Jewish Activists Push For New Settlement In Israel’s Mixed Arab-Jewish Cities

In this photo taken on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, Israeli Jewish activist Aharon Attias poses for a photograph in front of new housing project for religious Jews in Israel’s mixed Arab-Jewish town of Lod, central Israel. Religious Jews who are the bedrock of the settlement movement have marked Israel’s mixed Arab-Jewish cities as the new front to “reclaim,” pushing into Arab neighborhoods to cement the Jewish presence there. The migration of several thousand devout Jews to rundown areas of Jaffa, Lod, Ramle and Acco has had a divisive effect far outweighing their absolute numbers, with Jews celebrating _ and Arab activists eyeing with mistrust and resentment _ the construction of Jewish seminaries and housing developments marketed exclusively to Jews.

In this photo taken on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, an Israeli woman walks past a new housing project for religious Jews in Israel’s mixed Arab-Jewish town of Lod, central Israel. <AP Photo/Ariel Schalit>

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