Jerusalem

Jerusalem is a holy city to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.The British took over the city in 1917,  and held it under the Palestine mandate from 1922 to 1948. After the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, the city was divided between Jordan (East) and Israel (West). The Eastern section of the city was claimed and annexed by Is rael in the course of the Six Day War in 1967.



East Jerusalem
The Old City, which later came to be known as East Jerusalem, was seized by Jordan in 1948 in the Arab-Israeli War. Jewish residents were evicted, and Arab residents of the now-Israeli sector took refuge in the Jordanian controlled area. For nineteen years, it was cut off from the rest of the city, the border guarded heavily by Jordanian soldiers. Form here, sieges were launched against the Israeli sector across Jaffa street.

The Old City is home to several holy sites of Judaism, Christrianity, and Islam: The Western Wall, Temple Mount, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Dome of the Rock, and al-Aqsa Mosque are all located within the walls. During the Jordanian occupation, Jewish residents of Jerusalem had no access to these sites. Over the course of their rule, the Jordanians preserved the midieval walls of the city, while expanding North.

The quality of life on this side of the wall was far below the rest of the city under Israeli control. By the time the area was annexed by Israel at the end of the Six Day War in 1967, the standard of living was $150 per year; by contrast, in the Israeli-held sector, it was $1200. Everyday luxuries like streetlights and supermarkets were unheard of. Cut off from the sea, fresh fish was a rare commodity.

West Jerusalem
In contrast to the Arab-held sector, the Israeli section of Jerusalem fluorished. In 1949, the Knesset (Parliament) moved Israel's capital to Jerusalem (although it still maintained Tel Aviv as a secondary capital). The move was done in an attempt to block the United Nations' resolution to create a 100 square mile internationalzed "enclave" around the city. The new $7 million dollar Knesset building opened in August of 1966, a symbol of the permanence of Jerusalem's status as the true capital of Israel.

Despite this, the mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek, was continually frustrated by Parliament's lack of understanding when it came to his desire to make Jerusalem look like a capital city. He bemoaned the hastily constructed buildings that had been thrown up to house the Jewish refugees who had fled the Old City after the Jordanians seized it. The spaces between these buildings, he noted, were too big for a garden, and really only good for holding the leftover builder's rubble - which they did, admirably.

Mayor Kollek kept the city's adminsitration building situated on Jaffa Street, directly across from the Jordanian controlled border. "Some day - maybe 10 years, maybe 20 - there will be access again between the two parts of Jerusalem," he said in 1966, "and then this will become the center of activity again."

A City Unified
Israel seized control of the Old City on June 7. On June 28, the Knesset formally annexed the Old City, and the next day the barriers came down by noon, reuniting the city for the first time in nineteen years. Arabs began to cross into Jerusalem, cautiously crossing the former "No Man's Land" that marked the border in small groups - a dozen or so at a time. By the afternoon, thousands were crossing both ways - Jews visiting the holy sites, Arabs marveling at how life outside the Old City had changed. Cars jammed the streets.

Despite having just been at war against one another, the day was one of celebration and gaeity, not hostility. Some sought out old friends or business associates, others returned to the homes they had been forced to leave, now occupied by Jewish families who had bought them from the Israeli Government. Despite Radio Cairo's propaganda campaign accusing Jewish doctors of poisoning the food of Arab patients, or bleeding them dry, many Arabs brought their ailing relatives straight to Hadassah Medical Center for treatment.

Mayor Kollek, who had originally protested the suddeness of the reunification, later reflected, "I had my doubts about what the first day would bring. Imagine Germans by tens of thousands walking into Warsaw at the end of World War II. They would have been torn to pieces. But here, it was a success. I have never been prouder of the citizens of Jerusalem. It was an extraordinary act of statesmanlike behavior from a people who are not ordinarily so restrained."

Indeed, both Arabs and Israelis saw the unification as an expansion of the city, not an act of conquest and victory. When East Jerusalem was annexed, those Arab residents were made Israeli citizens, subject to Israeli regulations. Arab lawyers had to pass the Israeli bar in order to practice, car owners had to obtain Israeli plates and insurance. But with citizenship came the ability to leave the city, a luxury not as easily afforded to Arabs in other sections of the country.

Despite the glow of unification, there were still struggles to deal with in the days after the war. Jordan's grand mufti, SHeik S. Kalkilli ordered prayers be boycotted at the Mosque of Omar and al-Aqsa Mosque "as long as the stranger is ruling the territory". This order, however, was ignored. Before pulling out of the city during the war, Jordanian troops had emptied the prisons, letting some 300 convicts go free. They left behind plastic mines in the No Man's Land, which had to be cleared by carefully overturning rubble with a piece of rebar, as metal detectors were useless.

Still, the early days of a united Jerusalem were filled with hope and wonder, and the promise of a new chapter in city's history.