To what extent is the city of Jerusalem vital to the followers of three main world religions in the present time?

Jews believe that the Dome of the Rock and Masjidal Aqsa were established on the ruins of their First and Second Temples, the first, Solomon’s Temple and the second, a reconstructed one. At around 1010 B.C.E, David captured Jerusalem, for the Jews, from its previous occupiers, the Jebusites and declared that the leading religion in Jerusalem would be Judaism. He decided that the official name for the new Jewish city would be ‘David’s city.’ King David had intended on building a Temple as a show of his gratefulness to God and as an eternal site for the Ark of the Covenant. But, according to Jewish tradition, David was prohibited from building a Temple “because he had been a warrior.” It was then up to David’s son, Solomon to construct this Temple on Mount Moriah. It was referred to as ‘the First Temple’, until 586 BCE-its destruction, by the Babylonian king, who also forced its inhabitants into exile. Cyrus, the Persian king who defeated the Babylons’ at around 560 B.C.E allowed the exiled Jews to return to their homeland and re-built their Temple, which was completed at 216 B.C.E. The first century B.C.E witnessed the rein of King Herod, of Judah who was appointed this position by the Romans and although he was known for his oppression and injustice, under his orders, the Temple Mount was reconstructed and enlarged. But the year 70 C.E saw the destruction of the Second Temple due to the Roman’s invasion, and this was the start of the Jewish spiritual division. Jerusalem’s significance to modern Jews may be demonstrated by their actions, as they tend to “pray in its direction, mention its name constantly in prayers, close the Passover service with the wistful statement ‘Next year in Jerusalem,’ and recall the city in the blessing at the end of meals.” Until present time, there is no solid, historical proof, of any Jewish ruins in Israel, apart from Jewish belief, although all Jews strongly assert that the ‘Western wall’ or the ‘Wailing wall’, or as it’s referred to in Hebrew, ‘Kotel’ is the last surviving proof of their Second Temple. In 1967, after the Jews re-entered Jerusalem, they immediately started excavating under the Dome of the Rock. Their aim was to find any ruins of their First and Second Temple, and to weaken the foundations, causing the Dome of the Rock to collapse ‘naturally’, thus continuing their search for Jewish ruins more freely, resulting in the creation of a new Temple.

Problems in the Middle East mainly arise from differences between Israelis and Palestinians. The Israelis claim that it is now their rightful turn to return to the land of their ancestors, reconstructing a third Temple, and establishing the State of Israel, with Jerusalem as its capital. The Israeli and Palestinian government have managed to sit around the same table, and divide Palestine between them, but the mere mention of ‘Jerusalem’, causes them to postpone all discussions. Both parties want control over Jerusalem, declaring that the Holy city is a significant, historical symbol of their religion. The real argument is about who controls the land, which the Dome of Rock and Masjidal Aqsa are built on. Israel wants it because they believe that the ruins of their Temples are buried under the Muslim’s current mosques, and argue that the Muslims already have Mecca and Medina as the centre of their faith, while the Muslims argue that Masjidal Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock are as important to them as Mecca and Medina. Since Jerusalem is an important city to all three religions, we can see that the actual conflict is not only between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and about who gets to live in and control Jerusalem, rather, between every Christian, Jew, and Muslim in the world, due to each religion claiming Jerusalem’s importance to its religion and history.

‘Zionism’ originated form the term ‘Zion’, and ‘Zionists’ is the term used to call Jews who argue for the establishment for a Jewish state in Palestine, and Jerusalem as its capital.  Although some might think that the Zionist movement started towards the end of the nineteenth century, it actually started at around 1621 CE. A Jewish man called Henry Fish wrote a book called ‘The great Revival of the World’, in which he addressed every Jew in Diaspora (exile) to return to their rightful homeland, Palestine, and to establish a state, which will be one of the most powerful ones in the world. Rabbi Zeimy Hersh Calisher also aided Fish’s idea, and published his book, ‘The search for Zion’; where he emphasized that, all Jews should return to The Holy Land to create a state. The famous Moses Hess published his book, ‘Rome and Jerusalem’ (1862), where he discussed that as long as the Jews were separated, they would be powerless, and have a bleak future, unless they moved to Palestine, where they would become united, start their own independent state and re-gain some pride. But perhaps the most famous figure in Jewish philosophy was Theodor Herzl, who wrote the book, ‘The Jewish State’ in 1896, and asked Jews to cooperate to re-establish the state of Israel.

