ZION AND THE TWO JERUSALEMS
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An article in the book: Saqqaf, Abdulaziz Y. (ed): The Middle East City - Ancient Traditions Confront a Modern World, 1987.
ZION AND THE TWO JERUSALEMS*
Yitzhak I. Hayut-Man
2. The Mythical Jerusalem as a Determinant of the Actual City.
5. Jerusalem-ism and Universal Zionism.
6. The Heavenly Jerusalem as Redemptive Archetype
7. The HEJERA Model for ME Conflict Resolution.
8. The HEJERA Model for the Design of the Earthly Jerusalem.
1. The Urban
Duality Represented by Jerusalem.
The very name Jerusalem evokes in many people images not only of a city in this world but also of the World to Come. My first thesis is that the name Yerushalayim-Jerusalem is very meaningful to our discussion, and is a predictor and an important key to World Peace. It is indeed quite common to interpret the name Jerusalem as "The City of Peace", noting the similarity between the Semitic words for peace - Salaam and Shalom. Linguists may deny the past philological basis for this popular etymology and historians can easily show that few cities have known so much war and ongoing tension. Thus there is an added tension because of the gulf between the "earthly" state of Jerusalem and its promised role as coded in her name.
In the prophecies and in the hundreds of mentions of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible she is called "Yeru, or Yoru, (there are no vowels in the original Hebrew Biblical text) Shalem". This name can be readily interpreted as meaning literally "(they) Will teach Wholeness/Peace". This is the predictor I mentioned because the future tense is used. The Bible also gives clues of who the "they" are. It is surprising how few people have yet realized that the more direct connotation of the word Yerushalem is "Yerusha", which means "inheritance". So those who would teach wholeness and peace should inherit her. The story of Abraham's welcome to the city of Shalem ("Whole") (Genesis 14:1)8 and the Divine promise (Gen 15:4-21) imply that Jerusalem is Abraham's inheritance to his children. But this also caused Jerusalem to become the scene for their family feuds.
It is just as surprising that while the original Biblical spelling is "Yerushalem", practically every Hebrew reader spells this name as "Yerushalayim", which is in the dual form of Hebrew words, used for entities that come in pairs. So even the Israelis who vehemently swear in "the one Jerusalem" are meanwhile uttering the implication that there are two cities of Jerusalem. This is indeed paradoxical because the idea of wholeness and peace seem to be unitary, not dualistic. Wholeness is also associated with holiness, and Jerusalem's common predicate is "the Holy City" and in Arabic she is called "El-Kuds" - the sacred.
It is, however clear that duality or multiplicity exist in this city. Between 1947 and 1967 Jerusalem was clearly divided by an international border with walls and barbed wire. The unification of Jerusalem in 1967 removed the visible borders, but there remains a marked division between the Arab and the Jewish cities which is often referred to as the division between Eastern and Western Jerusalem. Another physical distinction of two Jerusalems is between the walled Old City and the New City, both Arab and Jewish, which was built during the last hundred years.
We shall return to examine the spatial and ethnic division in some detail, but let us first realize that there is yet another dimension to the separation of the two cities of Jerusalem. There is a long tradition and many legends (Jewish, Christian, Moslem and others) that apart from the visible and material city "the Earthly Jerusalem", there is also a "Heavenly Jerusalem", a spiritual, (i.e. non-material) city which only the saintly few can perceive.
When we reflect on the idea of the two cities, physical and metaphysical, we may agree that perhaps all large cities have the two aspects, material and mental. The first aspect is the concrete assembly of material facilities and the resources committed to its construction, maintenance and operation. The second is the vast assembly of mental constructions which people hold concerning the city. We may thus speak of many cities as being dual cities - the one visible and physical and the other invisible (Calvino,1972) and metaphysical or mythical. In the terms of both the old Jewish Kabbalah and of a modern philosopher of science (Popper,1980), these two cities belong to two distinct "worlds" of experience.
These can be quite independent, yet they interpenetrate and each influences the growth of the other. A known cybernetic model of urbanization (Forrester,1969) makes much of the lag and possible disfunction between the image of the metropolis for migrants and the actual conditions they may encounter there.
The major demographic and cultural transformation of mankind in this century - the urbanization of mankind and the growth of world cities - is largely caused by this dual function of cities. The migrants from the villages to the slums of the burgeoning major cities of the developing countries may not improve their lot (e.g. Abu-Loghoud,1982 and her study of migrants to Cairo), though they get closer to being incorporated into the emerging global communications economy. The growing world cities provide major reference points and linkage nodes to the emerging "Planetary Brain" (Russel,1983), and they are as yet the only such nodes in the developing countries.
It is noteworthy that an earlier account of planetary unification (de Chardin,1955) already distinguished between two emerging layers of the planet, the urban "technosphere" and the cultural "noosphere" like the distinction between the human body and mind. This may mean that mankind may become unified not only by technology but also by a common mythos.
