his maze of narrow alleys cheats. The voices of insistent vendors of souvenirs and crafts distract. Sometimes they mess up. The dozens of people concentrated in narrow passageways strip any walk of its romanticism. But there is a aura difficult to explain that permeates the environment. Ancient cobblestones emanate intangible doses of transcendence. songs of all creeds they raise the visitor a couple of feet above the ground, the same on which Jesus dragged his cross. Some banderas hoisted, and others trampled, give a clue as to why the overwhelming presence of armas and cameras. In Jerusalemholy city where there are, the past punishes the present staining its ancient walls with blood.
Each one sees in Jerusalem his own cause. “No one could underestimate the importance of this city”, emphasizes professor Yitzhak Reiter, President of the Israel Association for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. “When Jerusalem happens to be in the eye of the storm and serves as a meeting point to recruit people to fight for the future of this city, it also becomes the conflict symbol Palestinian-Israeli”, adds Reiter for this newspaper. Nada Awad, Palestinian Jerusalem, her hometown goes further. “The situation in Jerusalem is a microcosm of the situation against the Palestinian people as a whole,” he told EL PERIÓDICO.
And this is proven by the events that have occurred in recent weeks. Given the violence perpetrated by the Israeli police against the Palestinian faithful who were trying to pray in the Esplanade of the Mosques of Jerusalem in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan, it set the entire region on fire. For this reason, Israel has prohibited Jewish prayer in this area until the end of the most special month for Muslims. “The international community is very aware of what happens in Jerusalem, since any friction, confrontation or violence between Israelis and Palestinians there extends to the West Bankthe entire Middle East and the Arab and Muslim world, and creates instability in the area,” Reiter explains.
Synagogues, churches and mosques
in just the square kilometer of the Old City from Jerusalem, buildings of the three main monotheistic religions of the world are concentrated. Synagogues, churches and mosques are guarded by different flags in a complex coexistence. Between its walls, that heavy aura that falls on the cobblestones is combustible that can burn with a small wick. For the Muslims, Jerusalem is home to the third holiest site in Islam, after Mecca and Medina. “Palestinian Muslims living in Jerusalem believe that were born to defend the Al Aqsa Mosqueand this is the reason for many clashes and violence that break out in the area,” says Reiter.
“The situation in Jerusalem is a microcosm of the situation against the Palestinian people as a whole,” denounces Al Shabaka’s Nada Awad.
At the same time, Jews from all over the world proclaim their desire in each liturgy: “next year in jerusalem“. “Is he epicenter of judaismwhere the kingdom of Israel was born and most of the history of the Jewish people took place”, specifies the also university professor. For this reason, the newly established Israeli authorities decided to establish their political capital in the holy city after the creation of the State in 1948. But, in those lands, there was already a people who inhabited them. Back then, Nada Awad’s grandparents were a a family from Jerusalem lifelong. They had always lived in the western part of Jerusalem that 75 years ago, during the Nakbathe Palestinian catastrophe, fell into the hands of Israeli forces and control.
Will demographics decide?
“We got a residence permit [y no la ciudadanía] because Israel was well aware that what they needed to do to create a Jewish state was transfer to the Palestinianseliminate them, and replace the native population,” says the analyst for Al Shabaka, the network of Palestinian experts. “This is the zionist ideology“, he remarks. Awad’s family became another of the thousands internally displaced. To this day, they have resisted against all odds in the holy city and are 350.000 Palestinians living with a residence permit in Jerusalem. Israeli law allows revoke these licenses under the ambiguous concept of “breach of loyalty” towards the country that occupies them. Since 1967, some 14.500 have been annulled, rendering them stateless.
If demographics hold up, the Palestinian population will outnumber the Jewish majority in 2045. Currently, the descendants of the city’s natives are divided by the separation wall started in 2002 and by a multitude of military posts of control. In addition, Israel has built illegal jewish settlements in east Jerusalem that house some 230,000 inhabitants. The absence of places to meet among Palestinians elevates the Esplanade of Mosques complex to be the last remnant of the Palestinian homeland that is not under full Israeli control. It is in Jerusalem where the palestinian national identity It has flourished since the beginning of the last century.
“Wounds of 1967”
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“We are still licking our wounds from what happened in 1967,” laments the Israeli professor. “The jewish religious groups they believed that God helped us get the victory on the Palestinians and the Arab states, as if it was a sign of the Messiah, so since then, Israel, under pressure from these groups, decided to triple the size of Jerusalem, include more space on the Israeli side and impose its law and administration throughout the city, which is another word to talk about annexation“, denounces. During the last decades, the discrimination against the Palestinian population it has increased as the presence of radical Jews from foreign countries to settle in the dream land increased.
Awad laments a reality that hits him hard: “What Israel has done since its creation is institutionalize a regime of racial domination and oppression as a tool of settler colonialism, while ensuring that quell resistance“. “After all, we are heading towards a situation in which it is increasingly difficult for the Palestinians to survive,” he adds. In this attempt to surface to breathe, to preserve the earth of their ancestors, the aura of Jerusalem lifts their efforts. The echo of her last breaths goes beyond the diffuse borders of the Palestinian people. Reflected in the golden dome of the dome of the rockthe millennial cobblestones tell their story, one more shared than desired.