ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the violent events that took place in October 1990 and September 2000 at Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, Jerusalem. Rather than conventional analyses that operate on an instrumentalist view of violence, this chapter advances a theoretical and textual analysis to open up a different avenue of inquiry into the violence. The analysis illustrates that violent acts constitute a violent dialogue between the sides – a question/answer exchange in and through violence whereby the sides’ secular-sacred interpretations of Jerusalem are transformed. I argue that this transformation reveals a shared posture – a deep disposition that underpins specific interpretations of Jerusalem and shapes Palestinian and Israeli interpretations as continuously conflictual and as demanding the release of violence.
