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JERUSALEM
Jerusalem
occupies a unique status in the life of Palestinians ;not only because
of its religious importance, but also because of the historic role the
city has played in Palestinian economic, social and cultural life. Regarded
as the most important Palestinian city, Jerusalem is held up as the future
capital of an independent Palestinian state.
Palestinians recognize the existence of two parts of Jerusalem, separated by the cease-fire invisible line of 1949 (Green Line).There is West and East Jerusalem. Palestinians believe that the Israeli negotiating mentality still launches its positions based on power and rejects seizing this historical moment to achieve a final settlement between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples, and thus a comprehensive resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The Israelis still refuse the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital by rejecting the possibility to share Jerusalem between the two peoples. To stress the importance of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas to the Ottoman Empire, Jerusalem became the second city, after Istanbul, to receive municipal reforms. By the end of the 19th century, there were nine foreign consulates in Jerusalem, including the British, Russian, French and United States consulates. When Palestine came under the British Mandate in 1917,Jerusalem was announced as the capital of Palestine, where central departments of the Mandate Authority were established. But the British Mandate's removal of the Arab mayor and his temporary replacement by a Jewish deputy in 1938 gave political form to this transition and heralded the dramatic changes. Jerusalem remained under British military control from 1917 until 1920,and in 1922 the League of Nations ratified the colonial dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire and gave Palestine to Britain as a semi-colonial "mandate."During the 26 years of the British Mandate,an increasingly numerous and well-organized Zionist immigrant community pushed for a Jewish state in Palestine.
The partition of the city between Jordanian-controlled
East Jerusalem and Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem in 1948 was a disaster
for Arabs. Under the Jordanian rule, Jerusalem became the second capital
of Jordan in 1959. Since 1967,Israel occupied East Jerusalem, yet the city
still maintains its Arab identity and character.
EARLY HISTORY
Since
its founding 4,000 years ago, Jerusalem has played a central role on the
world stage. Despite conquests, destruction and war over the centuries,
the city has managed to adapt and survive, changing its location, name
and size, depending on the historical period.
Jerusalem continued since its emergence 4,000 years ago to constitute an important center for those living in and around it. Some politicians and historians who espouse Zionist thought claim that Jerusalem was never a capital, except during the reign of the two ancient Jewish Kingdoms. Although those kingdoms were part of the Palestinian nar- Bunting map of Jerusalem at the center of the world,1581 596 BCE by the Babylonians),its remains were used to build the new Temple during the rule of Herod the Great, more than 550 years later, and because of quarring that took place in the area during the Herodian and Byzantine periods.
Shortly after Solomon's death in 925 BC,the Israelite Kingdom split.The tribes of the northern Kingdom of Israel created their own capital in the Palestinian middle mountain areas (near present-day Nablus),while those of the southern Kingdom of Judah,in the mountains of Jerusalem and Hebron, kept Yerushalayim as their center. At that time, several other kingdoms existed in Palestine and the surrounding areas; there was the Kingdom of the Philistia, from which the name Palestine was derived, which extended along the coast and into the northern Ghour. There was the Kingdom of the Edom and Moab in the southern parts of Palestine and Jordan and the Kingdoms of Amon, Aram and Phoenicia in the north and northeastern areas.
During the times of those kingdoms,Palestine endured invasions from the west by Pharaohs who wanted to extend their authority, as well as from kingdoms to the east (Assyria and Babylon),at Mesopotamia.The Pharaohs and the rulers from Mesopotamia maintained the existing Palestinian kingdoms and their rulers, provided that they declare their allegiance and pay taxes. Whenever they faced resistance, they would destroy those kingdoms and enslave their residents. This is what happened to the Kingdom of Israel, which was wiped out by the Assyrian King Shalmneser V in 724 BC, and the Kingdom of Judah, which fell to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 596 BC. Palestine then entered the era of empires, starting with the Greek era, when Alexander the Great occupied Jerusalem in 332 BC. This was followed by the Roman era, when the Roman general Pompey occupied Jerusalem in 64 BC. During the empires era, local kingdoms were removed and foreign armies settled in the country. During this stage, Jerusalem witnessed periods of progress, the greatest of which was during the reign of the Roman ruler of Edomite origion Herod the Great (37-4 BC).During his reign, Jerusalem grew to five times its size under King Solomon's rule (around 700 dunums).Herod built his Citadel, a temple for the Jews and one for the Romans, crushed by Roman leader Titus in 70 AD, the Jewish Temple was burned.
