We have had two important actions in recent days. In this letter, I will tell you about one – a demonstration held by Bat Shalom to protest the discriminatory policies of Mayor Ehud Olmert against Arab Jerusalemites.
It began because an Israeli organization invited the mayors of Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, and Haifa to speak about “How I as mayor promote tolerance in my city”. In light of what Mayor Ehud Olmert of Jerusalem does to destroy the fabric of tolerance in Jerusalem, we in Bat Shalom felt that this was an event begging for a demonstration.
Outside the hall, our signs greeted invited guests as they arrived: “Mr. Olmert, does tolerance = Har Homa?”, “Does tolerance = confiscation of land?”, “Does tolerance = demolition of homes?” “Does tolerance = unequal services to Arabs?”, and the like. We also distributed a fact sheet with statistics about the discrimination against Arab residents of Jerusalem.
As the audience settled down for the speeches, we also took seats around the hall. We were about 10 women in a room of several hundred, and we tried to position ourselves for maximum visibility when the moment came. The audience was dotted with well-known liberal figures – a Supreme Court judge, senior education officials, philanthropists, retired do-gooders – but no Arabs, of course. Everyone appeared quite self-satisfied about showing up to support tolerance.
The opening speeches droned on and we listened politely. Finally, our local mayor took the podium, and we geared up. As he finished his opening salutation – “Ms. Chairwoman, honorable Justice, dear Mr. Zilkha, etc., etc., etc.”, I took a deep breath and stood up from near the back of the hall. “Mr. Mayor,” I began, and that’s all I said before the turbulence hit. Many began to shout that interruptions are intolerable, that this was not a political forum, not a Knesset debate, not a demonstration plaza, etc. I stood quite still and waited for the noise to die down. Mayor Olmert at the mike interjected several times, “Let her speak – this is a conference about tolerance. We’ll show her what tolerance really means.”
Finally the room was silent and I was able to make the statement that we had agreed upon in advance: “In light of Mayor Olmert’s discriminatory treatment of the Arab residents of Jerusalem, we feel that he has no right to teach anyone about tolerance.” When I finished, the other women rose to their feet and unfurled signs with the same slogans as we had held outside. The audience began shouting again, but a few were clapping. One of the ushers ran over and started to rip the signs, but Olmert told her to stop “in the name of tolerance”, and after a minute or so of standing, we walked to the aisle and left the hall quietly.
We heard later that Mayor Olmert used our leaving to claim that we were intolerant “extremists”, since “truly tolerant” people would have stayed in the hall to hear him out. Several questions to the mayor pointedly repeated the themes that we had raised. That night we were interviewed on the army radio station and the next day an item appeared in Ha’aretz newspaper, but a large picture in the conservative Jerusalem Post showed Olmert with his arm around the Haifa mayor and was captioned: “Olmert scored points when he asked the audience to show tolerance toward a group of Bat Shalom demonstrators who disrupted proceedings just after he rose to speak. After the demonstrators left, Olmert said he wished they had the patience and tolerance to hear him out.”
That’s classic Olmert with his demagoguery. But our voice did come across. I also wrote an op ed piece for the Post, though I’m still awaiting its publication. “It has only local significance,” said the editor when I called. “What happens to Arabs in Jerusalem is of local interest only?” Editors can stifle some channels of communication, but speaking the truth will inevitably be heard.
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The unpublished op-ed piece:
Mr. Tolerance?
Friday’s edition of the Jerusalem Post carried a large photograph of Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert with his arm around Haifa Mayor Amram Mitzna, captioned “Talking Tolerance”. The text criticized Bat Shalom demonstrators for “intolerance” – our unwillingness to hear out Mayor Olmert’s views at Thursday’s conference on “Tolerance”.
The theme of the conference, sponsored by the organization Sovlanut [“tolerance”], was “How I as mayor promote tolerance in my city and reduce tension between groups in conflict”. Had the Jerusalem Post reporter given a more complete report, he would have noted that the Bat Shalom representative stated clearly that “In light of Mayor Olmert’s discriminatory treatment of the Arab residents of Jerusalem, we feel that he has no right to teach anyone about tolerance.” We stand by that statement.
The city of Jerusalem does run several token coexistence programs for Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem, but on the basic issues of municipal obligations to its residents, Mayor Olmert demonstrates blatant discrimination against Arab Jerusalemites:
(1) Unequal service provision to the Jewish and Arab sectors of the city: While Arabs comprise 30% of the population of Jerusalem, they benefit from only 5% of the city budget. This glaring discrepancy is evident in poorly paved streets, garbage collection in very few neighborhoods, insufficient classrooms, no preschool programs whatsoever, and neglect in many other areas.
(2) Expropriation of Arab lands for Jewish residents: More than a third of the land once owned by Arabs in Jerusalem was forcibly expropriated for the construction of 39,000 housing units on them – every single one of them for Jews. Is this tolerance? New housing for Arabs is still woefully inadequate – density is twice as high for Arab than Jewish residents of Jerusalem.
(3) Insufficient construction permits for Arab residences: When Arab Jerusalemites apply for permits to expand their living quarters or construct new homes, their requests are invariably denied or reduced to minimal amounts, while Jewish applications are judged by objective criteria. As a result, Arabs build homes without permits, and then the city demolishes these homes under the guise of “illegal construction”.
(4) Stripping Arab Jerusalemites of residency permits: In what has been termed “silent transfer” by local and international human rights observers, the Interior Ministry in cooperation with the Jerusalem municipality has revoked the residency status of Arab residents in an attempt to reduce the number of Arab residents of Jerusalem. It is estimated (Ha’aretz, 12 February 1998) that several thousand Arab Jerusalemites have been forced to leave their homes as a result of this policy.
“Tolerance” is more than just politely listening to another point of view. Tolerance means no discrimination and no political chicanery to deprive others of their fundamental rights. Tolerance means not building Jewish settlements in Har Homa and Ras al-Amud. Tolerance means celebrating, not seeking to destroy, the rich ethnic and religious fabric of this city.
When the mayor of Jerusalem begins to practice what he preaches, Bat Shalom and others will be happy to remain in the hall and learn from his lessons on tolerance.