Managing Contested Holy Sites
Keyword: 
Holy Sites
Jerusalem
Arab-Israeli conflict
negotiations
governance
ethno-nationalism
religion
Abstract: 

Holy sites in cities present particular difficulties for negotiators seeking compromise and consent. All cities are sites of contestation and occupied cities, where the legitimacy of the occupation is repudiated by a significant part of the population, have special dynamics. Nowhere is this more clearly manifested than in the city of Jerusalem. In occupied Jerusalem, negotiations over the governance of the holy sites of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity involve many more parties than just the Palestinians and Israelis. In this review, Michael Dumper examines the authors’ aim of establishing both a typology and a policy toolbox for managing conflict over these holy sites.

Author biography: 

Michael Dumper, professor emeritus at Exeter University, is author of several works on Jerusalem including Jerusalem Unbound: Geography, History and the Future of the Holy City (Columbia University Press, 2014). His latest book is Power, Piety, and People: Holy Cities in the Twenty-first Century (Columbia University Press, 2020).