JERUSALEM – What happens in Jerusalem rarely
stays in Jerusalem. That is why anyone who cares about Israel and the Middle
East should be alarmed by the composition of the city’s new municipal
government.
Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, was re-elected
in October with 51% of the vote. For many who supported him, he was the lesser
of two evils: his rival was backed by two powerful politicians implicated in
corruption scandals. Voters did not consider Barkat a success on the issues
that most of them care about – housing costs, clean streets, or conflicts with
the ultra-Orthodox; but at least he was someone they already knew. They
expected no surprises.
They were wrong. In forming his new
coalition, the first agreement that Barkat signed was with a new local party
called “United Jerusalem.” Though headed by a veteran politician formerly of
the National Religious Party, the second position on United Jerusalem’s
candidate list was filled by Aryeh King, a far-right activist who ran for the
Knesset (parliament) with a party called Strength to Israel. Nationally,
Strength to Israel failed to win enough votes to enter the Knesset, and the
courts banned some of its campaign material for being racist. Yet in Jerusalem,
King and the local version of his party won two seats in the 30-seat city
council.
King is not to be feared just for his words.
He launched a series of legal proceedings to evict Palestinian families from
their homes in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrach neighborhood and elsewhere,
and established a fund (backed by donations from wealthy, right-wing Americans)
to buy land from Palestinians in order to give it to Israelis – sort of a
racist Robin Hood in reverse. He also won the backing of a small group of
extremist rabbis who declared that selling or renting apartments to non-Jews is
forbidden and treasonous (one of the rabbis is under investigation for these
and other statements).
In his recent campaign, King proposed barring
Arabs from city parks and, somewhat more ambitiously, called for preparations
to construct the Third Temple. To this end, he encourages Jews to pray on the
Temple Mount, today the site of two of Islam’s most important mosques. Asked in
a recent interview about the similarities between him and the late Meir Kahane,
whose racist party was banned, King noted a close ideological affinity (though
he pointed out that Kahane’s movement was messianic, whereas his own is
practical).
King’s views and actions are well documented.
So Barkat’s decision to invite him into the municipal-government coalition is
extremely disturbing, as is the willingness of almost all other putatively
mainstream parties to approve his appointment without protest.
The consequences are likely to be serious.
For starters, although Jerusalem is usually remarkably calm, given its great
mix of populations, the kind of provocations for which King is known will
increase street-level tension. In November, for example, King and a group of
his followers disrupted a gathering of Palestinian and Israeli peace activists
by shouting into a megaphone that Arabs should go to Gaza or Beirut; only
police intervention prevented a riot.
Moreover, Barkat has appointed King to serve
as a representative in the city planning and building council and as a
replacement representative in the higher regional council. That will make it
easier for him to displace Palestinian families living in East Jerusalem, and
he is expected to use his voice in city management to back the acceleration of
construction for Israeli settlers there.
Building for Israelis in East Jerusalem is
illegal under international law, raises tensions, and, by making it ever harder
to define the lines separating the city into the capitals of two states, complicates
efforts to reach a peace agreement. Barkat has always supported such
construction but was stopped in the past by forces within the previous
coalition and the national government. Now, however, with King pressing from
within the municipal coalition (and with a far-right construction and housing
minister in the national government), Barkat is likely to escalate his efforts
to expand settlements in Jerusalem’s Palestinian neighborhoods.
Giving a person like King responsibility in
managing Jerusalem means increasing tensions within the city, aggravating the
Palestinian population’s greatest fears, and encouraging Israeli settlers to
develop new outposts, thereby erecting new obstacles to peace. His behavior in
office should be closely watched, and no provocation should be left without a
response.
Barkat has defended his choice of partners by
saying that he wants a broad coalition and that he does not believe in
boycotting anyone, even King. This is wrong: some people’s views should not be
given legitimacy. Giving racism a voice in Jerusalem’s administration is a
mistake that must be corrected – ideally before tensions in the city escalate
further.
Laura Wharton, a member of the Jerusalem City Council since 2008,
teaches political science at Hebrew University