"at the boundaries of the sacred," by wendy pullan

C H O R E O G R A P H I E SO F S H A R E D S A C R E D

S I T E SReligion, Politics,

& Conflict Resolution

Edited by

Elazar Barkan & Karen Barkey

5 AT THE BOUNDARIES

OF THE SACRED T H E R E I N V E N T I O N O F E V E R Y D A Y L I F E I N

J E R U S A L E M ’ S A L - W A D S T R E E T

WENDY PULLAN

W I T H T H E P R O T R A C T E D confl ict between Israelis and Palestin-

ians embedded in Jerusalem, the possibility of shared space

has become fraught with resentments and misunderstand-

ings. Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths share some common traditions

or overlap in their use of a number of sacred sites that have become ma-

jor centers of contestation. 1 Disputes have raged and over the centuries

different types of accommodation have been attempted with varying de-

grees of success. The term “status quo” emerged to describe designated

long-standing holy places and the rights of their adherent faiths, but many

sites endure an uneasy truce and periodically are the scene of violence. 2

While the status quo was effectively legalized by Israel at the beginning

of its occupation in 1967, the situation has become increasingly radical-

ized in response to the First Intifada in 1987. 3 It has escalated again since

2000, after the failure of the Oslo Accords, through the years of the Sec-

ond Intifada, and with the growing infl uence of the Jewish settler move-

ments. 4 With its large number of holy places, Jerusalem is particularly

affected. Historically, there have been examples of holy places that were

venerated by more than one faith where certain common traditions were

recognized. 5 Today, however, boundaries have been fi rmly drawn, and

any threat to those boundaries only fuels the wider Israeli/Palestinian

C6565.indb 163 8/29/14 9:36 AM

1 6 4 | P A L E S T I N E / I S R A E L

confl ict. Christian sites do fi gure in this contest, but the heaviest disputes

concern the relationship between Jews and Muslims and their holy places.

In Jerusalem’s walled Old City, the Muslim and Jewish site of the Ha-

ram al-Sharif/Temple Mount is central to both religions, and to the con-

fl ict. 6 Policing is pervasive and worshippers of the different faiths are kept

apart by an elaborate combination of regulations, custom, surveillance,

and security. Muslims worship on top of the plateau, where the Dome of

the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as many other shrines, draw the

faithful. 7 Below, along the southwest retaining wall of the enclosure, is the

Kotel Ha-Maaravi or Western Wall, where Jews pray at the last remains of

the Second Temple. 8 The two sites stand together, one poised above the

other and well in view of each other, but each has different constituen-

cies, faiths, practices, architecture, and access routes (see fi gures 5.1, 5.2).

The Haram, sometimes referred to today as the fi fth quarter of the Old

City, is a compound defi ned by an enclosing wall and accessed by well-

guarded gates; it is adjoined on two sides by the Muslim Quarter and on

the south by the Jewish Quarter. The Kotel area is a large plaza on the

edge of the Jewish Quarter, abutting the Muslim Quarter to the north. 9

All access streets to the Kotel plaza end in checkpoints heavily monitored

by Israeli security personnel and, for all intents and purposes, it has be-

come a compound. Both of these sites—Haram and Kotel—are restricted

to their own religious adherents; as such, they are excellent examples of

religious segregation. Together they present the kind of close proximity

combined, at least superfi cially, with detached interest that is common

throughout much of Jerusalem. When this fragile separation is breached,

long and violent repercussions may result, as when Israel’s Ariel Sharon

entered into the Haram area in 2000, provoking the Second, or al-Aqsa,

Intifada. These areas, with or without violence, have become associated

with how we picture Islamic and Jewish Jerusalem; they are what the

world sees on television, computer screens, and in vivid pictures in the

printed press. They are both iconic and highly controlled.

