Housing In Jerusalem - Essay Example

Population and Jerusalem As with many large cities throughout the world, Jerusalem has experienced rapid and prolonged growth in the past 100 years.However, unique factors that separate Jerusalem from other cities, such as housing shortages, economic issues, as well as the seemingly incessant religious/cultural clash of civilizations that takes place within the city, must be examined as a function of understanding the dynamic within this particular place. As a function of this, the following paper will briefly discuss the issue of housing within Jerusalem; paying special attention to the economic challenges and cultural-religious causations for the rapid population growth that is being witnessed.

Finally, a brief discussion on how NGOs and the international media interpret and represent this unique dynamic will be represented.Firstly, it must be understood that the key economic challenge of housing within Jerusalem has to do with the fact that the demand for housing is extraordinarily high. There are ultimately two reasons for this. The first of these reasons has to do with the ongoing efforts of the Israeli government to settle more Jewish people from around the world within Israel’s borders.

As such, the strain to continually create new housing and new infrastructure places a high strain on limited resources and creates a situation in which the price for these accommodations is exorbitantly high. What this in turn effects is a situation in which only the ultra rich can afford to live anywhere near Jerusalem itself; necessarily reducing the possibility for the cities sizeable Arab minority to be able to afford to buy new housing. The second issue that affects the high cost and extreme high demand of housing has to do with the culturally high fertility rates that are exhibited amongst both the Jewish and Arab population of Jerusalem.

As a direct result of this, the overall number of individuals that reach maturity and seek out accommodations within the city that they call home increases exponentially each and every year (Schmemann 4). Not surprisingly, as with almost every other issue, the way in which NGOs and the international media approach this issue of population growth within Jerusalem, and more generally within Israel, is somewhat warped. As such, stakeholders oftentimes assume that the pressures on the housing market within Jerusalem are contingent upon the immigrants to Israel that are brought in as a function of collecting ethnically Jewish individuals from around the globe and settling them in Israel.

As such, an important component of the overcrowding that is being represented within Jerusalem is engaged; however, the larger piece of the puzzle, the rapid population growth from within Jerusalem, is ignored. As the slow growth Christian population has steadily declined since the 1940s, the growth rate of both Jewish and Muslim individuals within Jerusalem has trebled. As can immediately be noted, this statistic alone more than compensates for the overall number of newly re-patriated Jews that have since returned to Israel and set out to start a new life (Myre 1).

Nevertheless, these two issues are inter-related; at least in a small sense. This is due to the fact that has more and more Orthodox Jews return to Israel, and specifically to Jerusalem, the cultural expectation to have extremely large families compounds the issues that have thus far been discussed. Works CitedMyre, Gerg. "Israeli Riddle: Love Jerusalem, Hate Living There." New York Times 13 May 2007: 5. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 June 2014.Schmemann, Serge. "The new fear in Israel: Next year in Jerusalem.

" New York Times 28 June 1998: 4. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 June 2014.