Amjad Rishek sorts through stacks of papers documenting his long fight with Jerusalem over his family home on Assael Street. He has spent years trying to prevent the city from demolishing their house. Photo by Seema Jilani.
Nawal Bazlamit stands in front of Israel’s separation wall in 2007 on the outskirts of Azariya, outside Jerusalem. The wall runs through the backyard of her sons’ apartment building, placing them outside the barrier, separated from the rest of the family on Assael Street. Photo by Dion Nissenbaum.
The wall on Assael Street that became the focal point of a bitter neighborhood feud over graffiti painted on the outside. The graffiti welcomes a Palestinian resident home from making his pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Photo by Dion Nissenbaum.
A woman walks down Assael Street past the widely derided building built by Israeli developers on the side of the street that used to be in No Man’s Land. Many Abu Tor neighbors tried unsuccessfully to prevent the contractors from building the apartment complex. Photo by Dion Nissenbaum.
A graphic of Abu Tor shows the potential borders separating Israel and a future Palestinian state. The dotted line for one route runs down the center of Assael Street, the old path that marked the edge of Israel until 1967. Photo courtesy SAYA Architects.
About the Author
Seema Jilani
DION NISSENBAUM is a reporter with The Wall Street Journal’s national security team. Previously, Dion served as a senior correspondent in Afghanistan, where he traveled around the country on his own and with the US military. He spent four years based in Jerusalem, living on this dividing line. He has won several awards, including a National Press Club award for diplomatic correspondence. He has covered conflicts in many countries around the Middle East and South Asia. He lives in Istanbul.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Disclaimer
Dedication
Epigraph
Acknowledgments
Introduction
One: No Man’s Land
Two: Father of the Bull
Three: The Martyrs
Four: The Settlers
Five: The Collaborator
Six: The Peaceniks
Seven: The Good Arab
Eight: The Architects of Division
Epilogue: “The Siege of Abu Tor”
Notes
Bibliography
Photos
About the Author
Newsletter Sign-Up
Copyright Page
A STREET DIVIDED. Copyright © 2015 by Dion Nissenbaum. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Lines from the poem “Jerusalem, 1967” by Yehuda Amichai, from the book Poems of Jerusalem and Love Poems, are printed with the permission of Sheep Meadow Press.
Jacket design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein
Jacket photograph of Israel, 1957 © Israelimages
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Nissenbaum, Dion.
A street divided : stories from Jerusalem’s Alley of God / Dion Nissenbaum.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-250-07294-8 (hardback)
1. Jerusalem—Boundaries. 2. Jerusalem—Ethnic relations. 3. Jerusalem—Politics and government—20th century. 4. Jerusalem—Description and travel. 5. Israel-Arab War, 1948–1949—Influence. 6. Partition, Territorial. I. Title.
DS109.93.N57 2015
956.94’42—dc23
2015010735
e-ISBN: 978-1-4668-8489-2
First Edition: September 2015
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].
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