In the thoroughfares of the Muslim Quarter that surround the Haram

and lead to the Kotel, a different choreography takes place. These are

narrow city streets and alleyways, and many of them are at the center

of urban neighborhoods (fi gure 5.1). Although Israeli security cameras

C6565.indb 164 8/29/14 9:36 AM

A T T H E B O U N D A R I E S O F T H E S A C R E D | 1 6 5

Jewish Settlement and Archaeology in Jerusalem’s Old City

Israeli Archaeological Sites– State /Settler Supported Properties and Sites with Jewish Settler Activity State /Settler-Controlled Underground Tunnel System Permanent Israeli Checkpoint

N 50m 200m0

Key PlanDome of the Rock

Dung Gate

Solomon’s Quarry

Damascus Gate

Israeli-controlled access to tunnel from Via Dolorosa

Western Wall Plaza

Haram al-Sharif / Temple Mount

S I LW A N

O L D C I T Y

al-Aqsa Mosque

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

al-Wad Street

Via Dolorosa

Jewish Quarter

MuslimQuarter

Conflict in Cities©

Struthion Pool

Israeli-controlled tunnel to Western

Wall Plaza

Settler excavations below Ohel Yitzhak

Synagogue with tunnel access

(extent unknown)

Israeli-built rooftop walkway

Western Wall Tunnel

Wilson’s ArchUnderground chambers

Robinson’s Arch

Excavations

Givati excavation

OphelDavid’s City Wall

West Jerusalem

East Jerusalem

Old City

Green Line (1948-67)

Israeli Municipal Boundary (after 1967)

Area of David’s City

Planned Settlement

The Citadel

Warren’s ShaftGihon Spring

Siloam Channel

Siloam Pool

City Wall & Western Gate

Settler-controlled tunnel to Old City,

entrance at David’s City

“City of David” Visitor’s Center Hezekiah’s

tunnel

Visitors’ Center

Western Wall

Conflict in Citiesand the Contested State

supported by the ESRCUniversity of Cambridge - University of Exeter - Queens University Belfast

FIGURE 5.1 M A P O F J E R U S A L E M ’ S O L D C I T Y A N D S I LWA N, S H OW I N G

J E W I S H S E T T L E M E N T S A N D A R C H A E O LO G I C A L S I T E S

N E A R T H E H A R A M A L -S H A R I F.

(Confl ict in Cities)

abound and there are periods of military presence and restricted access,

much of the time people come and go with relatively minimal levels of

control. A number of the streets provide access to the holy places, and

auxiliary religious institutions such as small mosques and synagogues,

madrasas and yeshivas, have grown up along these routes, heralding

the proximity of the main sites. Some of these religious sites are re-

cently “rediscovered” or invented, and the authenticity of even the more

established ones may be contested. In this essay, I concentrate upon

what adherents believe about the sites and their religious values rather

than trying to determine facts about them with historical accuracy. In

C6565.indb 165 8/29/14 9:36 AM


FIGURE 5.2 T H E W E ST E R N WA L L ( KOT E L H A - M A A R AV I ) W I T H T H E H A R A M

A L -S H A R I F A B O V E . T H E D O M E O F T H E R O C K I S V I S I B L E O N T H E L E F T.


addition to religious institutions, the area is fi lled with residential and

commercial structures, places of everyday life in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Tariq al-Wad, or al-Wad Street, is an active example (fi gure 5.3).

It runs the length of the Muslim Quarter from Damascus Gate in the

north to the Kotel and Jewish Quarter in the south. As the key thorough-

fare along the western edge of the Haram al-Sharif, it functions as both

a border and a connector between Muslim and Jewish sacred terrains.

At one point it is crossed by the Christian Via Dolorosa, which attracts

Western tourists. It accumulates a mixture of religious sites, people, and

practices, and if the Haram and Kotel are particularly segregated, al-Wad

Street is heterogeneous.

These are highly charged urban spaces; along with religious affi lia-

tions, national and ethnic identities are formed in a topography where

much of Jerusalem’s present confl icts play out. Because Tariq al-Wad

is a market area, its ostensibly more secular nature can accommodate a

looser and sometimes more personal competition of sacred topographies.

C6565.indb 166 8/29/14 9:36 AM


Many aspects of the street culture display a combination of political al-

legiance and religious identity in, for example, the decoration and sig-

nage of the buildings, the goods for sale, the graffi ti on the walls, and the

sounds of taped sermons. The topography has been marked with various

endorsements of national aspirations that are underlain with and sup-

ported by recent socioeconomic development. Above all, it is an environ-

ment where spatial experience is articulated by a potent mix of imagery,

materiality, and aurality. A color, a bit of song, a specially draped piece of

fabric, or even a scent immediately cues the cultural richness of a particu-

lar community. Many of these are expressions of religious allegiance, but,

notably, they also promote—often subversively—national ambitions.

Benedict Anderson and others have focused on the role of political nar-

ratives in forming such imagined communities. 10 My study of the Tariq

al-Wad area does indeed reveal the envisioning of communities, but here

it is material culture and the spaces that contain its many variations that

are particularly signifi cant for determining religio-political affi liations.

