It certainly grabbed mine.
Let me explain.
A few months ago, my wife, Elana, and I went on a fascinating tour of hostels and hotels in the Old City of Jerusalem -- most of them from the nineteenth century. The tour was arranged by Yad Ben-Zvi, a foundation here in Jerusalem (named in memory of Israel's second president, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi) that is devoted to the study of the Land of Israel.
Former Israeli President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
on the Israeli 100 new shekel note (no longer in circulation)
Our tour began at Kikar Safra, the wide, expansive plaza in front of Jerusalem's City Hall. It took us to a half-dozen tiny hotels and hostels, all still in operation, mainly in the Old City, and mainly catering to Christian travelers.
Our first stop was Notre Dame de Jerusalem, a beautiful, white Jerusalem stone-clad structure owned by the Vatican (and flying the Vatican's flag) just outside the New Gate entrance to the Old City.
(Needless to say, the train wasn't here when the building was built in the 1880s.)
Notre Dame de Jerusalem is perched at the highest corner of the Old City, and in fact, the statue at its peak was, for many years, the highest point in the city. During the latter part of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries, it served as a hostel for Christian pilgrims. During the years that the city was divided (1948 to 1967) this building was just on the Israeli side of the so-called "Green Line," with barbed wire and snipers' nests just opposite. Given the political situation, there was no need for pilgrim housing, and so the building was offered to the Israeli government, and the Hebrew University housed its students there. After 1967, when the city was united, the Vatican asked for the building back, and offered the university sufficient money to build new dorms on their Givat Ram campus. The new dorms were called "Shikunei ha-Elef" (literally, the "Millenial Dormitories") in acknowledgement.
A few interesting stories have been told about the site. One funny and well-known one concerns the nuns who lived and worked next door at the French hospital (also adjoining the Green Line that divided the city). One day in the 1950s, one of the nuns was leaning out of the building and her false teeth tumbled to the ground, in what was then "No Man's Land." After extensive negotiations involving the Israelis, the Jordanians, and the U.N., permission was given for one of the younger, more sprightly nuns to crawl into the No Man's Land to retreive them. We were shown a nice picture of the nun and the international team that saved her teeth.
After our tour guide shared a few other interesting stories about the hotel, he gave us a few minutes to wander in the lobby (which is quite fine). It was there, on one of the tables, that I saw copies of a free magazine available for tourists: This Week in Palestine.
I took a look at the magazine. Its glossy, well-formatted style was no different from that of the magazines you will typically find in hotels all over the world. It's filled with ads for restaurants, hotels, and tourist attractions. But it certainly seemed odd to me to read this particular magazine in Jerusalem. For it definitely presented a point of view and an understanding of the "facts on the ground" different from the one I was used to. For example, consider the map of Jerusalem inside.
(The enclosed area in the lower half of the middle third of the map is the Old City.)
What I found particularly interesting -- and disappointing -- is that, as you can see, parts of the map are shown in a different color. The legend informs us that these are "Israeli Built-Up Areas."
Although it is not noted in the magazine, these include three very different regions: First, The Jewish Quarter of the Old City, in which Jews have long lived. The quarter was razed in 1948, and Jews were banned from it between 1948 and 1967. Second, Mount Scopus, which has been part of Israel since 1948. Technically, it was under Israeli control between 1948 and 1967, but it was inaccessible except by means of an armored convey that travelled there once a week to assert sovereignty. Third, Ramat Eshkol, one of the neighborhoods built by the Israelis after 1967 on annexed land that had been on the other side of the Green Line. All three of those areas are given the same color, even though each has a very different history and political status.
There are several articles in the magazine about sites in "Palestine." The issue focuses on archaeology, and how it has been used by the Israelis to give authenticity and legitimacy to the Jewish attachment to the Land.
You would think that it wouldn't be necessary to deny the Jewish attachment to this land to assert a Palestinian one, but that is exactly what this magazine does. For example, one paragraph in the article on archaeology begins as follows:
"Archaeology is one of the many tactics Israel uses to claim ground in Palestine. Many historical sites have been exploited to benefit the Jewish narrative."
Though somewhat slanted, those sentences have the ring of truth.
But then comes, "I've never heard a Palestinian deny a Jewish presence in Palestine, the place that joins Christianity, Judaism and Islam."
That, unfortunately, is just ludicrous. Take, for example, the famous statement by Yasser Arafat that there never was a Jewish temple on the site of the Temple Mount (a claim which is repeated in the magazine, by the way). (You can read this and similar preposterous statements here.)
The article in This Week in Palestine reminds me of the story of the scouts who were sent to explore the Land of Canaan (see Parashat Shlach L'cha in the Book of Numbers). The scouts first told the truth, namely that the land is flowing with "milk and honey" (Numbers 13:27), before maligning the land (in the very next verse). Why? As Rabbi Johanan said in the name of Rabbi Meir: "Slander that does not begin with truth is not believable." (Sotah 35a).
It also reminds me of something I realized a number of years ago, when I co-chaired a JCRC mission that brought nineteen Christian ministers to Israel: you can travel to "The Holy Land" without, so to speak, ever setting foot in "Israel." Many of the ministers had gone on Holy Land pilgrimages (some described them as "trips to Palestine"), staying in places like Notre Dame de Jerusalem, reading magazines like This Week in Palestine, and travelling from hotel to hotel, from restaurant to restaurant, from holy site to holy site, without encountering Jewish aspects of Israel.
Incidentally, although there is not yet a Palestinian state, it is easy to believe otherwise. Consider the following screen shot from my iPhone. It is open to the Moovit application's map of the area. (I use Moovit all the time to get around town.) Note the caption on the border that marks the former "Green Line" between the state of Israel and the Palestinian authority:
What's my hope? My hope is that just as Israeli maps depict the entire city of Jerusalem, and show where all of the Christian and Muslim holy sites are, as well as the Jewish ones, one day Palestinian maps will do the same. Moreover, one day, the articles in magazines like This Week in Palestine will recommend Israeli hotels and holy sites and eateries, as well as Palestinian ones. And there won't be any attempt to exploit magazines like This Week in Palestine to score political points.
Finally, one day, all the articles in magazines like this will be fair and balanced. Amen!
