Jerusalem, continued...

So in the last post I mentioned the issue with property rights in the Muslim world.  As Joel explained, much of these issues come from Muslim cultural beliefs.  Specifically, the right to have more than one wife.

You see, if a Muslim has four wives, and each of those four wives bears him four kids, then one Muslim man needs land for 18 people.  In comparison, a Hebrew family would have 2 or 3 kids.  You can imagine, with the limited amount of land in Israel/Palestine, who the Muslims would quickly require more space.  On top of that, add in the fact that the Muslims have never understood or followed the idea of property rights.  You're going to have a problem real quick.

In the original UN Charter, Jerusalem was to be divided much like Berlin at the end of WWII.  However, the Arab League of Nations quickly attacked Israel.  The UN had "guaranteed" Israel's rights to Jerusalem, but the minute the guns started firing, the UN packed up and left, leaving Israel to fend for itself.  As we all know now, the Israelis won the War of Independence, and have been fighting wars and skirmishes ever since.  But the original War of Independence secured the entire city of Jerusalem to their control.

Recognizing that the population growth of the predominantly Muslim Palestines and their lack of land ownership recognition would be a problem, Israel began building settlements near Jerusalem, near the West Bank, to provide a buffer to keep the Palestines from squatting on the land and eventually overrunning parts of the city that were deeded to Israel in the original Charter.  Such a settlement can be seen here:

To the right of this picture is Bethlehem, and you can probably see the mountains of Jordan behind the settlement.

If there is any doubt as to the continued appreciation by the Muslims/Palestinians for property rights and management, one need only consider the next series of photos:

The pretty mansion at the top of this hill was owned by a wealthy Arab family, legally through the Ottoman deed process.  After the original war, the Israelis reviewed the records and confirmed their ownership, and then returned it to them.  If you notice, there are about 3 or 4 squatters' shacks below the mansion.  According to Joel, these shacks are the sons and grandsons of the original mansion owners.  They have set up these shacks on land they do not own... they are squatting.

The next three photos show, in order, Old Jerusalem (the Temple Mount is the large golden dome), the Israeli section of the city to the west, then finally the Arab section to the east of Old Jerusalem.

 

 

Notice the Israeli section of the city has lots of green space, the orderliness of the buildings... the result of land management and planning.  In comparison, the Arab section is a sprawl of shantys and shacks haphazardly built on the hillside.  According to Joel, as much as 90% of the housing in the Arab section is squatters.  They do not own that land, but with their rapidly growing families, they build and live there anyway.

Well, I've probably spent more than enough time repeating Joel's pro-Israeli view points.  Again, I was swayed slightly... he makes good arguments. 

And after spending some time at dinner tonight discussing this with Frank and Kirstin, it's fair to say the Palestinians haven't really gotten a lot of assistance over the last 40 years either.  Consider that Yasser Arafat used millions of humanitarian dollars (some of which came from both the US and Israel) to buy weapons for Hezbollah and refused to use that money for building schools or hospitals in Palestinian areas, and that King Hussein of Jordan took the Palestinians in back in 1948 if only to increase his own land grab... well, they have never really had a leader looking out for them.  But until they move into the modern age of land management, I see this problem as being depressingly unsolvable.  Throw in the complexity of the religious issues that I will cover in the next post, and one wonders if there is a solution to this... ever.

I asked Joel about this... how do Israelis function knowing that the ever-expanding Muslim population will be forever infringing on their borders, and that the concept of modern land ownership and management seems an argument that is impossible to win considering the nomadic history of the Bedouins?  According to Joel... "We just keep doing what we are doing to ensure our security."  It seems like that living under such a hopeless situation, where peace will always be only a temporary relief from the constant threat of genocide, would be horribly depressing.