Jerusalem--A Most Sacred City: Battered and Torn for Centuries
An older painting of Jerusalem underscores the complexities of Jerusalem–the Dome of the Rock, a key Islamic monument and, at its foot, the Jewish Wailing Wall
By John Mason/Arab America Contributing Writer
Jerusalem is a city that regional powers in the Middle East have fought over for millennia. It is strategically located in the mountains, wedged between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean. Jerusalem’s history is one of the successive powers fighting over the place, first just for the land itself, then for its sacred value. It happens to be considered sacred land by Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Most recently, the Israelis have established their capital there, with the full blessing of the U.S. President, although all Palestinians consider the city to be their capital. This piece helps to sort out the history of Jerusalem and its sense of importance to the three Abrahamic faiths that wish it to be theirs.
History of the Rule of Jerusalem beginning with the Israelite Conquest. Around 1400 BCE through the 1948 AD Establishment of the State of Israel
A Brief History of Jerusalem
Following the initial Israelite occupation of Jerusalem around 1,400 BCE, several Middle Eastern and nearby regional powers successively occupied the city. These include the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines. Beginning in the 7th century A.D., almost continuously through the early 20th century some element of Muslim control of Jerusalem was in effect. The exception was the Second Crusader Kingdom during which Christians reigned over the city for almost a century (1099-1187). The first of the Muslims were the early Arab empires of the Umayyad (Damascus-based and Abbasid (Baghdad-based), followed by a dynasty of North African-based Fatimids, who took Muslim rule up to the Crusader period.
The heroic figure of Saladin, A Kurdish warrior fighting under the banner of Islam, took Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. He permitted Jews and Muslims to resettle in the city, while west European Crusader Christians were expelled. Eastern Christians, however, were allowed to remain. This was a period during which the growth of Jerusalem flourished.
Muslims continued ruling Jerusalem under the Mamluks, a military class from Egypt made up of initially enslaved Turkic and east European soldiers. They were followed by the Ottoman Turks, who ruled most of the period from 1517-1917. The population in 1840 was estimated to be about 16,000, of whom 7,000 were Jews, 5,000 Muslims, and 4,000 Christians. The Ottomans tolerated Christians and Jews, though members of both religions were taxed for their special status as non-Muslims.
Saladin took Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187–His rule was tolerant of Jews and Eastern Christians
Modern History of the City
Once the Ottomans were defeated during World War I, the British Mandate period began in 1917. Just one year prior to that a secret arrangement was entered into by Britain and France. Called the Sykes-Picot Agreement, it divided most of the old Ottoman empire among those two European powers. It placed the part of Mandate Palestine encompassing Jerusalem in limbo, dependent on a future international administration, including an Arab Muslim representative, to determine its fate.
The 1947 United Nations (UN) presented the Partition Plan for Palestine, which included consideration of the status of Jerusalem, such a plan evaporated when Israel forcefully declared its control of the land in 1948. The British withdrew, and war erupted between Arabs and Israelis. Under the Partition Plan, Jerusalem would be neither part of a Jewish state nor an Arab state, but rather it would become an international city. Instead, Israel took control of what is now West Jerusalem and major pieces of what was supposed to be part of the Arab state. Jordan took East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Israel then declared Jerusalem capital of its state and a few years later Jordan annexed East Jerusalem, which included the major Christian, Muslim and Christian holy sites.
Following its victory in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Israel reunified Jerusalem, reversing the control of holy sites from Jordan to itself. While the Israeli government did not use the term “annexation,” that’s exactly what it was seen as in the eyes of much of the world. UN resolution 194 had foreseen Jerusalem as an international city. Additionally, Israel assumed control of much of Jerusalem itself and the West Bank.
Modern-day Jerusalem–much of the world believes it should be an international city equally representing the three Abrahamic faiths, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Most of the world believes that the annexation violates international law. Along with Israeli occupation of the West Bank, disagreement over the status of Jerusalem has fueled Israeli-Palestinian relations for many decades.
Recent Status
In the year 2000, the Clinton administration came close to mediating a full peace accord between Israel and the PA. It unraveled mostly over the issue of Jerusalem. Held at Camp David in the Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains, the peace discussion between Israel’s Ehud Barak and PA Yasser Arafat failed for two reasons: (1) Arafat refused to give up the Palestinian demand for the right of return to lands they were forced out from in 1948 and (2) Arab East Jerusalem would remain under Israeli sovereignty.
Camp David, Maryland Peace Negotiations in 2,000–Israel’s Ehud Barak (l.), U.S. President Clinton, and Palestinian Yasser Arafat share a light moment–however, it didn’t last.
The Clinton and Israeli view of this is that Arafat gave up his one big chance to save the peace accord. From Arafat’s perspective, however, he would be giving up control of Jerusalem, including its holy sites of al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, both located on the Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif. Al-Aqsa is where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven, while the Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site. It lies above the Western Wall and contains Judaism’s ancient temples. Because these sites are contiguous, they have been the center of severe interfaith tensions.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed to be the site where Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead, is also located in the area of the Temple of the Mount. It, too, has become embroiled in the battle over access and control of Jerusalem’s sacred sites.
Palestinian President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in a more positive moment–that is no longer in the cards
The present Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu, has stated that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of the State of Israel and various UN resolutions have gone back and forth over the years as to whether the city should be the capital of Israel or a unified city representing both Israel and a Palestinian state.
Once the U.S. President decided to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2017, as a message of support to Israel, the UN called for its members to remove their official representatives from the city, relocating them to Tel Aviv. At present only two embassies remain in Jerusalem, the U.S., and Guatemala.
Future Status
While most world opinion supports the right of the Palestinians to have East Jerusalem as their capital and to be able to control its holy sites, the realpolitik of the situation is presented otherwise. Given U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, without distinguishing the PA’s (Palestine Authority) right to its capital in East Jerusalem, the waters have become muddied and further complicated the prospect for peace. Furthermore, such a possibility for a larger peace accord between Israel and the PA has greatly diminished under present U.S. and Israeli leadership.
One element of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations over the past several decades that has been sorely missing is an absence of Jewish and Muslim religious leaders from the conversation. In contrast to treating Jerusalem only from a political perspective, negotiations over it have failed to account for the full impact of critical religious considerations. Had religious sanctity been given a seat next to political sanctity in resolving the Jerusalem problem, a much better outcome for peace might have emerged. Perhaps during another time, it still could.
(Selected References: Yisrael Shalem, 2007; Walid Khalidi, 1996; John Esposito, 2002; Leslie Hoppe, 2000; William Smith, 2017)
John Mason, an anthropologist specializing in Arab culture and its diverse populations, is the author of recently-published LEFT-HANDED IN AN ISLAMIC WORLD: An Anthropologist’s Journey into the Middle East, 2017, New Academia Publishing.