The Wailing Wall

 

Marco Rubio this month at the so-called Wailing Wall

'I concede with sorrow that the baseless fanaticism of our people is in part to be blamed for the awakening of Arab distrust. I can raise no sympathy at all for the misdirected piety which transforms a piece of a Herodian wall into a national relic, thereby offending the feelings of the natives.' 

Sigmund Freud in a letter dated 26 February 1930 declining a request to sign a petition condemning the Arab riots of 1929, in which more than 133 Jewish settlers were killed by Arabs.

As soon as the start of 1920, just over 2 years after the British captured Jerusalem from Turkey and a year after a wave of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe began, known as the Third Aliyah, the first Jewish-Arab dispute over the Wall occurred.

The Muslim authorities were carrying out minor repair works to the Wall's upper courses. The Jews, led by Zionists, while agreeing that the works were necessary, said the Muslims were carrying them out in a way that disturbed Jewish prayers. They appealed for British supervision of the repairs.

It was the start of a long, tragic and sanguinary story which continues to the events in Gaza today. 

Riots over the disputed wall became commonplace, leading to the 1929 one.

What a shame that the Emperor Trajan, when he destroyed the temple, missed this scrap of wall. 

It was not part of the temple but is part of the exterior wall of a large platform built by King Herod on which the temple stood. 

The ancient Moroccan Quarter in which the wall stood from the 12th century AD was demolished by the Israeli Mayor of Jerusalem in 1967 to allow access to it.

I have been addicted to the news and politics since I was 2 (literally) but the Israel Arab dispute always bored me to tears. I read about it but my eyes glazed over and I understood nothing. Like the Cold War it went on endlessly but the Cold War was interesting.

Finally I read a book that I found in an airport bookshop, The Palestine-Israeli Conflict: A Beginner's Guide by Rabbi Professor Dan Cohn-Sherbok, a pugnacious Zionist, and an Arab scholar called Dawoud Sudqi El Alami. 

This made clear to me that between 1918 and 1948 the behaviour of the Jews towards the Arabs was indefensible.

But I skipped most of the chapters written by the Arab. 

The Zionist rabbi's attempt to paint the behaviour of the Jewish immigrants in a good light wholly failed for me. 

Like many of my books this one has been stolen but I shall order it. No book is lost forever in the age of the internet. I recommend it.

I loved visiting Israel before October 2023 and loved the country, Jewish parts as well as Arab parts, though the latter are the interesting parts for a tourist. I loved the Jews and Arabs.

I of course very much regret not visiting the Gaza Strip, which I thought of doing on my last visit.

I found I wished the country did not exist but was very pleased it did. 

I feel differently now.

I do not know when I will revisit the Holy Land, if ever, but it will not be soon. 

But I do want to stay again at the Hotel New Imperial, where the Kaiser stayed, and meet again its wonderful and universally loved manager, Mr. Dajani, who the nicest person in the hotel industry I ever me in any country by far. 

He is a Muslim, though the hotel is owned by the Christian Patriarch. 

He told me that he looks at young Israeli men and sees that they are not made of the same stuff as the ones who conquered the old city of Jerusalem in 1967.

The hotel is a very shabby remnant of the old, poetic Jerusalem when it was part of the domains of the Sublime Porte.