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Part of the Old City, including the western wall of the Temple.

Jerusalem Divided

On the 25th anniversary of Jerusalem Day, the holy city is
legally whole. But in practical terms, one side is Jewish and
the other side is Arab.

LARRY DERFNER

Israel Correspondent

1111 here is a hollowness to

the Jerusalem Day
celebrations this year,
May 31, marking 25 years
since the capital was offi-
cially reunified — when the
Israeli Army captured from
ordan the Old City, in-
cluding the holy Western
Wall, and the entire eastern,
Arab sector of the city. The
hollowness is there because
since December 9, 1987, the
first day of the intifada,
Jerusalem has, in effect,
been redivided — one side
Jewish, the other side Arab.
Before the intifada, Jews
didn't hesitate to go into the
thin, winding alleys of the
Old City's Moslem Quarter
to bargain with the Arab
--merchants or, if they weren't
observant, to visit the stunn-
ing Dome of the Rock and Al-
Aqsa mosques on the TeMple
Mount. Most felt free to go
into Arab east Jerusalem
beyond the Old City to do
business with the authorized
money changers, or to eat in
one of the sumptuous Arab
restaurants. No more. All

but the most adventurous, or
reckless, Jews now keep to
the west side of the capital.
During a visit to the Old
City last week on Lag
B'Omer, I went looking for
Israeli Jews in the Moslem
Quarter. I saw plenty of
tourists, but only one Israeli,
Elnatan Fernandez, a teen-
ager from Rehovot taking
his holiday in the capital.
"Aren't you scared?" I
asked him. "Let's say I'm
cautious," he replied. "I
wouldn't come in here at
night."
He said he thinks his
friends would walk through
the Moslem Quarter but ac-
knowledged that he did not
plan to tell his parents
where he'd been.
I went from the Moslem
Quarter into the Jewish
Quarter, through the Cardo
area, where many of the gift
shops have gone broke over
the last four and a half years
because of the sharp fall-off
in tourism, and the wariness
of Israelis. Roni, who
wouldn't give his last name,
rented one of the Judaica
shops in the Cardo about six
years ago.
"I've gone into big debt

since then," Roni said.
"There's never been really
good times here for me be-
cause after I moved in here,
there was that incident on
the Achille Lauro, and Israel
attacked the PLO in Tunis
and already tourists were
staying away. Then the in-
tifada started, which was a
heavy blow, and then the
Gulf War sort of finished the
job. I used to walk through
the Moslem Quarter to come

With Jews afraid to
step over the line
into the Arab
sector, isn't
Jerusalem still a
divided capital?

here because it was quicker
for me, but since the in-
tifada, I enter only through
the Jewish Quarter."
On Habad- Street in the
Jewish Quarter, I struck up
a conversation with Shari
Goodstein-Hilbuch, who left
Knoxville, Tennessee, 10
years ago to settle in the
quarter. It turned out that
she is involved in a project

that is enraging Jerusalem's
Arabs and upsetting many of
Jerusalem's Jews, like
Mayor Teddy Kollek, who
are trying to maintain what
co-existence there is in the
city.
Ms. Goodstein-Hilbuch is
the architect designing most
of the apartments in the
Moslem Quarter which Ariel
Sharon's Housing Ministry
and the quarter's two
yeshivas, Ateret Cohanim
and Atara L'Yoshna, intend
to populate with 35 Jewish
families.
Ms. Goodstein-Hilbuch,
whose connection with the
yeshivot is only professional,
doesn't see herself as _help-
ing to antagonize the city's
Arabs. On the contrary, she
says, "I'm doing this because
I want to break down the
walls between Jews and
Arabs. If we stay out of the
Moslem Quarter, the walls
will become stronger."
Ariel Sharon himself owns
an apartment in the Moslem
Quarter, which he visits
only rarely, but which is
guarded constantly by
Israeli soldiers. The Housing
Ministry, together with
Elad, an organization fund-

ed largely by wealthy
American Jews, is planning
to build 205 units for Jewish
families in the City of David,
an Arab village just east of
the Old City. Some Arab
families in the area have
been evicted from their
homes by Jewish settlers in
a title dispute over the prop-
erties.
Backers of the movement
to create a growing Jewish
presence in east Jerusalem
argue that Jews can live
anywhere they wish in other
free countries, so how on
earth can they be banned
from living anywhere in
Israel? Opponents of this
view, such as Mr. Kollek,
Point out that the status quo
in Jerusalem is one of volun-
tary segregation, Jews liv-
ing among Jews and Arabs
among Arabs.
In the Old City, the Israeli
Supreme Court has enforced
this arrangement, barring
Arabs from living in the
Jewish Quarter, with a view
towards regenerating the
Jewish presence there. Jew-
ish residents of the quarter
were expelled by Jordan in
1948, and began coming
back after the Six Day War.

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