Izrael mezi třemi kontinenty / Israel on the Crossroads of Three Continents – Böhnisch Robin (2019)

When on June 7, 1967, units of the Israel Defense Forces occupied East Jerusalem and its Old City, which had been under Jordanian control, Naomi Shemer revised her song "Jerusalem of Gold," which was only a few weeks old at the time. The piece, celebrating the beauty of the city in the heart of the Judean mountains, instantly became the second, unofficial anthem of the Jewish state and spread around the world. Just three days after the unification of the divided city, Czechoslovakia severed diplomatic relations with Israel, and the song about the city of gold and copper, where the mountain air carries the scent of pines, could only be heard by Czechs and Slovaks on banned radio stations. The good relations of Masaryk's republic with the Zionist movement and the time when post-war Czechoslovakia played a key role in the establishment of the State of Israel were resumed by the federal government only in February 1990, when its then Foreign Minister Jiří Dienstbier welcomed Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Arens in Prague. Since then, not only the seven gates of Jerusalem's Old City have been open to Czech and Slovak travelers, but the entire State of Israel in its astonishing diversity and beauty as well. After the successful book Armenia – Land of Mountains, Monasteries, and Wine, Robin Böhnisch is releasing his next generous pictorial publication. In preparing it, he drew on...