PAUL MILLER: The future of the city of Jerusalem -- home to all three women -- is perhaps the most difficult and emotional issue facing Israel and the Palestinians. The city was split in half in the War of 1948, then united when the Israelis captured East Jerusalem in 1967. Israel is determined to keep the city as its capitol, united and under its control. The Palestinians want a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capitol. The 1993 Oslo Accords put off Jerusalem and other difficult issues until a final agreement. Now the entire peace process has stalled and may be dying.
MICHAL SHOHAT (Jewish Resident): If we're not going to do it now, I think it's not to happen in my lifetime.MILLER: Michal Shohat is Jewish and a member of the Jerusalem City Council; Claudette Habesch runs the Jerusalem office of Keratas, the Catholic aid agency; Nahla Asali is a Muslim and a professor at Berzeit University in the West Bank. The women are campaigning in the United States for quick progress on peace talks, and suggesting that even the question of sovereignty over East Jerusalem can eventually be resolved.
CLAUDETTE HABESCH (Christian Resident): If Israel chooses that Jerusalem is the capitol of Israel, I have no problem with this, but also, the Palestinians should be also given the right to choose what they want, and they have said this clearly and loudly: "We want East Jerusalem to be the capitol of our state."
Ms. SHOHAT: I don't go to prayer in the Old City, I don't go to synagogue, but I understand the meaning of Jerusalem for the Jews and for the Muslims and the Christians. I understand it. Maybe the Old City has to be a religious city like the Vatican.
NAHLA ASALI (Muslim Resident): I just love it. Every time I go to the Old City, I enter from a different gate just to see how it feels, you know, to walk in the old streets of Jerusalem. It's my hometown. I was born there, I was raised there, I had my school there and got married there, and my children are there, so it's home.
