On May 13, Jews around the world will mark Jerusalem Day, the Israeli national holiday commemorating the reunification of the city following the 1967 Six-Day War. For the first time since the destruction of the Second Temple, Jews were able to return to pray at their holiest sites. The status of Jerusalem however, remains one of the most hotly contested subjects anywhere.
Few places on earth have been greater sources of inspiration, conflict and yearning than Jerusalem. The ancient city is home to the major monotheistic religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, and many of their most sacred sites can be found within it. King David conquered Jerusalem around 1000 BCE, declaring it the capital of the Jewish kingdom. Forty years later, in 960 BCE, his son King Solomon built the First Temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Second Temple was built in 516 BCE, upon the Jews’ return from exile, lasting until 70 CE when it was destroyed by the Romans. In all the years since, Jerusalem’s significance has never diminished. To this day, the Temple Mount remains the holiest site in Judaism.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Getty)
Similarly, for Christianity, Jerusalem’s role in the faith’s first century during the ministry of Jesus and the Apostolic age, is crucial. According to Canonical Gospels, Jesus preached and healed in Jerusalem. Beyond that, Jerusalem is the place he was arrested, put on trial, crucified, buried and resurrected. As such, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was constructed in 335 CE, marking the two holiest sites in Christianity. One, the spot where Christ was crucified, and the other, where he is said to have been buried and resurrected.
Islam’s connection to Jerusalem can be traced back to 638 CE, when the Caliph Omar entered the city. In
691 CE the Dome of the Rock was built, an Islamic shrine built on the Temple Mount where the Jewish Temple once stood. The site’s significance for Muslims derives from traditions connecting it to the creation of the world. It is believed that the Prophet Mohammed‘s Night Journey to heaven started from the rock at the center of the structure. Moreover, the nearby al Aqsa Mosque represents the third holiest site in Islam. Muslims believe that Mohammed was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Night Journey. The holiest sites of these three major religions, and the many faithful who arrive daily to worship at all of them, are all located within several minutes’ walking distance from one another.
Sadly, Jerusalem’s unique place in so many people’s belief systems is scarcely celebrated. Rather, it is used as a flashpoint of international tension playing out locally via the Arab-Israeli conflict. Among the most reprehensible charges being made today is the denial of Judaism’s connection to Jerusalem. While the sheer volume of historical evidence being unearthed depicting ancient Jewish life in the city is staggering, it doesn’t discourage wild attempts at revisionist history.
A priestly blessing at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Passover 2017. Photo Credit: Aaron Carahan / TPS
Looking back during the British Mandate of Palestine, the Temple Mount was under the authority of the Supreme Muslim Council, led by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. At the time, the Council published annual guide books to the Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount). Guidebooks from 1924, 1925, 1929 and 1935 all stated that the Haram al-Sharif’s “identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to the universal belief, on which David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.” The recognition of the Temple Mount’s importance to Jews in the guidebooks continued until 1950, two years after Israel’s establishment. However, by 1954, the references to Solomon’s Temple disappeared. At some point between 1950 and 1954, the Muslim waqf (religious authority) that governed the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque began to remove the references seen in earlier guide books. The phenomenon of “Temple Denial” had begun.
This trend only picked up as time went by. The Palestinian National Charter for example, was adopted in 1968 with an article specifically denying Judaism’s historic ties to Jerusalem. Article 20 of the Charter read in part that, “claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood.” Despite promises to eliminate Article 20 and other elements of the Charter in the run up to the 1994 Oslo Accords, former Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat continued to deny history. At the 2000 Camp David Accords, he famously asserted that the Jewish Temple never existed in Jerusalem. His successor, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, has only intensified the trend. In a 2017 speech before the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Abbas claimed that Jews are “really excellent in faking and counterfeiting history and religion,” and that Israel was “aiming to demolish al-Aqsa mosque and build the alleged Temple in order to uproot its citizens, Judaize it and eternalize its occupation.” This rhetoric has been accompanied by years’ worth of incitement, historical revisionism and distortion by the Palestinian leadership.
The papyrus from the 7th century BC that names Jerusalem in Hebrew. (Israel Antiquities Authority)
Apart from the Palestinian leadership, there has been a disturbing increase of international organizations and resolutions denying the historic facts of Jerusalem. UNESCO, the cultural organization of the United Nations, has now passed several resolutions denying Judaism’s ties to Jerusalem. One such resolution, introduced by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, and Sudan on Israel’s 69th Independence Day, asserted that Israel has no historical or legal right to any part of Jerusalem. Separate resolutions were also passed ignoring Jewish and Christian historical ties to the Temple Mount, only referring to it by its Arab name. In fact, shortly after the resolution passed, the Israel Antiquities Authority produced a rare papyrus fragment from the seventh century BC, written in ancient Hebrew, that mentions Jerusalem by name. The Israel Antiquities Authority attested to the fragment being the earliest known source aside from the Bible to mention Jerusalem in Hebrew.
There is no doubt that sensitivities surrounding Jerusalem and its status will remain contested for the foreseeable future. With that said, the sheer amount of archeological evidence available should eliminate attempts at denying history. These include artifacts like the 9th century BCE House of David inscription. It reveals the first extra-Biblical proof to the existence of the Biblical King David and the Davidic Dynasty. There is also the world-famous Arch of Titus, which depicts the treasures from the Temple in Jerusalem, including the Temple’s Menorah (six-branched lamp), being carried triumphantly into Rome. The sheer depth of Jewish history in the land of Israel, and its inextricable links to Jerusalem, its eternal capital, simply cannot be denied. No more than Christianity or Islam would deny their own.
The Arch of Titus from 81CE depicting Romans carrying off the Menorah from the Temple in Jerusalem. (Arch of Titus Project, Yeshiva University)
