Arabs move into Jewish towns

This is not purely or technically an article on religion, but it does have some religious flavor, and provides a fascinating twist on an area that often is seen as an arena for interreligious tensions. Here it looks more like a question of a little air conditioning in the heat.

Holy city twist: Upwardly mobile Arabs moving into neighborhoods built for Jews



This
July 30, 2009 photo shows Israelis sitting in a coffee shop as Arab
women walk past in the French hill neighborhood of northern Jerusalem.
A small but growing number of Arabs is moving into Jewish neighborhoods
in Jerusalem. Most come for the better services and reasonable rents,

JERUSALEM
(AP) — Yousef Majlaton moved into the Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat
Zeev for such comforts as proper running water and regular garbage
pickup.

The hillside sprawl of townhouses and apartment blocks was built for Jews, and Majlaton is a Palestinian.

Pisgat Zeev is part of Israel’s effort to fortify its presence in
Jerusalem’s eastern half which it captured in the 1967 war.

It wasn’t so much the politics of this contested city that drew
Majlaton to Pisgat Zeev, however; it was the prospect of escaping the
potholed roads and scant municipal services he endured for 19 years
while renting in an Arab neighborhood.

“You see that air conditioner?” he said, pointing to the large
wall unit cooling his living room. “In the Arab areas, the electricity
is too weak to run one that big.”

 

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