Modern Jerusalem

(March 10)


Before beginning the lecture on the 21st century Jerusalem, we finished the last lecture which ended on Jordanian Jerusalem. In 1967, the Six Day War began. This war started when the Soviets tell Syria that the Israelis are going to attack them. Because of this, the Egyptians begin to assemble their forces and Jordan even signs an agreement with them. The Israelis, however, wipe out the Egyptian air force within hours. Moshe Dayan then gives the Temple Mount to the Muslims where the Jews were forbidden to pray. The Israelis then annex the Old City and East Jerusalem. This war "united" Jerusalem.
In addition, we talked about the intifadas, or uprisings, that occurred after the Six Day War by the Palestinians because they had nothing after this war. The Palestinians were upset because they had no Palestinian state and because of the Israeli occupation in their regions.
The Oslo Accords then came about in 1993. This agreement was about mutual recognition. Israel recognized the Palestinian Liberal Organization (PLO) as a real representative of the people of Palestine, and the PLO recognized Israel to having the right to obtain a state and renounced their terrorist attacks. This agreement appears to be unfair however because the Palestinians recognize Israel as having the right be an Israeli state where the Israelis do not agree to the same for the Palestinians. The Palestinians basically get screwed over with the Oslo Accords.

In the lecture about the 21st century Jerusalem, we see a picture of an Israeli solider yelling at a Palestinian who is also yelling back to him. This is a powerful picture because it really displays the tension between some of these people. The Israeli soldiers do not like that they have to keep peace there and the Palestinians do not like them there, but this is just how things are over there. Many Palestinians and Israelis want peace, but it is not always up to them what their governments decide. In addition to this time period, the West Bank Barrier was applied around the West Bank.

The solution to the problems that have been occurring in this region have not yet been found, but according to Professor Cargill, it may be resolved soon.