2006-01-22-jerusalem-condos

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