by Vishavjit Singh

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! -- Jesus contemplating Jerusalem from the Mount of Lives (Matthew 23:37)

Seldom does a book leave a palpable after taste, lingering memories and a sense of having visited a time and place in the geographic and distant past. Rare even are those books that satisfy the above conditions and in addition maintain a literary and contemporary relevance spanning a period of decades.

O  Jerusalem by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, first published in 1972, is one such book.

The continual presence of the middle-eastern conflict in the news media might create a sense of familiarity for the viewers. The uninterrupted coverage of violence inflicted on the people of Israel and Palestine leaves little room for most people to journey into the past and understand the root cause of the never-ending cycle of violence in that part of the world.

O Jerusalem spans a period of a few years leading to the creation of the state of Israel in 1947. At the epicenter of the birth of Israel is the determined fight to capture the city of Jerusalem. Thousands of Arabs and Jews lost their lives fighting to claim this city, victims to mortar shells raining from the skies, convoys of gun totting fighters, and bomb laden vehicles driven into crowds of people.

The bloodshed of these incipient years marks an uncanny resemblance to the suicide bombings rocking the streets of Israel for the last two years and the military incursions of Israeli forces into Palestinian neighborhoods.

O Jerusalem is a journey into the blood and flesh of Jerusalem via the vehicle of written records from various sources, Jewish, English and Arab. A brief incursion into the founding of the Zionist movement sets the stage for the people and organizations who brought together diverse skills, resources, desires, desperations, the past and a collective will to carve a home in an ancestral land.

O Jerusalem is about Jews and Arabs both staking claim to an ancestral land, a land with enormous religious significance for Muslims, Jews and Christians. With the English retreat from Palestine imminent at the end of World War II, the Jews and Arabs reached into the heart of their respective communities to fuel the upcoming struggle for the capture of Jerusalem.

The Chief of Operations of the Jewish Army, an archaeologist by training, was responsible for preparing his people to face a massive Arab invasion. Leading the Arab assault was an Iraqi general appointed by the Arab league to organize its military efforts to destroy the State of Israel in May 1948.

In this conflict many people of diverse background fought on both sides.

Teddy Kolleka, a fisherman from Lake Tiberias who later become the Mayor of Jerusalem, directed clandestine arms purchases in the United States for the Haganah.

Nimra Tannous an Arab telephone operator, also known as “The Tigress,” tried to warn the Arab leadership that their enemies might be listening to their telephone conversations, which the Haganah intelligence was at the time.

Hadassah Limpel, a 19-year old Polish girl, walked across the Soviet Union to reach the Promised Land. She joined the Palmach youth movement in Palestine and later died in the midst of a military operation to open a road to Jerusalem’s 100,000 besieged Jews.

Ibrahim Abou Dayieh, an illiterate shepherd from the hills of Hebron, fought with notable courage in Jerusalem. Wounded he led his men while strapped to a chair.

A young woman sent to the United States in 1948 to raise funds for the Jewish Agency returned back with fifty million dollars. This young woman was Golda Meir who later became the Prime Minister of Israel. Later, Ben Gurion the first Prime minister of Israel, commented “The day when history is written it will be recorded that it was thanks to a Jewish woman that the Jewish state was born.”

Just like in most major military engagements the fight for Jerusalem and others cities in Palestine saw its share of spying, deceit, and behind the scenes political maneuvering.

O Jerusalem reveals a common vision of a divided leadership, a cohesive information management that succeeded over disparate voices and a strong desire for a homeland won over a clique of leaders who were often out of touch with their people.

O  Jerusalem reveals the creation of a nation that reflects a collective consciousness. People from diverse walks of life confronted and survived the dust storms of military engagement and carved out a nation of their own - the State of Israel.

In 1948 Arabs succeeded in capturing Jerusalem, and for the next twenty years they maintained control over the city. In the six-day war in 1967, Israel wrested control from the Arabs and brought Jerusalem within the folds of the Jewish nation.

Jerusalem at night. (photo: AP)

The Middle East peace talks in the 1990’s stalled at the question of who will claim Jerusalem as its capital. Today Jerusalem is at the epicenter of violence between the Jewish and the Palestinian people.

As one walks the streets of Jerusalem within the pages of O Jerusalem, a city where Prophets have treaded to guide people to salvation, where armies of kings have trampled on the homes sheltering the residents of this ancient land, where battles are being fought on modern day streets, it becomes abundantly clear that the city of Jerusalem holds the key to peace or mutual annihilation.

To begin your journey through the crowded streets of Jerusalem, there is no better guide than the words, the pages, and the images of O Jerusalem.

Copyright ©2002 Vishavjit Singh.   About The Author