History of Jerusalem (Second week)

Although I would have liked to begin talking about the conflict right away because that is what interests me the most, I deem it necessary to work to understand the history of Jerusalem. After all, one must understand the history and what brought it to the place where it is now, before they can understand what is going on in the present day.

In Mick Dumper’s, “Jerusalem Then and Now,” makes the point that Jerusalem doesn’t really have any significant resources that make it so problematic; it is the fact that it holds the history and people of 3 very different and sometimes conflicting faiths. All three must be considered and valued when analyzing Jerusalem’s history. It serves as a holy city that also stands as a type of political symbol. In the first two articles it is often noted that Jerusalem’s history is often challenged and contested. Different religious groups see the city derived from different historical origins; Rhashid Khalidi writes this article from the perspective of an Arab Muslim. From the Arab population’s perspective, east Jerusalem is occupied territory. It is their hope that after a peace process occurs—east Jerusalem can become the capital of the Palestinian state. They hope to do this while still maintaining “religious freedom for everyone at the holy sites sacred to the three Abrahamic faiths.” I’m personally not quite sure how they intend to this, considering Israel has negotiated peace on so many different occasions now, and the Palestinians are continuously showing violence. This violence is pushing them farther and farther away from acquiring any type of Arab capital.

In the article written by Rehav Rubin, it gives a very detailed account of the tedious history of Jerusalem. This article includes all of the events and stages that Jerusalem went through and how it was divided all throughout the years, even in the earliest of days. Throughout each period in history, Jerusalem was going through a different tribulation pertaining to one of the three religions. Through all of it’s archaeology, we are able to see how unique Jerusalem’s history really is and how this city really is a sacred one to the three religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

The fourth paper presented to us in the readings mainly on the Palestinian Conflict while including Jerusalem as a main part of it. It gave so much information about the conflict and provided a lot of detail and important history. It’s so long and so detailed that it was quite difficult for me to keep track of everything that was said by the time the article was wrapping up. It gave detailed accounts of many peace efforts that were attempted to be put into place by a lot of different important people. Through this lens, one is really able to familiarize themselves with the main people and events that are directly associated with the conflict.