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Dear Mr. Wiesel,
We write to you from Jerusalem to convey our frustration, even outrage, at your recently published letter on Jerusalem. We are Jewish Jerusalemites – residents by choice of a battered city, a city used and abused, ransacked time and again first by foreign conquerors and now by its own politicians. We cannot recognize our city in the sentimental abstraction you call by its name.
Our Jerusalem is concrete, its hills covered with limestone houses and pine trees; its streets lined with synagogues, mosques and churches. Your Jerusalem is an ideal, an object of prayers and a bearer of the collective memory of a people whose members actually bear many individual memories. Our Jerusalem is populated with people, young and old, women and men, who wish their city to be a symbol of dignity – not of hubris, inequality and discrimination. You speak of the celestial Jerusalem; we live in the earthly one.
For more than a generation now the earthly city we call home has been crumbling under the weight of its own idealization. Your letter troubles us, not simply because it is replete with factual errors and false representations, but because it upholds an attachment to some other-worldly city which purports to supersede the interests of those who live in the this-worldly one. For every Jew, you say, a visit to Jerusalem is a homecoming, yet it is our commitment that makes your homecoming possible. We prefer the hardship of realizing citizenship in this city to the convenience of merely yearning for it.
Indeed, your claim that Jerusalem is above politics is doubly outrageous. First, because contemporary Jerusalem was created by a political decision and politics alone keeps it formally unified. The tortuous municipal boundaries of today’s Jerusalem were drawn by Israeli generals and politicians shortly after the 1967 war. Feigning to unify an ancient city, they created an unwieldy behemoth, encircling dozens of Palestinian villages which were never part of Jerusalem. Stretching from the outskirts of Ramallah in the north to the edge of Bethlehem in the south, the Jerusalem the Israeli government foolishly concocted is larger than Paris. Its historical core, the nexus of memories and religious significance often called “the Holy Basin”, comprises a mere one percent of its area. Now they call this artificial fabrication ‘Jerusalem’ in order to obviate any approaching chance for peace.
Second, your attempt to keep Jerusalem above politics means divesting us of a future. For being above politics is being devoid of the power to shape the reality of one’s life. As true Jerusalemites, we cannot stand by and watch our beloved city, parts of which are utterly neglected, being used as a springboard for crafty politicians and sentimental populists who claim Jerusalem is above politics and negotiation. All the while, they franticly “Judaize” Eastern Jerusalem in order to transform its geopolitics beyond recognition.
We invite you to our city to view with your own eyes the catastrophic effects of the frenzy of construction. You will witness that, contrary to some media reports, Arabs are not allowed to build their homes anywhere in Jerusalem. You discover see the gross inequality in allocation of municipal resources and services between east and west. We will take you to Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families are being evicted from their homes to make room for a new Jewish neighborhood, and to Silwan, where dozens of houses face demolition because of the Jerusalem Municipality’s refusal to issue building permits to Palestinians.
We, the people of Jerusalem, can no longer be sacrificed for the fantasies of those who love our city from afar. This-worldly Jerusalem must be shared by the people of the two nations residing in it. Only a shared city will live up to the prophet’s vision: “Zion shall be redeemed with justice”. As we chant weekly in our vigils in Sheikh Jarrah: “Nothing can be holy in an occupied city!”
Respectfully,
Just Jerusalem (Sheikh Jarrah) Activists
Ada Bilu; Alon Harel; Amiel Vardi; Amit Lavi; Amit Miller; Amos Goldberg; Ariela Brin; Assaf Sharon; Avichay Sharon; Avishai Margalit; Avital Abudi; Avital Sharon; Avner Inbar; Avrum Burg; Barbara Spectre; Bernard Avishai; Carlo Strenger; Daniella Gordon; Dani Schrire; Daniel Argo; Danny Felsteiner; Daphna Stroumsa; David Grossman; David Shulman; Diana Steigler; Dolev Rahat; Dorit Gat; Dorit Argo; Edna Ulman-Margalit; Eitan Buchvall; Eli Sharon; Freddie Rokem; Galit Hasan-Rokem; Gideon Freudenthal; Gil Gutglick; Guga Kogan; Guy Feldman; Hagit Benbaji; Hagit Keysar; Haya Ofek; Hillel Ben Sasson; Ishay Rosen-Zvi; Itamar Shappira; Jonathan Yaari; Judy Labensohn; Judy Labensohn; Julia Alfandari; Levi Spectre; Liran Razinsky; Maya Wind; Mical Raz; Michael Ritov; Miriam Farhi-Rodrig; Mirit Barashi; Mirit Barashi; Moshe Halbertal; Naama Baumgarten-Sharon; Naama Hochstein; Nadav Sharon; Neria Biala; Nili Sharon; Noa Lamm-Shalem; Oded Erez; Oded Na’aman; Ofer Neiman; Omri Metzer; Paul Mendes-Flohr; Peter Lehahn; Phil Spectre; Ra’anan Alexandrowicz; Ram Rahat; Ray Schrire; Reuven Kaminer; Roee Metzer; Ronen Mandelkern; Roni Hammerman; Sahar Vardi; Sara Benninga; Sharon Casper; Shir Aloni Yaari; Shir Sternberg; Shlomi Segall; Silan Dallal; Silvia Piterman; Tal Shapira; Tamar Lehahn; Tamar Rappaport; Uri Bitan; Yafa Tarlowski; Yaron Gal; Yaron Wolf; Yehuda Agus; Yonatan Haimovich; Yoram Gordon; Yotam Wolfe; Yuval Drier Shilo; Zehava Galon; Zeev Sternhell; Zvi Benninga; Zvi Mazeh; Zvi Schuldiner
(press inquiries and other questions about the open letter to Elie Wiesel can be sent to: sheikhjarrah@gmail.com)
What a stunningly beautiful letter.
http://www.mynewtonlife.blogspot.com
Thank you. How can we help the politicians of the world to understand that the issue is much bigger than their narrow selfish interests? We must, but how?
