Jerusalem

For the song Jerusalem see And did those feet in ancient time.

Jerusalem (Hebrew: Yerushalayim; Arabic: al-Quds, Urushalim) is the capital city of the state of Israel. This status is not fully recognized by most countries, and most diplomatic missions are maintained in Tel Aviv. The city displays a magnificent contrast between ancient and modern and has a multicultural, multi-ethnic population. The ancient city is surrounded by walls and has four quarters: Jewish, Christian, Armenian, and Muslim. Jerusalem is a key city in the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Current status

In 1981 the Israeli parliament (Knesset) ratified The Law of Jerusalem, which annexed East Jerusalem to Israel and declared it Israel's eternal capital. The Israeli annexation has not been generally recognized by the international community; therefore most countries keep their diplomatic missions to Israel in Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem. The UN Security Council, in Resolution 478, declared the Israeli annexation of Jerusalem to be 'null and void and must be rescinded forthwith'.

The status of Palestinians in East Jersualem is an ongoing controversy. The Israeli government argues it has a generous policy, while Palestinians are sharply critical.

Unless they ask for Israeli citizenship (which is granted in most cases), the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have status as permanent residents. If they move out of the city, that status is lost and they cannot return. Jews immigrating to Israel may acquire Israeli citizenship without revoking earlier citizenship. However, Palestinians in East Jersualem are not allowed to hold dual citizenship, and most Palestinians wish to keep their Jordanian or other passports. Also, acquiring Israeli passports implies accepting the annexation. This and other aspects has been a source of criticism from Palestinians and Israeli human rights organizations, such as B'Tselem.

Another aspect is the status of family members not recorded in the census preceding the Israeli annexation of East Jersualem. They must apply for entry into East Jersualem for family reunification with the Ministry of the Interior. Palestinians complain that such applications have been arbitrarily denied for purposes of limiting the Palestinians population in East Jersualem, while Israeli authorities claim they treat Palestinians fairly.

In 1988, Jordan withdrew all its claims to West Bank (including Jerusalem), leaving Israel as the only state with legal claims to Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the city was claimed by the Palestinian Authority as the capital of their future state.

The proposal that Jerusalem should be a city under international administration is still made at times (among others, it is the proposal favoured by the Pope). Most negotiations regarding the future status of Jerusalem have however been based on partition; for example, one scheme would have Israel keep the Jewish quarter and the Western Wall (the "Wailing Wall"), with the rest of the Old City and the Temple Mount being transferred to a new Palestinian state. Most Israelis are opposed to any division of Jerusalem, based on cultural, historic, and religious grounds. Palestinians have argued for an open city, though its feasability has been challenged.

History

Antiquity

This city has known many wars and various periods of occupation. At one time it was the capital of the Jebusites. The Bible records that King David defeated the Jebusites in war and captured the city, making it the capital city of the Kingdom of Judah. the spiritual significance of this city's location goes even farther back to Abraham, in the book of Genesis, where God commanded him to sacrifice his son on Mount Moriah, where as tradition tells us Jerusalem was built. Other traditions identify the city with Salem, who priest king, Melchizedek, befriended Abraham.

Later, the First Jewish Temple was built in Jerusalem by King Solomon. The Temple became a major cultic center in the region, eventually overcoming other ritual centers such as Shilo and Bethel. By the end of the "First Temple Period", Jerusalem was the sole acting religious shrine in the kingdom and a center of regular pilgrimage. It was at this time that historical records begin to corroborate the biblical history, and the kings of Judah are historically identifiable.

Jerusalem was the capital of the Kingdom of Judah for some 400 years. It had survived (or, as some historians claim, averted) an Assyrian siege in 701 BC, unlike Samaria, the capital of the Kingdom of Israel, which had fallen in 722 BC. However, the city was overcome by the Babylonians in 598 BC, who then took the young king Jehoiachin into eternal captivity, together with most of the aristocracy of that time. However, the country rebelled again under Zedekiah, prompting the city's repeated conquest and destruction by Nebuchadrezzar. The temple was burnt, and the city's walls were ruined, thus rendering what remained of the city unprotected.

After several decades of captivity, the Jews returned to Judah and rebuilt the city's walls and the Temple. It has continued to be the capital of Judah, as a province under the Persians, Greek and Romans. However the city was ruined yet again when a civil war accompanied by a revolt against Rome in Judah led to the city's repeated sack and ruin, by the hands of Titus at 70 AD. The Second Jewish Temple was burnt, and the whole city was ruined. The only remaining part of the Temple was a an external wall, that became known as the [[Wailing Wall].

First millennium

Sixty years later, the Roman emperor Hadrian ordered the city to be resettled, under the name Aelia Capitolina. Jews were forbidden to enter the city, but for a single day of the year, The Ninth of Av (see Hebrew calendar), when they could weep for the destruction of their city at the Temple's only remaining wall. The Byzantine Empire, which came to control the region in after the split of the Roman Empire, cherished the city for its Christian history. However, in accordance with traditions of religious tolerance often found in the ancient East, Jews were allowed into it in the 5th century A.D.

