Jerusalem: Key to Light ... and Darkness

Jerusalem: Key to Light ... and Darkness

A friend of mine asked me the other day how long it had been since I was allowed into Jerusalem.

"Almost ten years," I replied - save for a two-hour trip to the US consulate to collect a visa three years ago.

"It's been eight for me," he said.

Then we realised that most of the children and "youths" we report about during the recent clashes across the West Bank, which have centered on Israeli measures in the occupied City, have most likely never seen it!

Because most unmarried men under the ago of 35 can mostly only dream of obtaining an Israeli permit to visit occupied East Jerusalem, which Israeli authorities have also physically severed from the rest of its Palestinian surrounding with a sereis of walls and checkpoints.

Collective memory

Still, people say, it's Jerusalem, the subject of moving songs, the provocateur of passions, the summary of national history. Those youths have a deep and emotional connection to Jerusalem; bonded by a collective memory and attached through culture, heritage and, yes, religion.

Covering the dramatic clashes throughout the West Bank the past week days, these national sentiments were crystal clear. Palestinian boys and young men have been demonstrating all day for days now.

Yet despite the endless showers of tear gars, stunt grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets, their numbers were growing, not diminishing. And the clashes are growing in scale, moving away from checkpoints, and further into the alleys and streets.

That's where confrontations become personal because the Palestinian youth are so close to the Israeli soldiers, they can almost touch them.

The sound of stunt grenades, rocks hitting the roofs around us and asphalt between our feet and the awful tear gas. It's disorienting. More so because in these types of clashes, there are no sides - confrontations happen everywhere: left, right, front, back and center.

These scenes are repeating across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, with clashes reported to the West of Ramallah in Ni'lin - a village recently declared a closed military zone by Israel - Nablus villages in the North and Hebron, to the south of Jerusalem.

Different picture

In Jerusalem, the picture is different, more difficult to decipher. This is a highly guarded city, with cameras and undercover police everywhere, including the residents' midst. These confrontations are an echo of the general Palestinian mood; disappointed by international inaction and frustrated by the dwindling hope in a better tomorrow of peace, freedom, and opportunity.

The anger, the demonstrations, and political upheaval were all fuelled by political developments. Recently, Israel announced a series of settlement expansion plans that greatly angered Palestinians. It also opened the door wide open for unprecedented and harsh international criticism, including from Israel's most important ally: the United States.

Then, an event that injected religious sentiments and perhaps fervour into this dangerous mix of tension and political deadlock. Rightwing Israeli groups inaugurated the Hurva synagogue, perilously close to the Haram al-Sharif compound, which houses Islam's third holiest site: the al-Aqsa mosque.

The synagogue was mostly built from private contributions; problem is, though, it was built in the occupied eastern part of the City and on land that used to house an Arab Palestinian neighborhood Israel demolished shortly after it occupied Jerusalem in 1967.

It used to be called the Sharaf neighbourhood; now it's called the Jewish quarters. But Israel is not even paying lip-service to international criticism.

'Unreasonable' demand

On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said it was "unreasonable" for the international community to ask Israel to stop construction in occupied East Jerusalem.

He also said the Quartet statement, issued on Friday, 'harms the possibility of reaching [a peace] accord". Why? Because it condemned Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and said Israel must stop them now.

Palestinians consider Jerusalem the heart and soul of their identity; their history, summed up in the ancient walls that speak volumes about a turbulent and stubborn past and present. One that despite the bloodshed and misery still provided humanity with messages of love and peace.

But the holy land's history and holiness is perhaps also its curse.

Unholy wars

 It is in Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa that Jesus is believed to have walked, bearing his cross, on behalf of humanity. And it’s in this City that carnage occurred in the name of God - and unholy wars - to dominate the city of God.

Yet, it’s also in this City that the best of man, and God’s followers, prevailed and where the first signs of religious co-existence shone upon the world.

But the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis is about land and sovereignty. It is a national struggle of the first rite.

Jerusalem though, which was key to the failure of Camp David peace talks in 2000, is the most dangerous element in this struggle; for it is a religious symbol as much as it is a national prize.

Patriotic imperative

Palestinians of all faiths occupied East Jerusalem, or Arab Jerusalem, to be a holy patriotic imperative.

The same applies to Jewish Israelis. And the faithful of the three monothistic religions around the world hold Jerusalem dear to their heart.

That is why as much as Jerusalem could be a lasting symbol of peaceful religious coexistence, it could just the same ignite a spark for humanity's darkest sentiments of prejudice, hate and religious warfare.

Israeli measures in Jerusalem, observers have long feared, could spark this darkness as they are shrouded in religious rhetoric that is deeply provocative.

This horrific prospect seems to be a looming threat hovering over Jerusalem skies these days and those sound enough to see this dark cloud are simply terrified.