Devout Muslims, Jews mull dividing holy Jerusalem*

By Rebecca Harrison
Reuters
Thursday, November 22, 2007; 10:55 AM

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - From opposite sides of the wall that once divided
Jerusalem, Israeli Shlomo Yirmiyahu and Palestinian Yakoob Arrajabi
watched in 1967 as the Jewish state seized the Arab east of the city in
a blaze of gunfire.

Now, as their leaders prepare for talks about peace, the two devoutly
religious men are trying to imagine the future of their home town, which
stands at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is treasured
as holy by both.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants East Jerusalem as the capital
of a future state but splitting the city is a highly divisive issue for
Israelis. As a Palestinian who yearns for independence, Arrajabi has
much to gain from a compromise.

"All Palestine is sacred to us and Jerusalem is the most precious," said
the bearded 48-year-old. "But the desire of man is one thing and reality
is another."

Arrajabi lives just off Jerusalem's Route 1 artery which runs north from
the Old City along the Green Line that once separated Israel from the
Jordanian-controlled West Bank and now informally divides Jerusalem's
Arab and Jewish neighborhoods.

A few blocks south, 69-year-old Yirmiyahu -- a portly man -- has for
decades lived on the other side of that line, comfortable in his belief
that Israel -- and all Jerusalem -- belong to the Jews.

On Fridays at sunset, Yirmiyahu joins hundreds of fellow Jews, many of
them Orthodox in black hats, walking down Route 1, through the cobbled
streets of the Old City's Muslim quarter, to pray at the Western Wall --
one of Judaism's most sacred sites.

"The bible says this is the Promised Land for Jews. It's like we say
'next year in Jerusalem'," Yirmiyahu said, quoting the traditional
saying in Jewish ritual which expresses the diaspora dream of return to
the holy land.

A GRUDGING PEACE?

Arrajabi and hundreds of Muslims also pray in the Old City on Fridays.
They head for al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site, which lies
adjacent to the Western Wall and occupies one the most disputed spots of
real estate on earth.

With the slender turret of a mosque in the skyline behind him, Yirmiyahu
grudgingly concedes that sharing control of his beloved Jerusalem with
the Arabs he long viewed as foes might make good sense as part of a deal
to secure peace.

"If America and Abu Mazen and all his people would promise to stop
harassing the Jews ... then it would be good for Israel and the Arabs,"
he said, calling Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by his familiar name.

Yirmiyahu is more flexible than most of his neighbors, some of whom said
they were praying fervently that next week's U.S.-hosted conference in
Annapolis, Maryland would fail and talk of a Palestinian state evaporate
with it.

Up the road, Arrajabi is also counting on divine intervention -- but of
a different kind.

"Do I expect to see a Palestinian state in my lifetime? Really, I hope,"
he said. "But I don't expect the conference to start anything new, even
though I pray to God for that."