2. The Mythical Jerusalem as a Determinant of the Actual City.
Jerusalem is possibly the epitome of this duality of the real and the mythical city. There is little doubt that de Chardin, a deeply Christian thinker, was influenced by Saint Augustine's theory of the establishment of the New Jerusalem, the City of God on Earth and of the vision in the Book of Revelation at the end of the Christian Bible of the appearance of the Heavenly or the New Jerusalem. The part played by Jerusalem in contemporary global urbanization, together with her traditional symbolic role, and the disproportionate scale of the Arab-Israeli conflict in world politics all make Jerusalem not just a M.E. city but an important world city and a major focus of the emerging Planetary Brain. My second thesis is that many of the current happenings in the concrete worldly Jerusalem can be understood only in light of the influence of the corresponding mythical city.
Jerusalem is so enmeshed in its own myth that it is not even clear which came first, the real or the mythical city. Both Jewish and Islamic legends claim that the Heavenly Jerusalem was created first as a model for subsequent earthly realizations. Common sense would, however, declare that since the Jews first had their glorious capital in Jerusalem and then were exiled from her, they must have developed the visions of restoration and the legends of the Heavenly Jerusalem only later. Whatever the case, the myth certainly preceded the modern Jerusalem. The massive investments made during these last decades in the growth of Jerusalem are understandable only in the light of the immense Jewish emotional investment in the metaphysical Jerusalem over two millennia which culminated in a modern socio-political movement called "Zionism".
Admittedly, this name, Zionism, means different and conflicting things for different people, but it literally means just "Jerusalemism". The motto of the movement's founder was: "If you will it, then the myth becomes real".
We can follow the success of Zionism, and thereby of the most recent influence of the mythical Jerusalem on her earthly double, via the demographic trends in Jerusalem. If we start with the 1838 estimates by Robinson quoted by Cattan in the accompanying paper, we can find that the current "Judaisation of Jerusalem" started about 140 years ago due to Jewish mystical revivals that preceded Political Zionism, but it was the latter that gave the force to "the return to Zion". By 1844, Jews were already the largest religious community (7,120 Jews; 5,000 Moslems; 3,390 Christians) and by 1870 the majority of the city's population. The first reliable census was made in 1875 and found about 20,500 residents, of whom 10,500 were Jews, and in 1880 there were 24,000 people in Jerusalem, 13,920 of whom Jews. At the beginning of the 20th century, when Zionism was already a recognizable force, the city's population was estimated at 45,600 (15,200 Ashkenazi Jews, 13,000 Sephardi Jews, 8,700 Christians and 8,600 Moslems). The census of 1922 counted 62,578 people (33,971 Jews, 14,699 Christians and 13,413 Moslems) and before the 1948 war the population of the whole city was estimated at 165,000 (100,000 Jews, 40,000 Moslems and 25,000 Christians). The 1948 war brought a decline of population on both sides of the divided city (70,000 on the Israeli side and 40,000 on the Jordanian side). The Israeli rule brought an increase in the Western city population which reached 185,000 by 1967 whereas the Jordanian city reached a population of just over 60,000 people (including about 25,000 within the Old City walls. One of the significant changes after the re-unification 1967 was the restitution of the Jewish quarter of the Old City from which the Jews were expelled after its Jordanian occupation in 1948.
As noted earlier, one of the apparent dualities of Jerusalem is between the old walled city, which has many structures hundreds and even thousands of years old, and the contemporary city, which was built over the last hundred years. I use "contemporary" rather than the common term "the New City", to avoid confusing it with "the New Jerusalem" of the Book of Revelation. The latter is, in fact, similar to the common term of "the Eternal City" as referring to the heavenly Jerusalem, the opposite of "the Temporal City".
Due to the recent trends noted above, both the Old City and the contemporary city are both Jewish and Arab. This united Jerusalem is made, in fact, of a mosaic of many diverse social and ethnic groups, and this diversity is one of the city's most notable features. Here is another dimension to understand. The orthodox Jews of Mea-She'arim versus the secular Israelis, or the different Eastern versus Western Christian sects, do not seem to belong to the same historic era, yet they exist side by side in Jerusalem. A visitor to Jerusalem may feel as if he used some "time machine".
"Contemporary" means existing in the "same" (externally measured) time. It does not mean synchronicity. Being in Jerusalem one may start doubting the facile Western assumption of "modern man" as the most upto-date or future-oriented person. Certainly the orthodox, be they Jewish or Moslem, regard their own lifestyle as nearer to that of "the World to Come" of the future. Thus we may regard some of the many divisions in contemporary Jerusalem as temporal divisions or as different degrees of infusion of the Heavenly Jerusalem into the image of the earthly city.
3. A Biblical Perspective of
the Palestine-Zion Conflict.