This letter should be read by everyone exposed to Wiesel’s partisan weaseling. Marvelous!
The oddest thing about the alleged sage’s paean to Jerusalem is that Wiesel does not recognize it as idolatry. Read Jeremiah, for goodness’ sake, where the prophet foresees the destruction of Jerusalem because of the Jews’ “shedding innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression.” He makes it clear that the city is not an object of veneration or worship; the norms of justice, equality, and peace are, and without them, both the city and its Temple must be lost.
Read Jeremiah, Mr. Wiesel — and repent!
Fantastic letter. On point.
Agreed – a simply beautiful letter. Thank you.
Blame Bush!!! It really works for everyone…
Jerusalem is a holy city not only for Jews, but for Muslims and Christians too. It “belongs” to the three great faiths, not just to Jews. In fact, it should be a model for coexistence and tolerance where all three faiths share in their respect and adoration of that great city
I salute the writers of the letter to Elie Wiesel as well as the Israeli Jerusalemites who have challenged Mr. Wiesel’s letter to President Obama. I also salute the Israelis who challenge their government demolishing Palestinian Houses in East Jerusalum. May Godb bLess them all.
It seems to me that Mr.Wiesel is acting on behalf of Bibi Natenyahu,the current prime minister of Israel. I did read somewhere,I forgot where,that Mr. Natenyahu had asked Mr. Wiese to weite such a letter to the President Obama.
I am delighted and proud to find real jews in Israel who understand the need to share and live in peace with their arab neighbours. Jerusalem is indeed a sacred city, but sacred to many.
The price of disregarding this letter is devastation of Jerusalem for every one.,
Abner Shimony
The most honest and compelling answer I’ve seen so far to the exclusivist and poisonous rhetoric of Wiesel and his like-minded fanatics.
Wiesel writes of Jerusalem that “It belongs to the Jewish people”. Does
it then belong to him as a Jew residing in New England? Does it then
*not* belong to a Christian or Muslim family whose members grew up in
Jerusalem and reside there? Does Wiesel fail to understand what his
words imply? Or does he understand it all too well?
Thank you all for this letter. It fills me with hope for the Middle East that Jews from Jerusalem could have written this. From a generic white English atheist, thank you.
I recognize several of the signers as old friends and comrades and greet and salute them for their courage in speaking out against the currently accepted wisdom in Israel . As a member of the Boston University community, the Jewish Studies Center of which bears his name, I am especially grateful to the signers for showing that Elie Wiesel, like all idols, has feet of clay.
Yesterday, I sent a copy of this magnificent and most moving letter to about fifty of my family, friends and colleagues, Jewish and non-Jewish, and already about half-a-dozen have responded to me, and two have posted comments above. “Go thou and do likewise!”
That so many courageous citizens of the real and living Jerusalem still find the summons to stand together in witness to Justice stronger than the tidal pull of hate and fear is an astonishing demonstration of the power of the human spirit……and a reminder to men and women everywhere that the imperative sense of Justice is amongst the foremost particular defining features of Judaism and perhaps the greatest of the many prodigious gifts which the Jewish people have conferred on the world. Of course not only Jews – whether religious or secular – share the impulse to Justice. But, in my submission, it is something connected with Jewish identity and experience in an especially profound way.
I am not a Jew. As Charles Chaplin once remarked “I do not have that high honor”
But I know – as Chaplin recognised and as Christopher Hitchens recently commented, that anti-semitism is the one infallible symptom of a diseased mind.The greatest of all the monsters ever to have embodied that disease notoriously uttered the words “Conscience is a Jewish Invention”. By their witness and action, the heroic Activists of Just Jerusalem take those words and turn them into a badge of honor.
I also recognise the enormous symbolic power of Jerusalem. How could a countryman of William Blake be dismissive of that ? I recognise the depth and sincerity of the sentiments expressed by Elie Wiesel. However I am convinced that not only do Reason and Justice demand, but that the safety of Israel and the Jewish people – which in the long term can only be secured by a general and lasting Peace Settlement – absolutely demand that the power of symbols, even symbols as tremendous as Jerusalem, be overcome – overcome by all the parties who can and must make that Peace.
This letter to Elie Wiesel starts with “We write to you from Jerusalem”. Well at least two of the signatories does NOT live in Jerusalem and have not done that för the last 10 years or so. So why have they signed this letter from Jerusalem?
ב”ה
Wiesel wants to help Israel… I’d say that it is impossible to do any favors for Israel when it seems intent on keeping and deepening its problems with its disastrous politics… which are simply carbon-copies of the politics of many other countries, like the US.
I would like to salute the brave and honorable people who composed and signed this letter.