2006-02-19-Sunrise over French Hill |
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jewishsightseeing.com, February 19, 2006 |
By Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM —I opened my mailbox
this morning to find an article that had been submitted to a journal
of urban planning. I had seen a previous version, and the editor was
asking my opinion on this revision.
The article deals with Jerusalem during the height of
Intifada al-Aqsa, and the barrier being built as a result. It is a
good piece of work that shows the impacts of terror and Israeli
responses on Jewish and Arab populations. Among the findings are data
showing that our own neighborhood of French Hill (named by one version
after General French, one of the British commanders in the region
during World War I, and by another version after a French church that
predated the famous warrior) suffered a relatively high incidence of
casualties during Intifada, and as a result experienced an
out-migration and relatively high decline in property values.
This rings true. What is called "French Hill
junction" is only about a kilometer from here, and the bus stops
at the location serve both nearby Arab neighborhoods as well as buses
traveling to Jewish settlements and army posts in the West Bank. Those
bus stops were frequent targets. One of the explosions was close
enough to our evening walk so that we could smell the chemicals used
to produce it.
The revision that I saw today is a fine piece of work,
that I recommend to be published. It brings the story up to date,
showing among other things a sharp decline in the violence since 2002,
and a resurgence of property values in French Hill! There are
Arabs moving into this and other "Jewish" neighborhoods,
which give them access to jobs, the university, and other services,
whereas lower-priced neighborhoods on the other side of the barrier
are now effectively shut off from Jerusalem.
One of my colleagues has a simple explanation for the
decline in violence. What he calls Israel's
"counter-insurgency" has killed or jailed Arab fighters as a
higher rate than organizations can recruit replacements. The article I
saw includes the finding that public opinion polls among Palestinians
show a shift from support to opposition to violence. it has been
costly for them.
Now, of course, the test is what happens with the new
Palestinian government led by Hamas. If it concentrates on cleaning
the stable of widespread Palestinian corruption, we will probably
leave it alone. If it wants to flex muscles and show what good Muslims
they are by taking all of Palestine by force, we also know what to do.
What is just as important as all this concern with
violence and movements of people and property values is what I saw in
the midst of reading the article. I stretched by aging neck and looked
out the window. French Hill may be more vulnerable than other
neighborhoods, insofar as it is on the eastern border of the city,
close to the desert and Arab neighborhoods. But its sunrises are
unsurpassed, especially in the winter when there are clouds to show
the colors.
Sharkansky is an emeritus member of the political science department at Hebrew University in Jerusalem |
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