Jerusalem Day celebrations will not cover up the city's rot and discrimination

[Jefferson23]

Jerusalem Day is an 'artificial celebration'; Jerusalem is the most ultra-Orthodox city, the most Arab, plagued by negative migration.
By Yossi Sarid

Jerusalem Day is an artificial celebration, which only the religious Zionist movement, settlers, workers on an organized outing, the president, the mayor and Channel 1 bother celebrating in a big way. Most people in Israel don't even know, and don't care, why it even exists.

The poet and Jerusalemite Gilad Meiri, who apparently also loves a different Jerusalem, has called in a poem "to liberate Jerusalem from Jerusalem Day."

Ever since Jerusalem became a city that was compacted together 44 years ago, there have been few reasons to celebrate, and this year, fewer than ever.

Jerusalem 2011 is a sad city pretending to be glad.

Earlier this week, the Central Bureau of Statistics published real data that puts us into a less than party-like mood: Jerusalem is the most ultra-Orthodox city, the most Arab, and plagued by negative migration. Some 8,000 Jerusalemites got fed up with the city over the past year and abandoned it.

in full: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/jerusalem-day-celebrations-will-not-cover-up-the-city-s-rot-and-discrimination-1.365222

[leftynyc]

1. 44 years ago Jews weren't

allowed to visit the Western Wall which the Muslims had turned into a trash heap. I'll celebrate the ability to visit our most holy shrine any fucking day I want.

[Jefferson23]

2. Netanyahu: Next year in a more built up Jerusalem

Netanyahu reiterates in speech at Mercaz Harav yeshiva, site of a 2008 terror attack, that Jerusalem will remain united.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his uncompromising stance on a united Jerusalem Tuesday night, saying he plans to authorize more building in the capital, in a speech at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

The prime minister spoke on the eve of Jerusalem Day that commemorates Israel's liberation of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War.

Mercaz Harav, an orthodox Yeshiva located in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood of Jerusalem was the site of a terror attack in 2008 in which a Palestinian gunman killed eight students.

Netanyahu said in his speech Tuesday that Jerusalem would never be divided, emphasizing the Jewish people's longstanding historical connection to the city.

"The rocks and archaeological artifacts found in Jerusalem expose the deep ties between the Jewish people and its capital," the prime minister said.

Netanyahu used a play on words of a 2000-year-old Jewish prayer yearning for a return to Jerusalem, saying "next year in a more built up Jerusalem," alluding to his intention to build more homes in Jerusalem, despite contention with Palestinians on the matter.

Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-next-year-in-a-more-built-up-jerusalem-1.365207

[riverwalker]

3. just clean up the trash

I was on a bus tour of Israel once, and was struck by all the litter and trash. Why a supposedly "sacred" land, soaked with blood of people fighting over hunks of real estate for thousands of years, is littered with Subway wrappers, water bottles, Burger King bags, diapers, garbage. I'm talking first world discards of the affluent, not refugee camps. It was disgusting.

[Never Stop Dancin]

4. please

If you did not grow up in the middle east, you have no right to judge them