The struggles over the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif…are fundamental, with fanatics of both faiths wanting to expunge the other.
Yet this is one of my favorite places in Jerusalem – grassy, shaded by trees and deceptively calm.
While I sit on a stone wall and look at the intricate tiles of the Dome of the Rock, some Jews are plotting to destroy it and Al Aksa mosque and build a third temple. Some evangelical Christians hope they’ll do it, thinking that only then will Jesus return. Some Muslims are convinced that the Jews are burrowing underground to create a new synagogue. Jews are upset that the Muslims dug into the hill at the site of Solomon’s Stables in 1996 to create a new underground mosque, the Marwani. It’s here, on the ground revered by both Judaism and Islam, where Jerusalem is most divided – and most volatile.
And it’s here that Sharon made a controversial visit in September 2000, which many Muslims say set off the second intifada…
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