East Jerusalem - Occupied and Colonized

Photos: Salah-A-Din street, a Palestinian neighborhood just outside East Jerusalem's Old City.

East Jerusalem was occupied in 1967 by Israel as it's conquering forces drove east into the West Bank. The old city of East Jerusalem contains the famous "Western Wall," or "Wailing Wall" sacred to religious Jews. However, the architecturally dominating presence is that of the dome of the rock and Al Aqsa
Mosque, sacred to Muslims. Just seeing it is evidence of the indigenous Palestinian and Muslim presence here (Muslim since pretty much the beginning of Islam, Palestinian since virtually forever.... and don't forget, there were Palestinian Jews living here all that time, it's modern Zionism, or the belief in Jewish supremacy in this land, that's the problem, not any sort of ancient religious conflict). Anyway, it's all in one compound, the Western Wall is one side of the Al Aqsa Mosque / Dome of the Rock compound. For photos, just do a quick google image search of these over-photographed places!

In spite of the "controversy" over who owns East Jerusalem, this is a Palestinian city. It's all Palestinian land (though much has now been confiscated for Jewish only neighborhoods), and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live here. The Israelis living here are settlers who moved in after the conquest of '67.

It's that simple: conquest, land grab, just like the wild west.