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Jerusalem

Jerusalem (31ƒ46?N 35ƒ14?E; Yerushalayim; Arabic: ) al-Quds, , is an ancient Middle Eastern city on the watershed between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea at an elevation of 650-840 meters. It is located east of Tel Aviv, south of Ramallah, west of Jericho and north of Bethlehem.

Jerusalem has a very long history. Archaeological findings indicate the existence of a settlement in Jerusalem in the 3rd millennium BCE. The first mention of the city in historic sources begins in the 2nd millennium BCE. First built and founded by the Jebusites, it became the capital of the Jewish kingdoms of Israel, Judah and Judea in the First Temple and Second Temple periods. It continued to be the main city in the Holy Land during the Muslim rule. It is a holy city of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Jerusalem is the de facto capital of the modern State of Israel; until 1967, this was comprised only of western Jerusalem. The status of the eastern part of Jerusalem, administered by Israel since 1967, as part of the Israeli capital or a capital for a future Palestinian state, and the control over that part of the city and its holy places, are subjects of international controversy. With a population of 704,900 (as of December 31, 2004 [1]), Jerusalem is a heterogeneous city, representing a wide range of national, religious, and socioeconomic groups. The section called the "Old City" is surrounded by walls and consists of four quarters: Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. The current mayor of Jerusalem is Uri Lupolianski, the first Haredi to ever hold such position.

Name

The origin of the name of the city is uncertain. It is possible to understand the name (Hebrew Yerushalayim) as either "Heritage of Salem" or "Heritage of Peace" - a contraction of "heritage" (yerusha) and Salem (Shalem literally "whole" or "in harmony") or "peace" (shalom). (See the Biblical commentator Ramban for explanation.) "Shalem" is the original name used in Genesis 14:18 for the city. Similarly the Amarna Letters call the city Uru?alim in Akkadian, a cognate of the Hebrew Ir Shalem ("city of Salem"). Some consider a connection between the name and Shalim - the deity personifying dusk known from Ugaritic myths and offering lists. The ending -ayim or -im has the appearance of the Hebrew dual or plural suffix respectively. It has been argued that it is a dual form representing the fact that the city lies on two hills however the treatment of the ending as a suffix makes the rest of the name incomprehensible in Hebrew. A Midrashic interpretation comes from Genesis Rabba, which explains that Abraham came to "Shalem" after rescuing Lot. Upon arrival, he asked the king and high priest Melchizedek to bless him, and Melchizedek did so in the name of the Supreme God (indicating that he, like Abraham, was a monotheist). According to exegetes, God immortalizes this encounter between Melchizedek and Abraham by renaming the city in honor of them: the name "Yeru" (derived from "Yireh", the name Abraham gives to Mount Moriah after unbinding Isaac, and explained in Genesis as meaning that God will be revealed there) is placed in front of "Shalem". The plural ending implies the community of all believers in the One God who testify to the city's holiness.

History

According to Jewish mythology and tradition, Jerusalem was founded by Shem and Ever, ancestors of Abraham. Modern archeology traces the earliest written record of the city to Egyptian records of the Bronze Age. It is thought that the city dates back to least as far back as 3000 BCE. It was first built and founded by the Canaanites, who gave it the name Uru Salim, meaning "the city of peace". From about 1600 to 1300 BCE, the city came under Egyptian suzerainty though continued to be governed by Canaanite rulers who paid tribute to the Pharaohs. During this period the city increasingly came under attacks from the Habiru, possibly the ancestors of the Jews.

According to Biblical tradition, the city was controlled by the Jebusites until its conquest by David in c. 1000 BCE. David expanded the city to the south, and declared it the capital city of the united Kingdom of Israel. In c. 960 BCE, Solomon built the First Jewish Temple. For about four centuries after the ten tribes split off to form the northern Kingdom of Israel, Jerusalem served as the capital of the southern Kingdom of Judah.

By the end of the First Temple period, Jerusalem was the sole acting religious shrine in the kingdom and a center of regular pilgrimage. Historical records corroborate some of the Biblical history from around the 9th century BCE and attest the significance of the Temple in Jewish religious life. In 597 BCE, the city was overcome by the Babylonians and in 586 BCE, the city's walls were ruined and the Temple was burnt. After several decades of captivity, the Jews were allowed by Cyrus II of Persia to return to Judah and rebuild the city and the Temple. It continued to be the capital of Judah and center of Jewish worship for another four centuries under the Hasmonean Kingdom. By 19 BCE, the Temple Mount was raised and the Temple was rebuilt under Herod the Great, a Jewish client-king under Roman rule. In 6 CE, the city and Iudaea Province came under direct Roman rule. The Great Jewish Revolt resulted in the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. The city served as the national capital again for almost 3 years during the Bar Kokhba's revolt against Rome; it was sacked in 135 CE. For almost two millennia since then, Jerusalem did not serve as the national capital of any independent state, until the renewed independence of Israel in 1948.

In 638, the city was taken by the advancing Muslim forces. The rights of the non-Muslims under Islam were governed by the Pact of Umar and Christians and Jews living in the city were granted autonomy in exchange for a required poll tax. Whereas the Byzantine Christian authorities had not tolerated the presence of Jews within the walls of the city, the Muslim rulers allowed the reestablishment of a Jewish community.[2] After the treaty of Capitulation signed with the Byzantines, Umar ordered the Patriarch Sophronius to guide him and those who accompanied him to the sanctuary of King David where he later decided to build a mosque in front of the Rock. The mosque became known as Masjid al Aqsa. In 1099, the city was conquered by the First Crusaders who slaughtered most of its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants. Series of conquests followed: in 1187 by Saladin, 1244 by the Kharezmian Tatars, 1247 by the Egyptians, 1259 by the Mongols, 1260 by the Mamelukes and in 1517, by the Ottoman Turks. In 1917, the British Army led by General Allenby captured the city. As the British Mandate of Palestine was expiring, the 1947 UN Partition Plan (Part III) recommended that "The City of Jerusalem shall be established as a corpus separatum under a special international regime and shall be administered by the United Nations."The 1949 cease-fire line between Israel and Jordan, also known as the Green Line, cuts through the city. From 1949 until 1967, Western Jerusalem was part of Israel and East Jerusalem was part of Jordan. From 1950 to 1967, the capital claimed by Israel comprised Western Jerusalem. After Israel captured Eastern Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel has administered and has asserted sovereignty over the entire city. The status of the city is disputed.

Religious significance

Jerusalem plays an important role in three major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as in a number of smaller religious groups. A large number of places of have religious significance for these religions, among which the Western Wall, Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Jerusalem as the capital of Israel

Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital in 1950 and all the branches of Israeli government (Presidential, Legislative, Judicial and Administrative) are seated in Jerusalem. It is home to a number of key Israeli government buildings, including the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court and the houses of the President and Prime Minister. With the exception of the house of the premier, these buildings can be toured.

The United Nations rejected the designation of united Jerusalem as Israel's capital and recognizes Tel Aviv as Israel's capital. [3] The international community argues that Israel's annexation of the eastern part of Jerusalem from Jordan during the Six Day War was in violation of international law, and that the final issue of the status of East Jerusalem should be determined in future Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Therefore, although all ambassadors and other official diplomats submit their accreditation to the President of Israel in his house at Jerusalem, nearly all countries maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv, Israel's economic and financial centre

Palestinian claims

The Palestinian National Authority asserts that the capital of a future Palestinian state will be situated in Jerusalem. According to the Oslo Agreements the final status of Jerusalem should be determined by peaceful negotiation.

