AJC Briefing: Jerusalem Prognosis

[Ari Gordon <gordona@ajc.org>]

>AJC Briefing: Jerusalem Prognosis

>By Ed Rettig, Director, AJC Jerusalem

>June 13, 2011

The Israeli Knesset designated Jerusalem Day as a national holiday in 1968. It 
falls on the 28th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar, the anniversary of the day 
the State of Israel proclaimed the reunification of the city in 1967. This year 
the Hebrew date fell on June 1. The occasion calls for some reflections on the 
state of the city.

Many write and speak about Jerusalem as a "cause." The Arabs call the city Al 
Quds (the sacred), and Palestinians see it as the capital of the future 
Palestinian State. For Israel, though, it is self-evidently the capital of the 
Jewish State, much as it has been the lost capital of the Jewish people through 
much of their history. Indeed, the very name of the Jewish movement for 
national liberation that produced Israel is "Zionism." "Zion," the name of a 
hill in Jerusalem, is used to connote the entire city.

Yet, in our passionate discussion of the cause of Jerusalem we tend to lose 
sight of the people who live there. As we ponder the city's political future we 
do well to consider the Jerusalemites, those most directly engaged in that 
future. Jerusalem is home to about three quarters of a million people, most 
with large families, low incomes, and, unless things change drastically, 
relatively poor economic prospects.

Read more at: 

http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=2818295&ct=10875921&notoc=1
 

>Posted by:
>Ari M. Gordon
>Special Advisor 
>Interreligious and Intergroup Relations
>American Jewish Committee
>165 E56th Street
>New York, NY 10022
>(212) 891-6717