My first impression of Jerusalem shocked me. After reading news stories my whole adult life about conflict in that tortured city, I could hardly believe stepping onto a clean and modern subway and seeing normal, happy faces. I marveled at how people of such great diversity seemed to get along in a decidedly Western, modern environment.
Laughing Flash Mob, Jerusalem, 2014
“Jerusalem’s light rail train runs from the Israeli West part of the city, through Palestinian neighborhoods in the occupied east all the way to Pisgat Zeev — considered by international law a settlement and therefore illegal but currently home to more than 40,000 Jewish Israelis. The train connects Israelis on both sides of the 1967 Green Line boundary. As more Jews began settling in Palestinian parts of the city in recent years — and more Palestinians have used the train to work and shop on the Israeli side — unification was hailed by Israeli officials as a fait accompli, and the light rail was its much celebrated symbol.” — Al Jazeera English, 2014.
A story in the NYT in 2017 belied my own experience: “Jerusalem: It’s Tense, It’s Crowded and Can Feel Like A Jail. For residents of Jerusalem, over which the world has been battling for thousands of years, everyday frictions can be draining on both sides of the Green Line.”
Unlike the author of this piece, my first impression was the LACK OF TENSION, perhaps because I was expecting tension and danger everywhere. A gentle Muslim fellow, former school teacher, gave us
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