FIGURE 5.3 V I E W O F A L - WA D ST R E E T.


C6565.indb 167 8/29/14 9:36 AM


Although al-Wad Street is essentially a market—a secular area by

modern standards—it is important to ask how its situation at the edge or

boundary of a crucial shared sacred site affects the way both inhabitants

and visitors act, and how this peripheral area in turn contributes to the

playing out of religious confl icts centered on the threefold pieties of Jeru-

salem’s major faiths. This border area acts as a transitional zone on the way

to and from more holy domains and, in this sense, not only separates but

also communicates between or mediates secular and sacred territories. It

also functions as a rich topography of religio-political life grounded in ev-

eryday practices. Most of all, it is home to various groups who wish to as-

sert their religio-political identities connected to the sacred sites proper

and yet, for a variety of reasons, see fi t to do this outside the holy sites.

This essay explores how al-Wad Street has become a new arena of

confl ict in Jerusalem. I concentrate less upon political policy than upon

the cultural construction of the various sites and artifacts in the market

street that both emerge from and enable intense levels of popular parti-

san political participation. It refl ects not a polarization of sacred and pro-

fane but more nuanced conditions at the boundaries of the sacred, where

religious practices and beliefs permeate mundane situations and every-

day acts. In contrast to this environment, I also consider a recent attempt

to interpret an archaeological site, known as the Western Wall Tunnel, as

a holy place. This relatively new creation has been isolated from these

quotidian settings and delineated from the world of the street. There we

fi nd a contrasting mode of intervention for asserting religious and na-

tional claims beneath the major holy places.

T H E P E R M E A B I L I T Y O F “ S A C R E D S P A C E ”

While modern discourse tends to regard sacred and secular space as op-

posing modes of being, the patterns found in al-Wad Street do not fi t eas-

ily into one category or another, and it is important to consider why ex-

perience on the ground may contradict the dominant theories of sacred

space. The modern distinction between sacred and profane was initially

made by Emile Durkheim in the nineteenth century and further devel-

C6565.indb 168 8/29/14 9:36 AM


oped in the mid-twentieth century by Mircea Eliade. 11 In his major stud-

ies, Eliade explains the sacred and profane as “two modes of being in the

world, two existential situations assumed by man in the course of his-

tory. . . . In the last analysis, the sacred and profane modes of being depend

upon the different positions that man has conquered in the cosmos.” 12

And he further contends that “the idea of the sacred place involves the

notion of repeating the primary hierophany which consecrated the place

by marking it out, by cutting it off from the profane space around it.” 13

Although Eliade’s theories have been questioned over the latter part

of the twentieth century, the polarizing notions of sacred and profane

have remained prominent. 14 As opposed and absolute terms, they may be

referred to in modern times as “sacred” and “secular,” with the latter de-

riving from saeculum —an other, separate, and different space. “Profane,”

on the other hand, simply comes from profanum , outside the temple,

and is thus relational. The post-Enlightenment opposition of sacred and

secular tends to refl ect its own neutral disposition of space itself, which

favors clear divisions without bleeding borders, where rich or ambigu-

ous differentiation has little place. 15 This concept fundamentally opposes

certain philosophical stances for which space is a continuity, where the

world is “a single horizon that embraces everything contained in histori-

cal consciousness.” 16 It is likewise not refl ected in recent theories that

stress the interrelatedness and multiplicity of meanings in space. 17

The boundaries of sacred space may be permeable points of transfor-

mation. This is not to belittle the special qualities of religious sites, nor is

it meant to devalue the signifi cance of the sacred center of a holy place

for those who venerate it; rather, the center is made visible and under-

stood by its wider orientation rather than by a hard break with the pro-

fane. There prevails a deep reciprocity between the typicality of praxis

and the uniqueness and intensity of the ritual or symbolic mediation

with the divine. So everyday life and space become major players in con-

fi guring religious experience. If we see the sacred and the profane not as

opposed phenomena but as part of a continuous but differentiated struc-

ture, they refl ect certain broader, contemporary spatial conceptions,

offering a more credible platform for talking about sacred space today.

This is the direction I will follow for the present discussion in order to

C6565.indb 169 8/29/14 9:36 AM


interpret the activities observed in al-Wad Street in Jerusalem’s Old City.

