EAST JERUSALEM'S "OUTPOSTS" POTENTIAL FLASHPOINTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 JERUSALEM 002228 SIPDIS NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE AND IPA; NSC FOR SHAPIRO/KUMAR; JOINT STAFF FOR LTGEN SELVA E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/08/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL KPAL IS SUBJECT: EAST JERUSALEM'S "OUTPOSTS" POTENTIAL FLASHPOINTS REF: JERUSALEM 2083 Classified By: Consul General Daniel Rubinstein for reasons 1.4 (b,d). ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Approximately 2,000 Israelis associated with religious-nationalist Zionist groups currently live in isolated outposts in otherwise Arab-populated East Jerusalem neighborhoods, such as Ras al-Amud, Abu Tor, and the Muslim and Christian quarters of Jerusalem's Old City. Anti-settlement NGOs label the result "abusive co-existence," and argue that the ultimate goal is Arab displacement. Pro-settlement groups, while arguing that the practice brings benefits (including municipal services) to poor Arab areas, acknowledge that the current reality is a regime of armed security guards, fenced rooftop playgrounds, and heightened tensions. End Summary. EAST JERUSALEM "OUTPOST" POPULATION AT 2,000 -------------- ¶2. (SBU) A total of approximately 179,000 Israelis live across the Green Line in East Jerusalem, largely concentrated in neighborhoods built in the years after 1967, such as Neve Yaakov, Pisgat Zeev, and Gilo. In contrast, some 2,000 religious-nationalist settlers have chosen to purchase or occupy property outside these planned communities, taking up residence in small enclaves among East Jerusalem's 254,000 Arab residents. ¶3. (SBU) These enclave "outposts" range from dilapidated shacks surrounded with concertina wire erected on the roofs of shops in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, to USD 3 million apartments perched atop the Mount of Olives amid lower-middle-class Arab homes. Residences are concentrated in Jerusalem's Old City and the "City of David" archeological site to its immediate south, as well as the perimeter of the Holy Basin, in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah, At-Tur, Ras al-Amud, the slopes west of Abu Dis, Jabal Mukabber, and Abu Tor. CRITICS CALL IT "ABUSIVE COEXISTENCE" -------------- ¶4. (U) Israeli human rights groups oppose the practice as creating what they call "abusive co-existence" on the ground. In an October 2009 assessment, Sarah Kreimer of the anti-settlement NGO Ir Amim argued that the phenomenon "is not the result of individual Jews seeking better housing conditions... indeed, the neighborhoods into which they are moving are some of Jerusalem's poorest and most crowded. Instead, the settlers often seek to displace Palestinian families in order to increase the proportion of Jews living in these neighborhoods... (these) organizations are involved in an organized, ideological effort to imbed Jewish populations and institutions in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods in order to derail a future resolution in Jerusalem." RELIGIOUS-NATIONALISTS: "JERUSALEM BELONGS TO US" -------------- -------------- ¶5. (C) In a December 1 meeting, Aryeh King of the Israel Land Fund (ILF) -- which promotes Israeli residence in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem -- noted that one of his primary objectives was preventing the emergence of a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem. "We don't believe that Jerusalem belongs to us because of David Ben Gurion," King said. "Jerusalem belongs to us because it was promised to us, because it is the inheritance of Abraham and Isaac." He noted that the most significant constraint on ILF activity was the global financial crisis, and a pinch in foreign funding. King identified U.S. citizen Irving Moskovitz as a major ILF donor, and said, "I tell the Moskovitz family of Miami that in fifty years, my grandchildren will learn about you in school, about your Jewish vision for Jerusalem." ¶6. (C) On December 2, Daniel Luria of Ateret Cohanim -- which matches investors with properties in the Old City's Muslim and Christian quarters -- echoed the same themes. He told Post, "We're not just another empire that has come and gone. This is Jerusalem. This is it, where the Third Temple will be built on the Temple Mount. We're not going to build it -- we have to leave something for God to do. But he's not going to come if there are