Physical geography

Jerusalem is situated in 31ƒ46?45?N, 35ƒ13?25?E, upon the southern spur of a plateau the eastern side of which slopes from 2,460 ft. above sea-level north of the Temple area to 2,130 ft. at the southeastern extremity. The western hill is about 2,500 ft. high and slopes southeast from the Judean plateau.

Topography

Jerusalem is surrounded upon all sides by valleys, of which those on the north are less pronounced than those on the other three sides. The principal two valleys start northwest of the present city. The first runs eastward with a slight southerly bend (the present Wadi al-Joz), then, deflecting directly south (formerly known as "Kidron Valley", the modern Wadi Sitti Maryam), divides the Mount of Olives from the city. The second runs directly south on the western side of the city, turns eastward at its southeastern extremity, then runs directly east, and joins the first valley near Bir Ayyub ("Job's Well"). It was called in olden times the "Valley of Hinnom", and is the modern Wadi al-Rababi, which is not to be identified with the first-mentioned valley. A third valley, commencing in the northwest where is now the Damascus Gate, ran south-southeasterly down to the Pool of Siloam, and divided the lower part into two hills (the lower and the upper cities of Josephus). This is probably the later Tyropoeon ("Cheese-makers'") valley. A fourth valley led from the western hill (near the present Jaffa Gate) over to the Temple area: it is represented in modern Jerusalem by David Street. A fifth cut the eastern hill into a northern and a southern part. Later Jerusalem was thus built upon four spurs. Today, neighboring towns are Bethlehem and Beit Jala at the southern city border, and Abu Dis to the East.

Climate and environment

People and culture

Demography

When it first appears in historical records, Jerusalem was inhabited by a Canaanite tribe. The Bible specifies them as the Jebusites, and says they ruled it until its conquest by King David. After taking control of the city from the Canaanites, Jews formed the majority of the population until Jerusalem's destruction by Rome in the second century. Subsequent demographic changes are uncertain, although the city's population probably attained a Muslim majority by the time of the Crusades. An official 16th century survey confirms that the city was largely Muslim. By 1844, Jews were the largest single ethnic group in the city and formed a majority by the late 19th century. According to the current official census as of 2003, Jerusalem's population was 693,200, of which 464,500 (67.0%) were Jews (38% of which live in East Jerusalem) and 228,700 (33.0%) were non-Jews (this number is for the expanded municipality of Jerusalem as claimed by Israel, which includes outlying Arab villages and neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem which were not part of Jordanian East Jerusalem prior to 1967).

Culture

Jerusalem houses many museums. The Israel Museum is one of the most famous. It includes a large collection of art and archaeological artifacts. In the "Shrine of the Book", it exhibits the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Rockefeller Museum is the city's specific museum for archeology. The Ticho House provides an art collections in a historical building. The Tower of David Museum is the main municipal museum, it includes models of the city and changing exhibits. Yad Vashem is the national holocaust museum and monument. The Islamic Museum in the Old City and Islamic Art Museum near the President's house both have collections of Islamic art, holy scripts and artifacts. The city has two professional orchestras, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra-IBA and the Israel Camerata Jerusalem. In walking distance from the old city (southwest) is a cluster of cultural institutions. The Khan Theater is Jerusalem's only repertory theater. The Jerusalem Cinematheque is the venue in Jerusalem to watch non-commercial movies. It houses annually an international film festival and a Jewish film festival. In the Sultan Pool open air concerts are held, by Israeli artists and guests from abroad. The Jerusalem Music Center in Mishkanot Sheananim hosts chamber music concerts and workshops. The main cultural event of the year is the Israel Festival, with international and local street performances and repertory and alternative musicians and theater groups.

Economy

Heavy industry is discouraged in Jerusalem, while Tel Aviv remains Israel's financial capital, leaving Jerusalem's economy as mainly service-based. Almost half of Jerusalem's residents work in government, public service, or tourism, although there has been an increasing number of high-technology start-ups in the city, as well. The civilian labor force of Jerusalem was 183,000 (48.1%) out of 384,000 persons ages 15+. This is low in comparison to Tel Aviv and Haifa, 58.0% and 52.4% respectively. This reflects a higher percentage of one income households, especially among the Arab and Haredi populations. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the average wage for a Jerusalem worker was NIS 5,568 in 2000. In Tel Aviv (as of 2000) the income was 17.8% higher in Haifa (also as of 2000) 14.1% higher. Income in Jerusalem was on average lower both for wage-earners and self-employed people. The population of Jerusalem is poorer in comparison to Israeli national figures. This is also often attributed to large Arab and Haredi population segments. In 1995 25% of the city population and 37% of its children lived below poverty level, as compared to 17% of all Israelis and 23% of Israeli children.

Transportation

Roads

Begin Boulevard is West Jerusalem's inner city expressway. It runs south to north from Manahat (Malcha) to Ramot, where it merges into the Modi'in-Tel Aviv highway. Other major north-south arteries include the Talpiot-Atarot route, which traverses the city center and roughly separates East and West Jerusalem, and Herzl Boulevard, which passes west of Begin boulevard; it begins at the northern entrance of the city and continues south via Mt. Herzl and Yad VaShem memorial. It then blends into additional routes that lead to the southwestern quarters. The Golomb-Herzog-Ben-Zvi route also links the southern quarters with the city center. Running east through the city center, Jaffa Road connects the Jaffa Gate of the Old City as well as East Jerusalem with the northwestern city entrance. Yigal Yadin Boulevard serves as a northern bypass of the city center, and links Ma'ale Adummim and the northeastern neighborhoods to Begin Boulevard near Ramot. A future ring-road would include Yadin and Begin boulevards as the respective north and west sectors Begin Boulevard is West Jerusalem's inner city expressway. It runs south to north from Manahat (Malcha) to Ramot, where it merges into the Modi'in-Tel Aviv highway. Other major north-south arteries include the Talpiot-Atarot route, which traverses the city center and roughly separates East and West Jerusalem, and Herzl Boulevard, which passes west of Begin boulevard; it begins at the northern entrance of the city and continues south via Mt. Herzl and Yad VaShem memorial. It then blends into additional routes that lead to the southwestern quarters. The Golomb-Herzog-Ben-Zvi route also links the southern quarters with the city center.

Running east through the city center, Jaffa Road connects the Jaffa Gate of the Old City as well as East Jerusalem with the northwestern city entrance. Yigal Yadin Boulevard serves as a northern bypass of the city center, and links Ma'ale Adummim and the northeastern neighborhoods to Begin Boulevard near Ramot.

A future ring-road would include Yadin and Begin boulevards as the respective north and west sectors

Buses

Jerusalem Central Bus Station is Jerusalem's intercity bus station for services to destinations in Israel and Israeli settlements in the West Bank. It is served by Egged and Dan buses, though other companies, notably those serving Modi'in, have pick-up and drop-off across the street. City buses are run by Egged which runs close to a hundred bus lines throughout the city and its suburbs.

Palestinian-run buses serve some destinations in the city as well as Palestinian towns in the West Bank. This system is based out of the East Jerusalem Central Bus Station on Sultan Suleiman Street. Palestinian buses also leave from outside the Damascus Gate.

Railway

Israel Railways operates train service to Southern Jerusalem with 2 stops: Jerusalem Malcha near the Malcha Mall and the Biblical Zoo. Very few trains stop at the latter stop. The line was out of use for seven years due to deteriorating conditions and was restored on April 9, 2005. Jerusalem Malcha is the new station, which replaces the historical Khan Station at Remez Square near the Old City.

