Temple Mount, Dome on the Rock, Western Wall - 24 hours in Jerusalem Israel

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  1. I bumped into your show and it was interesting to hear about the city I live in from an outsider.
    I just wanted to write a few things:

    1. The old city as you mentioned is only populated by a small percentage of the population of Jerusalem. The vast majority of Jews in Jerusalem live outside the walls and many consider visiting some parts of the old city (like the Muslim and even Christian quarters) as dangerous, let alone living there. The Jews who do live in the Jewish quarter are usually national religious – the same kind of population that settles in the west bank, but also some ultra-orthodox Jews.
    You will hardly find a secular Jew living in the old city, although in the past, just after 1967 when it was rebuilt many secular Israelis did move there, opened galleries etc. But for some years now, almost all the secular Jewish population left and national religious Israelis moved in.
    So it’s mainly Arabs (both Muslims and Christians) who actually live in the old city.

    2. In Israel as a whole but much more so in Jerusalem and in the old city, the religion of the person is connected to his/her national identification.
    So Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem identify themselves as Arab Palestinians and not as Israelis – like the Jews identify themselves.
    So I guess people in Jerusalem (I suppose more so Arabs) are interested to know your religion because that tells them your national identity – are you part of the Israelis or the Arab Palestinian group. Of course given the fact that most Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem don’t exactly like Israel, this national identification matters to them.

    1. Thanks so much for your input — that’s so interesting!

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