Question: is a Jerusalem 2032 Olympic bid feasible? What would be necessary to bring such an event about, and what might the implications of it be? I was thinking about this last night, and it seems to me a very interesting proposition. As we all know, this year saw a ‘Golden Summer of Sport’ for Britain – a summer which will not soon be forgotten. Accuse me of sounding like a tourism ad or a cheerleader for Boris if you must, but I really think London and the United Kingdom in general did itself proud this year: we came together, got the job done and put on a hell of a show.

Now it’s over it’s time to think about other things. If London benefited so much from hosting the Olympics, where now might it be good to see the Olympic party go? Such an event can be a massive boost, not just in terms of sport but socially and culturally as well. London is a peaceful first-world city; politics and economics aside, we are not that hard up. It occurs to me that the Olympics can be a tremendous force for good, as it brings the entire world’s attention on one city for four or five weeks. Thus, instead of awarding the Olympics to a flourishing city like London, wouldn’t it be great if the international Olympic Committee directed the world’s attention to a city that needed it, like Jerusalem, or Nicosia in Cyprus? Would the boost London received, primarily to both it’s economy and reputation, not also translate into a force for reconciliation?

What, then, would be necessary to bring such an event about, and what might the implications of it be? Leaving aside the obvious fact that Jerusalem is tiny compared to a city like London, and, as was pointed out to me by Sandy on Facebook, ”it needs to expand quite a lot to put all the stadia in”, what would have to happen before Jerusalem hosts the Olympics. Now, I am no middle east politics expert, and nor do I like being a pessimist, but the answer must surely be a hell of a lot.

Of course, one of the first steps down that road would surely be to grant Palestine statehood, but therein lies the first problem. Whose capital, and thus whose Olympics, would Jerusalem be – Israel’s or Palestine’s? This also gives rise to a chicken-and-egg type paradox: the point of holding an Olympics in Jerusalem would be to encourage peace, but peace would surely have to be a prerequisite before the IOC even considers awarding Jerusalem an Olympics. The IOC must therefore show bravery: any such award right now would be extremely problematic, if not downright dangerous. Yet by awarding Jerusalem the Olympic games they might supply the peace process with the very impetus it needs: it would be a supreme act of faith. Moreover, if palestine is indeed it’s own state by then, why couldn’t the games be jointly hosted by both countries, independent yet united.

The situation is very complex, and I can’t pretend to understand it, but I do sympathise with this piece of creative writing concerning how such a games might come about in twenty years: ” The co-lighting of the flame is thought to be a compromise: Palestine initially wanted to include its dead in the commemoration, while Israel refused to equate the athletes with their killers. The proposed arrangement will acknowledge the slain athletes as individuals and Olympians, and the joint lighting of the flame will symbolize both the tragedy of the event as well as the possibility of reconciliation.” It was this article which proposed the year 2032 – sixty years since the tragedy of Munich. If any human activity is capable of reconciling such a divided people, it is art and sport – the two things which the Olympics seems to fuse perfectly. As we saw this summer, both art and sport, when use in the right way, can be a tremendous force for good. Sporting events, like the Olympics, are capable of bringing people together in a way few other occasions can. Call me a hopeless romantic, an optimist, or utterly unrealistic if you must, but surely this must be worth a try.