This approach will help to explain these events as being, at one and the

same time, part of both the holy places and the mundane world. Further-

more, such thinking may encourage alternatives to the common prac-

tice of designating spaces in cities as only sacred or only secular, conse-

quently severing them completely from surrounding areas.

This thinking is especially important in confl ict situations where con-

tested holy places are regularly assigned to separate combatant groups;

enforcing such measures requires establishing highly controlled formal

authorities and administrations that often are not effective. Intense

confl ict management intervenes when holy places are disputed and vio-

lent, often leading to imposed divisions that fragment space or regiment

its use in a way that is not in keeping with the practice and rituals as-

sociated with the site. 18 Some major shrines are administered so as to

accommodate competing religious discourses rather than allow one to

monopolize the site, although it would be fair to say that it becomes

overwhelmingly diffi cult to maintain such diversity when religious dif-

ferences emerge as surrogates for political disputes. 19 But it is also worth

noting that the city itself may provide a more integral structure for ac-

commodating diversity, even when there is a spillover of religious activi-

ties into areas where they might be unexpected. In Jerusalem’s Old City,

where many holy sites are highly regulated with military checkpoints at

every entrance, the immediate areas beyond them in Tariq al-Wad re-

main remarkably mixed. Since there is no question that these boundary

areas are highly contested, the mixing of populations does not necessar-

ily indicate that urban space can be benignly shared, but it does demon-

strate that space is elastic even when it is saturated with intense religious

content.

P A L E S T I N I A N A L - W A D S T R E E T

Al-Wad Street extends almost the length of Jerusalem’s walled city, run-

ning north–south from Damascus Gate until the entrance of the West-

C6565.indb 170 8/29/14 9:36 AM


ern Wall Plaza. Because it runs along what in ancient times was known

as the Tyropean Valley (both the Arabic al-wad and the Hebrew ha-gai

mean valley), it has a topographical integrity that was recognized by

the Romans when they constructed it as the eastern branch of the Cardo

Maximus. 20 Today it is the main street of the Muslim Quarter, cutting

through its densely populated fabric. Most importantly, it runs parallel

to the western boundary wall of the Haram al-Sharif, linking into feeder

streets that lead to the gates of the sacred Muslim compound (fi gure 5.1).

Today the street presents a choice at its south end, either to continue

through the Israeli checkpoint into the Kotel or to climb some steps and

take a roundabout route, fi rst to the east and then veering to the west,

to continue into the Street of the Chain between the Muslim and Jewish

Quarters (fi gure 5.4).

Tariq al-Wad and the streets leading from it into the Haram are major

routes for Muslims on their way to Friday prayers, and most weeks they

are thronged with people before and after the midday service. They act

as a vestibule to the sacred compound, and many of the smaller cross

streets have Mamluk religious or semi-religious structures that were

built on either side during the Middle Ages to contain madrassas, pil-

grims’ hospices, dervish centers, and a large covered market with two

bath houses. 21 Most of these structures themselves contain tombs and

small mosques, and the combination of activities housed in these enclo-

sures demonstrates that the Mamluks mixed different functions, oriented

toward both the living and the dead, some more sacred and some more

profane, in the immediate environment of the Haram. The building com-

plexes engage well with the urban setting, forming a thick architectural

rim on the edges of the sacred precinct and providing a transition along

the side streets from the markets and residential areas of the city into the

holy compound.

Today the al-Wad Street area responds to the politics of the Israeli/

Palestinian confl ict in ways that are rapid, acute, and visible. With the

building of the separation barrier by the Israelis and the related imposi-

tion of closure policies that both predate and reinforce it, the area has

been transformed. In the Jerusalem region, the barrier (or wall, as it is

C6565.indb 171 8/29/14 9:36 AM


Jerusalem’s Old City: Junction Between the Muslim and Jewish Quarters Access to Western Wall Plaza/Jewish Quarter via Passage (post-1967) Indirect Route Between Muslim and Jewish Quarter Permanent Israeli Checkpoint

al-Wad Street

al-Wad

Street

al-Wad St

Restaurants

of the Chain

Street

Western Wall Plaza

Western Wall Plaza

Jewish Quarter

Muslim Quarter

Ohel Yitzhak Synagogue

Israeli-controlled checkpoint to Western Wall Plaza

Synagogue excavations under Muslim Quarter with connection to the Western Wall Plaza, extent unknown

A 1st century CE causeway arch incorporated into the new Israeli tunnel constructed after 1967 to connect al-Wad Street with the Western Wall Plaza