Jerusalem figures prominently in the three so-called "Abrahamic Religions" as the site for World Formation, Spiritual orientation, Sacrifice, Resurrection, the Last Judgement and the symbol for the final Redemption for all mankind (Werblowsky, 1973,1983; the paper was handed in the conference to fill all the essential material). In Judaism, Jerusalem is the Mount Moriah, the site of the Akedah (or "binding" for sacrifice) of Abraham's son Isaac. Legend says that Isaac did in fact die at that time and his soul departed there and then came back again. Other legends place the corner- stone for the formation of the world at Mount Moriah, as well as the gathering place for the dust from all over the earth to form Adam's body. More concretely, this was the place of Israel's past glory, the capital of David and the site of the First and Second Temple. Their destruction fixed Jerusalem as the hope and symbol for the restitution and the resurrection of the exiled people. Christian myth takes Isaac's binding as a "type" (Frye, 1983), recapitulated and magnified by Jesus's Crucification and later resurrection in Jerusalem. The Christian Bible acknowledges all of the Old Testament prophecies for Jerusalem's future role and ends with the vision of the New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven at the time of the Messiah's return.
In the Islamic myth, mohammed first made a spiritual Hijrah from his hometown Mecca to Jerusalem where he ascended to heaven and where the downpouring of the Kor'an was initiated. Muhammad's physical and political Hijrah from Mecca to Medina and his return to Mecca in triumph came subsequently. .
The Hebrew Bible, which forms the basis for the canons of the Abrahamic religions, namely of the New Testament, the Talmud and the Kor'an, ends with the "Zionist" command by God's Messiah (in that case King Cyrus of Persia) for everyone who has the Lord God with him to rise up for the building of Jerusalem (Chron.II36,23). It may be instructive to examine the light shed by the Bible on "the Palestinian Problem" in relation to Zion. The Bible mentions the Philistines in connection with Abraham who was saved from their persecution by initially having to give up his wife to their leader, after which she was returned by God's help, and a treaty was subsequently drawn. Later the same story was almost repeated with Abraham's son Isaac, but the Philistine leader who had already encounter^ Abraham's God knew better and avoided the trouble. Philistinian harassments to Isaac's people persisted until their leader realized that Isaac's people were blessed by Allah and sought a treaty with them. We may regard this story as instructive for the future. In a later phase, the Philistines appear as the oppressors whose pressure forced the tribes of Israel to unite and found a kingdom. David was first a Philistine vassal who later overpowered them and only then turned to the conquest of Jerusalem making her into the capital of his kingdom. The Arabic name Filastin derives from the name Palestina which was given to the country of Judea by the Romans just after they destroyed Jerusalem and exiled the Jews. The Romans, who meant to obliterate the Jewish character of the land, called it after those old rivals of the Israelites, the Philistines (who probably no longer existed by the time the country was named after them).
It would be very instructive to note here that these historical Philistines fulfilled exactly the same role that nowadays the Palestinians attribute to the Zionist Jews. The very Biblical name for them, Plishtim, means "invasions from abroad" (Plishot) and they were the people who invaded the land from over the sea and brought from the West their superior military technology and organization. These they used to occupy the plains and drive the natives and the Israelites (who entered that land from the desert on the East and South) out and up the hills.
When we reflect on the contemporary conflict in the light of the above we can see that the contemporary Palestinian identity and consciousness arose largely through the opposition to Jewish Zionism. Prior to the modern Zionist migrations and under Ottoman rule there was no country of Filastin, but three districts - of Damascus, Beirut and Jerusalem - and the country was regarded by the Arabs as the Southern part of Syria, (as it is still regarded by the Syrian government and even by those Palestinian terrorist organizations it controls). The country was called "Palestine" only in 1921 under that British rule which separated it from (the French ruled) Syria and gave trans Jordan (as it did to Iraq) to its allies who had to flee Hijaz. The adoption of the name by the local Arabs was natural. Unconsciously the local Arabs have come to call themselves by the name of the mythical enemies of Zion.
Arabs were neither aware that the name "Philistine" traditionally means in English "a hater of culture", not that this name connote to the Jew the archetypical rival. Arabs are likewise generally unaware that "Zionism" is another name for the adoration of the city which they regard as holy.
4. Some Observations on the Current Palestinian-Zionist Conflict.
This section enumerates some facts about the Palestinian Arabs which also are generally unrecognized since they are not in accord with the conventional views on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Some of them may point to the futility of many of the attempts often discussed for solving "the Palestinian Problem", whereas others may point to hitherto unconsidered possibilities for the solution of this problem.
1. There are good grounds to believe that many of the veteran Arab families of Palestine are descendants of the ancient Israelis and Judeans who did not go on the exiles to Assyria and to Babylon during Biblical times, or of Jews who did not disperse throughout the Roman Empire after the destruction of the Second Temple but who chose to stay in their beloved land at the cost of conversions to the local religions and then to Christianity and/or Islam.
2. During the great Jewish immigration to Palestine during the British Mandate, which together brought much economic development, there also occurred a large Arab immigration to that land. Over 50,000 Arabs migrated to Palestine from Syria, Egypt and Jordan, greatly increasing the Arab population of the country. Drawn more by economic than ideological reasons, their rights in Palestine cannot surpass those of the Jewish immigrants of that period.
3. The undifferentiated identity of the Palestinian Arabs turned into national consciousness largely as a response and opposition to Jewish Zionism and immigration. This Palestinian rejectionism led to refusing home for the persecuted European Jews, their rejection of the 1947 partition plan, the war of 1948 and their subsequent defeat and exile. The involvement and defeat of the Arab states in 1948 was followed by anti-Zionist witch-hunt and the expulsion of many Jews which in turn decisively changed the demography of Israel, creating an added barrier to the return of the Palestinian refugees to Israel.
