World

Neighborhoods from page A26

THIS WEEKEND
ATTHE NEW DIA.

Friday Night Live!:

Catch one of the world's foremost jazz pianists
Randy Weston live in Rivera Court.

Saturday:

Watch an artist demonstration by LaKela Brown.

Target Family Sundays:

Storyteller Madelyn Porter shares
tales in honor of Black History Month.

Now on View: Julie Mehretu: City Sitings anti Best of the Best.

Program are made pny.,ible with support truth the Michigan Luuni it for Art'
dm] tultur,il Affairs arid the City or Detroit,

,

DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS

Now Enrolling
for Classes

4
filY \■
GYM :

Ages 6 Weeks-13 Years Old

Book your
birthday party now.

Bring in this ad for

50% off

our membership fee

At Issue
Jalah Hussein, an electrical engineer
who works in Jerusalem but lives on its
outskirts in the Shuaffat refugee camp,
is among those looking for a home in
a Jewish area. He says he has started
looking for an apartment in Pisgat Zeev.
"Everyone is moving': he said.
The security fence "bothers all of
us:' Hussein said. "If I want to travel
to work, or get the kids to school or a
medical clinic, it is very difficult."
He said crossing the checkpoints into
Jerusalem can take minutes or hours,

depending on the level of security alert.
As for his six children adjusting to
life in a Jewish area, he said, "They will
have to get used to something new:'
Benita Raphaely, an agent at
Jerusalem Homes Realty, which sells
properties in French Hill, said more
Israeli Arabs are seeking her office's
assistance. She described the potential
buyers and renters as mostly profes-
sionals who have children in Israeli
schools and are fully integrated resi-
dents of the city.
"We encounter apartment sellers who
tell us that they only want to sell to Jews
and those who don't mind who buys
their property;' Raphaely said. "There
is a difference in people's willingness to
contemplate selling to Christian Arabs
and Armenians rather than to Muslims.
Like most things in this country, very
fine distinctions are made
Shlomo Sirkus, a retired Bank of
Israel executive, said he is considering
leaving Jerusalem to be closer to his
children who live elsewhere. For years,
he has lived in a cluster of upscale
townhouses in French Hill where
about a quarter of the owners are now
Arabs, including some from the Galilee.
Among them are doctors who work at
the nearby Hadassah hospital.
"I think only Arabs will buy my
house because at this point most Jews
would not consider buying in a devel-
opment where there is such a large
number of Arabs," Sirkus said.
Another longtime resident of French
Hill who asked that her name not be
used said she fears that it will become
increasingly difficult to find Jewish buy-
ers in the neighborhood.
"Their intentions are good:' the
woman said of her Jewish neighbors
renting or selling to Arabs. "But will
there be consequences later? That is the
concern:'

Answering
Israel's Critics

04,10.041 Frrt*ss
CENTER ,

248.489.9420
27873 Orchard Lake Road
Farmington Hills
www.my-gym.com

fliers warning against selling or renting
homes to Arabs.
"It is just weird sometimes when
you go, for example, to the shopping
center, and it seems like there are only
Arabs there': said one longtime resident
of French Hill who did not want her
name used. "It does not particularly
bother me that there are a lot of Arabs
here now, but the thing that strikes me
is that I did not come from the United
States 37 years ago to become a minor-
ity. When I start feeling like a minority
it is unsettling."
Most Jerusalem-area Arabs are not
Israeli citizens but have permanent-
resident status. They say they are mov-
ing to Jewish Jerusalem for two main
reasons: long waits at checkpoints
coming into the city and the possibility
that their Israeli identity cards could be
revoked if they live beyond the fence for
an extended amount of time.
Furthermore, they say, if Jerusalem
eventually is divided as part of a future
peace deal and they end up on the
Palestinian Authority side of the fence,
they would lose access to the benefits
of having an Israeli identity card —
including health care, Social Security
payments, freedom of movement and
access to jobs.

.

.

Fitness

Pasialun
FaiKids

Inquire about Vacation Camps!!

The Charge
Oxford Professor Tariq Ramadan is calling for a boycott of this year's Turin,
Italy, book fair because the event will honor Israel, which he says "leaves
death and destruction in its wake

The Answer
There is clear hypocrisy in this Muslim author/academic's call for an intel-
lectual and cultural boycott and isolation of Israel. Israel is a democracy that
guarantees academic and religious freedom, and has vigorous and critical
media and book-publishing establishments.

- Allan Gale,
Jewish Community Relations Council

of Metropolitan Detroit

copyright Jan. 3, 2008, Jewish Renaissance Media

A28

February 14 2008