Synagogue excavations under Muslim Quarter with connection to the Western Wall Plaza, extent unknown

Wilson’s Arch (used as Synagogue)

Restaurant, run by Jewish SettlersRestaurant, run by Palestinians

Israeli-controlled checkpoint to Western Wall Plaza

Israeli-controlled checkpoint to Synagogue

Dome of the Rock (above)


Muslim Quarter


Tunnels and Underground Chambers

N

N

Western Wall



FIGURE 5.4 A N A LY T I C A L V I E W O F T H E J U N CT I O N B E T W E E N T H E M U S L I M

A N D J E W I S H Q U A RT E R S, A N D P L A N O F S U BT E R R A N E A N

C H A M B E R S B E N E AT H T H E J U N CT I O N.


more commonly known) separates the Palestinian city from its hinter-

land in the West Bank. 22 The process of closure has been accretive, with

checkpoints used in one way or another since the early years of the oc-

cupation and policies for separation accelerated by the Oslo agreements

of 1991 and 1993. 23 However, Israeli-imposed closure policies that culmi-

nated in late 2005 have resulted in great changes: many Palestinians with

Israeli-determined Jerusalem residency and identity cards had been liv-

ing in West Bank towns and villages but rushed back to the city in order

not to lose their status and rights with the closing of the city. 24 In many

cases they did this without promise of employment or homes. The infl ux

has affected the Old City and especially the Muslim Quarter, where low

housing costs have attracted migrants from across the border, increas-

ing the population by an estimated fi ve thousand people in its already

overcrowded thirty-one hectares. This has particularly affected al-Wad

C6565.indb 172 8/29/14 9:36 AM


Street, which for many years had been a quiet thoroughfare with a few

local food shops and the odd stall selling tourist goods. Now shops are

open along its whole length, many casual vendors sell herbs and vegeta-

bles on the street, and, especially on Fridays and Saturdays, it is crowded

with shoppers. Superfi cially, this market street looks vibrant and pros-

perous, yet the reasons for its apparent urban success feed off the chaos

and bias introduced by the occupation. 25

In many ways, the goods for sale in the market reveal the situation

for Palestinians in the Muslim Quarter. A closer look shows that among

the piles of vegetables and baked goods, and the cheap clothes and

household items made mostly in China, are many things that can be de-

scribed as having Islamic content. In fact, the shops with Islamic goods

have become so prevalent that nearly half of all market units sell them

(fi gure 5.5).

Commerce on al-Wad Street, Jerusalem’s Old City Shop units on al-Wad Street Shops selling Islamic goods

N 100m 300m0

Damascus Gate

Lion’s Gate


Muslim Quarter

Christian Quarter

Dome of the RockChurch of the Holy Sepulchre

Cotton Market

al-Wad Street

al-Wad Street

Via Dolorosa

Via Dolorosa




FIGURE 5.5 M A P O F A L - WA D ST R E E T S H OW I N G S H O P S T H AT

S E L L I S L A M I C G O O D S.


C6565.indb 173 8/29/14 9:36 AM


Many merchants sell the hijab —not just head scarves but various

forms of long, loose-fi tting garments that are traditional women’s cloth-

ing have become common. Prayer beads, Qur’ans and their decorated

cases and stands, plaques with proverbs from the Qur’an and Hadith,

veiled dolls, and call-to-prayer clocks are also widely available. Islamic

perfumeries that specialize in scent without alcohol have sprung up. A

selection of these items may be obtained in even the most unexpected

places: the hardware shop sells head scarves; the local grocer carries

prayer beads. Many of them use signs that display a photo of the Dome of

the Rock or al-Aqsa Mosque beside the name of their shop. Put simply by

one market vendor: “We know who we are.” 26 A number of merchants in-

dicated in interviews that their businesses profi t from the new emphasis

on Islamic content on the street and among its shoppers.

Linking Tariq al-Wad with the Haram, the vaulted Cotton Market (or

Suq al-Qattanin) contains a great concentration of Islamic goods. Built

in 1336–1337 and lauded for its monumental architecture in the fi fteenth

century, it was known as a qaysariya , a market for precious goods like

silk and cotton; nonetheless, by the nineteenth century it was abandoned

and fi lled with rubbish. 27 Although the British restored it in the twentieth

century, it never fl ourished as a market; suggestions for making it a folk

museum or a city farm were never adopted. Now, in the early twenty-

fi rst century, it has been revived as an active market and an important

entrance to the Haram al-Sharif, and it provides a location for Palestin-

ian institutions including al-Quds University’s Old City premises and

the center for Israeli Muslims who wish to make the Hajj in the adjacent

Hamam al-Ayn.