4. The exile from Palestine has spawned a new myth of "Return to the Promised Land" and to the existential transformation of many of the Palestinians into "the new Jews of the Arab world". It can be shown that Palestinian history and destiny are increasingly becoming a recapitulation of Jewish history.
5. Jerusalem is increasingly becoming a most important symbol for the Palestinians. This can be seen in popular Palestinian art forms and in poems and slogans. Thus, for example, when Arafat was driven out of Beirut in 1982 and then out of Tripoli, he promised a swift return to Jerusalem. This is clearly Zionism.
6. There are about half a million Arab Israelis with citizenship, and with voting and civic rights which surpass those of most Arabs anywhere else in the M.E.
7. The Palestinian Arabs make up the majority of the population of the Kingdom of Jordan, yet that country has not chosen to be named Filastin, even though it is more (about 70% of the area) of the historic Palestine then is Israel.
8. The extant "Palestinian National Covenant", the charter of the P.L.O. is avowedly anti-Zionist and denies any rights in the land for Jews who came, or whose parents came, to Palestine/Israel after 1917. This allows no possible accommodation between the P.L.O. and Zionist Israel.
9. Most Israelis find the notion of an independent "Palestinian State" instead or beside Israel as untenable. I have given above a mythical reason for this. The point of Real Politik, however, is that neither Israel nor its Western allies will tolerate such a state which, seeking to balance its power against that of Israel, would almost inevitably turn to the USSR for support and become the Cuba of the Middle East.
10. The Palestinians will not be able to overrun Israel by their own force, and whichever Arab state may help them militarily (e.g. Syria) would not even dream of giving the Palestinians complete liberty and independence. The precedent of 1948-1967 when no Palestinian state was allowed by Egypt or Jordan is clear. These observations suggest that the old anti-Zionist policies of the Palestinians are futile and proven destructive whereas they also suggest that through the exile experience and the increasing orientation towards Jerusalem the Palestinians are becoming in fact Zionists without being aware of it. This is paradoxical, yet there are good reasons for Palestinians to regard - even declare - themselves as Zionists in the broader sense of the term as defined here. I shall proceed to show that this is possible and that Zionism, alias Jerusalem-ism, is or need not be an exclusive Jewish movement and that Jerusalem, both Earthly and Heavenly, is the major key for peace that transcends current conceptions.
5. Jerusalem-ism and
Universal Zionism.
The mythological Jerusalem/Zion has spawned many eschatological images and revivalist movements throughout the world, not only for the Jews, who were scattered all around the world but remained united in their focusing on Jerusalem as the Paradise Lost and the Paradise to be regained, but also for Christians, Moslems and other groups worldwide.
There is a conjecture that the roots of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula are linked to Jewish attempts to rally the Arabs there to help liberate Jerusalem from the Christians (Cook and Crow, 1977). Certainly we may recall the Crusades, spurred by Christian outrage at Jerusalem's occupation by the Moslems as a sinister precedent of "Zionism". During their siege of Jerusalem (which united Moslem and Jewish defenders) the crusaders had collective visions of the heavenly city. The crusader's conquest helped bring a flowering of a "Zionist" literature in Islam - the Fadha'il al-Kuds - tracts singing the praises of Jerusalem.
We find "Zionist" literature not only in the Hebrew prophets and in Islam but also in Western literature. Bunyan's (1678) "Pilgrim's progress" to the Heavenly Jerusalem was the most popular text of English literature of its time, and later we find Milton and Blake constructing whole cosmologies and inspired epics in which Jerusalem plays a central role, so that Blake's praise of Milton's enterprise started with a vow to "build Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land". This verse was later picked as the anthem of the British Labor Movement, reflecting its millennial and world-restituting ideals.
The same sentiment for human reconstruction as symbolized by Zion, Jerusalem and its Temple can be discovered in the secret order of the Freemasons in Europe and by groups of nonconformist Christians who left Europe for "The New World" and founded there hundreds of model communities, many bearing the name of Zion. We may perhaps even discern such secret "Zionist" motivations in the American Revolution itself, noting that almost all of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Freemasons and that the Grand Seal of the United States seen on the one dollar bill carries the six-pointed star made of thirteen regular (pentagonal) stars which is, as I shall show, a primary symbol for the Heavenly Jerusalem.
The same symbolism of Zion can also be found in the developing countries. That same "Zionist Star" appeared as the symbol of many Bantu revivalist churches and sects (Werblowsky,1973) which used Zion as their name, and the two million member strong United African Church holds its mass meetings in so-called "Mount Zion".
Such movements may seem far removed from the modern Jewish political, and largely secular, Zionism which culminated in the reestablishment of the present-day Israel. Many leftist Europeans are anti-Zionist as are many Christians. For most Arabs "Zionism" is one of the dirtiest words imaginable. For Houmeini it must represent something diabolical and he promises to march forth and liberate Jerusalem from the Zionists - a possible Moslem version of the Crusades. Yet paradoxically such intense Arab and leftist anti-Zionism may, I claim, be itself an inverted Zionism which centers on Jerusalem as an important focal point causing possible division and war but also contains possible seeds for higher order and unification centered on Jerusalem.
