While visiting a friend in the southern Jerusalem Jewish neighborhood of Har Homa, I was taken aback by this stunning view around sunset.
Looking east toward the Dead Sea, you can see the artificial hill at the right of the photo in the distance beyond the Arab villages. That was King Herod’s secret palace that he could flee to if the city of Jerusalem was taken seige.
Herodion- the excavated palace from above (credit – wkipedia)
Today, the hill is called Herodion and is a popular tourist site.
After the Six Day War in 1967 when the city of Jerusalem was re-united a master plan was developed to ensure that the city would never be divided into Jewish West Jerusalem and Arab East Jerusalem ever again.
A ring of Jewish neighborhoods were planned to surround the Arab neighborhoods that were previously on the other side of the Jordanian border.
In the north, Maalot Daphna, Givat HaMivtar, Neve Yaakov and French Hill were built. To the east, Maalei Adumim. In the south Gilo and Har Homa which was last to be built.
This ensured that there was no contiguous Arab land link from the territories and Jerusalem so that the city could not be divided into Jewish and Arab sectors ever again.
0 Comments