O Jerusalem, Israelis have already forgotten thee

Tel Aviv isn’t beautiful, yet it is loved. But a secular, liberal and humanist Israeli cannot love Jerusalem – you can’t love a city that's immoral.

I don’t like Jerusalem. The truth is, I hate it. I try to go there as little as possible and leave as quickly as possible. For the most part, it’s an ugly and infuriating city.

The Jewish part has some charming spots, all in the old neighborhoods. The Old City, which is in the Palestinian part, is of course spectacular in its beauty and history. All the rest: ugliness.

The new settler neighborhoods are ugly, as are the Palestinian neighborhoods, which are filthy and neglected, as is the city center. Even the Old City’s beauty has long been erased – an occupied city is always frighteningly ugly.

But a city doesn’t have to be beautiful to be loved. Tel Aviv isn’t beautiful, yet it is loved. A secular, liberal and humanist Israeli cannot love Jerusalem – you can’t love a city when it's immoral. Its sanctity cannot speak to a secular person; such a person can’t accept the false political premises stemming from this sanctity.

Such Israelis should stand up against the religious-nationalist brainwashing campaign all around Jerusalem. This isn’t their campaign.

But to tell the truth about Jerusalem, we need courageous leaders, who of course are lacking. The truth is, no country in the world recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. It has been destroyed by the occupation. It is divided, torn and scarred.

Its sanctity is a matter for believers only — and in any case there’s no connection between this and sovereignty. Its division into two capitals or its morphing into the capital of one state will be much less of a disaster than continuing its occupation.

Meanwhile, we can only stay away from it, as much as possible.

O Jerusalem, Israelis have already forgotten thee

Lately there's seem to be a lot more very vocal criticism against the Netanyahu regime in power in Israel by the Israeli themselves.
Let's hope it continues. I'm happy to hear these courageous voices in Israel that don't want to be associated to the criminals in charge in their nation.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Big cities are seldomly beautiful what makes cities loved is the people living in there.
Thank you for the propaganda tho.

Very well put. Jerusalem only matters to religious zealots. Anyone who cares about peace and prosperity and human beings couldn't care less about Jerusalem. It's only importance is because it's the setting of so much of the Bible/Torah/Quran.

The Israel/Palestine conflict is a great example of religion causing nothing but suffering. The sooner we move on the better. Sadly people can't handle the complexity of reality and the inevitably of death so we still have this silliness.

Religion was a great force for social cohesion in the hard times of the past. Now it serves no purpose except to help people avoid thinking critically or being decent to other people. It's not the only issue. Nationalism is equally dangerous, but religion serves no real purpose these days.

a reply to: samsamm9


What's not beutiful about Tel Aviv? It is a World Heritage site for a reason. It's a great place with awesome architecture from the Bauhaus period. Fantastic beach front. Some great streets like Dizengoff with real character, street names with historic memories load of British names lol. The new skyscrapers are pretty cool, the people are hip and very trendy, they love life. The Jaffa zone is beautiful, loads of great culture too in Tel aviv.