12 January '11
A poll of Palestinians living in eastern Jerusalem finds that an awful lot of them would like to have Israeli citizenship.
I couldn't find the results at the Pechter Mideast Polls, but Jackson Diehl discusses the numbers. An estimated 270,000 Palestinians live in eastern Jerusalem. Here's a vertical rundown:
• "30 percent said they would prefer to be citizens of Palestine in a two-state solution . . ."
• "35 percent said they would choose Israeli citizenship . . ."
• "Forty percent said they would consider moving to another neighborhood in order to become a citizen of Israel rather than Palestine . . ."
• ". . . 54 percent said that if their neighborhood were assigned to Israel, they would not move to Palestine."
Diehl's response:
The reasons for these attitudes are pretty understandable, even healthy. Arabs say they prefer Israel's jobs, schools, health care and welfare benefits to those of a Palestinian state -- and their nationalism is not strong enough for them to set aside these advantages in order to live in an Arab country. The East Jerusalemites don't much love Israel -- they say they suffer from discrimination. But they seem to like what it has to offer.
(Read full "Memo to EU Consuls: Eastern Jerusalem Palestinians Want Israeli Citizenship")
If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment