Israel is pursuing a policy change that will create a lottery system by which Palestinian residents in east Jerusalem will be able to buy rights in new government housing.
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The move was reportedly spurred by a lack of housing options for Palestinians in the capital, as only Israelis were previously allowed to apply for subsidized homes.
Of Jerusalem's population of roughly 874,000, East Jerusalem holds 61 percent of it at 542,400 people, 60 percent of whom are Arab.
Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher for the Israeli non-profit group Ir Amim, explained what the housing lottery would mean amid a housing shortage throughout Israel.
"One of the things the government is offering is subsidized housing for families whose economic situation requires that," Tatarsky told i24NEWS.
"In this standard … about 40% of the housing units [in east Jerusalem] are through this track of subsidized housing."
Tatarsky, who focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Jerusalem, provided a background of the situation in East Jerusalem, and claimed that the Israeli government would previously not provide any assistance to Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Palestinians "were unable to apply for subsidized housing regardless of their economic situation. East Jerusalemites are the poorest community in Jerusalem, and housing needs are most dire in East Jerusalem."
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The researcher noted that this shift from "economic discrimination" will allow for "the poorest in Jerusalem" to be eligible for subsidized housing.
"The potential is that … it can also have far-reaching political implications," Tatarsky said.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
