Readings assignment two

After reading the brief article about the history of Jerusalem by Mick Dumper it sounded like there was deep seeded political and social problems that Jerusalem has to deal with and has left many issues regarding the treatment of the Palestinians go on for quite a while, almost as if they are ignored they will eventually disperse. I see the valid points of how the peoples' historical context leaves each of the three monotheistic religions feeling as if they have the closest and most justifiable rights to the land. There seems to be a lot of emphasis on the historical aspect that relates to issues today regarding who should rightfully be there and maybe there is some mistakes in continually looking to the past in order to make advances in the future when dealing with conflict and the different groups.

The article about Jerusalem from an Arab perspective was also very focused on the history and who did what, or what great buildings and architectural impressions were left on the city to this day. It seemed pretty straight forward and I think just wanted to state more of how in the very beginning of records it is recognized as being arabized and what kind of importance Jerusalem was to Muslim rulers throughout its history of being. Throughout the article it was hard for me to try and find some tone or attitude it was just these are the facts sort of thing. In the end of the article there was mention of how the city could be divided into two permanently so each conflicting country could have their part of Jerusalem. I found it very interesting that Jerusalem internationally is recognized as indefinitely relating to Palestine and Israel.

It was interesting to me how the third article tried to portray the city as coming together in the end and almost as if everything ended up working out alright for everyone. I also found that it is interesting how in all of the articles it mentions at least once about who built what walls and when they were made and how some are even up today. I never realized how much the walls and buildings meant to the people today looking back on the history of the city. Each of the articles were able to point out though how Jerusalem has great significance to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam and I think that this is a very important aspect since people can at least recognize how important the city is to all three religions.