In Jerusalem Day remarks, Rivlin shines light on city’s Palestinians

24 May 2017, 8:59 pm

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At the official Jerusalem Day celebration ceremony at Ammunition Hill, President Reuven Rivlin shines a light on the economic disparity between the capital city’s Jewish and Arab residents.

“It’s impossible to sing the praises of a united Jerusalem while East Jerusalem is the poorest urban space in Israel,” he said at the event marking the 50th anniversary of Israel’s reunification of the city in the 1967 Six Day War.

Jerusalem’s Arab population lives almost entirely in East Jerusalem, where many neighborhoods suffer from lack of resources, poor infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms and overall neglect. Recent figures found that 82 percent of the Arab population lives below the poverty line, compared to 28% of the Jewish population.