According to Dr. Hassan Sayed Suleiman’s article, there are two types of Zionism, which must be noted. ‘Theological Zionism’, which is to do with “spiritual side of Zionism” and demonstrates the vision of the Jews returning and living peacefully on their Holy Land. The other type is known as “political Zionism,” which uses the spiritual idea of Zionism to gain encouragement for the formation of Israel. Zionists have four main aims, they are, “the gathering of Jews from all over the world to Palestine, the preserving of the pillars of the Zionist State, as well as its security, the expanding regionally, via settlements, to establish Greater Israel and its capital in Jerusalem, the controlling of the Middle East region.”  Two steps had to be taken by the Jews to attain their objective. These were internal and external migration to Palestine. The first was to be accomplished by obtaining land, and building settlements, then bringing in Jewish immigrants. The second was to be done by gaining international support from and by convincing leaders that Palestine was for them.  But contrary to what one might believe, there are a minority of Jews who argue that the State of Israel is an illegal one, and that no Jew can or has the right to argue that the Torah asks them to do this. Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Freimann, claims that the Torah considers Zionism a sin, and notes that Grand Rabbi Sholem Dov Ber Schneersohn, and numerous other Rabbis fought a war against all Jews who wanted to establish a Jewish state. He argued that Zionist leaders such as Herzl were not religious at all; on the contrary, he disregarded the Torah’s teachings, and went to the Holy City on Sabbath. Schneersohn also argues that Zionists are replacing the religious side by the national side, and are weakening, and even destroying Jewish belief. But nevertheless, a majority of Jews believe that they will never live in peace, unless they work on establishing a state, a building their Temple.

America decided to try ‘helping out’ and as a publicity stunt (to win more supporters for Bill Clinton’s future election). A Beijing journalist argues that America’s aim from the Middle East conflict is to “strengthen its dominance in the region.” Camp David talks took place between 11-24th July 2000, and were between the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, and the American president, Bill Clinton. Although the main aim of the talks was to establish peace between the two conflicting nations, the talks ended in a negative way, because neither party could agree on Jerusalem, when one option suited the Jews, it didn’t seem to suit the Palestinians, and vice versa. One of Clinton’s suggestions was that Jerusalem could be split into three quarters, Christian, Islamic and Jewish. The Jews would be able to have full control over the Western wall, while the Palestinians would control Masjidal Aqsa, but neither party was allowed to excavate behind or around their allocated sites. Clinton was still willing to make offers towards the two sides, particularly before he left office. Another one of Clinton’s suggestions was to allow the Palestinians to control everything above ground level, while the Israelis would govern everything below. Throughout the talks, Barak stated that he was open minded, when the talks failed; it was obvious that because Barak was willing to think about proposals, and Arafat didn’t commit to anything, that he was to blame for the talks’ failure.

Both governments are constantly trying to win international support; each leader would travel, meet Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Kings to convince them that Jerusalem is meant for them and not the opposition. Arafat travels to Arab countries, requesting their support, while the Israeli Prime Minister would travel to America and Europe. Numerous ‘Arab summits’ have been held in Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates to try resolving and gaining support, but no one is supporting either government whole-heartedly. Everyone wants to appear as righteous in order not to upset America, or their nation, which typically demonstrates politics at work, rather than religion.

As I have previously noted, the Jews believe that Masjidal Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock are built on the remains of their Temples.  In Lambert Dolphin and Michael Kollen’s paper,  they note that if Tuvia Sagiv’s theory is correct, then the Temple Mount was not constructed on the Dome of the Rock and Masjidal Aqsa, but rather, more South of the Islamic shrines, and precisely beneath the tress between the Dome of the Rock and Masjidal Aqsa. This theory cannot be a hundred percent correct due to the Jews unable to officially excavate where they think they’ll find their temples, because the Islamic Waqf has complete control over the Islamic shrines. They note numerous arguments in favour of this theory, one of their arguments is that King Herod’s palace (Jaffa Gate) gave a clear view of religious practices at the alter in the Second Temple, causing the Jews to build a high wall to prevent anyone form watching them performing sacrifices. If the Temple Mount was where the Dome of the Rock stands today, the wall built would have to have had to be 75 meters to block the view. But there has never been a record of such a high building in Jerusalem, suggesting that the Temple Mount was more South of the Islamic shrines, in order to block people’s view.      

