GoSee goes unorthodox : Jerusalem, the budget version with a quick visit to the Wailing Wall and a slip up at Mea Shearim

Jerusalem is seen as the holy city by Christians, Jews and Muslims. Thus there is a fair amount of junk, knick-knack and tourist bits and bobs – as well as ultra orthodox, non-Zionist and of course orthodox Zionist Jews. Which means: it’s a bit like a funfair without the fun.

The current version of the real life globalised commerce that is called Jerusalem dates back to 1535. The Ottoman Sultan Süleyman I. (1496–1566) built the foundations for the city and gave the old town its structure with the huge walls. Pilgrim business was already very important for survival back then for impoverished Christians and Jews, the sacred sites were worth a lot of money – only charity of course.

From the second half of the 19th century onwards, so before the Alijas (waves of immigration) influenced by Zionism in 1882, more and more Jews came to the quartered city (quarters: Armenians, Christians, Jews and Muslims) and they constructed the first living areas outside of the city walls. Worth seeing – but careful never on Sabbath! – is certainly the completely ultra orthodox Mea Shearim district.

The short GoSee video illustrates how run-down the area really looks. It’s no surprise though, as men are dedicating their lives to studying the Torah and leave all the work up to the women. Contraception is forbidden and every Friday they have sex under god’s laws. Orthodox Jews make up about 10 per cent of the Israeli population – and on average have 8-12 children. The radicalisation of today’s enlightened Israel is just a matter of time, Tel Aviv an Island of the blissful.

But back to our time travels: on 9 December 1917 the Ottoman governor peacefully handed Jerusalem over to Brits under general Edmund Allenby, after being ordered to do so by the leaders of the Ottoman armed forces. This was done to avoid fighting in and around the city to protect the historical sites from damage.

In 1948 the state of Israel declares its independence. The following day the Arabic states attacked Israel. During the ‘Israeli independence war’ the Israelis conquered large areas of the country, but lost the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s old town and the east of the city to the Arabic legions of Jordan.

Jerusalem therefore remained divided into the Israeli west-Jerusalem and the Jordan east-Jerusalem until 1967. Their Jewish population was banished, the Jewish quarter in the old town completely destroyed (hence what you can visit today is all a reconstruction), and access to the Wailing Wall, the holiest place of Judaism, was denied. Prime minister David Ben Gurion subsequently declared Jerusalem as an inseparable part of Israel and it’s eternal capital in front of the Knesset in 1949.

During the six day war in 1967 Israel won back a majority of the holy sites – as well as Jerusalem. In contrast to the Arabic side in 1949 Israel didn’t deny the Muslims access to their holy sites but instead put the Temple Mount under an autonomous Muslim administration (Waqf).

UNESCO declared Jerusalem’s old town with its Wailing Wall, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, all the gates including the Golden Gate at which we expected Jesus to appear any minute (he would be surprised as the Turks just bricked it up and built a Muslim graveyard in its place), as a World Heritage Site in 1981. The Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem is also located in Jerusalem.

The 400 metre long Wailing Wall, called ‘Western Wall’ by the Jews, (best day to visit: Friday for Sabbath, an interesting and tolerant crowd – see photos and video) is part of the supporting wall of the plateau, on which the large temple of Herodes the Great once stood. Important Muslim constructions on the Temple Mount are the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque. Further important buildings in the old town and immediate surroundings are Cardo (colonnade), the Dormitio church, the Church of the Redeemer, the four Sephardic synagogues and the citadel. Phew, history turned to stone in the holy no man’s land.

Jerusalem’s main traffic thoroughfare is the motorway, which takes one to beloved Tel Aviv in around an hour. Country roads branch off in all other directions. The road from the Dead Sea is particularly of interest, dropping by 1,200 metres on its route to West Jordan, see our short GoSee video in the Dead Sea article.