Reflections
Between bulldozers and groundbreakings: Where is home(land)?
It's May 26, 2025: Jerusalem Day.
I'm sitting inside a temporary structure built by the Save the ArQ movement in the heart of the Holy Land. We are in the 'Cow's Garden' (or, as the local Armenians call it, 'The Parking'). The air outside is heavy with heat and tension. In a few hours, tens of thousands of Israeli celebrants (many of them settlers) waving blue and white flags will provocatively march through the Old City. The threat of violence hangs over everyone's heads.
Inside, howeve
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Beautiful article. But i wonder why you dont make mention of Palestine at all? After all the armenian community in jerusalem has been part of the palestinian landscape long before the occupation, the struggle is one and the same, and the enemy is one and the same.
Thank you for taking the time to read and share your thoughts. You are absolutely right that the Armenian community in Jerusalem is deeply tied to the wider Palestinian landscape and that our histories and struggles overlap in many ways. Armenians have been part of Jerusalem’s fabric for centuries, long before the current political realities, and the threats to the Quarter cannot be separated from the broader pressures Palestinians face. In this piece, I chose to focus very specifically on the lived reality inside the Armenian Quarter during my visit, what I saw, heard, and felt in that moment, rather than on the full political picture. That was not to downplay or ignore the wider context, but to let one small part of the story speak for itself.