http://www.jpost.com/com/Archive/10.May.1999/News/Article-4.html
Ex-advisers to Kollek: Ruthless housing quota system for Arabs
By Ben Lynfield
JERUSALEM (May 10) - Israel has used a "ruthless" quota system to curb the
ability of Arabs to build legally in east Jerusalem, according to a new book to be
published today by two advisers to former mayor Teddy Kollek, Amir Cheshin
and Avi Melamed, and Bill Hutman, a reporter who covered the Jerusalem beat
for The Jerusalem Post.
The housing quotas for Arab neighborhoods, which the authors of Separate and
Unequal (Harvard University Press) argue have nothing to do with urban
planning considerations, have been aimed at encouraging Arabs to leave
Jerusalem and at limiting the Arab population to 28.8 percent, what it was in June
1967.
The quotas are outlined in a 1993 document of the city's planning department
that the authors culled from Kollek's personal archive. A chart from the
document listing neighborhoods and their quotas is reprinted in the book.
"Allowing too many new homes in Arab neighborhoods would mean too many
Arab residents in the city," has been the essence of the municipality and
government policy, write the authors. "The idea was to move as many Jews as
possible into east Jerusalem, and move as many Arabs as possible out of the city
entirely."
"It was a ruthless policy, if only for the fact that the needs (to say nothing of the
rights) of Palestinian residents were ignored," the book says.
A spokeswoman for the Jerusalem Municipality declined to comment yesterday,
saying: "We don't react to books." Housing Ministry media adviser Moshe Eilat
said that there are no housing quotas for Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem. "The
policy now is to develop east Jerusalem and enable residents to have
[residences], but on the basis of approved building plans. I can't tell what went
on in the past."
He said he was not familiar with a 28.8 percent target figure for limiting the Arab
population of Jerusalem, but added: "There is an intention in Jerusalem to have a
majority of Jews. There has been a desire to perpetuate the 1967 demographic
situation and to continue with this status quo."
Another chapter of the book relates how Kollek, worried about being ousted
from office by the Likud's Ehud Olmert, was anxious to avert a stay-away call
by the PLO that would discourage eligible Arab voters from voting, according to
the book. The PLO had traditionally urged east Jerusalem residents to refrain
from voting in municipal contests, believing this would constitute recognition of
Israel's claims to the entire city.
In 1993, Kollek met twice secretly with Faisal Husseini, the top PLO figure in the
city, to coax an Arab turnout, the book recounts. He also asked a Palestinian
businessman with contacts in the PLO, Omar Khatib, to transmit a message to
Arafat. "The mayor asked Khatib, also known as Abu Khalid, to see if Arafat
would be willing to give his approval for Palestinians in east Jerusalem to vote in
the mayoral election, or at least not make any statement or take any action
preventing such participation," the book says. In return, Kollek promised to push
through a plan granting greater self-rule to east Jerusalem residents.
The book said that, during his meetings with Husseini and other Palestinian
leaders, Kollek was made to believe that Arafat would neither call for
participation, nor vocally oppose it. In the event, only 5.8 percent of eligible Arab
voters participated in the election.
Husseini, asked last week about the veracity of the account, declined to
comment on it specifically, but hinted that he may have been involved in
discussions about the elections. "I would like to say that, unfortunately, Teddy
Kollek discouraged Arabs from voting by accepting the project of Ras
al-Amud."
Shortly before election day, the city council adopted a plan approving Jewish
housing in the Arab Ras al-Amud area, with Kollek walking out of the meeting
and not being present at the time of the vote.
Kollek, 87, said through a spokesman yesterday that he "can't remember
delivering such a message to Arafat, but in general whenever I spoke to Faisal
Husseini, I told him how important it is for Arabs in Jerusalem to vote."
