Hi, I'm Gary Bembridge from Tips for
Travellers. I'm here in Jerusalem in the
Old City of Jerusalem. It's controversial
and it's guaranteed to raise tensions and
emotions, both positive and negative no matter
which side of the political spectrum
you're on, or what your religion is. In
this video I'm going to give you seven
things that you absolutely need to know
about Jerusalem to make up your mind. The
first thing you need to know is it is
incredibly old. It's over 5,000 years old,
with the real history kicking of 3,500
years ago when King David basically
brought together 12 tribes to form the
Kingdom of Israel, and made Jerusalem its
capital. It's one of the 10 oldest
permanently occupied cities in the world.
The second thing that's fascinating
about Jerusalem is that it is very
unique as it's the centre of three
key religions, and hosts the
holiest sites for three different
religions. So if you start with Judaism,
it's the origins of the religion and the
very holy place is the Mount. The mount
was where the holiest temples were built
to worship God. They were destroyed a
couple of times, and the only remaining
structure from these holiest of holy
temples is the Western Wall, which is
sometimes called the Wailing Wall. It was
called the Wailing Wall because it
really represents the Jewish people
wailing at the destruction of this
incredibly holy temple. It's also
an incredibly significant place for
Christianity, because it marks the place
where Jesus was crucified and buried. And
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is
built on those two sites. Inside are a
couple of key things including the Stone
of Anointing where Jesus body was
allegedly anointed before burial, and then
there's the Tomb of Jesus which is over
the cave that he was originally buried.
The third religion that is significant
for Jerusalem is Islam. So for Muslims it
has the third holiest site, the Dome of
the Rock which is built on
what is the mound where Muhammad rose to
heaven.
The third thing you need to know about
Jerusalem is that basically
throughout its entire history has been a
source of conflict and dispute. The city
has been destroyed at least twice, it's
been besieged 23 times and attacked 52
times and captured and recaptured at
least 44 times. In more recent times the
significant events were in 1948 during
the Arab-Israeli war where Jerusalem
was actually divided and East Jerusalem,
which contains the Old City, was occupied
by the Jordanians who held
the Old City right up until
the Six-day War in 1967 when the
Israelis recaptured and took control of
East Jerusalem and the old cit. So this
is still source of conflict. The fourth
thing you need to know about Jerusalem
is that multiple states claim it as
their capital. So both the Israelis, which
have it as their capital currently, and
the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as
their capital. Now the International
community doesn't fully accept
Israeli control of East Jerusalem and so
you'll find there are no international
embassies or consulates here.
However the main operations of the
Israeli government are in Jerusalem. So
the Knesset, which is the Parliament, and the
official residence of the Prime Minister
and the President are all within
Jerusalem. The fifth thing you need to
know about Jerusalem and the old city is that it is
divided into four quarters. The largest
is actually the Muslim sector, which has
between twenty and thirty thousand
people living there. So it's quite
densely inhabited and there are lots of
winding streets and beautiful stores and
markets in the Souk area. The next area
is the Jewish quarter which only has
around about 3,000 people living there.
The Jewish quarter is the most
recent looking of all of the quarters
because during the occupation between
1948 and 1967 it was actually destroyed, and
so has been rebuilt after the Israelis
took control of the old cit. The
Christian quarter also has around about
3,000 people living there. The smallest
quarter is the Armenian Quarter
which only has about
600 people living there. There's very
limited access and in fact the only thing
that you can do as a non Armenian not
living there is go to see the Church
of St James which is only open to
visitors between three o'clock and 3:30.
The fifth thing about Jerusalem
is everywhere you
turn you see iconic and important
historic sites. And that was the thing
that struck me so much as you walk
around it's just incredible because you
keep stumbling across things. Whether it
is the place where Jesus was crucified
where he was buried, the Western Wall or
the Wailing War, the incredible ramparts,
the Tower of David, or the Mount of
Olives which is significant in so many
religions because this is where the Saviour
(depending on your religion) either will
return or arrive for the first time.
Everywhere you look they'll just be
significant sights. Because the old town is
so small, it's only less than a square
mile, these sites are basically on top of
each other and everywhere you go. Now the
last thing to talk about, which is a
thing that I got asked more than
anything, is safety. There is a perception
that it's quite a risky or
dangerous place to go. There are a lot of
visible armed presence around, so whether
that's the army or it's the police or
various guards throughout all the quarters
and all around. Often when you go into
places like
shopping malls or some of attractions,
you will be (if you've got bags) have to put
them through screening. So there's a
very kind of high level of security. I
didn't feel unsafe there. Certainly I
found the old city, which is very busy
with tourists and very strong armed presence,
to feel kind of safe. Though of course the
disconcerted thing is seeing so many
armed people around, which reminds you
of the kind of underlying tensions. Well
I hope you found that interesting,
provocative and helped you better
understand a little bit about the
Jerusalem and the seven things you need
to know. If you've enjoyed this video
please like the video and I'd love it if
you subscribed to the channel too.