One City. Many Opinions.

As an American student, I spent years from elementary school through high school studying the required American history.  Through the years, the level of complexity about American history increased as readings evolved from basic ideas to historical and present conflicts.  American history and issues are quite complex and have multiple sides.  What stands out to me is American has developed such an intricate past in not even 250 years.

After reading the passages about Jerusalem and the festival, one idea was ringing through my head.  Jerusalem has been there for thousands of years.  On top of that, Jerusalem's history is recorded through some of the oldest evidence known to man (most controversially, The Bible).  Not only that, but Jerusalem is the home, the founding place, the holy site to multiple religions.  It is no wonder that one city has caused so much conflict.  

Suad Amiry could not have summed it up any better.  Beauty creates problems and Jerusalem is rich in history, culture, and religion.  When one place holds so many traditions, opinions are bound to form and unfortunately this is the basics of the Jerusalem conflict.  The most basic example is Falafel.  Falafel is a beauty, it has tradition, meaning, and of course is delicious.  If somebody handed you a Falafel, you would eat it and enjoy it.  Now if somebody handed you something called an Israeli Falafel, you would eat it and think positively about Israeli culture.  However since the Palestinian and Israeli cultures in Jerusalem are so geographically close to one another, this may create a different opinion on Palestinian culture.  Now this is obviously a very simple example, but when in such a small setting people become very impressionable.  On a larger scale, Amiry talks about the divided role that politics play..."to the weaver of palm fronds for Palm Sunday who was forced to become a building contractor in order to make a living; to the Armenian master jeweler who had to hide away his beautiful handmade masterpieces when Israeli tax collectors invaded shops and confiscated items."  The beauty of Jerusalem is the culture and history, but unfortunately the conflict in Jerusalem is caused by the culture and history as well. 

Albert Aghazarian says that the Jerusalem conflict is due to everyone carrying around mirrors. "Every individual or community has a mirror of history, of cultural realities." As a student writing a blog post, I know that I cannot create peace where conflict has been ongoing for thousands of years. My suggestion though is for people to look at themselves as Jerusalemites. Whether it be Israeli Jerusalemites or Palestinian Jerusalemites, they are all Jerusalemites.