Jerusalem: The Ramparts Walk

To go directly to the Ramparts Walk photos, please look here.

My long overdue tour of Jerusalem's Old City began this morning with the Ramparts Walk, my only opportunity to walk atop the old walls of Jerusalem. They're not actually that old, having been built a mere 500 years ago. Generations of older walls were built and destroyed by successive conquerors, who proceeded to trash the place. You'd think they'd get used to doing without walls, just to avoid the extra damage caused by marauding conquerors. I used to have a friend who parked his car on the street in New York. He got used to leaving the doors unlocked, so robbers wouldn't smash the windows. It worked.

The Ramparts Walk begins at Jaffa Gate, a main entrance to Jerusalem's Old City. Ascending to the top of the wall, the first view was of our neighborhood on the adjacent hilltop. The views are breathtaking and beyond description, so I won't try. Link to photos is below.

My walk continued atop the Zion Gate, and ended on the perimeter of the Jewish Quarter. By accident I ended up at the Western Wall, which again defies description. More on that later.

One thought-provoking scene was evident from atop the wall: high over East Jerusalem, looking down into the densely-populated valley below, what caught my eye was: Israeli flags. Quite a few of them.

The media often talk about "Arab" East Jerusalem, and when they tell the history they usually go back only to 1967, when Israel conquered East Jerusalem, and the West Bank, in the Six-Day War. What they don't usually say is that Jordan had conquered the same areas in 1948, and proceeded to evict all the Jews. Previous to that, there was no "East" and "West" Jerusalem; those artificial divisions were created in 1948 along cease-fire lines. In all of its thousands of years of history, Jerusalem was divided for only 19 years.

We had Shabbos dinner with a friend who is an expert in ancient Jewish history at Bar-Ilan University. He told a story of his neighborhood just to the south of ours, which had been an Arab neighborhood full of beautiful, stately houses. When 1948 came, the entire neighborhood was traded for a Jewish neighborhood in what would become East Jerusalem. I'm guessing this trade was in the radar of the decision-makers because it was a wealthy area. Probably the great majority of Jews to the east of the Old City were not so lucky in 1948.

In 1967, (if you'll indulge just a little more history), the two halves of Jerusalem were reunited, and residents of East Jerusalem were offered full Israeli citizenship. Few accepted, although recent years have seen much greater numbers of East Jerusalem residents applying to become full citizens of Israel. Apparently most Arab residents of East Jerusalem prefer Israeli citizenship to becoming citizens of an emerging Palestinian nation.

And so the Israeli flags are waving over East Jerusalem. It may reflect lack of confidence in the Palestinian Authority, or the likelihood that a Palestinian government based on the PA's structure would not offer health care or other benefits comparable to those of Israel. In any case it's evident that those flags are intended as a political statement: as decision makers consider once again dividing Jerusalem and making those divisions permanent, some residents of East Jerusalem are expressing their concern by identifying themselves as Arab Israelis.

Photos are here.