Reply #124: This issue [View All]

[Gimel]

has basicly been settled between the parties. The Palestinians will have their capital "Al Quids" in the eastern Jerusalem areas. By letting the issue be set aside, a compromise was found.

The discription of Jerusalem in the 19th century and early 20th has been drawn by many famous authors and intellectuals. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemmens) included his discription in Innocents Abroad.

Theodore Herzl wrote:
In his book "Altneuland" ("Old New Land"),
published in 1902, Herzl discusses the
shabbiness and neglect of Jerusalem that he saw
during his visit to the city in 1898: "Pilgrims
from all the religions are harmed, without
noticing, to the depths of their hearts when
they arrive after a long and arduous journey to
this destination of their soul's desire and
yearnings, and how foul the scene their eyes
behold in those very streets - scenes of
neglect and banality." But further along in his
book, Herzl tries to convince the Jews that the
Zionist movement is vital for the revival of
the Jewish people. The neglected and miserable
city becomes, in Herzl's vision, an important
national and international center; the way in
which the city develops and is built as well as
its urban character express a combination and
connection between tradition and progress, as
in a modern European city.


also:
During 400 years of Ottoman rule, Jerusalem was
a provincial town far from the center and
despite its past, it won no recognition and
atrophied. In the Old City remained poor
neighborhoods and ramshackle markets. The new
neighborhoods that began to go up outside the
walls at the end of the 19th century were
isolated and cut off, without infrastructural
systems - even though these were already
developed in many cities abroad
read more
wrote Prof. Boris Schatz.

On edit: spelling correction