2006-01-22-Jerusalem condos |
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jewishsightseeing.com, January 22, 2006 |
By Ira Sharkansky
There is an item on the front page of today's Ha'aretz that
displays several aspects of the Israeli mosaic. All of them are negative,
and make me wonder if, at my advanced age, I can sign on to some other
national community.
The article describes what it calls the "dumping"
of an apartment project in East Jerusalem on naive American Jews. http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/672905.html
At issue is a project being built between the promenade that
overlooks the Old City, and an Arab neighborhood by the name of Jabel
Mukaber. According to the article, developers are flogging the site for the
magnificence of its views (Judean desert to one side, the Old City to
another), as well as its exotic location close to an Arab village. The
target clientele for purchase are well-to-do Orthodox American Jews, who
wish to invest in Jerusalem and perhaps live here part time during their
holidays. They are described as physicians, lawyers, and accountants who can
afford $350,000 to $550,000 for what are billed as luxury apartments in a
project that will include a sports complex, walking paths connected to the
established promenade, gated security, shopping center, synagogue and ritual
bath. The article describes a sales pitch directed only to American Jews,
who are being told that Israelis will buy the lower priced apartments on the
lower floors, and provide a presence on the site while the Americans are
abroad. According to the newspaper, one of the people selling the project is
a Miami woman who has never been to Israel. A claim of being a 10 minute
drive from the city center would work only at high speed in the middle
of the night, if the traffic lights are all green. So far, there has been no
campaign directed at Israelis.
Part of the pitch is said to be happy Arabs who will benefit
from the improvements in roads, water, sewage that the project will bring to
their area of Jerusalem. Developers are making a comparison with Abu Tor, a
neighborhood divided between a Jewish section up-hill and an Arab section
down-hill. Only the producers of maps call Abu Tor a single neighborhood.
Interviews with residents of Jabel Mukaber reveal what a realist would
expect. It is something other than a welcome.
To be sure, one feature of the highly negative portrayal is
that it appears in Ha'aretz. Of Israeli's major newspapers, that is the most
critical of the current government, and the most likely to promote
concession and oppose anything to arouse Arab frustration or anger. In this
case, however, one can only wonder at the greed of real estate developers, and
their efforts to profit from a target population least likely to know what
they are doing. Arab protests reflect not only generalized anti-Semitism,
but specific grievances. They find it difficult to build legally within or
near their neighborhoods, and must risk legal proceedings that may result in
the destruction of homes when they build illegally. Jewish entrepreneurs, in
contrast, manage to obtain land and permission to build on choice sites
bordering Arab communities. Involved in this legal challenge is the claim
that part of the land now destined for Jewish housing was expropriated from
Arab ownership in order to be preserved as parkland.
Assuming the legal challenges to the project do not succeed
and construction continues, what should potential buyers consider?
Delays in the construction of public facilities at the
project (shops, synagogue, ritual bath, park land), especially if a downturn
in the security situation gets through to potential investors, and the
project does not meet aspirations. The recent security picture has been
quiet when compared to four years ago when there were days with several
gruesome incidents. Now they appear only monthly, or even less. However,
Hamas is likely to do well in this week's Palestinian elections, and that
will cause at least a chill, and maybe a freeze in Israeli-Palestinian
relations, which are not warm or productive or progress in any case. Who
knows what will come? It does not seem like a timely period to invest.
The likelihood of minor sabotage in the construction of
apartments. Palestinian and Israeli Arab workers will in all probability be
doing most of the building. While they will like the opportunity for work,
they may also employ one or another of the tricks to make life
difficult for the Jews who move in. One is to include fresh eggs in the
walls as they are being plastered over. A few months later it will be
difficult to locate just where the smell is coming from. Another is to add
some stones to the plumbing, which sooner or later will get in the way of a
toilet flush.
Yet another problem is the annoyances associated with
living alongside an unfriendly community. Break-ins, vandalism of outdoor
fixtures, and car thefts are the language of this neighborliness.
Reading between the lines of a negative article, the legal
charges against may not be weighty enough to impress the courts. Thus, it
may continue despite the protests of Arabs who feel themselves hurt by the
project, and Jews concerned about further provocations. The publication
of the article might be timed to provoke a problem for the Olmert
government. A government with a dominant Labor or Mertez presence could stop
the project, but that prospect is not in the cards for the end-of-March
Israeli election. Even if the project passes through the hurdles of politics
and law, there remains the question about its wisdom. "Buyer
beware" is an appropriate answer, but it may not be suitable for the
clientele being targeted.
Sharkansky is an emeritus member of the political science department at Hebrew University in Jerusalem |