Jerusalem's mayor presides over perhaps the most complicated city in the world: deeply divided between Arab and Jew, religious and secular, rich and poor, and claimed as capital by both Israelis and Palestinians. But Nir Barkat, a successful former high-tech entrepreneur, says Jerusalem is thriving like never before and in a re-election pledge insists the key to success is keeping its various fragments united. With peace negotiators discussing the potential future partition of Jerusalem, Barkat emphatically says the city can't be split and urges negotiators meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday to take any such talk off the table. "It will never function, it will never work. It is a bad deal," he told The Associated Press in an interview in his office at City Hall. "Doing a bad deal is worse than no deal." Jerusalem is Israel's largest city and its 800-thousand residents are split almost evenly into thirds between secular and modern Orthodox residents, Muslim Palestinians, and ultra-Orthodox Jews. The Arab population lives almost entirely in east Jerusalem, the sector captured by Israel and 1967 and claimed by the Palestinians as their capital. Elected in 2008, in a victory seen as a backlash against ultra-Orthodox control of the city, Barkat claims to have stopped the exodus of tens of thousands of secular Jerusalemites, invigorated cultural life in the city and improved quality of life for the city's Arabs. In a wide-ranging interview with the AP, Barkat, who is seeking re-election to a second five-year term in October, laid out his goal of maintaining Jerusalem as "the centre of the world" - a city that is open and accessible to all. Drawing on the city's ancient history, Barkat said Jerusalem has always been at its finest when it was undivided and allowed all those who entered its gates to feel equality and a sense of belonging. He said Jerusalem had to go "back to its roots" and rediscover the DNA that made it so special. "Jerusalem of 3,000 years ago was not divided into tribes. All people that came to worship faith in the Temple, came to Jerusalem, felt that Jerusalem belonged to them as much as it belongs to everyone else and that feeling created a very special atmosphere of belonging. Everyone felt that Jerusalem belongs to them," he said. Before turning to politics, Barkat was the first chairman of Checkpoint Software, a leading maker of computer security technology, and an Israeli business magazine recently ranked him as the country's richest politician with an estimated net worth of roughly 125 (m) million US dollars. Barkat earns a symbolic salary of one shekel a year and drives his own car to work. Israel captured east Jerusalem, home to key Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the area in a move that has not been recognised internationally. The fate of Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While past peace talks have discussed partition options, Israel's current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says that is out of the question. The Israeli government is responsible for peace talks with the Palestinians, and the mayor of Jerusalem has no say in the city's political future. But as chief executive he can affect the delicate balance between Arab and Jew, especially in regards to daily life issues like building permits, construction, education and public services. Barkat said his administration has treated the city's Arab residents "honestly and equally" by building roads and classrooms, increasing budgets and investments in their neighbourhoods and expediting building permits. Critics, including human rights groups, say public services in Arab neighbourhoods continue to lag far behind Jewish areas. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/6ef034f32fa42050c8a3fc679109f1d6 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 31 Jul 2015
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