Israel?s destiny as the Promised Land, as Zion, as Eretz Israel, or simply Ha?aretz, The Land, is writ in stone. And nowhere is it more apparent than in Jerusalem, where the streets and alleyways, having witnessed history, have chosen to live in it. Municipal laws dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, when Jerusalem was planned, stipulate that all buildings in the city be faced with local ?Jerusalem stone?, a pale limestone reminiscent of meleke, the stone of the holy Western Wall. So Jerusalem, the largest city and the seat of the Government of Israel, today looks every bit what it is: a city of tradition and identity, the cultural and religious nerve centre of the Jewish people since it became King David?s capital 3,000 years ago.
Time, it would seem, has stood still in the hills and valleys of Jerusalem. At the entrance of the city, however, the Jerusalem Chords Bridge, a steel-and-glass cantilever cable marvel designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, cuts a steep arc across the urban landscape?and through time?with its mast soaring above the boulevards and the traffic of a busy junction and heralding a modern Jerusalem.
One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, the Old City of Jerusalem?with its cobbled alleyways, ancient paving stones and broken colonnades from the Roman Cardo that later became an Arab-style marketplace, and walls and gates built over the centuries?tells yet another story, one of integration across cultures and faiths.
Danny Brody, a guide and an American Jew settled in Jerusalem, says, ?Legend has it that it is possible to walk above the central souk along the rooftops of the city. People say Jerusalem is united by its rooftops.? Indeed, peer down at the Ottoman walls of the Old City from a rooftop, across the Jewish, Armenian, Christian and Muslim quarters, and you see a Jerusalem sacred to three monotheistic religions?a unity framed by the Dome of the Rock, a shrine built on the spot where Prophet Mohammad is said to have ascended to heaven; the Western Wall, a remnant of the ancient Holy Temple; and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site of Christ?s crucifixion.
?Since the reuniting of Jerusalem in the year 1967 under the leadership of the then Defence Minister Moshe Dayan, it has been redeveloped with an amazing infrastructure of transportation, social and cultural amenities,? says Ralphy Jhirad, Vice President, Federation of Indo-Israel Chambers of Commerce, an Indian Jew who visits Israel regularly.
?Jerusalem is a microcosm of Israel,? Emmanuel Witzthum, artistic director of HaMa?abada, or The Jerusalem Performing Arts Lab, one of the centres of creativity in the city. ?You can find everything here?hate, peace, history, modernity, Ethiopians, Arabs, Russians,? he says.
The streets of Jerusalem mirror the collective consciousness of its people. Teeming with holy men in black suits and kippahs, tourists from the West, college students and shoppers for six days in a week, the city converges in the quiet of Shabbat, the day of looking inwards and realising the true meaning of Israel?s standard greeting: Shalom.