Muslims used to pray facing Jerusalem, but after Allah ordered them to face Mecca, they now give the Holy City their back-is that how important it is to them? As Daniel Pipes points out in his article, Muslims never mention Jerusalem in their prayer, nor has it been the capital of any Islamic state. Muslims believe that the Quran contains the words of Allah, which haven’t changed since it was revealed to prophet Muhammad, but Pipes accuses Muslims of reinterpreting “the Quran to make room for Jerusalem,” he argues that when the Quran mentions Muhammad’s night journey, it uses the term the ‘Furthest mosque’. Pipes disputes that early Muslim interpreters thought that this term was a metaphorical one, or that it’s a place in heaven, and that the Quran is basically contradicting its self by previously noting that Palestine is the closest land. If one translates the Arabic term, ‘Masjidal Aqsa’, one will find that it has the meaning of ‘the furthest mosque’. At the time of Isra and Mi’raj, the only two originally built mosques on earth were the Ka’ba in Mecca, and Masjidal Aqsa in Jerusalem. Thus, if Muhammad was at Mecca, the place of the first mosque, then Masjidal Aqsa in Jerusalem must be the mosque refereed to in the Quran, as it is the only other mosque. Therefore, Pipes’ argument isn’t valid. Pipes seems confused when it comes to the establishment of Masjidal Aqsa and the Quran. Pipes follows the theory that Masjidal Aqsa was built a century after the Quran, and he quotes Hooper saying that; “the Koran refers to Jerusalem by its Islamic centrepiece, al-Aqsa Mosque.” If Pipes was to look into Islamic history, he would know that Islamically, Adam built Masjidal Aqsa, after the Ka’ba, thus, making it the second mosque, while the Quran was revealed to prophet Muhammad thousands of years later. So, Masjidal Aqsa was not built “a century after the Quran.” Again, his argument seems void.

Non-Zionist Jews believe that Herzl’s real aim was to establish a state anywhere in the world, somewhere that would simply gather the Jewish population, and together, they could make it a powerful one, both in a military and political sense. As long as there was a ‘spare place’ to house the Jews, and was under Western rule, then it was acceptable. Countries such as Argentina, Cyprus, Sinai, and Uganda were considered as a permanent home for the Jews. After Herzl’s death, the World Zionist organisation decided on Palestine. If Jerusalem was so significant to the Jews, why wasn’t it picked first? Rather than going through numerous options of countries, which have absolutely no ties to Judaism? Furthermore, anyone would think that famous Zionist leaders and politicians would prefer to live in Jerusalem, the place where they’ve fought for so much, but it didn’t seem to be the case, they would live in cities such as Tel Aviv, only using the term ‘Jerusalem’ for political statements.

In conclusion, Jerusalem is extremely significant for the three leading world religions, if not by actions, then through the words of the Holy Books. It has managed to survive all of its various forms of occupations, and is still held in a very high place to Christians, Muslims, and Jews. There are around 2,700,000,000 people in total who follow the three monotheistic religions, thus, all of them consider Jerusalem as their Holy City.

Jerusalem is significant to Christians because of Jesus-whom they consider as their Messiah. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is probably the most significant symbol of Christian history in Jerusalem. Thousands of Christians make the annual trip to the church to pray and reflect on Jesus’ sacrifice for humanity’s sins, at Easter. Just as Mecca is important to Muslims, because its where Islam started and where their prophet Muhammad was born, and preached, Jerusalem is also important to Christians because its where Jesus started his preaching, and where he was crucified and resurrected, thus, “Jerusalem is the Mother Church of Christianity.”  

Isra’ and Mi’raj is believed to have taken place on the 27th Rajab, and on Muhammad’s tenth prophet-hood. Muslims worldwide celebrate this mystical night by praying additional prayers and by reading; parts form their Holy Book, the Quran. Another reason for Jerusalem’s historical significance to Muslims is that it was the first ‘kiblah’. This is the Arabic word for ‘direction for prayer’ and Allah commanded all the Muslims to face Jerusalem when they direct their five daily prayers to Him. But the ‘Kiblah’ soon changed around a year and a half from Jerusalem to Mecca, after Allah revealed a Quranic verse ordering His servants to do so.

Jews constantly pray to God for the return of Jerusalem to them. The real Jewish dream is for complete control over Jerusalem, the re-construction of their Third Temple, and dedicating the rest of their lives to worshiping God. Jewish belief is that before the completion of the Third Temple, their Messiah will appear, leading a peaceful, persecution free life for them. The creation of a Jewish state in Jerusalem makes all Jews believe that God is finally compensating them for all the hardships they’ve had to face in the name of their religion and God. First, the exile of Jews from their homeland, followed by the Holocaust, and finally, the current form of hardship, being physically, and spiritually divided. For the past 2,000 years, Jews have fasted on the 9th of Av, for 25 hours, to remember the end of their city and Temple.

“Our Torah, in Tractate Ksubos, folio 111, specifies that the Creator, blessed be He, swore the Jews not to occupy the Holy Land by force, even if it appears that they have the force to do so; and not rebel against the Nations. And the Creator warned that if His oath be desecrated, Jewish flesh would be ‘open property,’ like the animals in the forest!!” If this statement from the Talmud is correct, then why do a majority of Jews totally disregard it and opt for the opposite? If Jerusalem is important to the Muslims, then as Pipes notes, why have Muslim leaders, including King Faisal of Saudi Arabia indicated their wish of visiting and praying in Masjidal Aqsa, but never doing so, although there have been numerous opportunities? And If Jerusalem was so important to the three faiths, then why didn’t one of them at least take control over the Holy land when it was used as a rubbish tip, until Caliph Umar took over it? If we go by the saying, ‘actions speak louder than words’, then it will seem that Jerusalem isn’t that important to neither religion.  

Personally, I don’t think that the Jew’s main aim of establishing a state is for religious reasons, rather, they are merely using religion as an excuse to rise to the top, and rather than living as minorities, finally being a strong and powerful nation. The fact that early Zionists considered other countries rather than Palestine to establish their state, and that leaders such as Herzl, Peres, and a majority of Jewish politicians aren’t religious, shows that they don’t really care about the religious side of Palestine-it’s just an pretext. Herzl’s hidden aim was to make the Jews one of the most powerful worldwide nations. While most Jewish politicians agree with Peres that, “religion is an impediment to peace,” I think that if Herzl had lived long enough, the state of Israel would have been established in one of the optional countries.

Can peace occur between the Palestinians and Israelis? The next step for both parties is to try accomplishing the demands of the opposition. For example, the Palestinians demand that the Israelis withdraw from East, and West Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights, which are internationally recognised as illegally occupied, and not part of the state of Israel. The Palestinians also want the right to return for their refugees, but this poses a problem to the Jews. Where will all these Palestinians live? Israel rests on former sites of more than 400 now vanished Palestinian villages. For instance, in 1948, 13 towns, 419 villages, and 99 tribal lands were vacated in order to declare the State of Israel. If more Palestinians were allowed entry, then the Jew’s extension of settlements would have to stop, thus, halting one of the Zionist’s aims. The international community have called upon Israel to numerously stop extending their settlements, nevertheless, Israel's settlement building under Barak doubled compared to settlement buildings under his predecessor-Netanyahu. The Jews would also have to worry about an increase in participants in the Intifada and suicide bombers, and, if they allowed the Palestinians to return, then surely, as they constitute the second largest number of refugees, they will outnumber the Jews. As for the Jews, they call upon Arafat to denounce terrorism, call upon suicide bombers to stop their actions, a ceasefire, and to arrest all terrorists and militants. They also accuse him of leading numerous terrorist organisations, which perform attacks against the Jews in Israel, and for peace talks to occur, he must abolish these groups.

If the chance came, would the Palestinians leave Palestine and go to another country, establish their state, and live a peaceful life? The answer would be a definite no. Suicide killings, assassinations, the Intifada (Palestinian uprising), people fleeing for their lives, all of these factors took place due to mounting frustration at the government not dong anything to stop the opposition. After all the deaths and hardships, would either party give up? After Sharon’s recent proposition to Arafat, and Arafat’s adamant refusal, the Israelis are merely making the situation worse. The Jew’s recent entry into Palestinian territories is to ‘arrest militants, terrorists, and stop suicide bombings.’ But they’ve they gone about it the wrong way, highlighting their unnecessary actions, against the Palestinians, and Arafat personally, such as blocking off water and medical supplies. Through the process, they’ve made Arafat seem like a ‘hero’, thus, strengthening his reputation with the Palestinians and in the Arab world, and creating thousands of willing youths, who are prepared to sacrifice their lives, in the name of Jerusalem.

If the Palestinians were to leave Palestine, the Jews would fulfil their desire of destroying Dome of the Rock and Masjidal Aqsa, which as Arafat said, “(Jerusalem) is not a Palestinian city only, it is an Arab, Islamic, and Christian one. If I am going to take a decision on Jerusalem, I have to consult with the Sunnis and the Shiites and all Arab countries.” Jerusalem is extremely important to the Jews and Muslims world wide, evidence of this is all the wars, conflicts, and murders carried out by both nations and all for Jerusalem. But peace will never reign over Jerusalem unless it returns to its rightful occupiers, but until then, the war for Jerusalem still continues between the Jews and Muslims.

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