Jerusalem mayor: U.S. aid needed

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Jerusalem’s mayor is asking Americans to invest in upgrading his city - one of the poorest in Israel - in a plan he says also will benefit the capital’s 270,000 Palestinian Arabs.

“I’d like to see the world join forces to save the city of Jerusalem,” Nir Barkat told editors and reporters of The Washington Times on Friday.

“I told some members of the U.S. administration, ‘I think the world just raised $5 billion for Gaza. So you only invest after a war. … I will prepare the plans anyway because I believe we should invest in Arabs in East Jerusalem. And why just invest after a war? Maybe we eliminate a war and invest in infrastructure and enable people to improve the quality of life of Jerusalem.”

Mr. Barkat, however, said he could not promise to halt dismantlement of Palestinian housing in East Jerusalem built by Arab residents who have been unable to obtain permits.

“How can I guarantee anybody anything?” he said, asserting that illegal construction in the predominantly Jewish western part of the capital also has been demolished. He said, however, “The process of getting licenses [to build] in East Jerusalem is far from what it should be, and we will fix it.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized the demolitions during her recent trip to Israel. Palestinians living in targeted neighborhoods claim they own the land on which their houses sit.

Mr. Barkat, a high-tech millionaire who said he takes only a shekel a year in pay (less than 25 U.S. cents), is adamantly opposed to ceding any part of Jerusalem to the Palestinians in a peace agreement but insists his vision for redevelopment would benefit all of its citizens.

Holy to three major faiths, Jerusalem has an annual municipal budget of less than $800 million a year for a population of about 800,000.

It is beset with conflicts not only between Arabs and Jews but also among Jews, including ultraorthodox Jews who make up about 30 percent of the city’s population and demand modest dress and behavior in their expanding neighborhoods.

Mr. Barkat said that many secular Jews have left Jerusalem, which he attributed largely to a lack of housing and jobs.

As a result of the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel acquired the Arab-majority eastern half of the city that contains the remains of the second Jewish Temple’s outer wall, as well as the Dome of the Rock, from which Muslims believe the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. Because of its religious significance, the site known by Jews as the Temple Mount and by the Arabs as the Noble Sanctuary is at the heart of the Arab-Israeli dispute.

Mr. Barkat said Jerusalem must remain undivided and under Israeli administration.

“It has to stay undivided, it has to stay a united city, it has to be open for all religions,” he said.

He said that if the city were to fall into Arab hands, its open status could be in jeopardy.

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