Damascus-Gate - East Jerusalem (Photo made by us).
One of the great fictions of Middle East politics is the one that pretends that Palestinian Liberation Authority or Hamas speaks for the Palestinians. A couple of years ago, a think tank announced that if Jerusalem were divided there would be mass exodus of Palestinians who would be living under the rule of the PLA. They would resettle in the Jewish sector. Already, there has been a sharp increase in the number of Jerusalem Arabs applying for Israeli citizenship,
A recent poll confirms these findings. Conducted in Arabic the poll surveyed the opinions of Arabs living in Jerusalem. 35% of these people said they would choose to become Israeli citizens while 30% said they prefer being Palestinian citizens.
And what are the reasons why they would move to the Israeli side? They fear losing access to the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque, the freedom to travel in Israel, health care and other social services.
There is more data about the Arabs who live in Jerusalem. Overwhelmingly they do not see themselves being represented by Hamas or Fatah.But despite these realities on the ground, the world continues to try and force Israel to divide Jerusalem as part of a deal with non-representative organizations.
Source: OneJerusalem
