"Death to Israel -- oh, and what's the rent on this place?" Here is an interesting story in light of the barrage of outrage to which we are constantly subjected from Palestinian Arabs about the Jewish presence in the lands of Israel. That avalanche of rhetoric doesn't stop the more pragmatic among them to choose to live a better life and settle in Israel.
"Jerusalem barrier prompts Arabs to move across town," from the Washington Times, with thanks to M615.
JERUSALEM -- An unanticipated consequence of Israel's West Bank security barrier has been an influx of Israeli Arabs into Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem who hope to remain on the Israeli side of the barrier.Salam Kusideh is one of a growing number of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship who have moved across the highway from Arab neighborhoods of Beit Hanineh and Shuafat in search of cheaper housing and a better quality of life in the Jewish suburb of Pisgat Ze'ev.
After eight months in his five-bedroom duplex, Mr. Kusideh is encouraging other Palestinians to follow.
"I tell them the conditions are excellent here," the 38-year-old carpenter said without hesitation. "Everything is orderly."
The security barrier, designed to seal off Jerusalem from the West Bank, has driven up real estate and rental prices in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem as thousands of Palestinians return to the city limits.
Fearing that they may be stripped of residency rights that give them access to Israeli government social services, they are willing to pay higher prices for small dwellings on the Israeli side of the barrier.
"They want to escape the wall," said Jamal Natsche, a real-estate broker from Beit Hanineh. "If you're stuck on the other side, in the long run, you'll lose your ID."
The rising prices in Arab neighborhoods are prompting people such as Mr. Kusideh to consider Pisgat Ze'ev, which was developed as a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem in the 1980s. There, an influx of Palestinians is driving prices in the opposite direction.
Only a few hundred Arabs live in the neighborhood of 45,000 residents, but the flow is increasing.
"I didn't expect that they would sell it to us. There are a lot of Jews that won't sell apartments to Arabs," said Mr. Kusideh's wife, Grace, who hails from a Christian Palestinian village near the West Bank city of Jenin.
There goes the neighberhood.
the usual way of muslims is to move in aand than increase their numbers until they have driven out all jewish families. it's stupidity of the jews to allow these arab muslims to move in, knowing that if a jew tries to move into a palastinian neighberhood the arab will be shot by fellow arabs and jew's lives will be threatned daily.
This particular couple appears to be Christian as I don't think many Muslim women are named Grace. The Christian Arab minority in predominantly Muslim areas will have much to worry about as the wall goes up as we read nearly daily here on JW/DW. I also don't think the Jewish majority has much, if anything, to fear from Arab Christians moving into Jewish neighborhoods.
"After eight months in his five-bedroom duplex..."
A 38-year-old carpenter.
How many carpenters, in their late '30s, in this country, could afford a "five-bedroom duplex"? And then there all those "social services" waiting for the local Arabs ("Palestinians" or "Israeli Arabs" -- take your choice). One hears from amazed tourists who visit an Israeli hospital about the waiting-rooms overflowing with Arabs waiting for free care, care that is the equal of the most advanced in Europe or America (it was to take advantage of Jewish doctors that Edward Said's mother moved, in her late pregnancy, from Cairo to Jerusalem, allowing him ever after to present himelf as an "anguished Palestinian" -- nice work if you can get it, especially in Western universities).
Amazing, what those Nazi-like Israelis will do, isn't it? All that seeming solicitiousness, that generosity to those who either wish them ill or would if the situation were right. Must be some kind of trick. So why do the representatives of the Western press never report on any of this, this diabolical Israeli trick of free advanced medical care, and so much else, that the local Arabs exploit to the expensive fullest?
"The security barrier, designed to seal off Jerusalem from the West Bank, has driven up real estate and rental prices in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem as thousands of Palestinians return to the city limits"
The key word is RETURN! These are the Jerusalem Christians who were forced out of Jerusalem due to then Mayor Ehud Olmert's corrupt development programs that took their properties and forced them out of Jerusalem. Now, having lost their original homes and property, they are having to return as renters.
