(PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

Speaking at the 40th Conference of the Jerusalem Institute on Wednesday, 4 Teves, Minister of Jerusalem Affairs (Likud) Ze’ev Elkin, who recently lost in the Jerusalem mayoral race, told his audience that Arab residents of East Jerusalem may also move west, to West Jerusalem, if they so desire. Elkin, who resides in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev, boasted that “I will let you in on a secret, that my neighbors are Arabs who rent an apartment”.

The minister explained that Israeli sovereignty over all of Yerushalayim has ramifications in many directions, citing on the one hand, the state is responsible for all the residents of the city, and that the Arab neighborhoods have been ignored for too long, and as a result, they have been neglected. He called it “A disease that effects bot the left and right-wing”. Elkin stated that Pisgat Ze’ev is an example of a neighborhood in which Arabs and Jews live alongside one another harmoniously.

“I do not accept the theory of the double message, I never spoke of it as a demographic threat, there is an anomalous reality – on the fence line that passed through the municipal area of Jerusalem and you have to understand what is happening there, the Israeli government is trying to deceive reality. There is a process of illegal internal migration into Israel, tens of thousands of Palestinians who have infiltrate these neighborhoods and no one is dealing with this and with these ramifications.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have infiltrated these neighborhoods and no one is taking care of this and the consequences of this, and how many people live there, the municipality said 50,000 people are practical, 100,000 people, the State of Israel does not know how many people live there, And today I can say that my neighborhood houses have 120,000 people, although officially there are 50,000 islands According to construction starts we will reach very quickly to 150000 people. How many people are living there? While the municipality says 50,000, in reality, it is 100,000. The State of Israel does not know how many people live there and who there are.

“We initiated a program of counting apartments, as we moved apartment to apartment, with the assistance of the Jerusalem Institute. And today, I know that my neighborhood is home to 120,000 people, while officially, the number remains 50,000. According to construction-starts, we easily reach 150,000 people.

“In my estimation, 40,000 are Palestinians from Yehuda and Shomron. You cannot disengage from Israeli sovereignty, nor do you need to. Illegal migration will threaten the demographic balance of Jerusalem.”

“The solution to this problem is to establish separate municipal authorities in the sovereign territory of Israel and to manage it via a committee as was done with the Bedouin in the south, and to deal with all the problems, for if not, if not, the consequences will be an explosive keg, an epicenter for terrorism or a 50-50 balance sheet in Jerusalem, and not because of natural processes, but because of continued illegal immigration.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem/Photo Credit: קבוצת רוטרניק)