In 2009, plans call for a new high speed train line to run from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem which will terminate at a new underground station under construction underneath the area between the Jerusalem Central Bus Station and the ICC (International Convention Center - Binyanei HaUmah). There are further plans to extend the line from the Jerusalem Central Bus Station to the current Jerusalem Malcha Train Station, the terminus of the current historic (now upgraded) railroad.

There are also plans for a local light rail system. The first line is at the height of its construction and will begin operating from the northeastern Pisgat Ze'ev through the French Hill and downtown to the southwestern neighborhoods in about three years[2]. Unusually, for a city with a population of over 600k, Jerusalem never had a previous first generation tramway network, although, before the war, one was proposed but was cancelled for political reasons

Airports

Atarot Airport is Jerusalem's airport but its use has been discontinued due to security concerns related to its location near the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Ben Gurion International Airport, 40km northwest of the city, serves as the primary international air transport hub for both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Sports

The most popular sport in Jerusalem is football (soccer). The city has two major teams, the yellow Beitar Jerusalem FC and the red Hapoel Jerusalem FC. Beitar plays in the Premier League, was 4 times Israeli champion (1986, 1993, 1997 and 1998) and has won the national cup 5 times. Hapoel currently plays in the Leumit or second league and has won one national cup, in 1973. In basketball, however, Hapoel Jerusalem has the upperhand. In a league dominated by Maccabi Tel Aviv it never won a championship, yet twice won the Israeli Cup, in 1996 and 1997. In 2004 it won the European ULEB Cup.

A marathon is held in the streets of Jerusalem every year and the popular Jerusalem hike starts west of the city and ends in its streets. The municipality, universities, schools, clubs and businesses operate over a thousand sport facilities throughout the city. The largest sports facility is the Kollek Stadium in Malcha, a football stadium with 12,000 seats. Major basketball games are held at the Strauss Arena.

 

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, called the Church of the Resurrection (Anastasis in Greek and Surp Harutyun in Armenian) by Eastern Christians, is a Christian church now within the walled Old City of Jerusalem, Israel. The ground on which the church rests is venerated by most Christians as Golgotha, the Hill of Calvary, where the New Testament describes that Jesus was crucified. It also is said to contain the place where Jesus was reportedly buried (the sepulchre). The church has been an important pilgrimage destination since the 4th century. Today it serves as the headquarters of the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Catholic Archpriest of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre.

History

Eusebius describes in his Life of Constantine [1] how the site of the Holy Sepulchre, originally a site of veneration for the Christian community in Jerusalem, had been covered with earth and a temple of Venus had been built on top. Although Eusebius does not say as much, this would probably have been done as part of Hadrian's reconstruction of Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina in 135, following the destruction of the Jewish Revolt of 70 and Bar Kokhba's revolt of 132–135. Following his conversion to Christianity, Emperor Constantine ordered in about 325/326 that the site be uncovered, and instructed Saint Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, to build a church on the site. Socrates Scholasticus (born c. 380), in his Ecclesiastical History, gives a full description of the discovery [2] (that was repeated later by Sozomen and by Theodoret) that emphasizes the role played in the excavations and construction by Constantine's mother Helena, to whom is also credited the rediscovery of the True Cross. Constantine's church was built around the excavated hill of the Crucifixion, and was actually three connected churches built over the three different holy sites, including a great basilica (the Martyrium visited by the nun Egeria in the 380s), an enclosed colonnaded atrium (the Triportico) built around the traditional Rock of Calvary, and a rotunda, called the Anastasis ("Resurrection"), which contained the remains of the cave that Helena and Macarius had identified as the burial site of Jesus. The surrounding rock was cut away, and the Tomb was encased in a structure called the Edicule (Latin aediculum, small building) or the Kouvoulkion (Greek, shrine) in the center of the rotunda. The dome of the rotunda was completed by the end of the 4th century.

This building was damaged by fire in 614 when the Persians under Khosrau II invaded Jerusalem and captured the Cross. In 630, Emperor Heraclius marched triumphantly into Jerusalem and restored the True Cross to the rebuilt Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Under the Muslims it remained a Christian church. The early Muslim rulers protected the city's Christian sites, prohibiting their destruction and their use as living quarters, but after a riot in 966, when the doors and roof were burnt, the original building was completely destroyed on October 18, 1009 by the "mad" Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacked out the Church's foundations down to bedrock. The Edicule and the east and west walls and the roof of the cut-rock tomb it encased were destroyed or damaged (contemporary accounts vary), but the north and south walls were likely protected by rubble from further damage. European reaction was far-reaching, and often irrational. For example, Clunaic monk Raoul Glaber blamed the Jews, with the result that Jews were expelled from Limoges and other French towns. Ultimately, this destruction provided an impetus to the later Crusades.

A series of small chapels was erected on the site by Constantine IX Monomachos in 1048 under stringent conditions imposed by the caliphate. The rebuilt sites were taken by the knights of the First Crusade on July 15, 1099. The First Crusade was envisioned as an armed pilgrimage, and no crusader could consider his journey complete unless he had prayed as a pilgrim at the Holy Sepulchre. Crusader chief Godfrey of Bouillon, who became the first crusader monarch of Jerusalem, decided not to use the title "king" during his lifetime, and declared himself Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri, "Protector (or Defender) of the Holy Sepulchre." The chronicler William of Tyre reports on the reconstruction in the mid-12th century, when the crusaders began to renovate the church in a Romanesque style and added a bell tower. These renovations unified the holy sites and were completed during the reign of Queen Melisende in 1149. The church became the seat of the first Latin Patriarchs, and was also the site of the kingdom's scriptorium. The church was lost to Saladin, along with the rest of the city, in 1187, although the treaty established after the Third Crusade allowed for Christian pilgrims to visit the site. Emperor Frederick II regained the city and the church by treaty in the 13th century, while he himself was under a ban of excommunication, leading to the curious result of the holiest church in Christianity being laid under interdict. Both city and church were captured by the Khwarezmians in 1244. The Franciscan friars renovated it further in 1555, as it had been neglected despite increased numbers of pilgrims. A fire severely damaged the structure again in 1808, causing the dome of the Rotunda to collapse and smashing the Edicule's exterior decoration. The Rotunda and the Edicule's exterior were rebuilt in 1809–1810 by architect Komminos of Mytilene in the then current Turkish Baroque style. The fire did not reach the interior of the Edicule, and the marble decoration of the Tomb dates mainly to the 1555 restoration. The current dome dates from 1870. Extensive modern renovations began in 1959, including a restoration of the dome from 1994–1997. The cladding of red marble applied to the Edicule by Komminos has deteriorated badly and is detaching from the underlying structure; since 1947 it has been held in place with an exterior scaffolding of iron girders installed by the British Mandate. No plans have been agreed upon for its renovation.

Status quo

Since the renovation of 1555, control of the church oscillated between the Franciscans and the Orthodox, depending on which community could obtain a favorable firman from the Sublime Porte at a particular time, often through outright bribery. In 1767, weary of the squabbling and the violence that often accompanied it, the Porte issued a firman that divided the church among the claimants. This was confirmed in 1852 with another firman that made the arrangement permanent, establishing a status quo of territorial division among the communities. The primary custodians are the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Apostolic and Roman Catholic churches. In the 19th century, the Coptic Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Syriac Orthodox acquired lesser responsibilities, which include shrines and other structures within and around the building. Times and places of worship for each community are strictly regulated in common areas.