6. The Heavenly Jerusalem as
Redemptive Archetype
If Zionism is, as I claim, not an exclusive Jewish nationalist movement, but a universal phenomena, it must have some universal and primary meaning for the individual and for society. Zionism can be seen as the orientation towards "Jerusalem" and a drive to gather all the exiled and dispersed people into a safe home in the M.E. (where "M.E" can also allude to the psychological "Me").
Thus Zionism may mean the psychic integration of an individual, the restitution from alienation through the return of the psyche to her home within. For the social group, Zionism also means the restitution from exile, dispersion, and powerlessness into a state of sovereignty, re-integration, and feeling of self-worth. I know that this is a touchy issue but I feel impelled to stress the point that in the Arab world, in the M.E., the Palestinians are in fact staunch Zionists and what they claim they want is precisely Zionism, both literally and metaphorically.
I have allowed myself to diverge very far from the common and conventional meaning of Zionism and Jerusalem, but there are many indications that there is a predestination about Jerusalem and an implicit plan which is beyond common understanding. This is the kind of belief that is the core of the Moslem trust (literally "Islam") in the inscrutable divine plan. In the development of the modern Jewish Zionism we had the doctrine of Rabbi Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine, that there is an implicit Messianic work in modern Zionism, brought about unconsciously and even opposite to its declared secular ideologies. These days there is a growing new support for Jewish Zionism from many Christian sects in the US who see Jewish Zionism as a compatible and needed stage in their own eschatological vision. Above all, there is a strong irrational feeling by Jews, Moslems and Christians that Jerusalem is a key to the mystery of the World to Come.
In order to come to closer terms with this sense we may have to go beyond words to those primary or archetypal forms that have been associated with Jerusalem by seers and sages as codes for their intuition. We may mention here the twelve and the thirteen-fold forms as symbols of the Heavenly Jerusalem as well as the symbols of the star-and-crescent, the Star of David and the cross.
The form of the twelve divisions of the circle and the central thirteenth point may have derived from the twelve lunar changes during the solar year to the theories of heavenly influences held sacred in the ancient world. We find this form in the Bible in the twelve tribes of Israel as well as of Ishmael and of Esau's children. It stands to reason that this tradition was instrumental to the maintenance of the Temple and of the court of King Solomon where each tribe was to share in its maintenance for one month of each year. Even so, its occult aspect was primary and it appeared in the scheme of the camping of the tribes of Israel around Mount Sinai during their communal Revelation of the Torah and around the Mishkan (the Tabernacle) during their wanderings in the desert.
This was to be the schematic model for the settlement of the whole land of Israel with natural allowance made for its very diverse geography. The arrangement of the whole Land of Israel into twelve tribal regions was kept in various Biblical accounts even when the identity of the tribes changed somewhat. In the prophetic visions, the whole land forms a mandala-type pattern with three tribes to each of the cardinal directions. In the visions of Ezekiel this twelvefold form will return to prevail at the end of days. The visions of Ezekiel undoubtedly influenced the visions of the Book of Revelation which also mentions the restoration of the then already missing twelve Tribes of Israel and the appearance of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven in the form of a giant cube (e.g.- like the Ka'aba?) with twelve gates, each for one of the tribes to enter that perfect city. Other clear influences on the Revelation of John and even more on the Gospel of John are the Platonic-Pythagorean teachings from Alexandria such as those of the philosopher Philo the Jew, who developed the concepts of the Logos and of The City of God. The Pythagoreans who revered the Platonic Solids considered the four known ones as symbols for the four "earthly elements" while they held as their great secret the fifth, the dodecahedron, as the symbol for the heavenly element. We may get closer to the secret by realizing that the dodecahedron has twelve equal faces, each a perfect pentagon (also a symbol for the human form). Each of these pentagons can be taken as the base for constructing another dodecahedron, resulting in a bunch of thirteen equal and connecting dodecahedrons, thus multiplying that "heavenly element" and its influences.
The number thirteen has strong occult connotations. While it is feared in the West, it is revered by the Jews, and I counted about ten sacred uses of it in Judaism, from the 13 attributes of Divine Mercy to the Kabbalistic view of "the Assembly of Israel" (Knesset Yisrael) as "the thirteen petaled rose". Yet this is not an exclusive Jewish symbol and graphic realizations of such a rose appear as the twelvepointed star in the Rosary windows of Gothic cathedrals and in the Moslem Dome of the Rock situated in the sacred center of Jerusalem. It is the archetypal representation for the Heavenly Jerusalem.
Most of the above regarded the Heavenly Jerusalem as the ideal or "Platonic" form preceding its earthly realization. Christian and Moslem views of Heavenly Jerusalem see the Redemption as a "top to bottom" process of divine emanation or Grace. Jewish sources include also a "bottom up" description of the redemption where earthly actions precipitate the divine ones. One Midrash says that God constructed a Jerusalem in heaven above the earthly Jerusalem, but swore that He will not enter this Heavenly City until His Sons (the Children of Israel) return to Jerusalem. One way to view the "Star of David" a as sign of the Redemption (e.g.- Rosenzweig,1972) is as the balance and interpenetration of construction from below and from above.
