International media continues to focus on private building projects on the Eastern side of the city. In parallel, there are two areas that the journalists fail to report on.

First, commercial building in Jerusalem has accelerated in recent months, despite the recession. For example, figures for June 09 show a 54% increase on last year regarding new flats bought from public sector projects.

Similarly, Jerusalem’s tourism boom has clearly influenced Rixos, an international luxury hotel chain. It has agreed invest around US$50 million in building a 200 room complex. This ties in with the ambitious plans of the new mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, to ramp up significantly the local tourism market during his tenure.  

Second, it is now an established fact that hundreds of Moslems are buying properties in West Jerusalem. Nothing wrong in that. What I cannot fathom is why international governments sanction Israeli Jews from living in Moslem suburbs.

A comment from the journalists?