The city of Jerusalem was founded during the second millennium B.C.,
and the construction of the first Jewish temple in about 1000 B.C.
established it as a holy city. Since that time, Jews have regarded it
as their political, religious and spiritual capital although they have
not always held control. In 586 B.C., the Babylonians conquered
Jerusalem, sent the Jews into exile and destroyed their temple, but a
few decades later, the Jews were able to return and rebuild a second
temple. In the centuries that followed, Greeks, Egyptians, Syrians and
Romans controlled Jerusalem, with a period of Jewish rule around the
turn of the millennium. The Jewish population grew in strength and
maintained freedom of religious practice in Jerusalem until about 70
A.D., when the Romans destroyed the city and the temple, which was
never rebuilt.
The years preceding the destruction of the second temple marked one of
the most influential events in world history: the birth, ministry and
death of Jesus of Nazareth. A Jewish teacher who advocated reform
within Judaism, Jesus was regarded by many as a prophet and was
ultimately executed in Jerusalem. His teaching, and the circumstances
of his life and death, subsequently spawned the world?s largest
religion, Christianity. The formation of Christianity would have great
effect on the rule of Jerusalem, for in the early 4th century
Constantine became emperor of the Roman Empire and converted to
Christianity. Whereas under pagan Roman rule Christians (as well as
Jews) in Jerusalem had been persecuted, Constantine issued an edict
granting religious freedom to all Christians in his domain, and
Christianity ultimately became the official religion of the Roman
Empire. With Constantine?s changes came a tremendous surge of
Christian building activity in Jerusalem. Churches were erected to
memorialize events in the life and death of Jesus. Within
Christian-dominated Jerusalem, however, there was little tolerance for
the Jewish faith.
In the early 7th century, the prophet Muhammad Ibn Abdallah inspired
what was to become the world?s second-largest faith, Islam. Muhammad?s
teaching, which began in Arabia, spread throughout the Middle East at
a phenomenal rate. In 638, Muslims captured Jerusalem and began a
450-year rule. Islam arguably had a greater effect on Jerusalem than
Christianity. Jerusalem?s Christian rulers had abandoned the area of
the Jewish temple, whose destruction they saw as proof of God?s
abandonment of Judaism and establishment of a new covenant under
Christianity. The Muslims, however, recognized the sacred nature of
the place and began erecting mosques and monuments, including the Dome
of the Rock, the first great Muslim shrine. Furthermore, under Muslim
rule, Jews were once again permitted to live in the city and to
establish places of worship at its holy sites, and Christians were
also granted religious freedom.
Jews and Christians, however, were not legally considered equals of
Muslims, and the co-existence of the three religions of Abraham was
not always easy. At various times members of each group suffered
persecution and the destruction of their places of worship. In 1071,
Jerusalem came under Turkish control, and the destruction of the city
and persecution of Christians prompted the Pope to call for a holy war
for the control of Jerusalem. Less than 30 years later, Christian
Crusaders had taken control of Jerusalem and slaughtered the city?s
Muslims and Jews, but their reign was short lived, and Muslims retook
the city in 1187. In 1517, the Turks conquered Jerusalem, which
remained a part of the Ottoman Empire for 400 years. In this era were
mixed periods of friendly and ill relations among the three religions,
but sectarian strife increased, especially during the 19th century.
After World War I, the British gained control of Palestine, including
Jerusalem, and endorsed the idea of a national home for the Jews. This
idea had developed toward the end of the 19th century, when European
Jews began establishing colonies amid Palestine?s Arab and Muslim
communities, and the Jewish population grew to become the majority in
Jerusalem. After World War II, the catastrophe of the Holocaust
increased international sympathy for the Jewish cause. In 1947, the
United Nations resolved to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish
states, with Jerusalem designated as an international city. Bordering
Arab nations resisted the establishment of Israel as an independent
state and a war for Israel?s independence broke out in 1948.
Following the 1948 war and the British departure from Palestine, an
armistice agreement between Israel and Jordan divided Jerusalem
between the two countries, in defiance of the U.N. partition
resolution on Palestine (Resolution 181) and the international
community. With Jordan in control of East Jerusalem?where sacred sites
including the Temple Mount are located?Jews were denied access to
their holy sites and Christians were subject to restrictions as well.
In 1967, Israel seized the remainder of Jerusalem but restored access
to sacred sites for all religions. In the decades that followed,
Palestinian Arabs, most of whom are Muslim, have struggled to achieve
their own statehood, which some feel should include all or part of
Jerusalem, especially the sacred sites that crown the Temple Mount?the
Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque.
