week 8 readings

the first reading i read, "seizing locality in Jerusalem" was not over a topic i would normally consider interesting- yeah, architecture doesnt really whip me into much of a frenzy. but what i DID think was interesting was the fact that the Israeli government was trying to use architecture to unite the city of Jerusalem- i never thought it could be used like that. very interesting application.

in the next group of readings i was kind of disappointed by the poem. not by what it said, but there was nothing really poetic about it to me, just the spacing.

"Jerusalem has and continues to be the center of strife. The stones of Jerusalem's history have been carved in history. Palestine represents a point of intersections wherein numerous civilizations flourished."

thats the first couple lines put into paragraph form... i feel like it could have been in the jacket of Armstrong's book.

the next reading i found interesting because of the idea that Israelis have that they have to be in control of the city in order for it to be kept an "open city". hm. i probably wouldnt consider Jerusalem as an open city, especially bc of the wall that they build splitting it.

in my opinion, the type of wall that the Israelis built is a wall of agression. again, open is not the word i would use to describe.

i hope that when we go to Jerusalem the walls are less of a problem than they seem to me now, that the city is as open as the Israelis like to claim