Today the Cotton Market no longer contains luxury items, but de-

sirable objects of the contemporary Islamic trade, like digital Qur’ans,

DVDs of sermons, jihadi computer games, and light boxes depicting Is-

lamic holy places may be found. Concentrations of small sparkling ob-

jects catch the eye and recall qaysariya in the gleam of glass prayer beads,

the gold print on Qur’an covers, and the silky fringes of veils (fi gure 5.6).

Few items are made in the workshops of Palestine. They come instead

from other Arab countries or are mass produced in the factories of the

Far East. 28 But in these markets along the Friday processional route to

C6565.indb 174 8/29/14 9:36 AM


FIGURE 5.6 P R AY E R B E A D S A N D OT H E R G L I T T E RY O BJ E CT S F O R S A L E I N

T H E COT TO N M A R K E T.


the Haram, they are transformed into souvenirs with layered identities.

On al-Wad Street, and particularly in the Cotton Market, the shops and

stalls are encrusted with colorful and glittery goods. Some items visible

among the goods, like jewelry and key rings with the map and colors of

Palestine, display overt nationalism, but most are Islamic. 29 These items

C6565.indb 175 8/29/14 9:36 AM


represent a global surge in Islamic culture and its accoutrements; at the

same time, their prominent display likely refl ects the Israeli authorities’

greater tolerance for expressing religious rather than political identity.

In accord with these observations we may further identify two impor-

tant aspects of the souvenirs: fi rst, they acquire a level of value incon-

gruent with their inherent worth as merchandise. They bring to mind

what Michael Billig claims in Banal Nationalism , that “small words . . .

offer constant, but barely conscious, reminders” and become, in turn,

extremely important to those who repeat or reread them. 30 In the al-

Wad Street markets, small objects may be banal, but national aspira-

tions clearly underlie each one. Each mundane item is like a forbidden

fruit, a national symbol or metaphor fought for and won, whose mean-

ing emerges through its religious content. One merchant, for example,

thrusting a handful of small glass prayer beads in my face, declared,

“Here is Palestine.” 31 Although many shopkeepers complain that they

make very little money and are under regular assault by the Israeli au-

thorities, more than one stated that it is important to keep the shops

open in order to retain a Palestinian presence on the street. 32

Second, most objects tend to be of a personal nature, appealing more

to women than men as ornaments for the home and the body. By simply

purchasing cheap but appealing accessories that combine national and

religious iconography at micro scale, a Palestinian woman can assert her

domestic role as part of a national struggle. One is reminded of Susan

Stewart’s interpretation of the miniature as a metaphor for the interior,

and the gigantic for the state and collective. 33 Yet, with sovereignty de-

nied, the larger state body in this case is incomplete and abstract. In-

stead the small-scale souvenirs and the glittery market itself offer some

links between individuals and the community in a manner that is im-

mediate, concrete, and easily shared. Empowered by purchasing these

small and intimate goods, individuals are able to participate in a wider

political community and to affi rm Palestinian identity expressed as Is-

lamic content.

On Friday mornings, Tariq al-Wad becomes a major pedestrian thor-

oughfare for Muslims making their way in this processional route to Fri-

C6565.indb 176 8/29/14 9:36 AM


day prayers in the Haram al-Sharif. At times of unrest, Palestinians are

vetted by Israeli soldiers and border police at Damascus Gate. Age and

gender restrictions are often applied to prevent younger males from en-

tering, but at almost all times, under the closure protocols, West Bank

Muslims are barred from Jerusalem and thus excluded from the Haram. 34

Palestinians from inside Jerusalem have responded to this situation in

large numbers, taking on the responsibility of populating the religious

sites in order to make up for those who are prohibited from being there.

The infl ux of worshippers has helped to increase business in the shops and

stalls near the Haram, making them more lucrative for their owners. As

well, impromptu markets have sprung up on Fridays along the footpaths

into the gates to the Old City that lead to the Haram; one route into Lions’

Gate even traverses an Islamic cemetery. Men smoke and drink coffee in a

small café in the Cotton Market until almost the last minute before the ser-

vice begins, then rush into the compound. Many come without prayer car-

pets, and a glimpse through the gate shows them waiting around with no

intention of praying, there only to add their bodies to the crowd and rep-

resent those who are forbidden, against their own wishes, to be present.