Although the Koran never mentions the name "Jerusalem", Islamic tradition holds it that it was from Jerusalem that Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven to receive the Koran. The city was one of the Arabic empire's first conquests in 638 A.D. Sixty years later, the Dome of the Rock was built, a structure in which there lies a stone, from which as tradition says Muhammad rose up. Note that the octagonal and gold-sheeted Dome is not the same thing as the Al-Aqsa mosque beside it, which was built more than three centuries later.

Second millennium

The early Arab period was also one of religious tolerance. However, in early 11th century, Halif al-Hakim ordered the destruction of all churches and synagogues in Jerusalem. The Crusades, which began at the end of the century, recaptured Jerusalem, and made it the center of a feodal state, of which the King of Jerusalem was the chief. Neither Jews nor Muslims were allowed into the city during that time. In 1187, Jerusalem is retaken by Salah ad-Din, who permits worship of all religions.

In 1244, Sultan Malik al-Muattam razes the city walls, rendering it again defenseless and making a heavy blow to the city's status. In the middle of the 13th century, Jerusalem was captured by the Egyptian Mameluks. In 1517, it was taken over by the Ottoman Empire and enjoyed a period of renewal - including the rebuilding of magnificient walls of what is now known as the Old City (however, some of the wall foundations are remains of genuine antique walls). The city remained open to all religions, although the empire's faulty management meant slow economical stagnation.

19th century

The modern history of Jerusalem began in the mid-nineteenth century, with the decline of the Ottoman Empire. At that time, the city was a backwater, with a population that did not exceed 8,000. Nevertheless, it was, even then, an extremely heterogeneous city because of its significance to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The population was divided into four major communities--Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Armenian--and the first three of these could be further divided into countless subgroups, based on precise religious affiliation or country of origin. An example of this would be the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was meticulously partitioned between the Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian, Coptic, and Ethiopian churches. Tensions between the groups ran so deep that the keys to the shrine were kept with a 'neutral' Muslim family for safekeeping.

At that time, the communities were located mainly around their primary shrines. The Muslim community, then the largest, surrounded the Haram ash-Sharif or Temple Mount (northeast), the Christians lived mainly in the vicinity of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (northwest), the Jews lived mostly on the slope above the the Western Wall(southeast), and the Armenians lived near the Zion Gate (southwest). In no way was this division exclusive, however, it did form the basis of the four quarters during the British Mandate period (1917-1948).

Several changes occurred in the mid-nineteenth century, which had long-lasting effects on the city: their implications can be felt today and lie at the root of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over Jerusalem. The first of these was a trickle of Jewish immigrants, from the Middle East and Eastern Europe, which shifted the balance of population. The first such immigrants were ultra-Orthodox Jews: some were elderly individuals, who came to die in Jerusalem and be buried on the Mount of Olives, others were students, who came with their families to await the coming of the Messiah, and adding new life to the local population. At the same time, European colonial powers also began seeking toeholds in the city, hoping to expand their influence their with the imminent collapse of the Ottoman Empire. This was also an age of Christian religious revival, and many churches sent missionaries to proselytize among the Muslim and especially the Jewish populations, believing that this would speed the Second Coming of Christ. Finally, the combination of European colonialism and religious zeal was expressed in a new scientific interest in the biblical lands in general and Jerusalem in particular. Archeological and other expeditions made some spectacular finds, which increased interest in Jerusalem even more.

By the 1860s, the city, with an area of only 1 square kilometer, was already overcrowded. Seeking new areas to stake their claims, the Russian Orthodox Church began constructing a complex, now known as the Russian Compound, a few hundred meters from Jaffa Gate. The first attempt at residential settlement outside the walls of Jerusalem was begun by Jews, who built a small complex on the hill overlooking Zion Gate, across the Valley of Hinnom. This settlement, known as Mishkenot Shaananim, eventually flourished and set the precedent for other new communities to spring up to the west and north of the Old City. In time, as the communities grew and connected geographically, this became known as the New City.

By the time General Allenby took Jerusalem from the Ottomans in 1917, the new city was a patchwork of neighborhoods and communities, each with a distinct ethnic character. This continued under British rule, as the neighorhoods flourished and the Old City of Jerusalem gradually emerged as little more than an impoverished older neighborhood.

Jerusalem and the Arab-Israeli conflict

The United Nations proposed, in its 1947 plan for the partition of Palestine, for Jerusalem to be a city under international administration. See [1].

Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when a Palestinian-Arab state failed to materialize, and the nascent state of Israel was invaded by Egypt and Jordan, Jerusalem was divided. The Western half became part of the new state of Israel, while and the eastern one was annexed by Jordan. Jordan did not allow Jewish access to the Wailing Wall, causing no end of grief to Jews world-wide. However, Christian access was allowed.

East Jerusalem was captured by the Israelis in the Six-Day War of 1967. Under Israel, members of all religions were granted access to their holy sites.

See also:

External link

Palestinian position on Jerusalem