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East Jerusalem's last refuge — Islam

Residents feel isolated, cast aside by Israelis

By Joshua Mitnick | Saturday, October 4, 2008

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JERUSALEM | A recent string of shootings and vehicle rampages in Israel's capital has focused attention on Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, long regarded as politically moderate and cosmopolitan.

Three incidents involving motor vehicles and a shooting at a Jewish religious school by young East Jerusalemites have prompted Israelis to ask whether the Palestinian residents of the city - who can travel freely throughout the country - pose a greater threat than their brethren in the West Bank.

Israelis fear a new wave of terrorism within their capital, while local Arabs call the evidence circumstantial.

Both sides acknowledge that Islam is on the rise in East Jerusalem. An increasing number of children are studying in religious schools, mosque attendance is up and more women are wearing head scarves.

The 270,000 Arabs living in parts of the city annexed by Israel after the 1967 war are considered permanent residents of Israel and have access to the social welfare system. But living at the nexus of the West Bank and Israel has left them in a political vacuum. Israel has given short shrift to education, roads and development in the eastern part of the city while the Palestinian Authority is banned from operating there.

"People are searching for an identity, and in the absence of a political identity, the religious identity is there," said Mohammed Dajani, a professor at Al Quds University and the founder of a Wassatiya, a liberal Islamic political party that supports the Arab-Israeli peace process.

"The problem is that the religious identity being taught in the mosques and the schools is very radical," he said. "What you are being taught is that Islam is the religion of God, and the other ones have strayed."

A drive around the narrow alleys of Sur Baher, a village in the southeastern corner of Jerusalem, recently revealed Islamic graffiti such as "Remember our prophet Muhammad."

A banner draped from one of the Islamic schools in the neighborhood featured a red traffic sign: "Stop! What have you done to prepare yourself for Ramadan?"

At a convenience store across the street from the school, Alia Hammoudeh read a Koran with elaborate calligraphy while her 19-year-old sister, Hanin, explained how the move from a secular school overseen by the Israeli-run municipality to an Islamic high school prompted her to change her dress.