Week 1

After reading the article “Researching East Jerusalem,” I asked myself the same question that was asked to the author- what do I remember most about Jerusalem? The first memory that came into my head was visiting the Western Wall on Shabbat Friday.  Seeing all the Jewish people worshiping and praying as the sun was setting was the most impactful religious/cultural experience that has ever occurred to me. This is what I remember most. However, as I was reading the article I realized that on my trip to Israel I only experienced the Jewish part of Jerusalem. The first thing I think about is the part of Jerusalem opposite of the author. Amiry's perspective and memory is completely different from mine.

When Amiry claimed in her interview that Jerusalem is a city that belongs to other people not just Israeli’s, I quickly thought about how I viewed Jerusalem. I know that Jerusalem is a city that contains many religions, however I guess I have always viewed Jerusalem as being a big part of Israel and Israel’s national identity, I never associated the city as belonging to others.

I related a lot to Amiry’s point about how others view Jerusalem as just being a center of religion. Most people that I talk to about Jerusalem only see it for its rich history and religious locations- as a tourist center. This is exactly how I used to see it too. However, once I visited I was able to actually experience what life would have been like if I was a teenager living in Jerusalem. There is definitely a life outside of religion, such as Ben Yehuda Street.

With regards to the representation of Jerusalem at the Smithsonian festival, I believe that considering the conflict, it would be very difficult to display the city in a way that is accurate to everyone. Also, I could only imagine the struggle that must have occurred between both the Israeli’s and Palestinians- they struggle to represent Jerusalem in Jerusalem so why would it be easier anywhere else?  In Galit Hasan’s Dialogueas, he mentioned the difficulty of being on the Israeli team if he had not experienced the peace movement. 

The idea of having two separate research teams reinforces that two major ethnic groups/religious groups see Jerusalem as two different cities. Even though technically Jerusalem can be seen as a united city, in actuality it is not. It has different identities, different boundaries and different meanings to everyone but it does not have a common meaning. The United States of America has different identities and ideologies and meanings but the people are also united- they are American and are drawn together by the belief of freedom, for example. Jerusalem is lacking a commonality.