Discrimination Jerusalem-style

Jerusalem City Hall, Bldg. #4

A member of the Jerusalem City Council, Meir Margalit, says "There is systematic discrimination against Palestinians in the city so they will leave by themselves." Briefing EAs in his office at City Hall in Israeli West Jerusalem, he said that Palestinians account for 38% of Jerusalem's population, but get only 11% of the city's budget. He says 75% of the Palestinians in Jerusalem (and 86% of the Palestinian children) live in poverty.  As he puts it,  "poverty and illiteracy are tools of control," and the city's policy toward the Palestinians is "be poor and shut up."

Councilman Meir Margalit

East Jerusalem garbage bin

Councilman Margalit says welfare, garbage collection, and education are three areas in which Jerusalem Palestinians are shortchanged, but they get adequate health care.

East Jerusalem school

Mr. Margalit says thousands of Palestinian children in Jerusalem cannot get into schools  because there are not enough spaces, and 40% of Palestinians drop out before completing school. In Israeli West Jerusalem the dropout rate is only 1%.

The Councilman says that the municipality finds pretexts to deny building permits for Palestinians, so their homes can be demolished. The draft master plan would permit 13,450 more Palestinian homes, but in an area that people are unlikely to move to. For cultural reasons, they prefer to stay in their present communities and build without permits, hoping the structures are not destroyed.

If present growth trends continue, the Councilman says Palestinians will be a majority of the population of Jerusalem  by 2025.  He believes that the city can still be the capital of two states, Israel and Palestine.

Mr. Margalit is now serving his second term on the City Council. He was elected by Israelis who share his anti-discrimination views--not by Palestinians, because they boycott the elections to protest the illegal annexation in 1967. He says there are only two other leftist members on the 31-member Council, so they do not have enough votes to change policies. He thinks that many Israelis would like to see an end to the occupation, but keep voting for rightist parties from inertia.

Jerusalem EAPPI Team: George from the U.S., Jan from Canada, Eva from Germany, Jenny from the U.K, Olli from Finland