Establishment of the status quo did not halt the violence, which continues to break out every so often even in modern times. On a hot summer day in 2002, the Coptic monk who is stationed on the roof to express Coptic claims to the Ethiopian territory there moved his chair from its agreed spot into the shade. This was interpreted as a hostile move by the Ethiopians, and eleven were hospitalized after the resulting fracas In another incident in 2004 during Orthodox celebrations of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a door to the Franciscan chapel was left open. This was taken as a sign of disrespect by the Orthodox and a fistfight broke out. Some people were arrested, but no one was seriously injured. Under the status quo, no part of what is designated as common territory may be so much as rearranged without consent from all communities. This often leads to the neglect of badly needed repairs when the communities cannot come to an agreement among themselves about the final shape of a project. Just such a disagreement has delayed the renovation of the edicule, where the need is now dire but where also any change in the structure might result in a change to the status quo disagreeable to one or more of the communities. A less grave sign of this state of affairs is located on a window ledge over the church's entrance. A wooden ladder was placed there sometime before 1852, when the status quo defined both the doors and the window ledges as common ground. The ladder remains there to this day, in almost exactly the same position it can be seen to occupy in century-old photographs and engravings.

None of the communities control the main entrance. For centuries, two neutral neighbouring Muslim families appointed by Saladin, the Nuseibeh and Joudeh families, were the custodians of the key to the single door, which is unlocked at set times in cooperation with one of the communities on a rotating schedule. This narrow way of access to such a large structure has proven to be hazardous at times. For example, when a fire broke out in 1840, dozens of pilgrims were trampled to death. On June 20, 1999, the communities agreed to install a new exit door in the church. There was never any report of this door being completed.

Modern arrangement of the church

The entrance to the church is through a single door in the south transept. The key to the entrance is held by the Muslim Nuseibeh family who were entrusted with guardianship by Saladin in 1192 to keep the peace between the various Christian factions. After periods of tension between the Nuseibeh family and the Ottoman authorities in the 18th century, the Ottoman authorities appointed the Joudeh family to assist the Nuseibeh's in their task. Today, the Joudeh family still assists the Nuseibeh's by bringing the key of the church to a member of the Nuseibeh family who unlocks and locks the door on a daily basis.

Just inside the entrance is the Stone of Anointing, believed to be the spot where Jesus' body was prepared for burial. To the left, or west, is the Rotunda of the Anastasis beneath the larger of the church's two domes, in the center of which is the Educule of the Holy Sepulchre itself. Under the status quo the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Apostolic Churches all have rights to the interior of the tomb, and all three communities celebrate the Divine Liturgy or Mass there daily. It is also used for other ceremonies on special occasions, such as the Holy Saturday ceremony of the Holy Fire celebrated by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. To its rear, within a chapel constructed of iron latticework upon a stone base semicircular in plan, lies the altar used by the Coptic Orthodox. Beyond that to the rear of the Rotunda is a very rough hewn chapel believed to be the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea in which the Syriac Orthodox celebrate their Liturgy on Sundays. To the right of the sepulchre on the southeastern side of the Rotunda is the Chapel of the Apparition which is reserved for Roman Catholic use.

On the east side opposite the Rotunda is the Crusader structure housing the main altar of the Church, today the Greek Orthodox catholicon. The second, smaller dome sits directly over the center of the transept crossing of the choir where the compas, an omphalos once thought to be the center of the world, is situated. East of this is a large iconostasis demarcating the Greek Orthodox sanctuary before which is set the Patriarchal throne and a throne for visiting episcopal celebrants. On the south side of the altar via the ambulatory is a stairway climbing to the Chapel of Calvary, or Golgotha, believed to be the site of Jesus' crucifixion and the most lavishly decorated part of the church. The main altar there belongs to the Greek Orthodox, while the Roman Catholics have an altar to the side. Further to the east in the ambulatory are the stairs descending to the Chapel of St. Helena, belonging to the Armenians. From there, another set of stairs leads down to the Roman Catholic Chapel of the Invention of the Holy Cross, believed to be the place where the True Cross was found.

Authenticity

As noted above, both Eusebius and Socrates Scholasticus record that the tomb of Jesus was originally a site of veneration for the Christian community in Jerusalem and its location remembered by that community even when the site was covered by Hadrian's temple. Eusebius in particular notes that the uncovering of the tomb "afforded to all who came to witness the sight, a clear and visible proof of the wonders of which that spot had once been the scene" (Life of Constantine, Chapter XXVIII [5]).

Archaeologist Martin Biddle of Oxford University has theorized that this "clear and visible proof" might have been a graffito to the effect of "This is the Tomb of Christ", scratched in the rock by Christian pilgrims before the construction of the Roman temple. Similar ancient graffiti are still visible in the Catacombs of Rome, indicating the tombs of especially venerated saints, or even (to give a modern, secular example) scratched on tombstones in PÀre Lachaise Cemetery to direct Doors fans to the grave of Jim Morrison.From the time of its original construction in 335, and through its numerous renovations, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been venerated as the authentic site of Jesus's crucifixion and burial.

In the nineteenth century, a number of scholars disputed the identification of the Church with the actual site of Jesus's crucifixion and burial. They reasoned that the Church was inside the city walls, while early accounts (e.g., Hebrews 13:12) described these events as outside the walls. On the morning after his arrival in Jerusalem, General Gordon selected a rock-cut tomb in a cultivated area outside the walls as a more likely site for the burial of Jesus. This site is usually referred to as the Garden Tomb to distinguish it from the Holy Sepulchre, and it is still a popular pilgrimage site for those (usually Protestants) who doubt the authenticity of the Anastasis and/or do not have permission to hold services in the Church itself.

However, it has since been determined that the site was indeed outside the city walls at the time of the crucifixion. The Jerusalem city walls were expanded by Herod Agrippa in 41–44, and only then enclosed the site of the Holy Sepulchre, at which time the surrounding garden mentioned in the Bible would have been built up as well. To quote the Israeli scholar Dan Bahat, former City Archaeologist of Jerusalem:

"We may not be absolutely certain that the site of the Holy Sepulchre Church is the site of Jesus' burial, but we have no other site that can lay a claim nearly as weighty, and we really have no reason to reject the authenticity of the site." (Bahat, 1986)

Western Wall

The Western Wall HaKotel HaMa'aravi), or simply The Kotel, is a retaining wall from the time of the Jewish Second Temple. It is sometimes referred to as the Wailing Wall, or as the al-Buraq Wall, in a mix of English and Arabic. The Temple was the most sacred building in Judaism. Herod the Great built vast retaining walls around Mount Moriah, expanding the small, quasi-natural plateau on which the First and Second Temples stood into the wide open spaces of the Temple Mount seen today. In recent centuries, Jews were allowed little or no access to the site, such as when Turkey (the Ottoman Empire) ruled over it for 400 years (1515-1917), followed by the British Mandate of Palestine (1917-1948) and the Jordanian rule of Jerusalem (1948-1967). Only when the Israel Defense Forces won a victory in the 1967 Six Day War were Jews finally able to gain free access to their most holy site.

