Publisher's Synopsis
'The 'eternally unified capital' of the state of Israel is the most deeply divided capital city in the world. Its Arab and Jewish residents inhabit different districts, speak different languages, attend different schools, read different newspapers, watch different television programmes, observe different holy days, follow different football teams - live, in almost every significant respect, different lives...' (from the preface) A fascinating account of the tumultuous history of one of the most troubled and important cities in the world by a brilliant historian. How has the city become so hopelessly divided and will it always be so? Is a solution possible and what has been the fate of earlier attempts to reconcile the different communities? Bernard Wasserstein examines the often unhappy history of the Holy City - one of the most contentious places in the world. Wasserstein shows how, throughout modern history, Jerusalem has been exploited for the ulterior purposes of many powers. The religious devotion of masses of Christians, Muslims and Jews throughout the world, he argues, has been manipulated for often squalid ends. Wasserstein contends that a long-term solution to the Jerusalem question must involve recognition of current social reality: a city that in almost every way is irrevocably divided. Against the background of renewed violence in and around Jerusalem, this book offers a timely and illuminating contribution towards the effort to achieve a negotiated settlement of a tragic conflict that, in one way or another, affects us all.
