, Ras al-Amud, Shuafat, Sur Baher (all part of East Jerusalem). officially become part of a Palestinian state, or whatever other alternative the residents vote for. The status quo has only created fear, resentment, suffering, and violence on all sides.
Given that Jerusalem is already divided, why shouldn’t some of us feel hopeful about rendering this separation official? I will be relieved once Israel finally sets down this terrible burden of ruling over another people. I will absolutely grant you that there will be other concerns to deal with at that point– security certainly among them– but what a relief it will be to deal with those concerns on a more equitable country to country basis, and not as occupier to occupied.
thanks for the piece – someone over shabbas pointed me to it and it was a good read.
Eric, my thoughts: it is not suprising that it is portrayed this way and seen this way by arab residents of jerusalem who have no ability to build out naturally in the places in which they reside. Jewish areas just keep popping up and growing. even i feel claustrophobic and i live in west jerusalem. when i go for walks on the tayelet and see where i am and where west jerusalem is expanding i can understand why words like “ethnic cleansing” and “colonization” are used. you out, us in.
side note: do you think that if they officially divide the already divided city that I can still take the Arab buses? – they are cheaper, cleaner and i never get pushed around on them. just asking.