These Christian Palestinians are fleeing the Muslims for the safety of Israel. Not only that, the husband is an Israeli citizen and should have the right to live anywhere in Israel. The Palestinians he is encouraging to follow would be almost all Christian as well. They should be welcomed!
If Israelis want to protect themselves AND keep real estate and rental prices afforable, they should forget building this ugly, blasphemous, and ultimately ineffective wall. Istead, they should team up with the Christians and expel the Muslims back across the Jordan.
Of course there is order in Israel. Israel is civilized. There's the problem you Pali's. You care more about blowing up Israeli's and creating havoc than you do living in a civilized world.
Sounds to me like Israel is having an invasion. Let the Pali's live in their squalor. They created it after all.
Haven't the Pali's had as much time to build a nation as Israel has? Before the war of 1967 the Pali's had all that extra land that now they want back. Why during all this time could they have not built up a nation like the Israelis have? Are they just dumber? Too pre-occupied with a past that only exists in their minds? Of course the Jews put all those stupidity-enhancing chemicals in the Pali's drinking water and sprayed the populace with dumbass-gas.
This story is conclusive proof that Israeli is not an "apartheid" state as the "leftist" disciples of Goebbels would have it.
On the other hand, maybe us evil Jews are diabolically clever to be enticing poor Arabs to live in our neighborhoods.
By the way, I have been there and I know from personal observation that some Arabs have been living in Pisgat Ze'ev for years, since the early nineties at least when most of the neighborhood was built.
I should also state that forbidding Jews to live in east Jerusalem is racist. Which means that the EU is racist against Jews.
Perhaps the Arabs who are coming into Israel are the Christians.
Perhaps Muslims move to a Jewish Nieghbourhood their children will see the greatness of the Infidel World compared to the savagery of Islam, and chose to join greatness and stop being Muslim.
Apastasy is perfectly legal in Israel.
I think this is an opportunity for the Jews to have their first major conversions since the Roman Empire.
chsw:
These are DEFINITELY Christians. Not only does the article state that the wife, Grace, is from a Christian village near Jenin, but from the man's name, it is clear that he is a Christian as well. He is also an ISRAELI!
Robert,
Your comments are wrong on this one. This is exactly what all of us anti-jihadist have been advocating: Christians and Jews co-operating against the Muslims.
Bless the Jews of Pisgat Ze'ev who are welcoming these Christians. There is no dhimmitude here.
A more detailed article in Jewish Week at:
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=12345
about Mr. Kusideh, his wife Grace, and their friend Yousef Majlatoun who convinced them to move to Pisgat Ze'ev. Although the article doesn't mention it, the Majlatouns are a Christian family as well.
Look at these results from the Polling station.
Do you support the "immigration protest of May 1st?"
N = 13,312 Margin of Error +/- .5%
........ Yes ...... No .... Undecided
Dem .... 29.8% .... 64.6% .... 5.6%
Ind .... 13.8% .... 82.0% .... 4.2%
Rep .... 3.2% .... 95.6% .... 1.2%
Overall Percentages
15.7% supported the May 1st protest ...
80.6% did not ...
3.7% are undecided
These are DRAMATIC results. Any candidate running in the
mid-term elections better take note of these results. If you
are running against someone who SUPPORTS the illegal immigrants,
this issue alone might decide the election.
There are MANY politicians who are running away from what is
clear; The American public wants a stop to illegal immigration
and does not believe that illegals deserve citizenship.
Now this is a turn-about, Jews refusing to sell land and property to Arabs. Suppose a Jew does sell to an Arab, do you suppose other Jews will catch the seller and slice his head off, as the Arabs do when Arabs sell to Jews?
Or will sanity and civility prevail? If Olmert has the hots to uproot most Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, wouldn't it be prudent not to permit any additional construction by anyone, Jew or Arab?
Sounds to me there a lot of one-way streets in those settlements, and none of them have Jewish names.