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Despite conflicts,
Golden City remains magical
By TERRY HOUSHOLDER
 To some onlookers it was a
minor incident. A mere disagreement that was handled tactfully.
But to me, witnessing an argument between a Jew and a Christian
settled by a Muslim on the very spot where the three great religions
converge - the Temple Mount - was symbolic.
Jerusalem, considered by many to be one of the most inspiring
places in the world, is a city where cultures collide and emotions
run high.
In our visit to the Golden City last month, our group's Palestinian
Christian guide was explaining in detail about the significance
of the Temple Mount, a large stone-paved platform near the Dome
of the Rock that takes up one-sixth of the Old City of Jerusalem.
It's a sacred spot to followers of the three great monotheistic
faiths: Jews, Christians and Muslims, who make up half the world's
population.
Tradition says it's where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son
Isaac to God, where King Solomon built the First Temple, where
Jesus was presented as a baby and where he worshiped and taught.
On the site also is where Muslims believe Mohammed flew to God
on a winged horse.
A suspicious man in his 20s wearing sunglasses, jeans and a gray-hooded
sweatshirt which covered his head quietly approached us. Our
guide glared at him a couple of times, but the intruder remained
glued to our group.
I knew instantly the man was an Israeli plain-clothes policeman
or soldier. He didn't look the part of a pickpocket we had been
warned about.
Our guide, a highly-educated man with 35 years of experience,
was incensed by the meddler. He suddenly stopped talking to us
and walked to the nearby El-Aksa Mosque to summon assistance.
In Arabic, he asked the official of the mosque, dressed in traditional
Arab garb, to insist the Israeli officer depart. After a brief
confrontation, handled smoothly by the elderly Muslim cleric,
the Israeli officer walked nonchalantly away.
I assume the Israeli was trying to monitor the information our
Palestinian guide was giving us. (Guides are licensed by the
government). But when I asked Naim about the incident, he made
no comment.
Every inch of Jerusalem, first made the capital of the Jews by
King David in about 1004 B.C., has been fought over for many
centuries.
In the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, Jerusalem became divided between
Israel and Jordan with the Israelis controlling West Jerusalem
and Jordan controlling East Jerusalem.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and has
governed the entire city since.
Today, control of Jerusalem is the toughest obstacle to a final
peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Negotiations over the future of the city have not yet begun,
even though, according to previous negotiations, a solution is
to be agreed upon by May 1999.
Palestinians, who make up about 30 percent of the population
of the city, want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future
Palestinian state. Israeli officials say they will never relinquish
sovereignty over any portion of the holy city.
Today there are more than 175,000 Palestinians living in Jerusalem
compared to 417,000 Jews. Because of a higher birthrate among
Palestinians and a growing outmigration of Jews from the city,
officials of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government
are working to keep the Palestinian population of Jerusalem to
no more than 30 percent.
They are planning to expand Jerusalem's boundaries westward to
include the city's suburbs. The government also is seeking to
build an additional 142,000 apartments to lure Jews back to the
Israeli capital city.
Exploring Old Jerusalem, surrounded by a huge wall, portions
of which are 2,000 years old, is intriguing.
It is divided into the Christian Quarter, the Armenian Quarter,
the Jewish Quarter and the Arab Quarter, each with its own distinct
culture differences. Small in size, the city is jammed with interesting
sites, sounds and smells. And it's filled with colorful inhabitants,
ranging from bearded, black-clothed Hasidic Jews, brown-robed
Catholic monks, and keffiah-wearing Arabs. (The keffiah is the
traditional Arab head-dress.)
Many of the streets are narrow and busy, filled with shops whose
owners hawk everything from religious souvenirs to silver and
gold jewelry.
We visited three of the holiest sites of the three great religions
there - the Dome of the Rock, a place of prayer and pilgrimage
for Muslims; the Wailing Wall, the last remnant of the Second
Temple and the holiest place in the Jewish world, where we witnessed
an impressive prayer service; and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,
a great basilica which is the traditional place of Jesus' death,
burial and resurrection. (See related story.)
Our group of 21 Lutherans from Minnesota and Indiana took part
in a Sunday morning service at the historic Lutheran Church of
the Redeemer, built on ground which was presented as a gift to
Charlemagne, the medieval emperor of the Romans.
In solitude moments prior to the service, I kept thinking of
a small souvenir magnet I saw earlier outside the walled city.
It said simply, ''Pray for Peace in Jerusalem.''
It's a message of hope we all carried home.
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