Jerusalem: Arab Social Life, Traditions, and Everyday Pleasures

N EXTREMELY VALUABLE GUIDE TO 20TH CENTURY ARAB LIFE IN JERUSALEM. Jerusalem is a city of unique grief, a city that has been the target of conquerors more than twenty times. Yet the city has managed to maintain its Arabic culture and traditions—Islamic, Christian, and Jewish—and has emerged victorious time and time again. But beginning with its partial occupation in 1948, its full occupation in 1967, and continuing through today, the Israeli claim on Jerusalem and the government’s efforts to change its identity, threatens to obliterate the traditional Arab culture of the city. This book is a wonderfully-presented account of Palestinian life in a city that packs more culture and history than anywhere else in the world. It seeks to document and preserve Jerusalem’s Arab customs and traditions: festivals, folk medicine, cuisine, and even the everyday simple pleasures.