{"id":48073,"date":"2022-04-16T05:25:09","date_gmt":"2022-04-16T05:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=48073"},"modified":"2022-04-16T05:25:09","modified_gmt":"2022-04-16T05:25:09","slug":"sudans-burhan-gestures-toward-steps-to-ease-tensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=48073","title":{"rendered":"Sudan\u2019s Burhan gestures toward steps to ease tensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new book delves into the multi-layered identity of Jerusalem\u2019s historic Old City<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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AMMAN: The division of the Old City of Jerusalem into four uneven quarters \u2014 the ostensible source of comparisons between the tiny Armenian sector or even the Jewish and Christian areas and the city\u2019s centuries-old Muslim heritage \u2014 has long stoked controversy, and often the sort of violence that erupted on Friday.<\/p>\n

Israeli security forces entered Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem before dawn as thousands of Palestinians were gathered for prayers, setting off clashes that left at least 135 Palestinians wounded.<\/p>\n

To debunk the perceived myths and false narratives used to justify this carve-up, and the notion that these communities are somehow evenly weighted, a new 400-page book by British author and journalist Matthew Teller, \u201cNine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City,\u201d sets out to unpack its true, multi-layered identity.<\/p>\n

A veteran travel journalist who has written for the BBC and produced several radio documentaries, Teller excels in piecing together the old and the new, religion and politics, money and family, combining academic research with powerful human stories.<\/p>\n

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Tourists on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem\u2019s Old City and the Dome of the Rock earlier this year. (AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In his colorful style, he brings the city and its occupants to life, taking readers on a breathtaking journey through winding streets and historic archways, coaxing a vivid narrative from every niche and every stone.<\/p>\n

In the process, Teller does not merely retell the chronology of the city, he leads his readers into the heart of the cultural complexities, human dramas, hidden conflicts and personal rivalries that shaped the destiny of the Old City and its occupants.<\/p>\n

Revealing a much greater cultural and ethnic diversity than the four quarters designation might suggest, Teller introduces his readers to a cast of characters that includes African Muslims, Syrian artisans, Palestinian archaeologists, members of the Coptic community, an Armenian pop star and the caretakers of a shrine dedicated to a Sufi saint from India.<\/p>\n

\u201cNine Quarters of Jerusalem\u201d also reflects Teller\u2019s own 40-year relationship with the city. Although he was not born there, his decades of reporting on the wider region have informed his perspective on Jerusalem and its people.<\/p>\n

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Amid the backdrop of new violence erupting in the Old City, the new book reveals Jerusalem\u2019s under-reported cultural and ethnic diversity. (AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

His journalistic neutrality means he allows the historical facts to speak for themselves. As he states in the prologue, his aim was to ensure his book has the right kind of balance \u2014 not a seesawing balancing of two equal sides, but rather a true reflection of the reality for all of the city\u2019s inhabitants, which is so often neglected in Western and Israeli narratives.<\/p>\n

\u201cPalestinians of Jerusalem have a voice but we in the West have not been listening,\u201d Teller told Arab News.<\/p>\n

One incident in particular that Teller highlights is the destruction of Jerusalem\u2019s Moroccan quarter, which happened just three days after the 1967 war. Until then this Maghrebi area of the Old City had stood the test of time for about 700 years.<\/p>\n

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INTERVIEW<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/p>\n

\u2018The Palestinians of Jerusalem have a voice\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

When British journalist Matthew Teller set out to write \u201cNine Quarters of Jerusalem,\u201d he wanted to portray the Old City and its inhabitants as they truly were and are \u2014 not as those with a particular political agenda would like them to appear. \u201cI wanted to write a book about the people,\u201d he told Arab News. \u201cThere are 35,000 people who live in the Old City of Jerusalem. About 90 percent of them are Arab Palestinians, yet we rarely hear their point of view.\u201d Teller said he wants to correct \u201ca historic imbalance.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Palestinians of Jerusalem have a voice but we in the West haven\u2019t been listening,\u201d he said. The role of his book is to \u201camplify\u201d their voices, he explained, adding: \u201cI want to give those voices a boost and to humanize the people that live and work in the Old City.\u201d Many tourists and pilgrims who visit the Old City and explore its picture-postcard beauty miss out on what is really important, said Teller: \u201cThe people of Jerusalem are much more important than the stones.\u201d Jerusalem captivated the writer from a young age. He first visited the Old City during a family holiday in 1980, when he was just 11 years old. It was an experience he describes as \u201cunforgettable\u201d and it sparked a life-long love of the Middle East and traveling the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

