TEDDY KOLLEK
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fear ofArab terrorism. Terrorism is part ofArab political culture. Hardly
any Arab leader has died in bed. This goes through the whole tragic history
of the lives of the kings, through all the prime ministers in Syria, up to the
present one, and you don't know yet how he will end. As you know, Sadat
wasn't the first Egyptian leader who was killed. As to the Arab shopkeepers,
some of them came to us when the police tried to force them to open and
said, what can you do to us? You can either put us injail or you can fine us.
It's not pleasant. But the other side can burn our shops and kill our children.
So the balance of our fear is on the other side, and we'll always do what they
demand ofus.
WP:
That's not publicized sufficiently.
EK:
We also noticed that many Arabs are working here.
TK:
We have 1,500 Arab city employees in jerusalem out of 5,000 em–
ployees all together. And there hasn't been a strike and none have absented
themselves during this period.
WP:
What's impressive here to us is not only the vitality, but that people
care. They seem to have a civic sense. They care what happens to them. In
New York that feeling is not very strong.
TK:
That is true. That is true also of the city officials. The gardeners have
pride in the gardens. The street cleaners have pride in keeping the city clean.
EK:
That's clear, and it helps make it so beautiful. Somehow I have the
feeling that it would help to just get all the people who criticize to come and
look. I know you have some programs.
TK:
What program would do this?
EK:
I think the American jewish Committee, among other organizations,
brings
in
groups often people at a time to show them around.
TK:
There are lots of visitors here. But that affects a small group of people.
It doesn't communicate anything to the large numbers.
WP: What you have to do is change
The New York Times.
EK:
And
The Washington Post?
TK:
Let me tell you something. I was in the States, and our consul per–
suaded me to stay for another day, and spend jerusalem Day in New York.
It
was a Saturday night of a long weekend, when everyone leaves town. I
thought that this would not make much sense, but still I went to St. john the
Divine. There were 14,000 people there to celebrate jerusalem, with a
concert by the Brooklyn Symphony with Lucas Foss conducting. There were
other parts to the program as well. Fourteen thousand people celebrated
jerusalem,but there was not a line in
The New York Times;
there was not a
line in the Israeli papers. So I thought it a waste of time. It wasn't important.
Because ifit isn't in
The New York Times,
it hasn't happened.
EK:
Do you sometimes come to New York as a private citizen?
