Jerusalem: The Biography

* In Israel’s dysfunctional democracy, with weak coalition governments, national-religious organizations have become ever more powerful in questions of Jerusalem’s planning and archaeology. In 2003, Israeli building started in the vital East One (E1) section, east of the Old City, which would have effectively cut off east Jerusalem from the West Bank, underminingthe creation of a Palestinian state. Israeli liberals and America persuaded Israel to stop this, but plans to build Jewish settlements in the Arab neighbourhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan continue. The latter stands next to the much-excavated ancient City of David where a Jewish nationalist-religious foundation, Elad, funds the invaluable archaeological excavations and runs a visitors’ centre telling the story of Jewish Jerusalem. It also plans to move Palestinian residents to nearby housingto make way for more Jewish settlers and a King David park called the King’s Gardens. Such situations can challenge archaeological professionalism. Archaeologists, writes Dr Raphael Greenberg, a historian who has campaigned against this project, represent ‘a secular academic approach’, yet their backers hope for ‘results that legitimise their concepts of the history of Jerusalem’. So far his fears have not materialized. The integrity of the archaeologists is high and as we saw earlier, the present dighas uncovered Canaanite not Jewish walls. Nonetheless these sites have become flashpoints for protests by Palestinians and Israeli liberals.