AP’s Anti-Israel Report on Jerusalem Unintentionally Rebuts Major Argument of the Haters

AP has come out with a very one-sided report, in the wake of Donald Trump’s recent announcement about Jerusalem.

Pedestrians walk on a thick layer of soot from tires set ablaze in frequent clashes with Israeli troops. Cars navigate around potholes in streets littered with garbage. Motorists honk in a traffic jam near an Israeli checkpoint that is framed by the towering cement slabs of Israel’s separation barrier.

It’s morning rush hour in Ras Khamis, a neglected, restive Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem where President Donald Trump’s recent recognition of the contested city as Israel’s capital has been met by cynicism, defiance and new fears that Palestinians will increasingly be marginalized.

Trump’s pivot on Jerusalem “is regrettable, saddening and unfair,” said Yasser Khatib, 42, who runs a supermarket across the street from the barrier that separates several Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem from the rest of the city.

Khatib said he has strong religious ties to the city and that his family’s roots go back generations. “We have no life without Jerusalem,” he said as he sold snacks to school children. “Trump can say whatever he wants.”

Palestinians make up 37 percent of Jerusalem’s population of 866,000, up from 26 percent in 1967 when Israel captured east Jerusalem, expanded the city’s boundaries into the West Bank and annexed the enlarged municipal area to its capital.

The international community says east Jerusalem is occupied territory and that the city’s fate must be determined in negotiations with the Palestinians who seek a capital in the eastern sector.

Trump couched his Jerusalem comments — viewed in the Arab world as a show of pro-Israel bias — by saying he is not taking a position on the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city.

Yet he made no specific mention of the city’s large Palestinian population, which could reach 44 percent by 2040, according to the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research think tank.

Despite Israel’s portrayal of Jerusalem as united, there are stark differences between Arab and Jewish areas after what critics say is half a century of neglect and discrimination.

“On the ground, Israel is not investing much in developing the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem,” said Yitzhak Reiter, in charge of the Jerusalem Institute’s mapping of the physical and social infrastructure of Arab neighborhoods.

In many spheres, “the city is still divided, with two different transport systems, two different policies on building and construction.”

Israel would have to invest billions of dollars in Arab areas to reach parity with Jewish neighborhoods, he said.

For now, 79 percent of Arab residents fall below the poverty line, compared to 27 percent of Jews, according to Jerusalem Institute figures.

Welfare services maintain four offices in the Arab east, compared to 19 offices in Jewish areas, said the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Arab schools have a shortage of hundreds of classrooms, ACRI said. The west has 34 post offices, compared to nine in the east.

Mayor Nir Barkat’s office said he developed a plan “unprecedented in scope and budget allocation to reduce gaps in east Jerusalem” and made progress in alleviating “50 years of neglect” inherited from predecessors. Among other things, the city opened more than 800 classrooms in Arab schools, with 1,000 more in the pipeline, the statement said.

ACRI said the added classrooms included many spaces rented in existing residential buildings.

The piece is accompanied by this photo and caption, one of the longest captions I have seen in recent memory.

I am sure the image itself is meant to also somehow show the “Judaization of Jerusalem”. Whatever the hell that means.

As bad as this report is, AP have perhaps inadvertently rebutted one of the major arguments of the Israel haters and antisemites.

Palestinians make up 37 percent of Jerusalem’s population of 866,000, up from 26 percent in 1967 when Israel captured east Jerusalem, expanded the city’s boundaries into the West Bank and annexed the enlarged municipal area to its capital.

Yet he made no specific mention of the city’s large Palestinian population, which could reach 44 percent by 2040, according to the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research think tank.

What about that supposed ethnic cleansing, huh? AP admits the palestinian Arab population has actually grown 11% since Israel liberated all of Jerusalem, and is projected to grow another 7% in the next 20+ years! Sorry has-beens!

There is no doubt there is a disparity in living conditions between the Jewish and Arab neighborhoods, and I believe this needs to be addressed and will be addressed. While I understand the hostility of many palestinian Arabs have played its part in this situation, I contend dealing with this issue may help bring about more peaceful relations. Be that as it may, the AP report is unfairly one-sided, and does not acknowledge the existence of many palestinian Arabs who still prefer to live under Israel rule.

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