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The Religious Signifigance of Jerusalem
- AMP
Jerusalem
As a city holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Jerusalem holds unrivaled international significance. Concern over the fate of the city extends well beyond its borders. But Jerusalem is not just home to religious sites; it is a living city, home to hundreds of thousands of people. These realties and the policies of those controlling Jerusalem affect the daily lives of its residents. Since 1967 when Jerusalem came under Israeli military occupation, Palestinian residents of Jerusalem have been subject to dispossession, systematic and deliberate discrimination in virtually all spheres, a consistent assault on their dignity and basic rights. Further, Palestinians from outside Jerusalem have been denied their religious freedom and access to Jerusalem’s holy sites.
For Muslims
Jerusalem is a symbol of religious tolerance. After Jews were expelled by the Romans in 70 AD, only the advent of Muslim rule allowed them to return to Jerusalem. Except for 90 years of Crusader rule (when the Jews were once again expelled from Jerusalem), Muslim rule in Jerusalem was uninterrupted for 1,200 years. Throughout that time, Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in relative harmony. All three faiths had open access to the holy sites. According to noted author Karen Armstrong, “Muslims had established a system that enabled Jews, Christians and Muslims to live in Jerusalem together for the first time.”
Jerusalem is holy to Muslims because:
• It was their first direction of prayer (before Mecca).
• Prophet Muhammad visited Jerusalem in a miraculous night journey when he ascended to heaven.
• The requirement of the five daily prayers was made in Jerusalem.
• Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque is mentioned in the Quran, chapter 17, verse 1, and many others.
• It is one of three cities to which Muslims are called on to make pilgrimage.
Rival Claims
Prior to 1948, and the advent of the war, Muslims placed no restrictions on Jewish access to the Western Wall. During the 1948 Arab/Israeli war, the eastern part of the city came under Jordanian control. Roughly 3,000 Jews were forced out. The western part of the city came under Israeli control. Roughly 60,000 Palestinians were forced out.
Because the acquisition of territory by force is not recognized under international law, neither Jordanian nor Israeli control in Jerusalem was recognized by the international community. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181, which established Jerusalem as a “corpus separatum under a special international regime” remained in effect.
During the 1967 war Israeli forces occupied the eastern part of the city. Since that time, Jerusalem has been under Israeli military occupation. The United States and the international community do not accept Israel’s military occupation of Jerusalem as legitimate. To this day, only Costa Rica and El Salvador recognize Jerusalem and Israel’s capital city. United Nations resolutions require Israel to withdraw from the territory it occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem.
Jerusalem since 1967: Expansion
According to Ben Gurion University professor Jeff Halper, although Israel annexed 70 square kilometers of “East Jerusalem” in 1967,” only 6.5 kilometers thereof actually constituted the Jordanian part of the city. The other 63.5 square kilometers – 90 percent of the land annexed by Israel as ‘East Jerusalem’ – in fact belonged to 28 Palestinian West bank villages which suddenly found themselves part of an ‘indivisible,’ ‘historic’ and ‘sacred’ Jewish city…An ‘inner ring’ of settlements has been built on the land on this fictitious ‘East Jerusalem’ since 1967. This series of large satellite cities…means that ‘East Jerusalem’ now contains more Israelis (about 200,000) than Palestinians. Municipal Jerusalem is an artificial entity, the product of recent military conquest and settlement, rather than an organic city of historic value to the Jewish people.”
Israel calls this “Greater Jerusalem.” According to the Foundation for Middle East Peace, “As Israel’s appetite for territory has grown, so too has the definition of Greater Jerusalem, which now is the address for 70 percent of the total settler population and includes approximately 10 percent of the land area of the West Bank.” As Israel continues to expand the territory of “Greater Jerusalem,” less and less of the West Bank is left for a future Palestinian state.
Jerusalem since 1967: Exclusion
Since 1967 Israel has enacted a complex system of politics designed to reduce the non-Jewish population of Jerusalem. The Israeli human rights association, B’Tselem, details “systematic and deliberate discrimination against the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem in all matters relating to land, development and housing construction.” This is done through home demolitions, land confiscations, withdrawal of residency permits and neglecting basic services. According to B’Tselem:
Although Palestinians comprise 30 percent of the population of East Jerusalem, Israel allows Palestinians to build on only 7 percent of East Jerusalem, land which is already mostly filled with Palestinian neighborhoods. Despite a housing shortage among Palestinians exceeding 20,000 units, Palestinians were allowed to build only about 7.5 percent of the homes built during the years 1990-1997.
Ben Gurion University professor Jeff Halper notes that between 1967 and 1995, 76,151 housing units were built in East Jerusalem. Eighty-eight percent were built for Jews with government subsidies. He also notes that although Palestinians make up one-third of the city’s population, they have access to only 3.5 percent of the city’s total urban space for their housing needs, and receive only 11 percent of the municipality’s budget for urban services.
Much of the land adjoining Palestinian neighborhoods has been put off limits for Palestinians. They are denied permits to build on this land – even on land they own, including land adjacent to an existing home. It is also difficult to obtain permits to expand existing homes. While both Palestinians and Israelis build illegally, Palestinians and responsible for less than 20 percent of illegal construction, but nearly all demolitions are of Palestinian homes. During 1992 to 2000, Israel demolished 198 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem.
Amnesty International, in its 1999 report, “Demolition and Dispossession: The Destruction of Palestinian Homes,” notes that while the number of homes demolished in any year is “large,” it is small compared with the number “which are at any time issued with a demolition order and under threat of demolition.” Amnesty believes that perhaps 12,000 homes in East Jerusalem, housing over a third of the Arab population, live under demolition orders.
Since 1995, Palestinian Jerusalemites who have lived for a time outside of Jerusalem, have been liable to lose their residency status. Between 1995 and 1999, over 3,000 Palestinians lost their right to live in Jerusalem.
Religious freedom denied
In March 1993, with the start of the Peace Process, Israel imposed a “closure” on Jerusalem and has since prevented Palestinian Muslims and Christians from entering the Holy City without special permits that are nearly impossible to obtain.
Millions of Christians from around the world are able to visit Jerusalem, but Palestinians Christians living a few miles away are prevented from visiting their holy city. The Christian population in the Holy Land dropped from 20 percent to less than two percent. Less than 10,000 Palestinian Christians remain in Jerusalem today.
Veteran Israeli journalist Danny Rubinstein writes that for the past decade “most Muslims from the West Bank and Gaza have not been permitted (by Israel) to pray at Al-Aqsa” mosque in Jerusalem. “There has not been a single case in which a Muslim from Gaza requesting a permit to pray in Jerusalem has received one.” (Haaretz, October 2, 2000)
Also in the last 10 years, Israeli military operations have led to the murder of worshippers on the grounds of Al-Aqsa mosque many times.
Consistent US Policy on Jerusalem
“We continue to support, within the framework of the United Nationas, the internationalization of Jerusalem and the protection of the holy places in Palestine.” -President Harry Truman, October 24, 1948.
“The expropriation or confiscation of land, the construction of housing on such land, the demolition of buildings…and the application of Israeli law to occupied portions of the city are detrimental to our common interests in the city.” –United States Permanent United Nations Representative Charles Yost, June 1, 1969.
“We cannot accept unilateral actions by any party to decide the final status of the city.” –Secretary of State William Rogers, December 9, 1969.
Senator Paul Sarbanes: “It is the present position of our Government that East Jerusalem is occupied territory? Secretary of State Cyrus Vance: “That is the position, yes.” –March 20, 1980.
“For the sake of Palestinians and Israelis alike, the occupation must end.” –Secretary of State Colin Powell, November 19, 2001.
“In the old city of Jerusalem they’re swarming like ants. They should go to hell—and the Messiah will speed them on their way.” Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, founder of Shas, a political party in the Israeli parliament.
“It is forbidden to sell apartments in the Land of Israel to Gentiles.”-Mordecai Eliayhoo, Israeli Chief Rabbi commenting on an attempt by a Palestinian to buy an apartment owned by the Jewish National Fund in East Jerusalem. Haaretz, January 17, 1986.
“I don’t sign orders to destroy the houses of Jews, only of Arabs.”-Haim Miller, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, as quoted in Yediot Aharonot, February 7, 1998.
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