But what inspired him to put pen to paper? \u201cI wrote this book for people like my friend Raed Saadeh, owner of the Jerusalem Hotel, whose ideas and visions inspired me to write it,\u201d Teller said. \u201cRather than setting stories that are Jewish against an equal number of stories that are from or about everybody else, I have instead redistributed my time, energy and resources to favor those who begin less advantaged. Rather than amplifying the already amplified, I have chosen to amplify the unlistened-to.\u201d Indeed, Teller\u2019s approach is to reject the historical simplification of the Old City as an entity composed of four communal quarters.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cJerusalem has many more sides than two, and many more quarters than the four that appear on its maps,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is completely misguided to reduce a place as complex and diverse as Jerusalem to two sides. There are more than two sides and there are more than four quarters. The city has a much more complicated set of layers to it.\u201d Teller hopes Jerusalem\u2019s Palestinians will recognize their authentic voice in his book. \u201cIf that happens, then I am satisfied,\u201d he said. But however much as he adores Jerusalem, he said he has been careful not to try to speak on behalf of the city\u2019s inhabitants. \u201cJerusalem is not my city and never will be,\u201d he explained.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat said, there has hardly been a year in my life in which it has not played a part.\u201d Teller also hopes his book will challenge some of the Western misconceptions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict being a black-and-white issue. \u201cIt is important that we, as Western onlookers, admit that those two sides \u2014 and, especially, representations of their being irreconcilable \u2014 are a convenient fiction for the disengaged or the lazy,\u201d he said. \u201cAny balance that may result from treating them equally can never be equitable because they do not start as equals.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cOn June 10, after dark, Israeli soldiers stormed through the neighborhood, shouting and banging on doors. Residents were given two hours \u2014 or, in some reports, three, others say only 15 minutes \u2014 to leave their homes,\u201d Teller writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat same night, around 11 p.m., men with sledgehammers went in first. Bulldozers followed, working through the night and into the next day. \u2018In two days, it was done \u2014 finished, clean,\u2019 said Jerusalem\u2019s Israeli mayor, infamously.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the area had been leveled, it was discovered that a woman had been killed in the rubble of her home. One source names her as Rasmiyyah Ali Tabaki. Maysoon Al-Maslohi \u2014 caretaker of Zawiya Al-Magharba, one of the very few buildings that survived the 1967 destruction \u2014 tells me she was called Amina, and that she died because she was deaf and so did not hear the warning calls.<\/p>\n

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A map of the Old City. (Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cSome 32 years later an Israeli army engineer who oversaw the operation spoke of having found several \u2018Arab corpses\u2019 that night, some of which, he says, were simply bulldozed into the dirt in front of the Wall. Presumably, they lie there still, trodden by the observant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teller also challenges the unflattering narratives from Israeli sources relating to Jordan\u2019s 19-year control of Jerusalem, such as the unproven claim that the Jordanians erected a toilet against the Western Wall. Instead, Teller credits the Hashemites for their patronage of the city\u2019s holy sites through the Jerusalem waqf.<\/p>\n

\u201cNine Quarters of Jerusalem\u201d is a remarkable book in that it reads like dramatic fiction, yet the detailed notes, photos, bibliographies, references and index are worthy of a doctorate thesis that should certainly feature on any academic reading list about Jerusalem\u2019s complex past.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new book delves into the multi-layered identity of Jerusalem\u2019s historic Old City AMMAN: The division of the Old City of Jerusalem into four uneven quarters \u2014 the ostensible source of comparisons between the tiny Armenian sector or even the Jewish and Christian areas and the city\u2019s centuries-old Muslim heritage \u2014 has long stoked controversy,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}