Israel, Jerusalem, and the Identity Crisis

Abstract

After more than 62 years of its formation, Israel is now facing a crisis in one of the major aspects of its entity, namely its identity; many of the members of Jewish-Israeli public, in particular, are facing a crisis in identifying their character within the contemporary world, especially with the rise of rejection of Israel in the Arab and Muslim worlds. The Israeli people are facing a problem in defining their tie, and thus, there has been a crucial need to re-gather the Israelis on one symbol that represents “‘Ām Ysra’il” (i.e. the People of Israel). This symbol is Jerusalem. Therefore, it is noted that Israel has intensified work towards Judaizing Jerusalem and insisting on its Jewish character recently, in addition to the insist on requesting the Palestinians and the Arab and Muslim world to admit “The Jewish Israel”, which reflects Israel‟s fear of demolishing of the whole Zionist project in that area from inside. This paper analyzes the current identity crisis that Israel faces and the procedures taken by Israel towards solving this problem through “bringing the symbol to life”, i.e. Jerusalem in particular, in addition to touch upon the reaction of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority to this challenge.