At the end of August (Aug-25th 2026) we all heard that Israeli police took over a compound of #UNRWA in East #Jerusalem - in #KafrAqab . At the time this was a handy photo op for the clown minister of police Ben Gvir. But this wasn't a PR stunt organized by that clown. It is part of an interesting process that happens in East Jerusalem.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-launches-operation-to-take-over-east-jerusalem-unrwa-facility-it-says-it-controls/

What is happening there? Let's put legal issues aside. The city replaces an area that UNRWA used to prepare aid for the West Bank with a school (right now, later also community center, etc.) for the (Arab) people of Kafr Aqab. What's behind this, apart from a general Israeli dislike of UNRWA?

What we call "East Jerusalem" is a large swatch of land Israel has annexed of the West Bank in 1968. Its residents carry a ("blue") Israeli ID card, but almost all of them are not Israeli citizens (Some new Jewish neighbourhoods were also built there, but it is very clear which part is Jewish and which is Arab, with minor exceptions). However, Jerusalem has remained as the unofficial center of the West Bank. However, Israel considers Jerusalem (all of it) as its capital, and ever since the 1990s acted against moves by Palestinians that demonstrated Jerusalem (as a whole, or parts of it) to be the capital of Palestine.

In 2002, following a wave of bombings, Israel decided to build the Separation Wall to set a clear border between Israel Proper and the West Bank. In Jerusalem the wall all of a sudden separated between most of Arab parts of East Jerusalem. Parts of East Jerusalem, including Kafr Aqab, were left behind that wall.

The economy of East Jerusalem crashed due to this disconnection. In the past 20 years it has gone through a painful process of adapting. This mostly meant integrating into the Israeli economy. This is mostly about lower-paying jobs such as shop clerks and security guards. But Suleiman Maswadeh is a better role model.

Just to be clear: it is a reluctant integration. Arabs in Jerusalem are very much discriminated against, in countless of ways. Arabs are roughly 40% of the population but avoid voting to the city council, Still it is clear that generally Arabs prefer living in East Jerusalem than moving to the West Bank, as life is much harder there, and being able to mostly move and works freely inside Israel helps.

Kafr Aqab and similar quarters have become sort of "no man's land", as they were not well-controlled by Israeli authorities, but Israel would not allow the Palestinian Authority to assume control there. So, for instance, building that rise as high as water could be pumped (14 floors?) with dodgy quality. A disaster waiting to happen.

At some point in the 2010s some of the Israeli authorities (mostly the City of Jerusalem) started noticing this process and stopped the automatic "Arab [specifically in Jerusalem] is bad and should be crushed" mentality and realized it is useful and should be encouraged. 10 years ago all schools in East Jerusalem were teaching according to the Palestinian curriculum with graduates getting the Palestinian #Tawjihi certificate. And then figuring out it is useless in West Jerusalem and ended up working in construction.

The city started encouraging schools to convert their curriculum to a modified Israeli one (including teaching Hebrew: Jews hardly speak Arabic, Arabs tend to learn Hebrew), and even building new schools that teach it. Currently 38% of Arab students learn the Israeli curriculum. And many more attend and graduate the Hebrew University or some academic colleges in Jerusalem, that require an Israeli #Bagrut certificate instead.

So in that sense this action is remarkable, because it shows the city acting beyond the Separation Wall. The city can raid UNRWA as much as it wants, but if people of the neighborhood don't want this school, there's really not much in the way of police to protect it.And yes, the City confiscated a resource UNRWA used to help people in the West Bank and converted it for a resource used for the benefit of the people of East Jerusalem. The City does not care that much about people in the West Bank (according to a definition in which East Jerusalem is not part of the West Bank).

Does this mean people of East Jerusalem are becoming increasingly Israeli? In some senses: yes. In others: no. One indication is the municipal elections. Last ones were in 2024. East Jerusalem Arabs still avoided voting there.

#EastJerusalem

As noted in a previous post, I'm an activist for #TheIsraeliDemocracts – #הדמוקרטים – a liberal, Zionist and democratic party in #Israel . There are upcoming general elections in less than two months (Oct 27th). According to polls, our side is likely going to win. In this post I would like to write about what could and should happen assuming this would be the case.

A short overview of the current parties. See a previous post (not up to date). Generally the main opposition block. or Eizencot's block, is expected to have roughly 60/120 seats. It may need extra coalition members from other parties. This is mainly what pundits write about now, so please go read about it elsewhere.

Israel has a parliamentary system. In the elections the members of parliament (that has a single house), the Knesset are being elected. They will be sworn into office two weeks later, on Nov. 10th, and this will start four more weeks (potentially with an extension of two more weeks) to form the ruling coalition and the government. Negotiations for forming the coalition tend to be painful and mostly happen at the last minute. So we should expect a government to be formed on Dec-8th or even Dec-22nd in case of an extension. And proceeded by many dramatic news items about all of it going to explode. And assuming that there won't be a 2019-style stalemate. But let's hope there won't be any.

The newly-formed government will likely have a wide spectrum of parties, including the Democracts and maybe Ra'am on the left and Israel Beitenu (Liberman) on the right. Most parties are right-leaning. None of them seem to have the fanatic flare of Ben Gvir and Smotrich, but at least some seem to share the sentiment of "the whole world is against us" that you see today in the actions of foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar.

I guess that the base of the expectations of the government is not the current Israel government. Rather, the one before it. That was also a wide coalition, united basically by being anti-Netanyahu, and by parties trying to do good for the whole public. It sounds naive, but it was just that: even the 2021-2022 government of Bennet and Lapid was a breath of fresh air compared to governments before it, let alone the dysfunctional government that followed it.

And then we get to the first problem: most parties in the Eisencot Block want to focus on the "80% we all agree on" and start the healing process. For instance, a lot of attention needs to be given to the whole issue of conscription and the state of Ultra Orthodox communities. The education system may need rebuilding. And taxes may need to be raised.

But the Democracts think that instead of maintaining such a large military force, we should try to close as many fronts ASAP, and that recruiting ultra orthodox to the military as is may have a bad effect on the military now. Although everybody agree that the state-tax-funded autonomies of the ultra orthodox must not be defunded.

And then again, there's also disagreement about Palestine. People on the Right seem to be afraid of that. I tend to think that they will be forced to follow something similar to Trump's Gaza Peace Plan forms a place to rebuild trust among the two parties, that is currently broken.

Right now we can hardly expect anything from the current government. We tried replacing it before elections and failed. However, we (including the small me as the fly riding on the horse) managed to stop almost all of the "Judicial reform". Levin, Rotman and co. planned to have this done by May 2023, and hardly any of this got through. We managed to start the process of tearing down the horrible structure of ultra orthodox communities, even though their parties[1] were part of the ruling coalition with a majority in parliament. However, just about the only effective minister in the government was Smotrich, who managed to expand the land grabs in the West Bank. In that front we did very poorly.

So, please wait a bit with steps against Israel. They currently mostly serve to bolster the mentality of "the whole world is against us". However, once a new government is formed - expected in December, it is very much accountable and responsible for its actions.

#ilpol #IsraeliElections2026 #Eizencot

[1] I guess a separate topic on the whole issue of ultra orthodox, conscription, their education system, and the funding of all of that is required. There are two ultra orthodox parties that in practice represent the interests of the corrupt religious elite of them, and that helps keep them very much poor and poorly-educated.