By Nate Feldman
Summary: On day 4 of their journey, Aziz and Maoz are joined by a Rabbi from the United States and a local Palestinian shopkeeper as they tour the Old City of Jerusalem together.
They visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where it is believed that Jesus was crucified and talk about how different Christian sects own different sections of the church.
Maoz talks about The Abraham Hostel in Jerusalem, a place he ran for visitors of different backgrounds to spend time together and get to know one another.
Comments: As I am getting deeper into this book, one thing I am starting to feel is that the voices Maoz and Aziz talk to during their journey is limited. By this, while they are talking to both Palestinians and Israelis, they are only getting certain individuals with a specific perspective of the conflict. All the Israelis or Jewish Americans have very liberal views, which are critical of Israel's actions. The Palestinian narratives seem quite mainstream. Perhaps more nationalistic Israelis wouldn't engage with them. And it could be argued that Palestinians willing to work with Israelis and Jews of any kind aren't so mainstream. This is not their fault. But, if the goal is to hear many voices of the Holy Land, I feel they are falling short of that.
Furthermore, I believe they are missing the voices of lesser heard communities. While in the Old City of Jerusalem, they mention an Armenian Quarter exists, but there is no mention how they feel about the current state of affairs. Also, they mention Palestinian suffering a lot. Other than Maoz, there is hardly any meetings with Israelis who suffered violence from Palestinians, or Jews who came to Israel because of mistreatment in Arab countries.
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