I
World
Outside Help
Pho to by Br ian Hen dler
To revitalize Jerusalem, new mayor looks to diaspora.
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Mayor Nir Barkat wants American Jews to help Jerusalem.
Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jerusalem
H
anging over Nir Barkat's desk
is a large framed photograph
of him running the Jerusalem
half-marathon. The city's new mayor is
quick to remind a visitor he also runs full
marathons.
He's going to need the perseverance of a
long-distance runner to pull off his ambi-
tious plan to save Jerusalem.
Though Israel's capital and one of the
world's oldest and most revered cities,
Jerusalem is also the poorest city in Israel,
with high housing prices, a shrinking
non-Orthodox population and a dwindling
middle class.
In his office atop the municipal build-
ing, Barkat expounds on his plans to revi-
talize Jerusalem.
Boyish looking at 49, the former para-
trooper, who made millions in high-tech,
has been in office for three months after
defeating Meir Porush, a veteran Orthodox
politician, and others.
A42
March 19 • 2009
Secular and Modern Orthodox
Jerusalemites greeted his election with
great hope, thinking Barkat might be able
to lift the city from its current rut. (Most
Arab residents boycotted the election, as
they do most years, in protest of Israeli
sovereignty over the city).
Barkat is traveling to the United States,
where he hopes to reach out to American
Jews and make them partners in revitaliz-
ing Jerusalem. To use his language, he sees
them as "shareholders" in the city.
"I know there is not one Jew who does
not care about the future of Jerusalem,
and what I propose is a partnership," he
said.
U.S. Trip
Barkat's plan is to create special economic
zones in Jerusalem that are focused on
culture-tourism or health-life sciences. He
will make his pitch in New York, Boston,
Los Angeles, Washington, San Francisco
and Florida.
Barkat is hoping diaspora Jews will
be investment partners in joint business
ventures. For example, he says, Jews in Los
Angeles might invest in Jerusalem's fledg-
ling film industry, and biotech engineers
in Boston might invest in a city that hosts
Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University.
The global financial crisis is no deter-
rent, he says. "I believe in the short term it
will be more of a challenge because people
have less than they had in the past or less
than they want, but I'm not talking about
short term," Barkat said. "I want to build
relationships. It's the way we do business
together?'
So far, Barkat's aggressive approach to
his job has received mixed response.
He tussled verbally with visiting U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
earlier this month over his plan to demol-
ish 80 Arab houses in the neighborhood
of Silwan, just outside the walls of the Old
City, to make way for an archaeological
park. Clinton called his plan "unhelpful"
and a violation of peace efforts, while
Barkat dismissed the criticism as based on
"disinformation."
Archaeology Park
The dispute is one of Barkat's first tests as
mayor.
The neighborhood slated for demolition
is comprised of houses built illegally on
land that had been set aside 20 years ago
as open green space for an archaeological
garden.
Under three previous city administra-
tions the houses remained, but recently
the development plans for a park were
revived.
Critics of the plan claim the issue is
about politics. Not only will it displace
1,000 Arab residents, they say, but it's
part of a wider, ideologically motivated
plan to secure the future of a united,
Jewish Jerusalem in negotiations with the
Palestinians.
Barkat rejects such criticism and
says anyone uprooted will be relocated.
Arabs and Jews have th legal right to live
anywhere in the city they wish, he says.
That would include Silwan, where several
dozen Jewish families have moved.
"If you have a group of people trying
to plan housing in Central Park, what do
you think Mayor Bloomberg would do?"
Barkat asked rhetorically. "And this park
has more importance than Central Park
because of its historical significance."
As to the relationship between munici-
pal and national government, Barkat
foresees a good working relationship
with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin
Netanyahu and his staff.
"I know the people, and I believe they
want to develop and improve Jerusalem,"
the mayor said. "There is good chemistry?'
Barkat hopes the new government will
provide a stimulus package for the city,
which previous governments have prom-
ised but never delivered.
To keep the young and middle class in
Jerusalem, Barkat is hoping his economic
cluster zones will bear fruit and that more
jobs in high tech, life sciences, tourism
and culture will keep people in Jerusalem.
"When you make Jerusalem a special
economic zone, it will start raining on
everyone and with more jobs the city
comes out of its poverty," Barkat said.
He also has called for construction
of more affordable housing, not just the
recent luxury projects aimed at diaspora
Jewish buyers. Barkat wants the absentee
homeowners to rent their apartments
inexpensively to local university students.
"You own an apartment, you subsidize
students, help the economy and decrease
the price of other apartments:' he said
with his trademark smile. "It's a classic
win-win."