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Jerusalem



  • Who Attacked Jascha Heifetz in 1953?

    Although ties to Jewish extremist organizations were suspected, the person who attacked a violinist in 1953, allegedly for performing the works of Richard Strauss, has never been found. The story resonates with conflicts in Israeli society today. 



  • Will the US Build an Embassy on Palestinian Land in Jerusalem?

    by Rashid Khalidi

    As the new ultra-right wing Israeli government prepares to escalate the dispossession of Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the United States should not allow the siting of its embassy to give cover to this project. 



  • How Christian Archaeologists Fed Today's Strife in Jerusalem

    by Andrew Lawler

    The incursions of 19th century Christian archaeologists onto Jerusalem's historic acropolis created a sense of seige on the part of Palestinian Muslims, which is echoed today in ongoing conflict over the city's religious sites. 


  • Jerusalem: A Divided and Invented City

    by James A.S. Sunderland

    Both Hamas and the Israeli right base their claims to Jerusalem on understandings of the city as shaped by the orientalist and segregationist values of British governors during the Mandate period, and not on the city's longer heterogenous and multicultural history. Peace activists look to that history as an example of coexistence. 



  • Why the Al-Aqsa Mosque has Often been a Site of Conflict

    by Ken Chitwood

    "Controlled access to the site reminds Palestinians of their relative powerlessness in their ongoing land disputes with Israeli authorities. At the same time, attacks at Al-Aqsa resonate with Muslims across the world who react with horror to what they see as the desecration of one of their most sacred sites."



  • Teshuvah: A Jewish Case for Palestinian Refugee Return

    by Peter Beinart

    Peter Beinart argues that the history of the Jewish people and the events of 1948 compel Israeli political leaders and American and world Jewish organizations to recognize a right of return for displaced Palestinians as part of a resolution to the current crisis in East Jerusalem. 



  • The Complicated History of Religion and Archaeology

    Modern archaeology has largely succeeded in instituting professionalization and historical rigor to the study of sites of theological significance, but the discipline has a long and continuing historical entanglement with efforts to find proof of religious doctrines.