It's Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day. According to the Jewish calendar, 49 years since Israeli troops took East Jerusalem, including the Old City and the Temple Mount.
Someday someone needs to write the story of Jerusalem in the past half century. Who knows, perhaps I'll even do so myself if I find the time. One of the most complicated parts of the story is the relations between Jews and Arabs. They've never been particularly good, yet as I've repeatedly written, beneath the headlines about terror and inequality, animosity and enmity, the past 10-15 years have also seen a growing sort of partial and halting and mostly undeclared integration.
For example: The proprietor of the Yoga institute I go to recently mentioned that the assistant who runs the administration is an Arab woman, and though her efforts there is a growing number of Arab Yogi at the center, to the extent that next year they may even open an Arab-language group; in the meantime she's about to launch a marketing campaign, which will be tri-lingual.
Of such materials are larger, historical developments made.
Write the book Yaacov. Don't forget to write the part where Teddy Kollack (Whom I have much respect for) blew the greatest opportunity to truly unify Jerusalem. He more than most had the ear and respect of the Arab leaders in East Jerusalem, and had he made more of an effort back then to bring/improve services, parks, schools, sviva....etc., the picture today could have looked much different, imv.
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