With the coming of Roman leader Hadrian,who was known for his approach to construct cities and roads that help in developing the outskirts of the empire and tightening the grip on it, the residents of Yerushalayim resisted the schemes to build a new city, which made Hadrian occupy and destroy the city. Hadrian built a new Roman city called Aelia Capitolina, or "center of the sun"; Jews were banished from it. His ban on Jews rative, history shows that Jerusalem was important even earlier.
The fact that it continued and continues to be the focus of high drama, great passion, and political tension requires further explanation.
The first archeological evidence of primitive settlement in Jerusalem dates back to the Chalocolithic Age (4000-3000 BC)on the peak of al-Thouhour Mountain (Ophel),near Um al-Daraj (Gihon)spring.
By the middle Bronze Age (2000-1500 BC),the Amorites had occupied the site, calling it Urosalem, "Ur" meaning light, and "Salem" meaning God of the dusk. This name was first mentioned in Execation Texts between 1879-1842 BC. However, it wasn't until thousands of years later (1961-1967 AD)that the city's wall position was bracketed and partially excavated by the British archeologist Kathleen Kenyon.
Following the Amorites, the Jebusites inhabited the city at the beginning of the 14th century BC. Because both were of Canaanite origin and shared a linguistic tradition, the name Urosalem was maintained. This name appears in written form in a letter from the city's King Abdi Heba to Egypt's Pharaoh Akhenaton, in what became known as the Tel Amarneh letters. Urosalem's wall was located about 300 meters from the wall where present-day al-Aqsa Mosque stands. Around 1,000 BC, King David occupied the Jebusite capital, making it the capital of the Israelite Kingdom and renaming it Yerushalayim.
The new occupiers allowed the city's former residents to remain and kept in place the administrative apparatus they had developed. David's son, King Solomon, drew on Jebusite traditions for his rituals in the Temple, which he erected on a platform north the Jebusite city, together with his palaces and administration buildings which were erected between the southern wall of present-day al-Aqsa Mosque and the northern wall of the Jebusite city. No trace of Solomon's Temple, and palaces was ever found, according to Kenyon, because after its destruction (in The Emperor Hadrian remained in place until the Arab Islamic conquest, when prohibition laws were reduced and later discarded, especially during the time of Muslim conqueror Salah ad-Din, and the period after the Arabs and Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal in 1492.
During the last three centuries of Roman rule, the major development affecting the life of the city was the adoption oChristianity, in 325,as the official religion of the Roman Empire. When Emperor Constantine's mother, Saint Helen, visited the country, she decided to establish churches and renovate holy sites connected to the life of Jesus Christ. She focused most of her attention on Jerusalem, where she founded the Church of the Holy Sepulchre-site of the crucifixion of Jesus-thus making Jerusalem the focal point of the Christian world for centuries to come. However, the most significant development in the city, as we see it today, was the arrival of Omar Bin al-Khattab in 636,ushering in the Arab Islamic era.
Arabic language and Islamic culture prevailed and, to this day ,has left its mark on the traditions, customs, laws, administration and architecture. At the beginning of their rule, the Arabs kept the Roman name for the city, changing it slightly to fit the Arabic language. They called it Ilya'; Bayt al-Maqdas and al-Quds al-Sharif.Over time,al-Quds became the most commonly used name.