History of Religious Belief in Jerusalem
Judaism was the world?s first monotheistic religion. In a world in
which cultures revered different gods for different attributes or
powers, the notion of one all-encompassing God was revolutionary. In
addition, this single omnipotent God was loving, just and merciful,
unlike the pagan gods of the time, who often behaved no better than
humans. The Jews believed they had been specially chosen by God to
receive his guidance and be an example of his power in the world. The
first five books of the Bible, called the Torah, tell the story of the
birth of Judaism and the Jewish people including Abraham, the father
of the faith, and Moses, through whom God gave his people a set of
rules to live by, which include the Ten Commandments.
For Jews, Jerusalem was the foundation and center of the world, and
the place of God?s abode on Earth. The temple in Jerusalem was central
to their faith and practice. It was believed to be the site of the
altar where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac as an act of
obedience to God; it housed the Ark of the Covenant, where the stone
tablets of the Ten Commandments were held; and its inner sanctum was
the earthly home of the divine presence of God. After the destruction
of the temple, the practice of Judaism was no longer dependent on the
temple and it became a faith that could be practiced anywhere in the
world; however, the hope of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem remains
a key element of Jewish belief.
Because Judaism is the parent faith of Christianity, Christians also
believe in one God?the God of Abraham?and the history contained in the
Jewish Bible, which became the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.
The faith was founded by Jesus? followers, who believed he was the son
of God and that his life and death were the fulfillment of prophecies
from the Old Testament. Christians believe that after Jesus?
crucifixion and burial in Jerusalem, he rose from the dead, evidence
of his divine nature. The faith is centered on the teachings of Jesus
and of the Christian churches that developed after his death.
Christians revere Jerusalem both because it is the place of Jesus?
death and resurrection and because of its importance to the Jews,
their spiritual predecessors. Some also hope for the rebuilding of the
Jewish temple, as they believe it will hasten the return, or ?second
coming,? of Jesus.
Islam, like Judaism and Christianity, is based upon the belief in one
God who is just and merciful. The faith was founded on the teachings
of Muhammad, who for 22 years, beginning in 610 A.D., received
revelations believed to be from God. His followers compiled these
revelations in the Muslim holy book, the Qu?ran. Muhammad taught that
Allah (God) was the same as the God of the Jews and Christians.
Muslims believe that their faith has always existed, that it was
gradually revealed through earlier prophets?including Abraham, Moses
and Jesus?and was fully made known through Muhammad, the final
prophet. Islam means ?submission to Allah,? which is the basic tenet
of the faith. Muhammad advocated a return to the original religion of
Abraham, who lived before the Torah or the gospel and thus practiced a
faith dedicated to God alone rather than creed. In the first century
of Islam, Jerusalem was regarded as one of the most sacred places on
Earth. Today it is Islam?s third-holiest city after Mecca, where
Muhammad received his first revelations and founded the faith, and
Medina, the site of the first Muslim community as well as Muhammad?s
tomb, in Saudi Arabia.
Jerusalem?s Sacred Sites
The Temple Mount is an enclosed platform at the top of Mount Moriah in
East Jerusalem. It is regarded as the location of the first and second
temples and is the center of Jewish sacred history. The Western Wall
of the Temple Mount, the only remaining portion of the temple, is the
most sacred Jewish site in existence today. The faithful come to pray
at the massive wall of white stones, 534 yards long and 60 yards high.
Often prayers are written on small slips of paper and inserted in the
cracks between the stones. Another important site is the cemetery on
the Mount of Olives, the largest Jewish cemetery in Israel, and for
Jews, the holiest one in the world.
The Temple Mount, known in Arabic as Haram as-Sharif or the Noble
Sanctuary, is also the sacred center of Islamic Jerusalem. The 35-acre
plaza contains two ancient mosques, the Dome of the Rock and the Al
Aqsa mosque. The Dome of the Rock, built in the late 7th century,
enshrines a large stone from which Muslims believe the prophet
Mohammed ascended in a night journey to heaven, where he encountered
the earlier prophets. Because Muslims trace their roots back to
Abraham, they also revere the rock as the place Abraham offered to
sacrifice his son and as the site of the Jewish temple?s innermost
shrine (the Holy of Holies), the home of God?s divine presence on
Earth.
Christian sacred sites in Jerusalem are locations associated with the
life and death of Jesus. Most important among these is the Church of
the Holy Sepulcher, originally built by Constantine in 335 as a
memorial to Christ?s resurrection. It is believed to contain the two
most revered sites of Christianity: the hill where Jesus was crucified
and the tomb where he was buried and rose from the dead. A stone slab
by the doorway is said to be the resting place of Jesus? body after he
was executed for his beliefs and teachings. The Via Dolorosa, which
winds through the streets of Old Jerusalem and commemorates the path
Jesus took on his way to the crucifixion, is an important devotional
route for Christians. The Rock of the Ascension, on the Mount of
Olives, is believed to bear the footprint of Jesus and is revered by
both Christians and Muslims as the place where Jesus ascended to
heaven. Christians also recognize the Temple Mount as sacred.
