Rivlin urges development of East Jerusalem

In his Jerusalem Day address, President Reuven Rivlin urges development of East Jerusalem.

“We are confronting rightly, justly, and without hesitation, criticism over our right to be sovereign in a united Jerusalem. I fear that we ourselves have not yet looked frankly at the meaning of our sovereignty in the city. When we look today at the huge disparities between the East of the city and the West, we have to tell ourselves honestly — we completed the physical unification of the city, but the task of unifying the city’s social and economic aspects have barely begun,” the president says.

“While the West of Jerusalem is enjoying the momentum of development and impressive growth, the Eastern part of the city is in disrepair and neglect. It needs to be said that today, after years of viewing East Jerusalem and its people as transparent, groundbreaking steps are currently being taken in the fields of education, housing and infrastructure, and for that we need to congratulate the mayor. However, there is much more to be done.”

The president continues that “narrowing the pressing gap between its East and West is a task that all lovers of Jerusalem, from the right and left alike, have to agree upon and strive to achieve.”