'Netanyahu has already divided Jerusalem!'

'Netanyahu has already divided Jerusalem!'

Wednesday, March 16, 2011 | Ryan Jones

A prominent Israeli activist told participants in the 8th annual Jerusalem Conference on Tuesday that while the world bickers over future control of Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in fact already divided the city.

Aryeh King of the Israel Land Fund charged that today eight neighborhoods on the eastern side of Jerusalem are off-limits to Jews.

He presented video evidence of Israeli police preventing Jewish motorists from entering the neighborhoods in question. Jews entering these neighborhoods by special permission require an Israeli army escort.

King also noted that Palestinian Authority police officers are operating freely in these neighborhoods with no opposition from Israel.

“The Likud government, the present government of Israel, already divided Jerusalem,” King told Israel National News following the presentation.

King and others fear that the current reality in Jerusalem will eventually lead to Israel’s leadership throwing up its hands and insisting that since the city is already effectively divided, they might as well surrender sovereignty to the Palestinian Authority.

By contrast, there is no part of Jerusalem that Arabs are forbidden from entering. In fact, the major shopping malls, parks and other public venues in Jewish-dominated western Jerusalem are very popular with the city’s Arab population.