Israelis hunt for affordable homes in disputed areas

JERUSALEM — Determined to find an affordable apartment within reasonable distance of their jobs in East Jerusalem, Shuli Naftali and her husband moved to a contentious neighborhood in the southeastern part of the city last year.

At the heart of the controversy is the construction of Jewish homes over the so-called Green Line, a demarcation between East and West Jerusalem that is not an official border, but which the Palestinians insist should be the boundary of their future state.

Earlier this month, the Israeli government gave final approval for the building of 558 apartments in East Jerusalem — home to about 200,000 Jews and 300,000 Arabs — on land the international community considers illegally occupied by Israel, including Naftali's community of Har Homa.

Moving to what many would call a settlement near a handful of predominantly Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem was never a determent for the 26-year-old mother, who moved to Har Homa simply to save money.

"Har Homa is much more affordable than other parts of the city," Naftali said as she played with her 15-month-old daughter in their spacious, three-bedroom rental in a recently constructed building.

Like the vast majority of Israelis who live in East Jerusalem, Naftali doesn't accept international assertions that her neighborhood is an illegal settlement or that Jews do not have the same rights as Arabs to live anywhere in the city.

"This is part of my country and I honestly don't believe the conflict stems from Jews building here. The Arabs don't want us here, inside or outside the Green Line."

A 1949 armistice created that Green Line after Jordan captured and evicted Jews from the territory around that time. Today, the neighborhoods, built on land Israel captured from Jordan in 1967, provide a cheaper option because they are farther from Jerusalem's city center and often near Arab neighborhoods — something many Israelis consider a security risk.

The Israeli government says these less expensive communities are sorely needed for those who don't wish to leave the country. The sky-high price of housing and other necessities has spurred thousands of young Israelis to move to Europe and North America.

Because of lower salaries and higher housing costs, it takes 191 average monthly salaries for Israelis to purchase a four-bedroom apartment compared with 54 in the U.S. and Germany, according to the Knesset's Ministerial Housing Committee.

Israelis who move into the controversial East Jerusalem neighborhoods "are just looking for a place to live and bring up their kids," said Shelly Levine, an Israeli real estate agent with 30 years of experience. "Their motivations aren't political."

Supporters of the creation of a Palestinian state, however, say homes located over the Green Line are detrimental to the peace process.

"(These settlements) cause great difficulties when trying to achieve a two-state solution if you base that solution on the idea that Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem will be part of Israel and that Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem will be part of a future Palestinian state," said Lior Amihai, a member of the Settlement Watch Project of Peace Now, which monitors Jewish settlement building.

Har Homa, which has more than 25,000 residents, is particularly key because it's sandwiched between the West Bank town of Bethlehem less than a mile to the east and several Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. "It is blocking the chances of creating a contiguous Palestinian state and making it more difficult to find ways to divide the city," Amihai said.

Statistics are scarce, but it's believed that a few thousand Palestinians live in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem while hundreds of Jews live in mostly Arab ones, according to Peace Now.

"There are a few buildings in our neighborhood where Jewish and Arab families live together," said Naomi Kamhine, a 33-year-old mother of four who owns a three-bedroom apartment in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv, much of which was built either beyond or on the Green Line.

Kamhine, whose apartment is about 150 feet from the border of an Arab village, said teenagers there began throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at homes in her neighborhood this summer.

Cradling her newborn daughter, Kamhine said she and her husband "have never considered leaving" their neighborhood — and not just because they cannot afford to live elsewhere.

"We're a community of families. When someone is sick or gives birth, the rest deliver meals. We support each other."