There is a place, the American Colony in Jerusalem, that has always been on the front lines of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Born almost 150 years ago in the old house of a pasha, home to a small colony of American Presbyterians, the Colony has always sought to be a place of neutrality, dialogue, and encounter between Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
Francesco Battistini, special correspondent for Corriere della Sera, tells us the story of this extraordinary hotel in his Jerusalem Suite (Neri Pozza, 2024, pp. 432, also e-book). A story made of characters, events, emotions.
It was a sheet from the Colony, used as a white flag, that marked the end of Ottoman rule. Lawrence of Arabia came here to take refuge, Churchill to redraw the Middle East, Selma Lagerlöf to write her Nobel Prize-winning novel, and Mark Twain to rest. In 1948, Arabs and Jewish settlers were shot from these roofs. During the Six-Day and Yom Kippur wars, journalists from all over the world camped in this reception. The Colony is still a small Palestine in occupied Jerusalem, where many Palestinian leaders never set foot, and at the same time a piece of Israel that few Israeli politicians frequent. A land of no man and of all.
These are some of the reasons why Francesco Battistini decided to dedicate a book to this frontline place, as he confirms directly:
«In 2002, the Corriere sent me to cover the Second Intifada. I was coming from Kabul and Jerusalem seemed like a luxury to me. Instead, they immediately killed a photojournalist I was working with and I understood that things were much more complicated. After October 7, many lost the thread of the longest conflict of the last century. It's the same for me: the more I go there, the less I understand it. But you can't understand Gaza or Lebanon if you don't know what happened before. The story of this hotel is a way to tell 140 years of the history of Jerusalem: the return of the Jews, the Palestinian Nakba, the birth of Israel, 21 wars, 52 peace plans, 800 UN resolutions...».
