Economy of Jerusalem
- Hebrew:
- Yerushalayim
- Arabic:
- Bayt al-Muqaddas or Al-Quds
News •
A major source of livelihood in Jerusalem is government and public service employment. Since 1967 business activity and investment in the city have been stimulated by the housing boom and the ever-increasing influx of pilgrims and tourists—except in periods of high political tension and violence, such as the two Palestinian uprisings known as intifadas (Arabic: “shaking off”; 1987–93 and 2000–05) and when conflicts escalate along the Lebanese and Gazan borders.
Personal income for both Jews and Arabs has risen steadily. Extreme poverty is concentrated among sections of the Muslim population, particularly in the Old City, and among strictly Orthodox Jews; several neighborhoods populated by Jews from Africa, Yemen, and the Levant are also economically disadvantaged, albeit less severely. Generally speaking, unemployment levels are higher in Jerusalem than in Israel’s coastal cities. In politically stable times, thousands of West Bank Arabs enter the city to work as unskilled laborers, especially in the hospitality and construction industries.
Israel’s global prominence in high-tech industries has had an impact on Jerusalem as well: two high-tech office complexes—one in the neighborhood of Malha, next to the city’s largest shopping mall, and the other in Har Hotzvim—employ thousands of highly educated scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
Manufacturing and services
The establishment of heavy manufacturing industries has not been encouraged, in the interest of preserving the traditional character of the city. Combined with transport and marketing difficulties, this has limited the city to a number of small industries. While science-based industries have developed since the 1980s, the percentage of the workforce engaged in the manufacturing industry remains quite small, whereas about two-thirds is engaged in services. In the late 1990s the most important enterprises were electrical and electronic equipment, chemicals, food, and printing. There are still small workshops producing giftware, religious articles, curios, and printed fabrics, although the manufacture of such items is increasingly outsourced abroad. Some Arabs work in Jewish-owned enterprises, particularly in the construction and tourism sectors, but virtually no Jews work in Arab-owned enterprises.
The tourist boom stimulated the construction of first-rate hotels in the city, which receives a very large number of tourists. Many of these visitors are Jewish, Christian, and Muslim pilgrims; accordingly, in addition to the traditional summer vacation months, the heaviest influx is linked with the Jewish High Holidays (Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur), as well as Passover, Christmas, and Easter.
Transportation and communication
The main link to and from Jerusalem is Highway 1, a four-lane (sometimes six-lane) east-west highway that runs from Tel Aviv–Yafo to Jerusalem. Because Highway 1 is often congested, a parallel four-lane highway, Route 443, was built connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem via the planned community of Modiʿin, which lies roughly halfway between the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem metropolitan areas.
A north-south road bisects Jerusalem in its course along the watershed between the coastal plain and the valley of the Jordan River and links the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus to the north with the West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Hebron and the Israeli city of Beersheba to the south. Another road links Jerusalem with the city of Jericho in the West Bank, about 36 miles (58 km) by road to the east, and from there it follows the Jordan River to Lake Tiberias (the Sea of Galilee) in the north. A secondary road cuts across the Samarian Highlands west of Jericho to Israeli settlements in the northern West Bank.
Road construction has increased considerably in the city since the mid-1970s, but traffic congestion remains one of the most acute problems for urban planners. The north-south Menachem Begin Highway has eased commuter traffic within the city limits, but little can be done about bottlenecks in much of Jerusalem, an ancient city with narrow streets.
Meanwhile, Jerusalem’s main urban thoroughfare, Jaffa Road, has been off-limits to all vehicular traffic since the inauguration of the city’s light rail system in 2011; gradually, more and more of downtown Jerusalem is being turned into pedestrian walkways. In addition to modernizing the city’s mass transit system, the light rail system was the catalyst for the construction of a new Jerusalem landmark—the majestic Chords Bridge, designed by the renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
Public transportation for Jewish districts in both west and East Jerusalem is provided mainly by bus cooperatives. Interurban service to Jewish-inhabited areas in Israel and the West Bank is also operated by the cooperative from the Central Bus Station near the western entrance to the city. Services to Jewish areas do not operate on the Sabbath (i.e., from shortly before sundown on Friday to shortly after sundown on Saturday) nor on important Jewish holy days. Services to Arab-inhabited districts of the city as well as to areas of the West Bank under the control of the PA are provided by privately owned companies out of a bus station near the Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem. Private taxi services operate on the Sabbath and holy days within nonreligious areas of the city and also connect Jerusalem with certain other destinations including Ben Gurion International Airport. Separate sherut and taxi services operate from the Damascus Gate to Arab towns and cities in the West Bank.
The single-track Jaffa-Jerusalem railway, offering spectacular scenic views as it wound through the Hills of Judaea, opened in 1892. For many years it connected Jerusalem with Tel Aviv–Yafo and Haifa on the coast and with Beersheba inland. Before 1948 it was also possible to travel by rail to Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. A modern high-speed rail link connects Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, enabling travel between the major cities in as little as 30 minutes.
An airport on the northern edge of the city served a limited amount of inland traffic for a time but closed in 2000 at the outbreak of the second intifada.