Southern aerial view of the Old City of Jerusalem
Arieh King
Kevin Bermeister
By Larry Gordon
This tentative, neither-here-nor-there policy on Jerusalem is both troublesome and unsustainable for everyone involved. So what is the policy on Jerusalem going forward—that is, as viewed by the current government, past
administrations, and those that will be elected in the future in Israel?
The best word to describe the overall broad view of Jerusalem is undetermined. And that is problematic from a variety of perspectives.
The words we want to hear are easily uttered by all. Even Barack Obama, when he was running for president in 2008, said at an AIPAC Policy Conference that he was committed to a united Jerusalem.
His spokespeople and spin doctors qualified that statement the following day by saying that the candidate was not pronouncing a policy on Jerusalem’s future sovereignty; rather, Mr. Obama was just saying that he did not want to see a fence or a wall constructed in the city thereby cutting it in half. Today, with seven years of hindsight, we can probably conclude that Mr. Obama would most likely not object to a united city governed by either the Palestinian Authority or some international body somehow affiliated with the UN. Anyone but Israel, that is.
Fortunately, Mr. Obama’s presidency has an expiration date very prominently stamped on it, so what his position was or what it is today is rapidly becoming irrelevant.
For the purposes of this essay, let’s forget about the United States and Europe’s outdated and unreasonable position on Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is not becoming the capital city of a future Palestinian state, nor will the city become the shared capital of two different countries—Israel and Palestine. It’s untenable and unworkable, and almost everyone involved in the stalled process knows that.
The fact is that there is a large Arab population in the city, and that demographic has resulted in a de facto division of the city without any pronouncements, declarations, or peace agreements. So is Jerusalem destined to be a divided—part-Arab and part-Jewish—city, or not?
Today, one person who has undertaken the struggle to maintain Jerusalem’s unity is Arieh King, a Jerusalem city councilman and an activist dedicated to truth and integrity when it comes to talking about a united eternal city of Jerusalem. So committed is he to the city’s geographic unity, at the very least, that King was even opposed to setting up a temporary cinderblock wall to stem the flow of potential terror attackers from the Shiekh Jarrah neighborhood that abuts a part of central Jerusalem. At the time, King said that erecting a makeshift wall was in fact the beginning of the division of the city.
King has long thought that the government agenda regarding the capital city is indeed contradictory. Time and again, from Netanyahu down, the talk is about Jerusalem never again being divided in the fashion that it was prior to 1967. At the same time, he shows us on maps that he carries with him that large areas of the city are being built to house exclusively Arab populations, with Jews not permitted or certainly not encouraged to live there.
But King’s position on Jerusalem is not just rhetorical. That’s where Jerusalem 5800 and one Kevin Bermeister of Jerusalem and Sydney, Australia, enters the scene. The objective is that by the Jewish calendar year of 5800, the complete unity of the city, along with peaceful coexistence with all Arab residents, will be have been realized.
Our meeting with Kevin and Arieh took place last week in the lobby restaurant of the Waldorf-Astoria in Jerusalem. Kevin explains that the plan is running on several tracks. As far as Arieh is concerned, his passionate activism takes the form of purchasing properties in densely populated Arab neighborhoods as well as legally procuring Jewish-owned properties that are currently occupied by Arab squatters all around the city.
Indeed we saw this plan in action up close a few years ago as King took us to heavily populated areas of Jerusalem like Beit Hanina and Beit Zafafa. His lawyers are busy in the Israeli court system obtaining orders to evict illegal residents of properties that he can prove are owned by Jewish families dating back 50 years or more.
It continues to be astounding how many properties there are around the city that legally belong to Jewish families that were forced to flee decades ago. The families may have moved on, died out, or lost interest. Many live in other countries but have distant family members who purchased these properties back in the 1930s or ’40s. Arab families live there today, absolutely free of any expense. The electric and water companies do not even bill them because while they may have been there for the past 50 years, they are technically not there at all.
