Olmert Says Israel Should Pull Out of West Bank

Jews and Muslims Share Holy Season in Jerusalem

In response to the above articles, Orthodox Union public policy director Nathan Diament wrote the following letter to the editor of the New York Times:

“Your articles present the dissonance between the reality of Jerusalem and the pronouncements about Jerusalem by some politicians and citizens.

The latter speak of the need to re-divide Jerusalem for the sake of a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians more and more often.

But it is only in the past 41 years, since the holy city’s reunification, that Jews, Muslims and Christians have been able to freely move about the city and worship at their holy sites.

If sectors of Jerusalem are divided again, recent history and current events tell us that this will return us to a time in which the city cannot be shared in holy seasons, and will be an embodiment of antipathy between faiths as opposed to the unifying force it is today.”

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