Special Report

ON THE COVER

Photo by Brian Hendler/JTA

Six Days
And
40 years

What the 1967
war meant to
Israel and the
Jewish people.

Israeli girls with Jerusalem written in Hebrew on their foreheads and wrapped in Israeli flags join the May 16, 2007, - celebration

marking the 40th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.

Really United?

T

he Six-Day War in June
1967 was a mighty military
victory by a tiny nation that
showed the world what motivation
and heart can accomplish.
After those six days, Jerusalem
was a united city, giving Jews access
to the sacred Western Wall of the
Holy Second Temple for the first time
in 19 years. The widespread photo-
graph of paratroopers praying at that
Wall captured the symbolism of the
moment for the world.
For diaspora Jews, the decisive-
ness and swiftness of the Israeli vic-
tory, plus the capture of Jerusalem,
inspired pride in Israel like nothing
before ever had. Rallies were held in
support of Israel, record amounts of
money were raised for the victorious
state, and one of the biggest waves
of immigration to Israel began.
But peace seemed even more elu-
sive. Territory gained would be used
as a bargaining chip for peace, yet
the Israelis' lightning victory shamed
the Arab world and made Israel's
enemies even more determined to
destroy her.
On the 40th anniversary of the
Six-Day War, this package of sto-
ries recalls the jubilation of victory,
assesses the problems still facing
Jerusalem and examines the bitter-
sweet legacy of pursuing peace.

- Keri Guten Cohen, story development editor

Much still needs to be done to truly unite
Arab and Jewish parts of Jerusalem.

Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

T

he group of Jerusalemites tumbled off the tour bus onto
streets and hilltops where most of them had never set
foot. They were in eastern Jerusalem, home to some
150,000 Arabs and, for most on the tour, an entirely new world.
They took in views of Israel's security barrier, here a hulking
concrete wall that divides neighborhoods, and walked the narrow,
cracked roads lined with piles of uncollected trash. They mar-
veled that this, too, is Jerusalem.
They also made their way through the contrasting scene of
paved roads and tidy, stone-faced apartment blocs that make up
the wide swath of Jewish neighborhoods in the east of the city,
neighborhoods built between Arab ones since 1967, the fruit of
efforts by successive Israeli governments to ensure that the city is
never divided again.
As Israel marks the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War and
the reunification of Jerusalem — constantly touted in national
slogans as "eternally united" — this group of students and pro-
fessionals came to see for themselves the Arab neighborhoods of
the city where Jews rarely venture.
"I see regression, not progress:' said Michal, a psychologist who
has lived in the Jerusalem area for 30 years but had not been to the
eastern part of the city for nearly as longlerusalem never seemed
united for me. The idea that it is is a fiction
She's not alone: A poll of Jerusalem residents by the Dahaf
Institute found that 62 percent do not consider the city united.

"They have good reason:' Motti Elmaliah of the local newspa-
per Yerushalayim wrote of the poll. "When was the last time you
enjoyed a stroll on Saladin Street, one of the major arteries in east
Jerusalem, and felt at home? Except for a quick trip to eat hum-
mus on Saturday morning in the Old City and getting a tune-up
in Wadi Joz, the Jewish residents of the city try not to go to east
Jerusalem. That way they also don't have to see the dirt and the
neglect there."

Jerusalem's Future?
The 40th anniversary has brought new attention to the question
of what Jerusalem's unity means beyond political sloganeering
and what might lie ahead for the city. New statistics show that the
city's Arab population is growing faster than its Jewish one.
According to figures from the Jerusalem Institute for Israel
Studies, Jerusalem today is 66 percent Jewish and 34 percent
Arab. While the Arab growth rate continues to climb each year, an
increasing number of Jews, mainly secular ones, are leaving the
city, fleeing what they say is an increasingly Orthodox, politically
tense and poor city with few economic opportunities.
Jerusalem, these Jews say, is a place that feels less and less like
home.
On May 13, Mayor Uri Lupolianski warned the government that
the capital could lose its Jewish majority within a decade.
"We won't be satisfied with crumbs," he said. "We need a com-
prehensive plan."
The vast majority of the public, 92 percent, said it is impor-
tant or very important to maintain a Jewish majority in the city,

Really United? on page 14

June 7 « 2007

13