Muslim attachment to al-Quds is founded on the "night" journey of the Prophet Muhammad to Jerusalem from Mecca. Jerusalem was the first qibla (direction of prayer)in Islam, before it was switched this to Mecca.Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock were built on that site and became the third holiest site in Islam.
After the Crusaders were expelled in 1187,Jerusalem witnessed an unprecedented and unsurpassed architectural flowering. Wealthy and retired Mamluk officials built residences and mausolea there. The tall, graceful buildings with ornamental stone worked facades lining the roads and alleyways to the Haram al-Sharif compound have left a firm Islamic imprint on the character of the Old City to this day. In the middle of the 16th century, the Ottoman authorities rebuilt the city's walls that still stand today.
The history of Jerusalem, in particular, and Palestine, in general, has been subjected to distortion, in order to deprive Palestinians of their history. In order to justify today's realities, these historians manipulate ancient history to make it match the present-day state of affairs. Palestinians, who have been rooted in the land for thousands of years, are made to look like intruders, while Israelis, who were formed as a nation only after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948,are painted as the land's original inhabitants. This process is con- ducted through gaps in the facts, narrative and methodology.
One example is separating the history of the tribes that embraced Judaism from the history of the tribes that lived in Palestine and nearby. This is an attempt to show that what is happening now is an extension of a history that goes back 3,000 years.
These are attempts that have no relation with the objective history of Palestine. For example, the history of Palestine in the Iron Age is an extension of the history in the Bronze Age and so on, through out the Greek, Roman and Islamic eras. Thus, Jewish history in Palestine is part of the heritage of the Palestinian people who have always been on this land. The attempt to distinguish the ancient Israelite era from eras coming before or after it, appear feeble.
The process of writing the history of Palestine through the Israelite era and what came before and after it has no justification. David's Kingdom and, later, Solomon's as well as North and South Kingdoms (after Solomon's Kingdom was divided)were not distinct from other contemporary kingdoms, such as Philistia, Edom, Ammon and Moab, either in production or in the level of civilization. All were The vision of St.Helena, by P.Veronese Crusader knights, by G.Doré products of one phase in the history of civilization. David and Solomon maintained the Jebusite civilization and administrative apparatus, and when King Solomon thought of building the Temple, he looked to the representative of Phoenician civilization, Hiram, the King of Sour.
Another issue is attempting to separate the ancient history of Palestine from Arab and Islamic history by using the term Early Arab Period. This term obscures the close ties that existed between the tow histories, as seen in the migrations from the
Arabian Peninsula to the Fertile Crescent (Palestine,
Lebanon, Syria and Iraq)that took place over thousands of years as well
as the trade routes that sprung up. In fact, Arabs allowed the Jews to
come to Jerusalem during the Islamic Empire, especially under Sultan Salah
ad-Din al-Ayyoubi and during the Mamluk and Ottoman rule, after the expulsion
of Muslims and Jews from Spain and Portugal in 1492 and 1495,respectively.Any
oppression of Jews during the Islamic Era was part of the oppression inflicted
upon people in general and was not directed at Jews specifically, as was
the case in Europe, for example.
JERUSALEM'S ARMENIANS
The
reason that there is an Armenian Quarter and an important Armenian presence
in Jerusalem has to do with Christianity and the fact that Armenians adopted
Christianity very early on as a state religion. Already we find Armenians
in the year 300 AD in the letters of St. Jerome, but the most important
period in the formative period is the period of the desert monks.
The most important figure was St. Euthemius, whose monastery is now between Jerusalem and Jericho. He was an Armenian bishop and he is now considered the organizer of desert monasticism in Palestine.
This desert monasticism was a kind of very universal and very ecumenical movement and Armenians were an important component in this group.
In the last century, they were doing archeological excavations and about six mosaic floors from the mid-Byzantine period were discovered with Armenian inscriptions, some from the 6th and some in the 7th centuries.