History

The First Temple or Solomon's Temple was built in the 10th century BC. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC, the Second Temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 AD as a result of the Great Jewish Revolt. Each Temple stood for a period of about 400 years. According to Judaism's religious texts, when the legions of Titus destroyed the Temple, only a part of an outer court-yard "western wall" remained standing. Jewish texts teach that Titus left it as a bitter reminder to the Jews that Rome had vanquished Judea. The Jews, however, attributed it to a promise made by God that some part of the holy Temple would be left standing as a sign of God's unbroken bond with the Jewish people in spite of the catastrophes which had befallen them.

Eyewitness accounts of Roman actions

Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury (for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be done), [Titus] Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and Temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest eminence; that is, Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and Mariamne; and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. This wall was spared, in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison [in the Upper City], as were the towers [the three forts] also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman valor had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall [surrounding Jerusalem], it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it [Jerusalem] had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were for innovations; a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind.

And truly, the very view itself was a melancholy thing; for those places which were adorned with trees and pleasant gardens, were now become desolate country every way, and its trees were all cut down. Nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judaea and the most beautiful suburbs of the city, and now saw it as a desert, but lament and mourn sadly at so great a change. For the war had laid all signs of beauty quite waste. Nor had anyone who had known the place before, had come on a sudden to it now, would he have known it again. But though he [a foreigner] were at the city itself, yet would he have inquired for it. ...the Romans set fire to the extreme parts of the city [the suburbs] and burnt them down, and entirely demolished [Jerusalem’s] walls. When [Titus] entirely demolished the rest of the city, and overthrew its walls, he left [three] towers as a monument of his good fortune, which had proved [the destructive power of] his auxiliaries, and enabled him to take what could not otherwise have been taken by him.

—Josephus

And where is now that great city, the metropolis of the Jewish nation, which was fortified by so many walls round about, which had so many fortresses and large towers to defend it, which could hardly contain the instruments prepared for the war, and which had so many ten thousands of men to fight for it? Where is this city that was believed to have God himself inhabiting therein? it is now demolished to the very foundations, and hath nothing left but that monument of it preserved, I mean the camp of those that hath destroyed it, which still dwells upon its ruins; some unfortunate old men also lie ashes upon the Temple, and a few women are there preserved alive by the enemy, for our bitter shame and reproach.... I cannot but wish that we had all died before we had seen that holy city demolished by the hands of our enemies, or the foundations of our Holy Temple dug up, after so profane a manner.

—Eleazar at Masada, as reported by Josephus

Venerated by the Jews

Jews have prayed at the Western Wall for two thousand years, believing that that spot has greater holiness than any other accessible place on Earth, or the fourth holiest overall, after the Holy of Holies, the rest of the Temple area, and the Courtyard, and that God is nearby listening to their prayers. The tradition of placing prayer written on the small piece of paper into a crack in the Wall goes back thousands of years. Included in the thrice daily Jewish prayers are fervent pleas that God return to the Land of Israel, ingather all the Jewish exiles, rebuild the Third Temple, and bring the messianic era with the arrival of Jewish Messiah (Mashiach). The Western Wall is holy to the Jewish people because this wall is part of a wall that encompasses the Temple Mount along with the southern and eastern sections. This encompassing wall is thought to be the only remnant of the Temple in Jerusalem and the closest site to the "Holy of Holies", the most holy site in Judaism. Of the three wall sections, eastern, southern and western, the western is the traditional site of prayer.

Restricted holy areas

According to many rabbis, Jews are forbidden to enter certain areas of the Temple Mount according to Jewish law. These areas are defined differently by different rabbinic authorities, nonetheless all agree that the entrance into the area occupied by the Dome of the Rock is forbidden. That same area was once occupied by the Temple which was a biblically designated holy place. The rock beneath the Dome of The Rock, is considered by some rabbinic midrashic texts to be the foundation from which God created the universe. According to some rabbinic works, this rock was where the Biblical patriarch Isaac was bound by Abraham during his near-sacrifice in the binding of Isaac. This area was held to be where the patriarch Jacob slept and dreamt of a ladder going up to heaven with angels going up and down (Genesis 28 [1]). This spot is identified with the Holy Of Holies. This is the most holy wall because it is still standing. During the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, only certain people, such as the priests, were permitted into the Temple's grounds. The Temple complex consisted of distinct areas each with its own level of holiness. The most holy area, the Holy Of Holies (Kodesh Hakodashim), the central part of the Temple was entered only once a year on Yom Kippur and only by the High Priest. Other areas were accessible only to members of the priestly family, the Kohanim. Other areas, further from the Holy of Holies were accessible to the Levi'im. Further out were areas accessible to all Jews.

During subsequent occupations

During the time that foreign armies occupied the lands of Judea and the Land of Israel, the Western Wall always remained a site venerated by Jews; many trekked from across the world to spend their last years near the walls of Jerusalem, spending much of their time in tearful prayer in front of the Western Wall; non-Jewish observers watching the Jews cry there (mourning the destruction of the Temple) gave the site its popular, but incorrect name, the Wailing Wall.

The Wall as viewed by Muslims

The site is also holy to Muslims who believe Solomon to be a prophet. Muslims believe that Muhammad made a spiritual journey to Jerusalem on a winged horse, al-Buraq, in 620 AD. While there, he tethered the horse to a wall, which some Muslims believe to be the Western wall. Hence the Arabic name for the wall is the al-Buraq Wall. Due to the holiness of the site in Islam, in 687 AD Muslims built the Dome of the Rock and the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, encompassed by the wall.

Ottoman control

By 1517 Islamic Ottoman Empire under Selim I took the land of what was once ancient Israel and Judea from the Egyptian Mamelukes (1250-1517). Turkey had a benevolent attitude towards the Jews, having welcomed thousands of Jewish refugees who had recently been expelled from Spain by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1492. The Turkish Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, was so taken with Jerusalem and its plight that he ordered a magnificent, surrounding, fortress-wall built around the entire city (which was not that large at that time.) This wall still stands and can be seen today.

Under the British

Following Britain's victories during the Sinai and Palestine Campaigns under Field Marshal Edmund Allenby, the British took control of the land in 1917. Jews were allowed to stand at the wall and pray.

The Arab riots in Palestine of 1929 broke out partly because the Arabs claimed variously that the Jews were trying to build a synagogue near the wall or take over the site. In 1931 the British government issued a document affirming Muslim property rights to the wall and placing strictures on Jewish observance.

Jordanian rule

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the area near the wall was taken over by the Jordanian Arab Legion. Jews were denied access to the wall, in violation of the 1949 armistice agreement, and buildings were constructed within a few meters of the wall. During the 1967 Six Day War, Israel defeated the Jordanian army in Jerusalem with fierce fighting. Jordan lost the wall and it came under Jewish control for the first time in 2,000 years.

Israel since 1967

Following the victory of the Israel Defense Forces during the 1967 Six-Day War, the Western Wall, together with all of Jerusalem and the West Bank came under Israeli control. The Israelis demolished the medieval Moroccan Quarter in front of the Western Wall facing away from the Temple Mount, and built a large plaza in its place which is used by tens of thousands of Jews on the Jewish holidays, and is a favorite tourist attraction year round.

Many foreign heads of state who visit Israel, come to the Wall, out of their respect for its significance to Israel and to Jews worldwide. The Western Wall continues to have a powerful hold on the devotion of Jews all over the world. Over the decades, millions have come as tourists and pilgrims to be able to touch the Wall with their hands and feel the sanctity that emanates from it.