In Christianity it is the Cross, the junction of the vertical and the horizontal, that stands for the Redemption. The bleeding heart at the center forms the channel for Divine Grace to earth. This form can be seen in Jerusalem not only on the tops of its many churches but in the very plan of the Old City as it evolved over the centuries with its four quarters (Armenian, Christian, Moslem And Jewish) and the cruciform of the main streets dividing them. We have already surveyed the disjunctions in the modern world (and modern man) between East and West on the horizontal plane and between the material and the spiritual in the "vertical" plane. These are so clearly illustrated by Jerusalem that this city seems as perfect a stage as ever for the Messiah to come and bridge those gaps through whatever sacrifice this takes.
It is not correct, however, to see the present form of the Old City of Jerusalem as a simple Cross or Mandala. There is a fifth element there, the Temple Mount or the Haram ash-Shariff situated on approximately a fifth of its land area. Being almost empty, in contrast to the densely built Old City, and with the octagonal star of the Dome of the Rock in its center, the aerial view of the Old City is somewhat reminiscent of the Moslem symbol of the Crescent and the Star in its hollow. I am not sure of the full symbolism of the crescent, but I find it is evocative of the whole ME, in the form of the historic "Fertile Crescent", inspired by a seemingly eccentric yet essential star.
The psychological importance of the Mandala and other symbols as mentioned here was explained in our time by C.G.Jung (1972) who elaborated the "theory of the Archetype". Clearly the pattern of the Heavenly Jerusalem discussed here and elsewhere (Michell,1973, 1983 and 1985) is a prime archetype of the Redemption and of psychological integration. To aid discussion and introduction of this archetype in the M.E., a shorter name may help and I chose here the acronym "HEJERA" (for the Heavenly Jerusalem Archetype) as a name that evokes the Islamic term "Hijra". Much like it, the HEJERA is a call for leaving the old partisan associations and the in-group orientation and to rise to the full dimensions of the divine calling.
7. The HEJERA Model
for ME Conflict Resolution.
It is now the time to apply the HEJERA model and to demonstrate its utility for helping bring Peace to the Middle East. This will be done on the two levels introduced initially. I shall show in this section the political and cultural ramifications of the model by suggesting hitherto unrecognized and radical solutions. The next section will show how this model can be applied to the urban design and management problems of the earthly Jerusalem so that this city can become the key to and demonstration of the peace and wholeness her name implies.
7.1 - The Future Ingathering of the Tribes: The twelvefold pattern of the HEJERA represents primarily the twelve tribes of Israel who were given possession of the Holy Land by divine covenant. It is held alike by Jews and Christians that at some future time, immediately preceding the time of lasting peace, all twelve tribes will assemble again at Jerusalem (e.g. Ezekiel, 37). The modern Jews claim to be made up of two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, together with an admixture of Levites. The other tribes are said to be scattered among the nations of the world. The recognition of the missing tribes to make up the complete twelve is thus of practical importance. There have been hundreds of attempts made over the centuries to find the missing tribes with candidates ranging all the way from South America to Japan with as yet inconclusive results. On the other hand, there are, as pointed out in section 5, contemporary groups that regard themselves as Israelites. It would appear that the practical general principle to follow is to allow the Israelites to declare themselves. Israel's recognition of them as legitimate Israelites could thus be offered to those who claim legitimacy and are impelled by Jerusalem-ism/Zionism toward the Holy City. There are various groups found worldwide who may choose to declare themselves Israelites. The case of the greatest interest here is the one close at hand - the case of the Palestinians in and around Israel.
Undoubtedly this will be initially hard to swallow for both most Palestinians and Israelis, but let us examine some of the ramifications and allay some of the immediate suspicions which this idea is likely to raise. First this solution does not entail the conversion of all Palestinians to Judaism, if for no other reason then the fact that Judah is but one part of the whole which is Israel. Secondly, this need not entail the massive influx of Arabs into Israel and the transformation of its demographic structure. As noted, the great majority of Palestinians live within the territorial boundaries of the British Palestine, now included in or controlled by Jordan and Israel. The HEJERA model implies, as is explained below, the centrality of Jerusalem within a multi-canton federation of Arab, Jewish and mixed regions. In this case the new Arab Israelites would live mainly where they already reside, albeit with enhanced civic rights whereas new Arab migrants to Zion may settle initially and primarily in the Arab cantons discussed below (sec. 9.3). The important point is that those Arabs who come to identify themselves as Zionists would also recognize the Jews as such and recognize the legitimacy if their stay in this land. This would remove, I believe, the biggest and most profound stumbling block and cause for instability in any feasible solution.
