Enrico Molinaro is is founder, organizer, and fundraiser of the non-profit association Mediterranean Perspectives, and Primary Coordinator of international scholarly conferences with the participation of academic, diplomatic, religious and political authorities. He lectures at Luiss University’s Doctoral Program of Political Theory, and at La Sapienza University’s Master Program of International Protection of Human Rights in Rome, Italy. He has also authored the book Negotiating Jerusalem (Passia, 2002).
“A well-researched book that displays profound insight into the unique legal regime of the Status Quo at the Holy Places. Dr. Molinaro is to be congratulated for having written an authoritative and readable account. Courageously, he has not shrunk from rightly setting the question of the Holy Places into their wider context of diplomacy, philosophy, and politics. He has produced an outstanding legal-historical analysis with great relevance for the future of Jerusalem.” Professor Raymond Cohen (Chaim Weizmann Professor of International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Corcoran Visiting Professor of Christian–Jewish Learning, Boston College), author of Saving the Holy Sepulchre. “To forecast peace in the Palestinian territories may seem like a dream, but we, Europeans, are striving in all possible ways to see that dream realized. One of the best ways to do this is to conduct a thorough investigation of the details concerning Jerusalem’s Holy Places, where three religious faiths meet and too often collide. This is what Dr. Enrico Molinaro has done in a really outstanding book full of useful suggestions. This is a book which is strongly recommended for those seeking to fully understand the historical and legal specifics of the situation in and around Jerusalem.” Luigi Ferrari Bravo, Professor of International Law, University of Rome, Former Judge of the International Court of Justice. Throughout history, Jerusalem and its Holy Places have been the objects of fierce religious controversy over worship rights, such as the Holy Sepulchre inter-Christian disputes and the Har Ha Bait/Haram Al Sharif (Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary) Israeli–Jewish/Palestinian-Muslim disputes. This multidisciplinary study offers two competing political ways of interpreting these disputes and the Arab–Israeli conflict in general: the state/national (territorial) perspective focuses on Israelis and Palestinians as the two main groups entitled to possession of and worship in Jerusalem’s Holy Places; the global/transnational perspective, on the other hand, entitles millions of Jews, Christians, Muslims and their respective clergy worldwide to raise claims to the city’s Holy Places as universal symbols of devotion and worship. This work provides international law practitioners and Middle East scholars with a thorough overview of the legal, historical and diplomatic interpretation of the provisions embodied in the international documents adopted in the Middle East Peace Process. In addition to applying the legal notion of international local custom, this study provides three alternative terms to express the three different meanings of sovereignty namely, independence, authority and title. Based on his work’s methodology and conclusions, the author has initiated second track meetings behind closed doors between Israelis and Palestinians, which have resulted in a political–diplomatic data-base. Those seeking a deeper understanding of the intricate legal terminology surrounding Jerusalem will find the main results produced by these meetings to be of particular interest, such as The Guidelines for a Jerusalem Statute, wherein both parties share cultural–religious principles towards building a better coexistence in Jerusalem (Annex III), and The Glossary of historically complex terms such as Status Quo and Holy Places (Annex IV).