Recent damage to plaza

• On February 16, 2004, a portion of a stone retaining wall that forms one side of the Western Wall Plaza and supports the ramp that leads from the Western Wall plaza to the Gate of the Moors (Hebrew Sha'ar HaMughrabim, Arabic Bab al-Maghariba) and on the Temple Mount collapsed. [2]

• On March 30, 2005, The word "Allah" in Arabic was found hewn into the eastern wall of Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The vandalism was discovered on a half-meter section of the 2,000 year old wall, which is undergoing repair by a team of Jordanian engineers.

Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock ( Qubbat As-Sakhrah) is a famous Islamic shrine in Jerusalem. It was built between 687 and 691 by the 9th Caliph, Abd al-Malik. It is sometimes called the Mosque of Umar (though it is not a mosque), as 2nd Caliph Umar prayed at the site after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 637.

Located in what Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary — which Jews and Christians call the Temple Mount — it remains one of the best known landmarks of Jerusalem, and is sacred to all three faiths. The rock in the center of the dome is believed by Muslims to be the spot from which Muhammad ascended through the heavens to God accompanied by the angel Gabriel, where he consulted with Moses and was given the (now obligatory) Islamic prayers before returning to earth (see Isra and Mi'raj.) Though the location is not historically certain, a Qur'anic verse says that Muhammad took a night journey from a sacred mosque (probably Mecca) to the farthest mosque (al-Masjid al-Aqsa), which later came to be associated with Jerusalem, although Jerusalem itself is never mentioned in the Qur'an.

The Jews and Christians believe this place to be Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac at the command of God, where Jacob saw the ladder to heaven, where the innermost chamber of the Jewish Temple stood. Other, extra-Biblical Jewish traditions say it is the spot where the first stone was laid in the building of the world.

The Dome of the Rock was built for Caliph Abd al-Malik by Byzantine craftsmen from Constantinople sent to the Caliph by the Byzantine Emperor. It is in the shape of a Byzantine martyrium, a structure intended for the housing and veneration of saintly relics and is an excellent example of middle Byzantine art.

Essentially unchanged for more than thirteen centuries, the octagonally-shaped Dome of the Rock remains one of the world's most beautiful and enduring architectural treasures. The gold covered dome stretches 20 metres across the Noble Rock, rising to an apex more than 35 metres above it. The Qur'anic verse 'Ya Sin' is inscribed across the top in the dazzling tile work commissioned in the 16th century by Suleiman the Magnificent. The sura al-Isra'a (The Night Journey), is inscribed above YaSin. In 1993, the golden dome covering was replaced, courtesy of King Hussein of Jordan, due to rust and wear.

During the Crusades, the Knights Templar, who believe the Dome of the Rock to be near the ruins of the Temple of Solomon, made their headquarters in the Al-Aqsa Mosque adjacent to the Dome for much of the 12th century. They called it the "Templum Domini", and it was the location from which they took their name "Templar". It appeared in some of the seals of the Order's Grand Masters (such as Evrard de Barres and Regnaud de Vichier), and its architecture was a model for Templar churches across Europe.

The Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement wish to relocate the Dome to Mecca and replace it with a Third Temple. Since the Dome is on sacred ground to the Muslims this is not an option. The majority of Israelis also do not share the movement's wishes.

Temple Mount

The Temple MountHar haB…yit) is a hotly contested religious site in the Old City of Jerusalem.

A plan of the Haram al-Sharif in 1890.

It was the site of the first and second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and according to Judaism is to be the site of the third and final Temple in the time of the Messiah. It is also the site of two major Muslim religious shrines, the Dome of the Rock (c. 690) and Al-Aqsa Mosque (c. 710). It is the holiest site in Judaism, the third holiest site in Islam, and has special significance to Christianity. It is thus one of the most contested religious sites in the world. Ariel Sharon's controversial September 28, 2000, visit to the Temple Mount is cited by some people as the event that precipitated the Second Intifada, although others, including Palestinian representatives, dismiss this and instead feel that the catalyst for the violence was the breakdown of the Camp David negotiations on July 25, 2000.

History and traditions of the site

According to the Talmud, it was from here that God gathered the earth that was formed into Adam (some Christians say it was Golgotha), and it was here that Adam - and later Cain, Abel, and Noah - offered sacrifices to God. According to the Bible, the place where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac was Mount Moriah, which the Talmud says was another name for the Temple Mount. Muslim accounts also point to this as the location that Abraham was to sacrifice his son Ishmael, and the traditional location believed to be the spot ("the furthest mosque") where in 621, Mohammed briefly passed by on a miraculous journey aboard the winged steed Buraq, on his way to take a brief tour of heaven with the Archangel Gabriel.

The Bible recounts that Jacob dreamt about angels ascending and descending a ladder while sleeping on a stone. The Talmud says that this took place on the Temple Mount, and Jewish tradition has it that the rock in the Dome of the Rock was the one on which he slept. According to the Bible, King David purchased a threshing floor owned by Aravnah the Jebusite (2 Samuel, 24:18-25) overlooking Jerusalem upon the cessation of a plague, to erect an altar. He wanted to construct a permanent temple there, but as his hands were "bloodied," he was forbidden to do so himself, so this task was left to his son Solomon, who completed the task c. 950 BCE. After standing for 410 years, the First Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in 586 BCE. Reconstruction of the Temple (see the Second Temple) began after the 70 year exile to Babylonia, but was destroyed by Titus 420 years later, in 70 CE. The Romans were, however, unable to topple the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. Upon the destruction of the Temple, the Rabbis revised prayers, and introduced new ones to request the speedy rebuilding of the Temple. They also instituted the saying of the portions of the Torah commanding the bringing of the sacrifices in place of the sacrifices themselves.

Islamic tradition holds that when Muslims first entered the city of Jerusalem under the leadership of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (also known as Umar or Omar) in 637, the ruins of the Temple were being used as a rubbish dump by the Christian inhabitants, perhaps in order to humiliate the Jews and fulfill Jesus' prophecy that not a stone would be left standing on another there; Caliph Omar (contemporary of Muhammad, who had died a few years earlier), ordered it cleaned and performed prayer there. According to some sources, he also ordered a mosque to be constructed at the spot, upon which site the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built several decades later. Most medieval historians - notably the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes Confessor and the Jewish Secrets of Rabbi Simon ben Yohai - indicate that Omar's action was hailed by the Jews of the time as a restoration of the Temple of Jerusalem. After the Muslim conquest of this region, the Temple Mount became known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif ? (the Noble Sanctuary); it is traditionally regarded by Muslims as the third most important Islamic holy site, after Mecca and Medina. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. Islam respects David and Solomon as prophets, and regards the Temple (mentioned in Qur'an 17:7, and described in much more detail in the noncanonical Qisas al-Anbiya) as one of the earliest and most noteworthy places of worship of God. (The Kaaba's sanctity has a similar basis in the Islamic tradition that it was built, or rebuilt, by Abraham.) In addition to this, the "farthest Mosque" (al-masjid al-Aq?a) in verse (17:1) of the Qur'an is traditionally interpreted by Muslims as referring to the site at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on which the mosque of that name now stands; see Al-Aqsa Mosque regarding this interpretation.In 690 CE, after the Islamic conquest of Palestine, an octagonal Muslim shrine (but not a mosque) was built around the rock, which became known as the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat as-Sakhra ??? ??????). In 715 CE the Umayyads rebuilt the Temple's nearby Chanuyos into a mosque (see illustrations and detailed drawing) which they named al-Masjid al-Aqsa the Al-Aqsa Mosque or in translation "the furthest mosque", after the legend about Mohammed's journey (see Isra and Mi'raj). The structures have been destroyed several times in earthquakes; the current version dates from the first half of the 11th century. Both buildings, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, are considered holy to Muslims and make Jerusalem the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. The mosque and shrine are currently administered by a Waqf (an Islamic trust) that enjoys total autonomy. The Western Wall of the Temple Mount remains standing until today and due to its proximity to where the Temples once stood has, for practical purposes, became the holiest site for Jews to pray. Many Jews often leave written prayers addressed to God in the cracks of the wall.

