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Jerusalem upside down!   • Dr Marwan Asmar Visiting Jerusalem two weeks before the war

EDITOR’S NOTE 11th October: The latest Israeli mayhem is the result of the land, sea and air infiltration of Hamas operatives into the Israeli territories starting 7 October, 2023. The final part of this article was written as Israel responded bombing towns, cities and camps in the Gaza Strip. This was a first-time unprecedented event that took Israeli politicians and military establishment completely by surprise. Very soon though, the war machine started to turn with many dead on both sides. At the time of writing, just five days into the war over 7000 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza according to Hamas. Israel is also on an almost 24-hour bombing spree of the enclave as reported internationally. So far 1,055 Palestinians were killed and 5,184 injured and the number of Israelis killed tops the 1200 mark with 2900 injured.

* My visit to Jerusalem was made two weeks prior. No one expected war.

My recent trip to Jerusalem was mind boggling. It was a mixture of fascination, allurement, paradoxes and yes, Israeli occupation with a concoction of nervy, tense coexistence full of past and present controversies.

Make no mistake about it, Jerusalem is split down the middle: There is an Arab East of predominantly Palestinian places, roads and neighborhoods including the holy places of Al Aqsa Mosque, Christian churches of which the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as the most important and the Jewish Wailing Wall.

And there is West Jerusalem, a posh part which Israel has taken as its internationally-disputed capital, housing its government, parliament, the Knesset and the official residence of the president of the Jewish state. It’s surreal, because although some Jewish names were introduced, the original Arab Palestinian districts are still on the different road signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

No compunction

Present-Israelis have no compunction in living in neighborhoods and manor houses previously-owned by Palestinians who left hastily in the 1948 war when Israel was created and the subsequent 1967 war when it occupied the rest of the city and forcibly annexed it. Under its newly-created property absentees law these houses were taken by Israelis as if it were their own and settling there from Europe, the former eastern bloc and Russia.

Thus, these and often palatial Palestinian homes became theirs. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has several residences there, so does Israeli president Isaac Herzog. His official residence is in the upscale neighborhood of Talibya. I am told also Netanyahu travels to his offices, which is less than a few kilometers away, in a black motorcade so nobody knows which car he is traveling in and in spite of the fact the place is always crawling with security officers as can be expected.

Talibya used to house rich Palestinian merchants right up till 1948. Other previous Arab neighborhoods taken by Israel include Baka, Katamon and Ein Karem. Upwards, further in the west, there is Dier Yassin, an Arab village still remembered because of the well-known massacre perpetrated by Zionist terrorists prior to the creation of Israel.

This sojourn was part of a tour I was taken on by an Arab Jerusalem taxi driver on the “Jewish” part of the city and its important sites. In some ways, it was part of a history lesson I took in my undergraduate days for I was also shown the now stargazing King David Hotel.

The hotel, formerly the administrative headquarters of the British mandatory government that ruled Palestine was bombed in 1946 by a Jewish underground Irgun terrorists and killing many British soldiers. One of the terrorists was Menachem Begin who went on to become the Israeli Prime Minister in the 1970s.

Today, the hotel stands as part of a complex number of top notch establishments that include the New York-based Waldorf Astoria, David Citadel Hotel and Mamilla Hotel. But the King David Hotel is the mainstay of visiting US presidents like Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and with the latest being Joe Biden when he came to Israel in 2022. 

Part of the paradox in the Zionist mentality lies in their extensive Muslim people – 20 percent of the Israeli population are made up of Arabs - and/or the Palestinians they dominate. While Israeli politicians have tried to make this western side of the city as much Jewish as possible, I was struck by two landmarks: The existence of the Muslim Cemetery that goes back to the Crusades of the 11th century and the Muslim Art Museum.

Whilst the latter may have been created to show Israel is a state that believes in coexistence as its Arab Palestinian population tops 1.5 million it controls more than 350,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the situation regarding the cemetery is more far more complex.

Israeli politicians previously tried to dig up the cemetery and turn into a park, cafes and other amenities but this created outrage among Muslims and their MPs in the Knesset, something which Israeli officials, finally backed off. Regardless however, they still dug up at the periphery of the cemetery and made their own changes, hoping nobody would notice the desecration they were making to the centuries-old graves.

Street No. 1 One road divides West and East Jerusalem. Street No 1 as it’s locally known is the basic parameter with a traffic light to go into each direction.

Before we sojourned into West Jerusalem, the taxi driver picked me up from my hotel, revealingly named the New Capital Hotel in Arab Jerusalem. I first thought Palestinians and their politicians are clamoring for East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future Palestinian state (which they are); and then wondered how the hotel was given a license because Israel insists Jerusalem is its undivided Jewish capital but then realized all the instructions on the hotel walls were in Hebrew, which at first I thought was odd, but you soon learn here, it’s all about imposing one’s identity and character.

The taxi maneuvered into the short plaza off the Salah Al-Din Street, named after the historical warrior and quickly preceded to navigate the tight street which had shops on either side. Very quickly, the trip become a mixture of history and current affairs. Off the Salah Al-Din, was the still existing American Colony Hotel which I was told is still active in receiving foreign dignitaries, diplomats, intellectuals and men of the cloth having been bought by an American religious Christian businessman in the late 19th century. 

Famous names as Tony Blair, the then British Prime Minister and a man who whole heartedly supported George W. Bush’s war on Iraq and subsequently become the Middle East Quartet chief in 2007 used to stay at the hotel to ironically talk about peace between the Israelis and Palestinians

And then a bit further towards the north of East Jerusalem, the driver pointed to the St. Joseph Hospital where the casket carrying the slain body of Shireen Abu Akleh was attacked by Israeli police. It was horrific, the police attacked those carrying the casket simply for displaying the Palestinian flag. TV journalist Abu Akleh was shot dead by an Israeli sniper outside the Jenin refugee camp in May 2022.