Even in 1990,north of Damascus Gate another monastic complex was discovered including a big mosaic with Armenian inscriptions. Armenians were concentrated on the center of the Mount of Olives, where the present Russian convent is, and they were concentrated in the Damascus Gate area and in the present Armenian Quarter around St. James cathedral, which is southwest of the city within the walls. Since the fifth or sixth century, Armenians have not moved from this area within the walls.
In the Crusader period, there were a lot of intermarriages between the Armenians and the Crusaders and the first three queens of Jerusalem, Arda, Morphia and Melicenti were of Armenian origin. Also, in the subsequent period of Salah A-Din, he had a very good attitude towards the Armenians.
When he captured the city in 1187,2,000 Armenian residents were exempted from the head tax because Salah A-Din was a Kurd and he came from a neighboring area of Armenia and some of his commanders were Armenian.
In the Ottoman period, there was a continuity of presence, especially in the holy places. Still, Armenians share the custodianship of the Holy Places along with the Latins and the Greeks, so the Armenian Patriarch is one of the three patriarchs of Jerusalem and their rights in the holy places have been confirmed in the peace conference in Paris in 1856,then in the congress of Berlin of 1878 and then in Versailles in 1919.All international conventions have supported the right of the three patriarchs in the holy places and their status.
That automatically means that in all matters of church
and politics, there is coordination between the three patriarchs, who are
the leading ecclesiastical figures in Jerusalem It is not only a spiritual
interest that Armenian Palestinians have in Jerusalem; they are a landed
community. The Armenian quarter is one-sixth of the area within the walls
of the old city. The Christian community taken together owns 35 percent
of the Old City and there are considerations of day-to-day life and functioning.
The fact that the Armenian Quarter is a part of the Christian Quarter and
that these Christian quarters cannot be divided from each other. Separating
the Armenian Quarter from the rest of the Old City might be [treacherous
for ]a part of the community, as one-half of the Armenian community lives
in the Christian and Muslim Quarters. The Armenian Quarter is a residential
quarter and most Armenians work in the Old City.
VATICAN ON JERUSALEM
The
position of the Vatican, which represents the universal Catholic Church
is very clear. The Vatican says that Jerusalem and all the Palestinian
occupied territories are to be discussed and resolved through negotiations
according to international legitimacy. This refers to the UN Resolutions,
which, should be implemented.
As for the solution pertaining to the holy city of Jerusalem it asks for a special status with international guarantees. This means that both sides should take into consideration the special and unique historical nature of the holy city, and in any future solution, should respect the fundamental freedoms and rights not only of the Christian community but also of the Jewish and Muslim communities. They should also respect the holy places, which means that free access should be guaranteed. The agreement also speaks about religious freedom, and calls for maintaining Jerusalem as an open city to the followers of the three monotheistic religions.
The local church distinguishes between the political side of the problem and the religious side. The political side is clear. All the Christians and the churches in the Holy Land are not a third party, but a second party, meaning that they are an integral part of the Palestinian people. This means that the political leadership and the negotiators speak on behalf of the Palestinian people, Christians and Muslims. Henceforth, the Christian community's position is the same as that of the Palestinian leadership.
On the religious side, we say that both parties should take into consideration our point of view which means that Jerusalem is not only a political problem, but is also a religious problem. Furthermore, it is not only a Palestinian-Israeli problem but is an international problem. It belongs to all the Muslims and Arabs in the world, all the Jews in Israel and in the world, and all the Christians in the world.
The local church says there are five conditions that must
be respected; First is the guarantee of freedom of religion in the city;
Second, free access to all holy places -not only for Jews, Israelis, tourists
and pilgrims but also for local Palestinians both, Muslim and Christian;
Third, the right of freedom to maintain and develop our holy places; Fourth,
the status quo should be respected for Christians to run their holy places;
Fifth, Jerusalem as a whole and especially the Old City, should not be
divided. It is considered as a historical and demographic, geographical
unit.