Controversy over location of site

In 1999 Dr. Ernest L. Martin published a controversial book called The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot based upon the idea of Ory Mazar, son of Professor Benjamin Mazar of Hebrew University. In 1995 Dr. Martin wrote a draft report to support this theory. He wrote: "I was then under the impression that Simon the Hasmonean (along with Herod a century later) moved the Temple from the Ophel mound to the Dome of the Rock area."However, after studying the words of Josephus concerning the Temple of Herod, which was reported to be in the same general area of the former Temples, he then read the account of Eleazar who led the final contingent of Jewish resistance to the Romans at Masada which stated that the Roman fortress was the only structure left by 73 C.E. "With this key in mind, I came to the conclusion in 1997 that all the Temples were indeed located on the Ophel mound over the area of the Gihon Spring". This theory implied that Judaism was fighting to preserve the wrong location, which in turn sparked reactions from Muslims.The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot by Dr. Martin was made even more controversial due to the fact that he had previously spent five years engaged in excavations near the Western Wall in a joint project between Hebrew University and Ambassador College, publisher of The Plain Truth magazine edited by Herbert W. Armstrong.

Jewish religious law concerning entry to the site

The Rabbis have ruled that Jews may not enter specific areas (approximately 15%) of the Temple Mount [2] because of the danger of entering the area of the Temple courtyard and the difficulty of fulfilling the ritual requirement of cleansing oneself with the ashes of a red heifer (see Numbers 19), and declared it punishable with kareth, or death by heavenly decree [3]. The boundaries of the areas to be avoided, while having large portions in common, are delineated differently by various rabbinic authorities.Many Rabbis have "imposed a blanket ban on access for Jews to the entire Temple Mount"[4], given the uncertainty about the location of the permitted areas, an opinion still supported by Rabbis such as Ovadia Yosef, Avraham Shapiro, Eliahu Bakshi-Doron, and Israel Lau. In August 1967, the Chief Rabbis of Israel, Isser Yehuda Unterman and Yitzhak Nissim, in concert with other leading rabbis, asserted that "For generations we have warned against and refrained from entering any part of the Temple Mount."

However, many other rabbis, including Shlomo Goren, former Chief rabbi of Israel, Chaim David Halevi, Dov Lior, Yosef Elboim, Ysrael Ariel, Shar Yeshuv Hacoen and Yuval Sharlo have "strongly encouraged" Jews to visit the permitted sections of the Temple Mount. [5]. During Maimonides' residence in Jerusalem, a synagogue stood on the Temple Mount alongside other structures; Maimonides prayed there. The law committee of the Masorti movement (Conservative Judaism in Israel) has issued two responsa on the subject, both holding that Jews may visit the permitted sections of the Temple Mount. One responsa allows such visits, another encourages them.

1969 Al-Aqsa arson and aftermath

On August 21, 1969, an Australian, Michael Dennis Rohan, set the Al-Aqsa mosque on fire. Rohan was a reader of The Plain Truth magazine published by the Worldwide Church of God headed by Herbert W. Armstrong, which was best known for its radio and television programs called The World Tomorrow featuring his son Garner Ted Armstrong. Rohan had read an editorial in the June 1967 edition by Herbert W. Armstrong, concerning rebuilding of the Temple on Temple Mount. The article implied that the present structures would have to be removed and then when a new Temple had been built a series of events would take place resulting in the return of Jesus as the Messiah. This interpretation of prophetic events is now common within Fundamentalist Christianity, but was almost exclusive to the Worldwide Church of God at that time. Herbert W. Armstrong claimed that Rohan was not a member of the church, only a subscriber to the magazine. The incident made worldwide news and The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London pictured Rohan on its front page with a folded copy of The Plain Truth sticking out of his outside jacket pocket.

The Arab world and the USSR (see role of the Soviet Union) blamed Israel for the incident and Yassar Arafat constantly used it as the foundation of his attacks on Israel. Several Arab and Islamic media agencies, including the Jordanian News Agency[6], IslamOnline[7], and Palestine Chronicle[8], incorrectly reported that Rohan was Jewish. However, Herbert W. Armstrong was not a stranger to King Hussein and he had been working with Jordanian government to put his daily radio program called The World Tomorrow on their AM and shortwave stations that broadcast from the Jordanian West Bank. That contract had been negated due to the Six Day War and the sudden capture of the Jordanian radio stations by Israel. Israeli sources claim that Israeli firemen attempting to extinguish the blaze were hampered by Arabs who mistakenly believed that the fire hoses contained petrol rather than water[9]; Ikrima Sabri claims that Palestinian efforts to put out the fire were obstructed by Israel. On February 1, 1981, an article "Islam Reborn" written by Don A. Schanche appeared in the Opinion section of The Los Angeles Times. It related the following information:

The Islamic conference, for example, was born in a worldwide surge of Muslim outrage over the August, 1969, burning of Jerusalem's Al Aksa mosque, third holiest shrine in Islam after Mecca and Medina, by a deranged Australian Jew, who many Muslims believed was a pawn in a Zionist plot. The call to gather in Rabat, Morocco, to unify and do something to redress the outrage drew only 25 of the more than 40 nations in the world with Muslim majorities. With only one cause to unite them, the kings and presidents talked for only a day and issued a call for the restoration of Arab sovereignty over Jerusalem and other territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Then they adjourned. The meeting and the newly founded organization were all but ignored by the rest of the world.... Last week, with its membership now grown to 42, but attendance weakened by the suspension of Egypt and Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and the pointed absence of Iran and Libya, the Islamic conference went a long way toward achieving its long-sought goal of power in unity. On April 11, 1981, an American-born Israeli Jewish soldier named Alan Harry Goodman entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque and started firing randomly, killing two Palestinians.

In recent years many complaints have been voiced by Israelis about Muslim construction and excavation on and underneath the Temple Mount, and by Muslims about Israeli excavations, two under the Temple Mount, the rest around it. Ironically, for a time Ambassador College - the liberal arts educational institution of the Worldwide Church of God - regulary provided students and money during summer breaks to assist with these excavations. Some claim that this will lead to the destabilization of the retaining walls of the Temple Mount, of which the Western Wall is one, and/or the al-Aqsa Mosque, and allege that one side is doing so deliberately to cause the collapse of the sacred sites of the other. Israelis allege that Palestinians are deliberately removing significant amounts of archaeological evidence about the Jewish past of the site and claim to have found significant artifacts in the fill removed by bulldozers and trucks from the Temple Mount. Muslims allege that the Israelis are deliberately damaging the remains of Islamic-era buildings found in their excavations[12]. See below for details. Since the Waqf is granted almost full autonomy on the Islamic holy sites, Israeli archaeologists have been prevented from inspecting the area; they have, however, conducted several excavations under and around the Temple Mount.