Current Challenges
The violent struggle for control of Jerusalem has plagued the city for
millennia and continues today. Although the conflict is fundamentally
a political dispute over territorial rights, it is nevertheless tied
deeply to sacred sites. The chief issue, and one of the main obstacles
to peace, is who should control the Temple Mount. Following the 1967
war, Israel claimed sovereignty over the site but granted civil
authority to the Islamic Waqf, a religious trust that has administered
the Noble Sanctuary for centuries. Israeli police control security at
the site and at the Western Wall beneath. Under Muslim control,
non-Muslims have been allowed access to the site with the condition
that they not pray openly.
In September 2000, a visit to the Temple Mount by Ariel Sharon,
formerly the opposition party leader and now Israel?s prime minister,
sparked the current Palestinian uprising, and the site was closed to
non-Muslims. In August 2003, non-Muslims were again granted limited
access to the site, but the situation remains extremely tense. Israeli
police have reportedly barred young Muslim men under the age of 40
from entering the mosques for fear of violence. They also bar Jews in
religious dress and attempt to prevent them from praying in the plaza,
but both Jews and Muslims have observed that more people are coming to
the site than before the uprising began, and more are praying. The
Islamic Waqf is fearful of extremist Jews and Christians who want to
destroy the mosques and build a third Jewish temple.
Preservation Efforts
While it seems there is little consensus on how to solve Jerusalem?s
political problems, it?s clear that the city?s sacred sites, and
access to them, will not be truly protected until there is real peace
in Jerusalem. Over the past decade, the hope for peace has risen and
fallen several times. The 2000 Camp David peace talks marked the first
direct negotiations over the fate of the city, but talks broke down in
part over the issue of control of the Temple Mount. A current ?road
map? for peace, established by the United States, the European Union,
the United Nations and Russia, aims to achieve a final settlement of
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by 2005, including the establishment
of a permanent Palestinian state. It does not, however, specify a
resolution to the conflict over Jerusalem and its holy sites.
An alternative peace proposal, called the Geneva Accord, was publicly
announced in October 2003, and launched in a commitment ceremony in
Geneva on December 1, 2003. Its authors, who have worked secretly on
the plan for the past three years, represent leaders from both sides
of the conflict, though they are not officially authorized by their
respective governments. Unlike the ?road map? being promoted by the
Bush administration, the Geneva Accord tackles the issue of Jerusalem.
Under the Accord, Jerusalem would be divided, with Arab neighborhoods
in East Jerusalem becoming part of a new Palestinian state. Palestine
would have sovereignty over the Temple Mount, but an international
security force would ensure access for visitors of all faiths. Jewish
prayer would not be permitted, nor would archaeological digs. The
Western Wall would remain under Israeli control. The ceremony in
December 2003 marked the end of hard negotiations and the start of a
campaign to generate public support, especially among Israelis and
Palestinians. Proponents of the accord, including European leaders and
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, say it is significant because it
proves that peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians are
possible, and it offers hope of overcoming obstacles that caused
previous negotiations to fail.
In November and December 2003 the U.S. Senate and House of
Representatives introduced identical resolutions (S. Res. 276 and H.
Res. 479) applauding recent non-official peace initiatives such as the
Geneva Accord, calling on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to seize the
opportunity presented by these initiatives, and urging President Bush
to embrace and encourage all serious efforts toward achieving peace in
the Middle East. The Senate resolution, sponsored by California Sen.
Dianne Feinstein, has six co-sponsors; the House resolution, sponsored
by California Rep. Lois Capps, has 45 co-sponsors.
Take Action
Write letters to your senator and representative either to thank them
for supporting the resolutions or to urge them to add their support to
the measure. For more information and a sample letter, go to the
Friends Committee on National Legislation Web site.
Resources
Americans for Peace Now
U.N. resolution 181, on the partition of Palestine
Text of the Geneva Accord and BBC Q&A on the Geneva Accord
Summary of Jerusalem's Holy Places and the Peace Process (published by
the Washington Institute, 1998), a history of sacred sites in
Jerusalem followed by management recommendations
Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths. Karen Armstrong. Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.
The Traveler?s Key to Jerusalem: A Guide to the Sacred Places of
Jerusalem. Martin Lev. Alfred A. Knopf, 1989.
For an interactive overview of the history of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict: CNN Special Report: Mideast, Land of Conflict. |
