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July 18, 2008
No prosperity without peace
East Jerusalem's depressed economy needs tourists, investment.
RHONDA SPIVAK
Eight years after the second intifada, the tourist infrastructure in East Jerusalem remains destroyed, and is only now beginning to be rebuilt.
Walking down Salah-A-din Street, East Jerusalem's main artery, at eight in the morning, it is difficult to find an English newspaper. "I only carry a few every day, because there is no demand.... If you want the Jerusalem Post, try coming back tomorrow," said Sami, a local shopkeeper.
On the streets, there are very few Western or European tourists. Assad, who sells drinks and Arab-style bread, was pleased to see me stopping to buy water. "Tourism has been no good here," he said. Hassan, the driver at Jaber Taxi said, "I am making my living driving Jewish tourists in West Jerusalem. There are practically no Christian tourists or pilgrims in East Jerusalem."
A group of young Muslim teenage girls with traditional head coverings is the only organized group that passes by in the afternoon. The only Jewish Israelis I encountered were two soldiers sitting in a green army jeep and a policeman with a camera.
Mohammed Karain, manager of the Wake-Up Café, said that his café is part of a hotel that has not yet been opened. "This used to be the National Place Hotel, the nicest hotel in East Jerusalem, where King Hussein used to stay. The hotel has been closed since the second intifada, in 2000, and Palestinian businessmen from here who live in the United States bought it. But, they only had enough money to open this café and will open [the hotel's] banquet rooms soon. With the money from the café and banquet rooms, we are going to renovate so we can eventually open 65 hotel rooms. We hope to charge about $50 US a night, including breakfast," he said.
Nearby, the Ritz Hotel on Ibn Khaldoun Street has just re-opened approximately 45 rooms, after being closed since the intifada. "They have just painted it. Before they did that you could see all of the bullet holes on the front of the hotel. It looked horrible," said Tina Greenfield, a Canadian archeologist currently living in East Jerusalem.
"Jordanians who want to get visas to come visit Jerusalem have a hard time," complained Karain. "People apply and they wait two or three or four months and then they are refused by Israel because of security. Before Israel issues a visa, it must be sure that this guy isn't dangerous or doesn't talk politics. Because of this, East Jerusalem is cut off from its natural source of tourism, which is Jordan.... Very few Egyptians come here. They don't come because it's just peace on paper. It's not real. But, if there's no tourism, there's no life here.
"Look, it can take me almost six hours to get from here to Nablus, and I have to go through six or seven checkpoints to do it. Even though the town of Abu Dis is only 10 minutes away, because of the security wall [which cuts the town in half] it is very complicated to get there."
"It's not as if Palestinians here are speaking in moderate tones. I find that when I talk politics with them, there is very little common ground and sympathies for Hamas are everywhere," said Isaac Khalimi, a Judaics scholar living in East Jerusalem.
Although Karain, who used to work as a banquet manager at the Hilton Hotel in West Jerusalem, wants to see tourism flourish, he said that, "The Israeli government isn't giving [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas anything so that the Palestinian people can support him. Israel must go back to the '67 borders soon. I think that Saudi Arabia should buy all of the Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Israel and give them to the Palestinians. If Israel doesn't go back to the '67 lines, then every young [Palestinian] boy will be lining up to fight another war. If there won't be two countries, then there will be one country, and it will be a Palestinian country."
Hashem, a local cook, also said he supports a two-state solution, which would mean the revival of Palestinian tourism, but he believes that, "Israel has to evacuate all of the settlements" over the Green Line, including any of the neighborhoods it has built in East Jerusalem.
"For all that Palestinians and the Arab states talk of East Jerusalem being the future capital of a Palestinian state, it is clear they have not invested in the area and helped the local economy survive. They can all be nationalists but that won't help put bread on the table," said Khalimi.
Rhonda Spivak is a Winnipeg freelance writer.
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