Jerusalem

The cognoscenti and celebrities of Jerusalem have been extremely busy in anticipation of "Jerusalem Day," which falls next week. Producers, journalists, researchers, demogogues, rabbis and those who predict the messiah will come are all preparing for their great moment, the day on which the conquest of East Jerusalem in the 1967 war is marked. Once upon a time, when the idea was conceived to add this day to the calendar, already overloaded with patriotic memorial days, it was known as "Jerusalem Liberation Day." But it soon became clear that this name was false and cynical; the liberation meant subordination of the Arab population and the day became a day of mourning for one-third of the city's residents. Then they began calling it "Jerusalem Unification Day," until the intifada arrived and tore asunder the illusion of "unity." By default, the present banal name, "Jerusalem Day," remained, but the event itself is not as neutral as its name: it is an expression of antagonism and xenophobia, a chance to hold arcane ceremonies of allegiance and to nurture nationalistic and religious myths.

The weariness from Jerusalem
By Meron Benvenisti
Haaretz