Left: An injured woman waits to be evacuated after a
bomber blew herself up on the corner of Jaffa Road and
King George Street in Jerusalem on Sunday.

Below: Israeli forensics investigate the scene around the
remains of a suicide bomber who detonated explosives in
downtown Jerusalem.

Due to continued warnings of
attacks, there seemed to be more bor-
der police patrolling the streets on
Monday than customers. Soldiers
armed with M-16 assault rifles and
wearing neon yellow winter gear
prowled the rooftops of buildings,
looking down upon what has become
known as "the terrorists' intersection"
at the corner of Jaffa Road and King
George Street.
"Our preventive actions today are
the same as they have been for some
time," Franco said. "There is almost
nothing we can do to stop terror with-
out a buffer separating" Jerusalem
"from the West Bank."
In addition to bolstering Jerusalem
police forces with five new companies,
the police and government are consid-
ering building a seven-mile-long wall
that would separate eastern and west-
ern Jerusalem. They also would set up
checkpoints electronic sensors to
Jerusalem
residents
with
"income
tax
AARON LIGHTNER
points" similar to those given to Negev detect infiltrators.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
The plan was to be presented to the
and Galilee residents.
government
on Tuesday. If implement-
But for many with businesses in the
Jerusalem
ed,
it
would
constitute the first divi-
heart of the city, the effort comes too
ight recent terror attacks in
sion
of
Jerusalem
since 1967 — and
late.
the heart of downtown
would
contradict
the
Israeli pledge
"For many of us, business is no
Jerusalem have reduced a
that
the
"unified"
capital
would never
longer profitable," said Zion
bustling economic zone to
again
be
divided.
Barsheshe, leaning heavily on the
an economic no-man's land.
In Jerusalem last year, 66 attacks left
counter of his Coffee Time cafe.
On Sunday, Jan. 27, a Palestinian
33
people dead and 513 wounded,
Barsheshe used to employ 60 people
woman exploded a bomb near the
according
to Police Commissioner
in his three stores near Zion Square, at
intersection of Jaffa Road and King
Shlomo
Aharonish
the bottom of the Ben-Yehuda Street
George Street, killing an elderly man
Like many of his competitors,
pedestrian mall.
and injuring more than 125 people.
Barsheshe
invested huge sums in his
"Now I have five people working
The force of the blast shattered the
stores
during
the peace-process eupho-
here. I've paid $350,000 out of my
glass storefronts of 60 shops and sent
ria
and
in
preparation
for the year
own pocket to keep these places afloat
merchandise all over the floors.
2000,
expecting
hordes
of tourists to
since the intifada (Palestinian uprising)
Life returned to a tense normality
descend
on
Jerusalem.
started" in September 2000, he said.
on Monday. Pedestrians crunched on
But that gamble failed when the
"But now the banks are breathing
glass as they made their way past
Palestinians
turned to violence and
down my neck, and I've had to close
police barricades and battered stores.
streets
became
deserted.
one of the places.
Whatever bloodstains and bits of
According
to
the
"Hell, I don't even let my own chil-
flesh remained after the cleaning crew's
daily Yediot Achronot,
dren
come
down
here,
so
how
can
I
sandblasters had passed were washed
fully half of the
expect tourists to come?" he asked.
away by heavy winter rains.
tourism employees in
Filling in for his boss, Micky Levy
In an effort to revive downtown
Jerusalem
have been
— who suffered a massive heart attack
Jerusalem's economy, Mayor Ehud
laid
off,
hotels
are at
after the bombing — Jerusalem's
Olmert held discussions Monday with
less
than
30
percent
deputy police commander, Ilan
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and
occupancy and shop-
Franco, tried to soothe shopkeepers'
Finance Minister Silvan Shalom on
ping is down 80 per-
frayed nerves on Monday.
possible rescue plans for Jaffa Road,
cent since the intifa-
Undercover and regular police are
the city's main thoroughfare.
da began almost a
Olmert demanded that businesses in "maximally deployed in order to pre-
year
and a half ago.
vent another attack in this hard-hit
the city center receive discounts on
So
great is the
area," Franco said on a visit down-
property tax or sales tax exemptions.
damage
to
town.
Olmert also asked Sharon to provide
Jerusalem's tourism

33

2/1

2002

22

industry that a group of 55 Israeli
hotels decided to sue the Palestinian
Authority for hundreds of millions of
dollars for intifada losses. The group's
lawyer, Yehuda Raveh, believes the
hotels have a good chance of winning
the case and obtaining the damages
from P.A. tax money frozen by the
Israeli government.
Many storeowners whose rents and
property taxes have risen in the past
year and a half are now mired in debt.
Blank storefronts dot Jaffa Road.
The municipality hopes cultural
events can draw tourists and locals back
to the downtown area. "We are also
helping store owners finance their debt
payments, which is about all we can do
considering the current recession,"
Deputy Mayor Yigal Ademi said.
Barsheshe scoffed at the plan. He
condemned both the government's
inability to thwart the frequent terror
attacks and the municipality's decision
in recent months to raise property
taxes by 8 percent.
"Now you tell me," Barsheshe asked,
"how is that supposed to help me
recover my losses?"
Barsheshe confided that not a day
goes by that he does not think of leav-
ing Jerusalem for America.
To Zion Hasid, however, property
taxes don't matter. His sole attention is
focused on rebuilding Babah, his
women's clothing store, which on
Monday morning was cluttered with
shards of glass and a coating of ash:-
"This is hell, but where else will I
go?" asked Hasid, who immigrated
from Iran 30 years ago.
"I will open the store for business as
soon as I can," he said. "Not that that
means I'll sell anything." El

