By Keren Setton
JERUSALEM, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Fifty years after Israel captured East Jerusalem during the 1967 war and gained control over both sides of the city, Jerusalem remains divided as ever.
One of the few exceptions is a small group of Jewish and Arab teenagers that gather on a weekly basis to form Jerusalem's Youth Chorus at the local YMCA.
The sounds coming out of a modest room in Jerusalem's YMCA are a soft harmony easy on the ears and a far cry away from the city's complexities, almost like an escape room.
Teenagers from all over the city, Arabs and Jews, come together once a week and rehearse at Jerusalem's Youth Chorus, a unique group formed by their music director, Micah Hendler.
The group was formed by Hendler in 2012. Since its founding, they have preformed internationally and have recently released an album.
The kids warm up their voices, focusing on getting the sounds on key and the words right. The intricate politics of the city do not seem to enter the room.
"Everything that we do is Jerusalem," Hendler said. "We try to reflect all of the different communities and complexities and tensions and beauty of the city."
In the past two years, there has been an increase in violence between Israelis and Palestinians with Jerusalem at the heart of the conflict.
Jerusalem is the home of holy sites to both Jews and Muslims.
Over 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, many of them in response to attacks on Israelis and others in clashes with Israeli forces. Tens of Israelis have been killed by Palestinian attackers.
Israel's sovereignty over both sides of the city is not recognized by the international community.
Heightened tensions led to further restrictions on Arab residents of the city imposed by Israeli forces. Arab youths are sometimes subject to roadblocks on their way to school, while Jews are not.
In days when tensions ran especially high, the chorus members asked for extra dialogue sessions in addition to rehearsals. The meetings provide a good opportunity to hash things out.
"It's also a conflict resolution space, if something really horrible happens outside, people ... ask for dialogue about it. The whole group process is a gradual process of ... narrowing those gaps and creating a community," explained Hendler.
For many of the participants, it is their first direct contact with the other side of the conflict. Aside from one mixed school in the city, Jews and Arabs children do not frequently interact.
They hear about each other on the news, usually reporting violent events, further cementing stereotypes and barriers.
Rohan Mehta is an 8th grader who attends a school in West Jerusalem, a predominantly Jewish area.
The chorus provided him with a peak at the life for other residents of the same city.
"I learned that being an Arab in Jerusalem is much harder than being Jewish, which is a thing that I didn't know before. I didn't think it's easy, but I didn't hear the stories that are telling me how much it's hard," said Mehta with his big brown eyes conveying the naivete appropriate for a child at his age.
This is the embodiment of Hendler's vision.
"It offers a chance to really meet other people ... and see their world through their eyes," he said optimistically.
Jude Alsarie is a 14-year-old perky girl from the Arab Shuafat neighborhood in the city. She smiled confidently as she spoke about the divisions in Jerusalem.
"The reality is that we're segregated," said Alsarie.
But there is no segregation in the choir room. Hours after the rehearsal, they were scheduled to attend an iftar meal, breaking the fasting of Ramadan. For some of the Jewish members of the chorus, this would probably be their first time attending such an event.
Such gatherings have the potential of promoting peaceful co-existence in the fragmented city.
"We should ... overlook stereotypes and overcome irrational fears of other people because of differences," Alsarie said. "I'd like to educate more people about it."
As the chorus members continue to practice, their song rises above any animosity that is often felt in the city.
The differences between East and West Jerusalem are very evident to the naked eye.
The neglect by authorities which is prevalent in the Arab East is not seen in the western part of Jerusalem.
As much as the Israeli government tries to portray the city as united, it is not.
But for a few hours a week, the rehearsal room at the YMCA depicts a different Jerusalem.
"We can represent what this city could be. We could be an example ... for what the city could look like if people had the chance to interact as equals," Hendler said and turned to resume the rehearsal.
