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If I forget thee, O Jerusalem
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Several years ago, I read The Lover, one of the novels of Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua. The plot is not terribly important here, except to note that the climax of the story occurs on the date of 17 Tammuz on the Hebrew calendar. The protagonist, a secular Jew, finds himself in Jerusalem on that day, unaware that it is a minor fast day in the Jewish faith.
Orthodox and traditional Jews worldwide fast on 17 Tammuz to commemorate the breaching of the walls of the ancient city of Jerusalem in 586 BC by the Babylonians, beginning the sack of the city that ended three weeks later with the burning of the Temple of Solomon.
It was not until years later that I began observing the Jewish faith and, thus, this fast, which coincides this year on today's date. I'm often asked why I observe this fast, as well as two others that commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem 2500 years ago.
Why I observe a 2500-year-old fast is quite simple: This is a fast that commemorates the destruction of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is again at risk. No, Babylonians are not at the gates, nor are Romans. And no, the risk does not come from the Palestinians. The risk comes from the Netanyahu administration and its anti-peace motions that continue to put Jerusalem at the center of the conflict and make it a political pawn in making sure a two-state solution never comes to pass.
One of the smartest things I ever read about Jerusalem — East Jerusalem, in particular, i.e., the Arab section of the city taken by Israel in the 1967 war — was in David Hare's play Via Dolorosa, which he based on a trip to Israel during the first Netanyahu administration in the late 1990s. Hare interviewed Jews and Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian Territories of all political persuasions, including the great Israeli novelist David Grossman, whom he quotes thus:
Yes, of course, I want Israelis to have access the Wailing Wall, but I don’t need to own it…‘It’s new this idea. That you have to own things. It’s new and it’s profoundly un-Jewish.’
That David Grossman is a native of Jerusalem and lost a son two years ago in the short war with Hezbollah should give double authority to what he says. Israel does not need ownership over East Jerusalem, and until Israel realizes this fact, Israel will not have peace with the Palestinians. And, until there is finally peace, I and other Jews throughout the world will observe this fast in solidarity with all of those who want peace for Jerusalem, regardless of their faith.
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