September 21, 2001

The Politics of Holiness in Jerusalem

By BERNARD WASSERSTEIN

Jerusalem, we are often told, is a holy city to three world religions. But the holiness of Jerusalem is neither a constant nor an absolute. It may be conceived of as divinely inspired or as a human attribution. What is undeniable is that, considered as a historical phenomenon, the city's sanctity has waxed and waned according to social, economic, and cultural conditions, and, perhaps above all, political influences.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam claim to venerate Jerusalem as holy

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