Jerusalem: A city of deep political divisions

By Belinda Cunanan

JERUSALEM: Our group of Filipino pilgrims arrived last week in the 3,000-year-old Holy City of Jerusalem, one of the top two favorite pilgrimage sites for Christendom (the other is Rome), amid a clash between Arab elements and the Israeli police.

The violence between the two groups, which saw some 72 dead and scores wounded over the past few days, led to the temporary closure of a number of Biblical tourist spots to tourists, notably Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, and Jericho, the oldest city in civilization.

Which was a pity, since Israel is today crawling with tourists, all cramming their pilgrimage to the land where Jesus Christ lived and died, in this last quarter of the Great Jubilee Year.

The recent clashes were provoked last week by the visit to the "Temple Mount" here in the ancient part of Jerusalem of former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, the rightist nationalist leader of the hard-line Likud party who, in 1982, led Israel's bloody invasion of Lebanon. Many Arabs blame him for the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Beirut refugee camps then.

To understand the clashes, one has to realize the deep political and spiritual divisions here. The political settlement has yielded the West Bank to the Palestinians, whereas Jerusalem was captured by the Israelis during the Six-Day War in 1967, but its administration remains in the Islamic Trust. Jerusalem's old section is run by the Israelis but is predominantly Arab in make- up and appearance, whereas the eastern sector is Palestinian.

The new modern section is predominantly Jewish; Bethlehem and Jericho are in Palestinian hands while Nazareth, where the Holy Family had lived, is today a mixed section.

For the tourist, all this appears mighty complicated.

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem's old section is holy to the three ancient faiths that dominate here, namely, the Jews, the Muslims and the Christians. Yet this has done nothing to prevent the riotings and clashes involving the three faiths over the centuries. In fact, this shared spiritual kinship is at the very heart of the convulsed existence of Jerusalem.

To the Jewish the Temple Mount is where Abraham, father of ancient Israel, was called by the Lord to sacrifice his son Isaac in a test of his faith.

Upon that rock on which Abraham had stood, King Solomon began in 950 B.C. the construction of a magnificent temple. But Solomon's temple was destroyed when Jerusalem was sacked by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 B.C. Upon its ruins was built in 520 B.C. the Second Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans.

Today only one wall of the Second Temple is left -- the famed "Wailing Wall" -- where Jews pour out all troubles in prayer.

But the Temple Mount is also regarded by the Muslims as their third holiest spot, known as Al Haram al Sharif or the Holy Sanctuary, since they believe that from that very rock on which Abraham had stood preparing for his grand sacrifice, the prophet Mohammed was taken to heaven to take his place alongside Allah.

In 638 A.D. Jerusalem was designated Holy City of Islam and a magnificent mosque, now called the Dome of the Rock, was built over Abraham's rock. Its old dome was once covered in solid gold to serve as a beacon to all Islam, but the gold had since been melted to pay off some caliph's debts.

Today the glittering Dome of the Rock still dominates the Jerusalem skyline, but it's now covered with anodized aluminum financed by Gulf State Arab countries.

To Christians, the Mount is most sacred as within its walls is the site of the trial, crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. On His burial site was built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest of Christianity's shrines here.

While the Christians do not figure in recent clashes as a group, the Temple Mount was the object of many wars launched by the Crusaders from Europe in the Middle Ages.

That Ariel Sharon's visit to the Mount would provoke riotings was not surprising; it's like the crusades all over again.

He was quoted as saying that he just wanted to assert the right of all Israelis to visit the mount. But Israeli Arabs here insist that it's not just the Temple Mount episode that caused the violent clashes.

Israeli Arabs say they are protesting the way they are treated like second-class citizens by their own government. Their resentment appears to run very deep.

We Filipinos are closely monitoring the tense developments here, and share the optimism of tourism officials here that the situation would ease up as Israel marks the sacred feast of Yom Kippur, its day of atonement.

Pilgrims cannot help but feel bad, however, about the irony of the situation: that the place where the Prince of Peace was born, lived and worked and died has to be shattered perpetually by war, and that peace is a commodity the Holy Land has not known even before the time of Christ.

-- The Philippine Daily Inquirer / Asia News Network