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Archaeologists who are studying the neighborhood of Silwan in Jerusalem found that it may have been used as an administrative center during the Temple periods by Jewish kings. Archaeological finds in the area are being used by IsraelEs political right to justify settlement claims in Palestinian territories.

Abstract In the wake of the June 1967 war Israel annexed Jordanian Jerusalem and adjoining territories, creating a single municipality with a large Palestinian Arab minority. After forty years Jerusalem […]

The sectarianism in politics leads to the splitting of the party into smaller sects or groups is analyzed. It is observed that it is totally incompatible with social democracy.

This article makes the case that modern ideological republicanism has its roots, not in Athens or Rome, but in Jerusalem. It begins from the observation that republican political theory underwent a dramatic transformation in the middle of the seventeenth century. Before 1650, republicanism had always been a 'relative' position: those who argued in favour of republican government did so because they believed that republics were better than monarchies for various reasons. None of them had any interest in arguing that monarchy was an illegitimate constitutional)Corm. In the second half of the seventeenth century, however, we see for the first time the appearance of what we might call republican' exclusivism', the claim that republics are the only legitimate regimes. This article argues that the 'exclusivist' turn was prompted by the Christian encounter with a tradition of rabbinic commentary on two chapters of the Hebrew Bible (Deut. 17 and 1 Sam. 8), according to which the Israelite request for a mortal king was regarded as an instance of the sin of idolatry. It further demonstrates that the English pamphleteers at the centre of this story--John Milton, James Harrington, and Algernon Sidney--were themselves deeply conscious of the degree to which their views had been shaped by the writings of the 'Talmudical commonwealthsmen'. doi:10.1017/S0018246X07006395

This study examines the effects of prolonged exposure to terrorism in 600 religious and non-religious Jewish adolescents living in Jerusalem, particularly post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms, depressive symptoms, alcohol use, coping strategies and social support. The youth in Jerusalem reported high exposure to terrorist acts. This exposure was associated with high PTS, depressive symptoms and alcohol use. Despite an apparently greater exposure to terrorism, religious adolescents reported lower levels of PTS and alcohol consumption, but similar levels of depressive symptoms to non-religious adolescents. Problem-solving coping predicted higher depressive symptoms for religious adolescents exposed to terrorism but not for similarly exposed non-religious adolescents. In contrast, emotion-focused coping predicted more alcohol consumption among highly exposed non-religious adolescents, while emotion-focused coping predicted more alcohol consumption among religious adolescents with low exposure. The overall findings suggest that religiosity may buffer the negative consequences of exposure in other ways than through coping or support. Keywords: Terrorism; Religiosity; Adolescents; Alcohol use; Substance use; PTSD; Depression; Israel

The author discusses her participation in a group of Palestinian and Israeli women which calls for the end to Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem and the creation of a 'shared Jerusalem.

Generally speaking, when Muslim rights in Jerusalem are enunciated, history, people and nationalism become intermingled. The reason is twofold: the difficulty of building a case for Muslim rights outside the [...]

WISHFUL THINKING AMONG VOTERS When voters are asked to predict the outcomes of a forthcoming election, they manifest wishful thinking if their predictions vary in an optimistic direction as a [...]

The best status quo solution for Jerusalem is shared sovereignty of political territory among Israelis and Palestinians. Sharing of sacred space on a small scale can be done peacefully, via an interlocking system of scattered sovereignty. Such a scheme was followed by the Greeks, Latins, Armenians and Copts for more than a century when they shared the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The Israel-PLO agreement in Oslo permitted a delay before the parties would begin negotiations over 'permanent-status issues'--including settlements, boundaries, refugees and Jerusalem. That delay, until the beginning of the third [...]

Few can deny that, as Helena Cobban suggests, 'what happens in Jerusalem over the next couple of years will be a major factor, perhaps the major factor, in determining whether [...]

Local politics in Jerusalem is deeply rooted in the broader ethno-national and political conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Notwithstanding the broader political processes, the nature of local politics is also shaped by specific, local contingencies - patterns of segregation and interaction, the nature of local government and the local communities, types of local leaders and the special features of each social group. The paper shows that local politics in Jerusalem is inherently biased, reflecting the political reality of ethnic power. Following an analysis of these issues the paper suggests a functional approach to the Jerusalem problem, one that is based on the idea of bounded sovereignty and the prgamatic dispersion of governmental functions and authority over several political-geographic layers.

Palestinians in Jerusalem do not expect much from the interim peace process between Israel and Palestine but they consider a few measures that can reduce the damage they see in their community. Efforts to develop institutions and mechanisms for long-term survival are being done and funding for such activities from the international community are coming in because of the peace process. Palestinian participation in municipal elections will be an opportunity to establish an Israeli-Palestinian coalition that would help promote justice in Jerusalem.