In Mick Dumper's "Jerusalem: Then and Now", he discusses the deep social and political history of Jerusalem, but does so in a way that makes it easily comprehensible tot hose with minimal prior knowledge. Of all the things he discusses, I took note of his discussion on how "geographically and economically, the growth of Jerusalem doesn't make sense."I found this interesting because for what it's worth (religion aside), there aren't many reasons for people to be fighting for this land. Access to it is limited by mountains, and it has limited supplies of water and other natural resources. It is Jerusalem's religious affiliations that make it so sought after, and it's interesting to ruminate on what it would be like if it weren't for religion.
Similar to the beginning of Mick Dumper's piece, Rashid Khalidi's "The History of Jerusalem: An Arab Perspective", looks at Jerusalem it's attachment to the three Abrahamic faiths. He states " When discussing Jerusalem's history, it should be clear that what is really at issue is one narrative of that history, and not the thick accretion of religious beliefs and embellishments of the historical record over which the modem political agendas of Palestine and Israel compete." In other words, in order to understand the many problems at hand, we cannot rely purely on one viewpoint or solely on religious perspectives. If we do, what is really happening will be misconstrued and filtered through biases that may not give us the full story. This is what this class is about: learning about Jerusalem from every perspective possible. Having an Arab perspective is highly important. He looked at Jerusalem from a religious perspective and why Jews, Muslims, and Christians see Jerusalem as a holy city. Seeing why each one cherishes this land helps broaden my understanding of why so many take this problem so personally.Discussing the different pilgrimages (i.e. visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, or the Dome of the Rock, etc.) shows what Jerusalem means to people today. What i got from this week's reading is that in order to discuss the conflict in Jerusalem, one must look at the cities' history from three different perspectives, without preconceptions or biases.
You made an interesting point when you said, "When discussing Jerusalem's history, it should be clear that what is really at issue is one narrative of that history, and not the thick accretion of religious beliefs and embellishments of the historical record over which the modem political agendas of Palestine and Israel compete." I think its important as well to look at the issue from all different angels. I think some people think that just looking at it from all three religious angels is enough of an unbiased analysis. Religion is very important to Jerusalem, but we must also look at the political, historical, national, ethnic ,etc. issues which all influence Jerusalem.
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