JERUSALEM (WSVN) – As Israel celebrates 75 years, what are the prospects for peace?
As Jews participated in the Shabbat, Jerusalem was mostly quiet Friday night, but the country still faces historical disputes.
Many people that spoke to 7News are hopeful for the future.
The Shabbat, the day of rest, was marked by hundreds of South Florida visitors. It was just a short walk to the small patch of earth to ancient faiths considered among their holiest.
At the Western Wall, the last piece of the outer wall; the ancient second temple sits in the shadow of Islam’s holiest site, the Dome of the Rock and the 1,000-year-old chaingate minaret in the compound known as Al-Aqsa.
It’s here where Muslims believed Muhammad rose to heaven.
As Israel reaches its 75th anniversary, decades old disputes are still lingering.
Days ago, a Palestinian teen was arrested after police said he targeted and shot two Israelis.
There were two Israeli police raids in April at the Al-Aqsa Mosque where police said they had to root out suspected rioters.
That’s exactly what angers Abas, a Palestinian shopkeeper in Jerusalem.
“It’s not about the peace,” Abas said. “Only all the Jewish in the world cannot go into the site of the mosque. This is the reason for all of this. Only the Jewish go inside to the mosque. It is a lot of problems.”
“The Israeli people overwhelmingly support the Palestinians having a safe, secure, democratic, peace-loving nation of their own,” said Jacob Solomon, president and CEO of the Greater Jewish Federation of Miami.
“Anytime you are talking about an intractable kind of conflict, you have to try and find common ground, common ground is compromise,” said retired Col. Miri Eisen, a political scientist, “and compromise is never easy. It isn’t sexy. It doesn’t feel good.”
As tourists, including the 800-strong mission from the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, walk the narrow streets, it is easy to spot signs of hope; the handshake between a Palestinian shopkeeper and an Israeli translator and the doves that were freed by hopeful visitors from South Florida.
Eisen is an intelligence analyst and a retired colonel from the Israeli Army.
She told 7News that she believes a lot of hope lies within the next generation. She also cites social media as being a divisive tool, which can promote terrorists acts, but can also serve as a way for younger people to connect.
That’s where she believes the real hope might lie.
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