[Wall Street Journal] Amy Dockser Marcus - The Ottoman occupation of Jerusalem in the 16th century until the early 20th was often marked by peaceful coexistence: Twice a year, Jews, Muslims, and Christians celebrated together at the shrine of Simon the Just, a popular biblical figure. Trying to pinpoint the moment when he realized that that the Israel-Arab conflict was inevitable, David Ben-Gurion, who became Israel's first prime minister, said it was the day in 1915 that he sat on a train waiting to leave Jerusalem at the order of Ahmed Djemal, the city's Ottoman ruler, who banished many known Zionist activists from the city. Ben-Gurion had tried to turn himself into an Ottoman - studying Turkish, attending law school in Constantinople, trying to organize a Jewish legion to fight on behalf of the Ottoman Empire in the war, and even donning a red fez. But all these gestures had been to no avail, for at the end of the day, Djemal had looked at him and seen not an Ottoman but an advocate for a future Jewish state, and had him jailed in Jerusalem. - from Jerusalem 1913.
2007-05-11 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive