Journey to Jerusalem Book

Amid hallowed biblical sites and submachine-gun-toting soldiers, the peoples of Israel coexist uneasily. But all of them, Muslim, Christian, and Jew, live their own very particular cultural, religious, and economic lives as hostages to the unremitting conflict that daily threatens the peace of the Holy Land. Journey to Jerusalem is the outcome of an intense probe by Texas-born Grace Halsell into the lives of these people of different faiths, as well as some who have no faith. Her intent was to illuminate the issues that divide them. Her method was to visit them, listen to them, get involved with them at home, at work, at school, at play. The women portrayed include Nahla, a Palestinian; Mervat, an Arab Christian; and Linda, a New Yorker in the Gush Emunim sect that confiscates Arab land for new settlements in the West Bank. Among the men, Hassan, a Palestinian archaeologist, ended his friendship with the author because, in his presence, she spoke to a Jew. Jerusalem, too, stars in these pages, in Halsell's vivid descriptions of the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and the Old City, with its vast international marketplace. But the dilemma of the Palestinians takes center stage. Palestinian mayors of occupied West Bank towns describe the difficulties of life, government, and business. A former president of the World Jewish Congress comments on reports of Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners. Arab workers liken themselves to Mexican wetbacks. The American head of Bethlehem University describes the impact of Israeli occupation on Christian and Muslim students. Yemenite Jews tell of their lives in Israel. The vital issue of land ownership is examined. Throughout this rich, unsettling, but always informative book the tone is in the best sense personal and emotional, and the ideas are unequivocally clear. ---- Grace Halsell has covered both Korea and Vietnam as a journalist, was a White House speechwriter under Lyndon Johnson, and has written ten books.Read More