more Arabs and Christians than Jews, if there are more mosques and churches than synagogues. God won't come if the Jews don't love Jerusalem." JERUSALEM 00002228 002 OF 003 PALESTINIAN RESIDENTS OFFERED INCENTIVES TO SELL -------------- --- ¶7. (C) Luria took ConGenoffs on a partial tour of the four yeshivas (seminaries) and approximately 85 residential units in the Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City that Ateret Cohanim volunteers have helped populate. Residences featured heavy security doors, CCTV cameras, coils of concertina wire, and Israeli flags. Some homes were purchased from Arab residents, who, Luria said, were offered "incentives" in the form of unusually high compensation, jobs, and resettlement -- sometimes to the United States -- for the sale of their homes. In other cases, individual families settled in makeshift structures of plywood and plexiglass, ringed with barbed wire, on the rooftops of Muslim Quarter shops and residences. "COEXISTENCE" BASED ON CONTRACT SECURITY -------------- ¶8. (C) Luria claimed that "there's a certain amount of co-existence, no matter how basic it may be" between religious-nationalist families living in the Muslim Quarter and their Arab neighbors. He acknowledged that children resident in these Ateret Cohanim-affiliated apartments are escorted to and from school by armed security guards, and that a portion of Ateret Cohanim's fundraising is allotted for the building of fenced rooftop playgrounds for children not allowed to play in the streets with children of their Arab neighbors. He estimated the annual cost to the GOI Ministry of Construction and Housing of providing contract security for these enclaves in East Jerusalem at USD 7 million. (NGO Ir Amim puts the number closer to USD 13 million.) TENSIONS RUNNING HIGH IN SILWAN -------------- ¶9. (C) According to Luria, the situation in Silwan -- where approximately 30 Israelis live in two apartment buildings (including Beit Yehonatan, reftel) in one of Jerusalem's poorest Arab neighborhoods -- is particularly tense. "The hatred (in Silwan) is real," he said. "It's as wild as you can get in Jerusalem. It's not Gaza. But there are clans, who are involved in Moltov cocktails, burning tires. When the Chief of Police comes in, with his entourage, he's attacked with concrete blocks." Luria concluded, "they're throwing washing machines out the second story window at us. So they're not sympathetic neighbors." PARALLEL EXISTENCE IN RAS AL-AMUD -------------- ¶10. (C) Aryeh King, who lives in the Maaleh HaZeitim luxury apartment bloc (currently under expansion) in Ras al-Amud, also argued that a form of co-existence was present with his neighbors, saying, "Arabs are happy when Jews move into the neighborhood, because they know it will be a clean, quiet neighborhood." An Arab resident of Ras al-Amud, asked if he had ever met his neighbors living in Ras al-Amud, shook his head. "They live in a prison," he said. "They come and go in their cars. They don't walk in the streets. Because they know what will be thrown at them will not be flowers." ATERET COHANIM: CLOSE THE GATE OF OSLO -------------- ¶11. (C) Daniel Luria spoke out forcefully against the creation of a Palestinian state, saying, "we have to close the gate opened by Oslo. To create a Palestinian entity, a Hamas, a Hizballah, a PA (Palestinian Authority) entity -- we're not talking about righteous gentiles here. Abbas speaks English better than Arafat. He doesn't wear a kaffiyeh, he doesn't fumble. But his agenda is the same." He continued, "there can't be a Palestinian state on the land of Israel. They can go to Jordan. They can accept living under Israeli sovereignty. Or there will be war, within five years, and my children will fight in it." ¶12. (C) Luria was also skeptical of the possibility of social harmony with his Arab Israeli co-citizens, saying, "Israeli Arabs are the same (as those in the West Bank and Gaza). They're flying the Hamas flag. In one way, (Meir) Kahane was right. There's homegrown terrorism coming up. If I was an Arab, I wouldn't identify with the HaTikva (national anthem),with the Jewish homeland. But the answer is not creating a Palestinian State. The next war, there will be a real victor. Because I'm not leaving Maale Adumim; I'm not JERUSALEM 00002228 003 OF 003 going back to Australia." Note: Luria told Post that he was born and raised in Australia, and became an Israeli citizen fourteen years ago. End Note. RUBINSTEIN