And the Jerusalem municipality under Mayor Nir Barkat and the government of Israel are pleased to maintain this status quo in the interest of keeping things quiet. But the situation is not at rest. These families are growing and building, and over the next few years they will geographically and demographically dominate more than half of Jerusalem.
So Arieh King travels the world, raising money to retain legal representation that restores these properties to their rightful owners. When he takes over a property, he offers students free housing so that there is a Jewish presence in the home until it can be restored or properly sold.
But that is the short-term work. What about Jerusalem’s future? Both Arieh and Kevin believe that it is futile to hope for a diplomatic or negotiated settlement of the status of the city. Their project over the years ahead is to solve Jerusalem’s problems by bolstering the city’s economy.
Their goal is to triple the number of tourists that visit the city annually. In 2014, 3.1 million visited Jerusalem. The 2015 numbers will be somewhat reduced because of the terrorism and the ongoing terror threat. After all, who wants to visit a war zone?
But this too shall pass, and the objective here is to bring 10 million tourists to Jerusalem every year over the next decade or so. So how are they going to do it? Where are all these people coming from, and how is that going to unify the city and create an environment for peace? All good and fair questions.
First let’s explore the places and countries they are not coming from. With six million Jews residing in the U.S., as much as 70% of that population has never visited Israel. For us American Jews, those who have Israel as a top priority travel there regularly; most of the others are just not that interested. As far as Europe is concerned, except for the limited number of Jews who are just a short plane ride over to Eretz Yisrael, the rest are not coming, and Europe’s attitude toward Israel is not facilitating growing tourism in Israel’s direction.
So that’s where the 10 million future yearly tourists are not coming from. Where are they coming from in markedly increasing numbers? China and India. These two countries—the most populous on the planet—have a combined population of almost 3 billion people. Relations between Israel and India are the best ever, and China is not that far behind. The three countries have a great deal in common. Both the Chinese and the Indians have an insatiable appetite for Israeli innovation and technology.
Walking the streets of Jerusalem, one cannot help but notice an uptick in groups from China and India in large tours inching their way around the Old City and other ancient biblical landmarks. Kevin Bermeister adds that neither of the two countries is scared off by these unfortunate nascent terror attacks presently plaguing the country.
The Chinese, he says, are only fed news that their leaders want them to hear or see. Most, he adds, are not even familiar with any ongoing terror scourge that keeps others away from Israel at present. And those from India understand that they are not the targets of these marauding terrorists.
Both populations are intrigued by the ancient history of the Jewish people and the land of Israel. They are the target of Israel’s tourism industry in the future, and attracting a few million tourists from these countries will not necessarily be a very daunting task.
OK, but how will this bring peace to Jerusalem? While there are plenty of hotels in Jerusalem, there are not nearly enough to accommodate 10 million visitors a year. Bermeister has already purchased several hotels in the city, and several are under construction, while others are still on the drawing board.
Ten million tourists, up from the current three million, will mean full employment for Arabs and Jews in the capital. Jobs mean a higher standard of living, a more attractive existence, and the opportunity to advance oneself. The opportunity to earn a living instead of waiting for European Union or United Nations handouts to trickle down to families has the potential to change the mindset of an overwhelming majority of the population. Jerusalem will bloom.
Unifying and fortifying Jerusalem does not by any stretch mean that the Arab population has to be moved or segregated. What it does mean is that people will eventually, over time, learn to live in a heterogeneous environment with respect and courtesy for one another. This idea of achieving peace only by separating from the Palestinians is antiquated and unworkable. Economic development without the leadership siphoning off 80% of the foreign aid will change things very drastically for the better.
There are many more details to the Jerusalem 5800 plan that we hope to learn about and impart to our readers as it evolves. For now, let’s take a step back and appreciate its forward-looking innovativeness that can bring a new day to the people of Jerusalem, to the state of Israel, and someday to the world.
Comments for Larry Gordon are welcome at editor@5tjt.com.