50 Years After War, East Jerusalem Palestinians Confront a Life Divided
Muhammad Sbeih, 45, the owner of a pet shop in the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina, said
that his Israeli permanent residency card "does not represent me," and that when he traveled to Ramallah in the West Bank in his Israeli yellow-plated car, "they treat me like I’m Jewish." Like many East Jerusalem Palestinians, he cherishes his connection to Al Aqsa, among the holiest sites in Islam, and now the essence of many East Jerusalem Palestinians’ identity.
While the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank demands a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, some of the city’s Palestinians describe the Palestinian Authority, which Israel bars from operating in East Jerusalem, as a corrupt
and lawless "mafia," and many say they want no part of it.
Olive West Jerusalem East Jerusalem JUNE 25, 2017
Mahdi Abdul Hadi said that There is a serious crisis vis-à-vis 50 years of Israeli control and its system creeping in
Both the Palestinian Authority and many Palestinian parents strongly oppose what they see as
an Israeli attempt to "Judaicize" the education system and undermine Palestinian identity.
Today, East Jerusalem is cut off from the West Bank by an Israeli system of walls, fences and checkpoints
that went up in the early 2000s amid the suicide bombings of the second Palestinian intifada.
By now, half the East Jerusalem Palestinian labor force works in West Jerusalem, according
to the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, an independent Israeli study center.