7.2 - Centrality of Jerusalem in the Future Land: The centrality of Jerusalem in Zionist consciousness is bound to usher in the centrality of Jerusalem in the land -- an influence of the Heavenly Jerusalem over the Earthly counterpart. As in Jungian psychology, there is a search for the self, for a new center beyond the Ego. This new center is first seen as external or eccentric, but once it is sufficiently recognized it starts to reorganize and reconstruct the territory (in the case of psychology, the psyche) until it becomes the real center. This is the case with Jerusalem. This tendency towards a center was expressed in Moslem Spain by the poet Ibn-Gabirol who gave this expression to his Zionism: "My heart is in the Orient and I am at the extremities of the West". In the past (1948-1967) Jerusalem has been divided and completely eccentric (both geographically and demographically) to Israel. But this could not remain a stable situation. Israel did not initiate the 1967 war and the re- unification of Jerusalem, but when King hussein gave Israel the Casus Belli, the unification and annexation of East Jerusalem were, in fact, inevitable. Israel has been holding the "West Bank" for many years as a negotiation card, but meanwhile the influence of Jerusalem, i.e. of Zionism, has developed, and during the years of the Likud government formed to a policy of Jewish settlement in "Judea and Samaria"/the West Bank and especially around Jerusalem.
In the pattern of the country which is thus developing, Jerusalem is the geographic center of the country. It is still eccentric demographically, however, so long as only Israeli citizens are counted and the rest are disregarded (as they presently are).
This Israeli settlement policy has gone so far that according to authoritative evaluation (e.g. of Miron Benveniste) a return of the "West Bank" to Jordan (or to a Palestinian State) is no longer possible. I am afraid that this evaluation is correct and the fear I express is of the consequences that this annexation will entail for Israel unless a new vision of Zionism is adopted. The vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem explained here and expressed through the HEJERA model allows, I believe, a partnership with the Arabs in a Zionist vision and a justification to federation government.
To the extent that the HEJERA model inspires the creation of a federation-type arrangement for the whole West Bank of the Jordan (or the "Eretz Yisrael haShlema) it also allows an advantageous and fair unity to the whole land of Palestine/Israel on both sides of the Jordan. In this arrangement of the "Greater Palestine", Jerusalem would be eccentrically occidental geographically (unless the desert areas are disregarded) but demographically she would be central.
7.3 - The Future Federation of the Holy Land: It is instructive that the prophet Ezekiel, who introduced the image of the Heavenly Jerusalem and the detailed measures of the reconstructed Temple, also saw the restored land as divided into twelve regions for the twelve ingathered tribes. This is the ideal arrangement of the country for the time of lasting peace.
The modern interpretation of this vision is a federation of fairly autonomous regions in the land of Israel/Palestine. The example of the union of the Swiss Cantons is an appealing one, and federations are quite common worldwide, especially in lands of great ethnic and geographic diversity.
There are many good ecological, civic and cultural reasons to advocate a federation of over half a dozen regions even for "the smaller Israel" and to demand that the autonomy rule promised in Camp David for the residents of the regions of Hebron, Nablus and Gaza be granted first to the Jews of the Tel Aviv region, for example. But the chief practical reason for federation is, of course, ethnic-political. It is the fairest and safest way to give civic rights to the Arabs of the "West Bank", noting (sections 6.6-10 and 9.2 above) that an independent Palestinian state is not feasible, and since it would create a strong polarization against Israel - a situation which could not remain stable. Even a three nation federation including Jordan would be much better than any of the schemes currently discussed. Yet a more plural federation of some 6-20 regions would be still less polarized and thus inherently more stable. (Had Lebanon adopted such an arrangement it might have saved that country from its current civil war).
At present, nationalistic feelings run so high among both Israelis and Palestinians that such enlightened and practical solutions appear inconceivable. Even when the once Israeli premier (and then minister of defence), Peres, published one such plan in the past it drew no response, just as his mentor, Ben Gurion, did not manage to win his party to a cantonization plan back in the 1930's. Yet, since the Biblical vision of the New Jerusalem, which is at the root of Zionism, does, in effect, contain or endorse such a plan there is hope for the adoption of this scheme as this becomes recognized.
8. The HEJERA Model for the
Design of the Earthly Jerusalem.
