Annexationist right-wingers dream of a Greater Israel, but not as a state of all its citizens. They want sovereignty over the territories, but without annexing the Palestinians as equal citizens. These desires are contradictory. The “demographic threat” is actually a democratic threat: If the majority in the country is Palestinian, democracy will serve to put it in positions of power. In Jerusalem, the Arabs are nearing 40 percent of the population. Currently, Jerusalem’s Arabs boycott the municipal elections. But what will happen on the day they vote in droves and elect an Arab as mayor of Israel’s capital?

The annexationist right tries to resolve this contradiction by promoting annexation plans and legislation that, on the one hand, would place limits on the possibility of returning territory as part of any agreement; and, on the other, would enshrine Jewish superiority in law (through the nation-state bill). So it adds creative attempts to arrange the demographic data in a way that will preserve the Jewish majority – on paper.

This is the motivation behind the amendment to the Basic Law on Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel that was hastily approved Tuesday by the Knesset legislative committee and will be brought up for a vote Wednesday on its first reading, just before the Knesset goes into recess.

One clause makes it more difficult to transfer territory in the capital from Israeli sovereignty into Palestinian hands, and says the approval of 80 MKs will be required to advance such a move. Two other clauses stipulate that there will be nothing to legally prevent municipal changes from being made within the city’s jurisdiction. Thus, the law forbids the transfer of territory from Jerusalem to foreign sovereignty, but will allow the government to make municipal changes and transfer territory from Jerusalem to a local Arab authority under Israeli sovereignty.

These amendments would enable the government to transfer the Shoafat refugee camp and Kafr Aqab, which are currently located beyond the West Bank separation barrier but within the Jerusalem municipality, to a new regional council that could be created. The villages will continue to operate under Israeli sovereignty, but will no longer be part of Jerusalem. This is demographic gerrymandering designed to reduce the number of Arabs in the city – so that if Jerusalem’s Arabs later decide to exercise their right to vote, they won’t have enough votes to take over the mayor’s office.

Some 140,000 people live in these neighborhoods beyond the separation barrier. Because they are cut off from Jerusalem, the municipality and the police rarely provide them with services. And in recent years they have seen rising violence, increasing amounts of illegal weapons and drug trafficking. The infrastructure is in very poor condition. But the motivation of those promoting the law is not to improve the welfare of Jerusalem’s Arab residents.

There is no attempt being made to create historic justice and divide the city between the two peoples. Rather, it is a cynical and manipulative move through which Israel is trying to rob Arab residents of Jerusalem their right to vote in the city’s municipal elections.

The above article is Haaretz's lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.