Diary: Divided Jerusalem

By Martin Asser BBC News Online, Jerusalem

Life in West Jerusalem is relatively calm

A day of two halves - the first in West Jerusalem canvassing Israeli views of the current state of the peace process, and the second in East Jerusalem with Palestinians on the receiving end when that process has broken down.

I must say it was a struggle finding Israeli Jews who were keen to talk to the BBC. And most of those who would talk began their responses with robust critiques of our coverage and detailed explanations as to why we were so "biased" against Israel.

Normally, I'm happy to debate such issues and try to explain how our editorial guidelines determine the language we use regarding the conflict (why Palestinian "militants" and not "terrorists", why the references to the "illegality" of Jewish settlements).

But such debates get in the way of the job in hand, which is to record people's analysis of the situation, take their photograph and quickly move on to the next victim.

I found myself telling people again and again that now was their chance - on the BBC's own website - to express their strongly-held views, unadulterated, so the world can hear what they think about the situation.

"Ah, but how can I tell that you will not distort what I have to say," was the typical sceptical response.

Anyway, thank you to those who finally consented to take part and no hard feelings to those that didn't.

But you cannot read the results until I've pounded the streets a bit more and gathered enough responses to put together one of our "pop-up" galleries.

Contrasting viewpoints

One difference between the Israeli and Palestinian experience of this conflict is that for Israeli civilians it's mainly about the sporadic, cataclysmic attacks perpetrated by Palestinian suicide bombers. The last one was less than two blocks away from my hotel exactly one week ago - 20 dead and many more wounded.

For most Palestinians, on the other hand, it's about living under Israeli domination and the daily disruption and degradation that that brings to their lives.

That's why in West Jerusalem today all was calm and people were going about their daily business as if nothing much was the matter.

Abu Dis in East Jerusalem is in turmoil

But in East Jerusalem - to be precise in the suburb of Abu Dis - all was in turmoil.

In the last few days, about half a dozen Israeli bulldozers and diggers have come to cut a swathe through Abu Dis, part of the "security barrier" project that Israel has been implementing - against a chorus of international protest from friend and foe alike.

To make matters worse for the local people, the excavations appear to have a twin purpose - the barrier and preparing the ground for a new Jewish settlement built on an uninhabited (and Jewish-owned) hillside on the edge of Abu Dis.

In contrast to the Israelis I'd met earlier, the Palestinians here remained wedded to the belief that they must do everything they can to get their message of what's happening to the international media in the (perhaps vain) hope that it will make a difference.

It's not an attitude I have found among many of the Palestinian communities I've visited.

Perhaps it's because Abu Dis is a quiet spot, experiencing for the first time what it is like to be a crucible of the Middle East conflict.

Elsewhere a journalist is just as likely to be turned away with the words: "We've told our story so many times to the media, and what good has it done us?"

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