One distinct group of visitors is Muslims from the north of Israel who

are Israeli citizens, and therefore free to pray at the holy places of Jeru-

salem (fi gure 5.7). The prominence of these religious tourists is recent,

stemming largely from the vacuum of political and economic power cre-

ated in Palestinian Jerusalem as a result of the separation barrier and

closure policies. Islamic religious and political groups from northern Is-

rael have stepped into this void. 35 They have developed package tours to

bring in groups by coach for the day to pray at al-Aqsa; sermons, often

with political content, are included in the tour and sometimes delivered

by Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement in the north of

Israel. 36 The internal tourists are also taken to Islamic sites in the Old

City, and then to eat and shop in the Muslim Quarter, very often in al-

Wad Street and the Cotton Market. The merchants in the market report

that much of their business comes from the north. Some merchants even

suggest that the religious tourists purchase their products specifi cally in

order to support the Palestinians of Jerusalem. 37

C6565.indb 177 8/29/14 9:36 AM


FIGURE 5.7 R E L I G I O U S TO U R I ST S F R O M T H E N O RT H O F I S R A E L V I E W I N G

T H E D O M E O F T H E R O C K ; A L - WA D ST R E E T I S B E LOW.


This new form of tourism in Jerusalem lies in the gray area between

religion and politics. Certainly, many of the Israeli Muslims travel there

for religious purposes; at the same time, they regard their involvement

with al-Aqsa as a demonstration of renewed interest in religion within a

system that offers them scant possibilities to assert their identity in other

ways. 38 And the more frequently that the slogan “protect al-Aqsa” ap-

pears in graffi ti and is heard in the Palestinian street, the more these vis-

its can be perceived as actions to support Islamic Jerusalem against en-

croachment by Jewish settlers and unwanted interference by the Israeli

authorities. Palestinians regard the pressures on Muslim Jerusalem as

an existential threat, and many believe it is their religious duty to coun-

ter it. 39 One member of a tour group from Taiba, in Israel’s north, when

asked where she was from, claimed that her real home was “here” while

pointing toward the Dome of the Rock (fi gure 5.7). 40 These tours enable

Israeli Muslims to participate in the struggle for Jerusalem’s Islamic holy

C6565.indb 178 8/29/14 9:36 AM


places, offering them a political identity that has been denied in Israel.

Souvenirs from the Old City market authenticate that connection and

commemorate Islamic tourists’ experiences and actions in Jerusalem

from a distance after they return home. Stewart acknowledges that the

souvenir is incomplete when she writes that it is rooted “in a context of

origin through a language of longing.” 41 Buyers of Old City trinkets may

ultimately see their longing as the desire for a nation. For the time be-

ing, however, as much as that desire remains unfulfi lled, small purchases

made near the Haram help to preserve and enhance that yearning.

Activity in al-Wad Street and its markets follows in a general sense

the received Palestinian religio-political narrative; at the same time, the

area allows more personalized interpretations that suit smaller groups

and individuals and still conform to the protocols that are appropriate

for the area. As an edge between the sacred terrain of the Haram and the

rest of the city, al-Wad Street is both a testing ground and a repository

for slightly unexpected and ad hoc practices. To what extent this feeds

the radicalization of the Palestinian street is not clear. Nonetheless, the

area certainly provides fertile ground for the expression of otherwise re-

stricted identities.

J E W I S H S E T T L E M E N T S A N D A R C H A E O L O G Y I N T H E M U S L I M Q U A R T E R

The al-Wad Street area has become the destination for certain Jewish

groups who are also motivated by its proximity to the holy places, in this

case, the Temple Mount (now the Haram) and the Kotel. Unlike the Pal-

estinians, these people engage very little in commercial activities; rather,

they focus on residential, institutional, and archaeological sites. At its

southern extremity, al-Wad Street ends at a checkpoint inside a tunnel

leading into the Kotel and Jewish Quarter; normally only Jewish Israelis

or foreigners pass beyond this point (fi gure 5.4). The checkpoint is not

heavily used since many more Jewish Israelis and Jewish tourists enter

the Kotel area from the west via Jaffa Gate, or coaches and taxis take

C6565.indb 179 8/29/14 9:36 AM

"at the boundaries of the sacred," by wendy pullan

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