After over 100 days of silence and deserted, militarized spaces, Palestinian Jerusalemites long for their city back as it was before October 7, 2023—thronging with locals and visitors from around the area and the world; bursting with merchants selling wares of all curious sorts; and full of welcoming spaces creating possibilities of connecting, reflecting, praying, and feeling embraced by a community.
This brief photo essay touches on some of those longed-for qualities and moments that are temporarily erased from the city landscape due to Israel’s ongoing multilayered closure of the Palestinian areas of the city, including their holy sites. As well, the rapid rise of government-distributed military rifles carried by Jewish civilians for “security” reasons has made the city feel like a volatile garrison outpost rather than an ancient world heritage site holy to billions around the world.
In the meantime, these photos offer reminders of what was and what will at some point—hopefully—return.