The primary place to bring down to earth the Influence of the Heavenly Jerusalem is, of course, the actual Jerusalem. Only in this way can Jerusalem become the unified whole that her name implies. Contemporary Jerusalem has a great diversity -- and also much tension and contradictions. The HEJERA model may help to alleviate these tensions and help make Jerusalem the place for transformation, for the study of wholeness and transcendence and for its demonstration. Let me illustrate a few possibilities:
8.1 - Self-Government for Jerusalem's Neighborhoods: The canton- type organization of the whole country, fair and good as it may sound, may presently be too utopian. There are no political forces at present, Jewish or Arab, which are ready to champion such an idea. But there is a more evident need and a better likelihood for this reflection of the Heavenly Jerusalem to be applied on a local neighborhood scale in Jerusalem. To an extent this is already the case in practice - not only the Arab sectors but also the orthodox Jewish neighborhoods are largely autonomous and prefer to have only minimal contact with the central municipality. A largely unrecognized development in this direction is the many unplanned new Arab settlements around Jerusalem by ex-villagers attracted by the employment in the building boom the (thus possibly vain) "Judaisation of Jerusalem" policy brought. The present trends of this policy, building massive self-contained neighborhoods like Gilo, Talpiot East and Ramot on the city's outskirts, with the resulting transformation of Jerusalem from a compact city into a metropolitan region also suggest a pattern of local governments. This is the pattern advocated by modern urban planning in many cases of metropolii. Moreover, there is a mounting political need for it. This need has its political opposition, and former deputy mayor Miron Benveniste lost his job for advocating more local rule for Arab Jerusalem, yet the case is politically feasible. Arabs are not likely to simply forget about Jerusalem and let Israel get away with whatever arrangements it imposes. In any future peace talks, Jerusalem will doubtless be a major issue and stumbling block. Outside mediators, including the US, are likely to suggest schemes which demand some changes regarding Jerusalem. Israel is bound to resist any suggestion to re-divide Jerusalem and to establish East Jerusalem as a separate city and capital of a separate Arab state or region. Obviously, Israel will persist in resisting the old U.N. plan for the Internationalization of the Jerusalem region. The most feasible scenario of political accommodation will be to agree on some form of local governments for the distinct neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
The same political logic which advocates at least six, rather than two or three regions for the country, is no less valid for urban local rule. A single Arab "neighborhood" would constitute in fact a separate city. Three or four such neighborhood councils are thus more likely and this then sets the impetus and scale for corresponding Jewish (and mixed) neighborhoods. This is lucky, perhaps even providential, since political considerations may support the pattern which is appropriate from the viewpoint of human and civic considerations. With some 8-15 candidates, it would be interesting to consider 12 councils as symbolically realizing the pattern of the Heavenly Jerusalem.
The influence of local rule can, and is likely to serve as a model. Though the cantonization plan does not now seem readily feasible, this idea, if applied in Jerusalem, would bring the rest of Israel to follow its lead. Jerusalem is the head and if many Israelis get used to the idea of local Arab councils in Jerusalem, they will come to regard mixed and Arab cantons in the entire country as natural.
8.2 - Extra-temporal Status for the Old City of Jerusalem: There is one district of Jerusalem which is unique for the whole world and that is the walled Old City. In any future local rule plans for Jerusalem, the Old City will surely be regarded as distinct. This fact poses a unique opportunity for the realization of the Heavenly Jerusalem pattern.
The Old city can be regarded as the quiet center for the twelve busy sectors around it. Such a centrality of the walled and pedestrian-ruled inner city, which in turn contains the walled anted even more by the Palestinians in 1947), a special status for the Old City could be used as a political fallback position to defuse many further demands. The recent restoration of the Jewish Quarter and of real Jewish presence within the walls will enable Israel to leave the Old City safely to its own rule.
The above is merely a speculation or a political scenario. The relevant issue from the point of view of the HEJERA is the role of such a special city. This question has been touched upon in this conference about the M.E. city in (Gallanty's discussion of the Medina and the presentations of San'a and Cairo. The paper by Schleiffer gives us the feeling of the special character of Jerusalem's Old City and the delicate care that it needs and deserves. The primary function for the Old City which I see as appropriate in light of the entire discussion, is that this city shall become the center for religious and inter-faith studies - an ecumenical laboratory. Perhaps by having less commercial activity and crass tourism, more room could be made for those pilgrims who want to come for spiritual pursuits. There is much demand for this and more institutes of Moslem, Christian and Jewish learning could be induced to have their quarters in Old Jerusalem. The extra- territorial or extratemporal status which could be granted to the Old City might be akin to the academic freedom enjoyed in a good university, though on a larger and more pluralist scale. There should be a place where Moslems and Jews can pursue not only traditional, but also radical, innovative and even seemingly heretical interpretations of their religion; where adepts of the three Abrahamic religions can meet each other and learn about the respective faiths first hand. It appears now (Yates,1979) that the European Renaissance was due not just to the Greek texts conveyed also via Arab scholarship but also was due to the encounter of free minded Christian mystics and scholars with Jewish Kabbalists who were expelled from Spain. My guess is that such common studies in Jerusalem will help to bring a renascence for the whole Middle East.
8.3 - Re-valuing Urban Quality: The image of the New Jerusalem or the Heavenly Jerusalem established on Earth is really an urbanized vision of an Earthly Paradise (Michell,1985). This is a paradise that can be reached - provided that care be taken in the design and maintenance of the urban environment. The problems of rapid urbanization in the Middle East, in fact in the whole developing world have been with us throughout this conference. It is my hope that by reinforcing an ideology which has as its symbol and goal the highest urban quality possible, more attention will be given to matters of urban quality both by governments and by public alike.
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* This article appeared in Abdulaziz Y. Saqqaf (ed): The Middle East City - Ancient Traditions Confront a Modern World. Paragon House Publishers, New York, a PWPA Book, 1987. However, two chapters of the original manuscript, namely: 4. Some Observations on the Current Palestinian-Zionist Conflict, and 5. Jerusalem-ism and Universal Zionism were edited out and were not included in that book.