The hospital marked the beginning of Shiekh Jarrah, a neighborhood that became well-known over the controversy of Jewish settlers seeking to confiscate the homes of Palestinians with Israeli courts turning a blind eye. Quickly going through it now rather than on TV, it gave me context although the area appeared a small neighborhood but politically-charged right under the noses of different foreign consulates there. These included the British, French, Belgium, Spanish, Greek and Turkish diplomatic missions.

Wadi Al Jouz

After that, it was on to Wadi Al Jouz, another Palestinian neighborhood just before the ring road onto the Mount of Olives and interjected by the Hebrew University on one side and Brigham Young’s University Center of Near East studies on the other. At first, I thought it was odd, for a university administered by the US-based Mormons Church to be allowed to operate in Jerusalem but this city, through its markings, is the center of world religions which nobody can deny.

The Hebrew University of world repute dominates one whole mountain surrounded by Palestinian neighborhoods beyond, including towns and villages like Al-Eizariya, Abu Dis, Jabal Albaba and Jahlin on side and on the other, lies the Mount of Olives which is part of Al Tour, an urban Arab district providing health centers, hospitals and other works for its Palestinian residents. They are termed so by Israel because they are not allowed to obtain citizenship, but nevertheless pay full taxes for being granted the privilege of Israeli identity cards.

Here is the Church of the Ascension where Jesus was supposed to have been taken to Heaven and spurred crucifixion but further down, a full view of the Dome of the Rock with its golden top glares up into the blue skies. It’s a magnificent sight for all-year tourists who flock to this part to see the holy city.

Just in the background there stands a magnificent hotel, the Jerusalem Intercontinental built in 1964 and initially owned by the Jordanian government up till the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Although its ownership today stands in dispute with talk about the change of its name to the Seven Arches Hotel and owned by a Jerusalem family. Today, however, it continues to operate in a laidback manner.

From this hilltop there is a tiny slippery road that gets you down to one of the main gates of the old city bypassing many Christian artifacts. The Lion’s Gate gets you within walking distance of the Muslim Compound and the Dome of the Rock. Israeli armed guards control the entrance but otherwise, I was allowed to enter freely – although this is not so for many other Palestinians - and pray inside one of the mosques, the large Qibly prayer hall. 

I was a bit early for the noon prayers so I went to the adjacent Muslim Museum that contains artifacts relating to the Muslim Compound in its different historical periods. I was struck by large copies of the Quran on display from different historical epochs. After that I made my way to the vast hall that was a large mosque and a main pillar of Islam which in terms of religious importance stretches to the Mecca and Madina harams in Saudi Arabia in terms.

This time around, the atmosphere seemed calm although tension is all around as many Jewish settlers march around the area at different times of the day guarded by Israeli soldiers. This time around, their presence was scaled down to the entrances around the compound. Here, there are many Islamic structures and courtyards which would have taken, at least a day or two, to visit and include the underground Al Marwani Mosque with its magnificent red carpets which accommodates 6000 people.

Pilgrims and tourists

After the afternoon prayer I made my way to the hotel off the Salah Al Din Street. There, the hotel was full of religious pilgrims and tourists from all over Muslim worlds including Malaysia, Indonesia and China. During my five-day stay there the changing intake of Muslims was high. One group of Pakistanis said they came from Birmingham in the UK to see the holy places. 

A footnote to my visit was a sojourn to Howara in what is now seen as the Palestinian territories, namely the West Bank which has been turned to independent, semi-independent and Israeli controlled areas under the now beleaguered 1994 Oslo accords. Strictly speaking my tourist visa was to Jerusalem and Israel. However, a certain amount of leeway is given and quite often the Israeli authorities turn a blind eye to people who visit their relatives in West Bank villages, towns and cities although at the border crossings they frown on visits to these areas.

The way I got to Howara, this time with my sister, was through a taxi with a yellow numberplate driving down what continues to be known as the Nablus Road. Unlike “Palestinian” cars with white number, these cars are Israeli and can usually pass the military checkpoints installed around Jerusalem. I was dreading the idea of going to Palestinian territories, but this time it was smooth entry despite the high tension one hears about in the media between Israeli soldiers and the Palestinians.

Not this time. That week, me, my wife and my sister stayed with my aunt and her husband on the part of a house that was traditionally built by my grandfather in the early 1930s. He had built the home with money he managed to save after his five-year work-stay in Venezuela. My grandfather appreciated the land, buying quite a few plots of land for the future but what ungracious, heart-rending destiny that turned out to be.

The house smells of history. Its older than the Israeli state that come into existence in 1948 and subsequently occupied the rest of the Palestinian territories and through its wars moved on to occupy the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights and Jerusalem.  So, this is the stage where we are now!

After a few days there, I went back to Jerusalem. On Friday I went back to Al Aqsa and did the traditional weekly mid-noon prayer in one of its many plazas. Like thousands of others, I couldn’t pray in inside its prayer halls but at least I was there, looking directly at the golden dome.

Next day, it was time to get back to Amman. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of melancholy to be leaving this great city that goes to the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict. But I left on a more positive note despite the heartache, terror and the guns and tanks because of the growing Arab-Palestinian body politic that permeates the city in every way and direction. There’s no way these people can be subdued I thought, with military might or not.

© Dr Marwan Asmar - 11th October 2023
Chief Editor in the ATHENA Project (JORDAN)

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