Damage to existing structures

In 1968-69, Israeli archeologists carried out excavations at the foot of the Temple Mount, immediately south of the al-Aqsa mosque and opened two ancient Second Temple period tunnels there that penetrate beneath Al-Aqsa Mosque in the area of the Hulda and Single gates, penetrating five meters into one and 30 meters into another. "At the Temple Mount's south wall digging took place to uncover the Arabic Umayyad palaces and Crusader remains." [13] Over the period 1970-1988, the Israeli authorities excavated a tunnel passing immediately to the west of the Temple Mount, northwards from the Western Wall, sometimes using mechanical excavators under the supervision of archeologists. Palestinians claim that both of these have caused cracks and structural weakening of the buildings in the Muslim Quarter of the city above. Israelis confirmed this danger:

"The Moslem authorities were concerned about the ministry tunnel along the Temple Mount wall, and not without cause. Two incidents during the Mazar dig along the southern wall had sounded alarm bells. Technion engineers had already measured a slight movement in part of the southern wall during the excavations...There was no penetration of the Mount itself or danger to holy places, but midway in the tunnel's progress large cracks appeared in one of the residential buildings in the Moslem Quarter, 12 meters above the excavation. The dig was halted until steel buttresses secured the building." - Abraham Rabinovitch, The Jerusalem Post, September 27, 1996[14] In 1982, Yehuda Meir Getz, rabbi of the Western Wall, had workmen open the ancient gateway, known as Warren's Gate, between the tunnel leading north from the Western Wall and the innards of the Temple Mount itself. Arabs on the Mount heard excavation noises from one of the more than two dozen cisterns on the Mount. Israeli Government officials upon being notified of the unauthorized tunneling hastily ordered the Warren's Gate resealed. It remains closed today. In 1996, Israel completed a second tunnel beside the Temple Mount, which Palestinians say trespassed on Waqf property. Archeologist Leon Pressouyre, a UNESCO envoy who visited the site in 1998 and claims to have been prevented from meeting Israeli officials (in his own words, "Mr Avi Shoket, Israel's permanent delegate to UNESCO, had repeatedly opposed my mission and, when I expressed the wish to meet with his successor, Uri Gabay, I was denied an appointment"[15]), accuses the Israeli government of culpably neglecting to protect the Islamic period buildings uncovered in Israeli excavations. More recently, Prof. Oleg Grabar of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University has replaced Leon Pressouyre as the UNESCO envoy to investigate the Israeli allegations that antiquities are being destroyed by the Waqf on the Temple Mount.[16] Initially, Grabar was denied access to the buildings by Israel for over a year, allegedly due to the threat of violence resulting from the al-Aqsa Intifada. His eventual conclusion was that the monuments are deteriorating largely because of conflicts over who is responsible for them, the Jordanian government, the local Palestinian Authority or the Israeli government.

In autumn 2002, a bulge of about 700 mm was reported in the southern retaining wall part of the Temple Mount. It was feared that that part of the wall might seriously deteriorate or even collapse. The Waqf would not permit detailed Israeli inspection but came to an agreement with Israel that led to a team of Jordanian engineers inspecting the wall in October. They recommended repair work that involved replacing or resetting most of the stones in the affected area which covers 2,000 square feet (200 m?) and is located 25 feet (8 m) from the top of the wall. [17] Repairs were completed before January 2004. The restoration of 250 square meters of wall cost 100,000 Jordanian dinars ($140,000).

On February 11, 2004, the eastern wall of the Temple Mount was damaged by an earthquake. The damage threatens to topple sections of the wall into the area known as Solomon's Stables. [19]

On February 16, 2004, a portion of a stone retaining wall supporting the ramp that leads from the Western Wall plaza to the Gate of the Moors (Arabic Bab al-Maghariba, Hebrew Sha'ar HaMughrabim) and on the Temple Mount collapsed.

Damage to adjoining areas

In 1967, Israel razed the Moroccan Quarter (Harat al-Magharbah) of the Old City, immediately adjacent to the Temple Mount. Before the demolition the only way to access the Western Wall was through a blind alley in the quarter. This had long been an area of tension between the residents of the neighborhood and the Jewish Pilgrims. A plaza in front of the Western Wall and a yeshiva were built in its place.

Damage to antiquities

In 1996 the Waqf began construction in the structures known since Crusader times as Solomon's Stables, and in the Eastern Hulda Gate passageway, allowed the (re)opening of a mosque called the Marwani Musalla (claimed by Israel to be new, by Palestinians to be restored from pre-Crusader times) capable of accommodating 7,000 individuals. Many Israelis regard this as a radical change of the status quo under which the site had been administered since the Six-Day War which should not have been undertaken without consulting the Israeli government; Palestinians regard these objections as irrelevant. Though the building was built at the same time as the Al-Aqsa Mosque, whether the building had been a mosque before Crusader times or not is open to discussion.

In 1997, the Western Hulda Gate passageway was converted into another mosque. In November 1999, a buried Crusader-era door was reopened as an emergency exit for the Marwani Mosque, opening an excavation claimed by Israel to be 18,000 square feet (1,700 m?) in size and up to 36 feet (11 m) deep. According to The New York Times, an emergency exit had been urged upon the Waqf by the Israeli police, and its necessity was acknowledged by the Israeli Antiquities Authority[21].

In early 2001, Israeli police said they observed bulldozers destroying an ancient arched structure located adjacent to the eastern wall of the Temple Mount in the course of construction during which 6,000 square meters of the Temple Mount were dug up by tractors, paved, and declared to be open air mosques, which is assumed to have intermixed the underlying strata. Some of the earth and rubble removed was dumped in the El-Azaria and in the Kidron Valleys, and some of it (as of September 2004) remained in mounds on the site. The excavation and removal of earth with minimal archaelogical supervision became an issue of controversy, with some scholars such as Jon Seligman claiming that valuable history material is being destroyed and others, such as Dan Bahat and Meir Ben-Dov, disputing this assessment. The Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) inspected the material and declared it of no archaelogical value, but a group called the Committee for the Prevention of Destruction of the Antiquities on the Temple Mount campaigned against this position and in September 2004 obtained a temporary injunction against the IAA and the Muslim Waqf preventing them from removing the material which still lies in mounds on the site. Both sides accuse the other of having political motivation.

Management of the site

A Muslim Waqf has managed the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif continuously since the Muslim reconquest of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Since taking control of the area in the Six-Day War, Israel has not changed this state of affairs. Under this arrangement, Jews are generally permitted to visit the site in small numbers, but are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount. In fact, an official of the Waqf usually accompanies such Jewish visits.

On the 7th June 1967, immediately after the fighting had died down in Jerusalem, the then Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol, convened the spiritual leaders of all the communities in Jerusalem and assured them that "no harm whatsoever shall come to the places sacred to all religions", and that contacts should be maintained in order to make certain that spiritual activities of the religious leaders in the Old City may continue. He also mentioned that upon his request the Minister of Religious Affairs had issued instructions according to which arrangements in connection with the Western Wall, Muslim Holy Places and Christian Holy Places should be determined by the Chief Rabbis of Israel, a council of Muslim clerics and a council of Christian clergy respectively. Together with the extension of Israeli jurisdiction and administration over east Jerusalem, the Knesset passed the Preservation of the Holy Places Law, 1967, [22] ensuring protection of the Holy Places against desecration, as well as freedom of access thereto.—Jerusalem–The Legal and Political Background Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Israel

Claims of exclusivity

Muslim claims of exclusivity

• Temple Mount, all its structures and wall, including the Western Wall, are a sacred place for the Muslims around the globe.

• The archaeology of Jerusalem is diverse - excavations in the Old City and the areas surrounding it revealed Umayyad Islamic palaces, Roman ruins, Armenian ruins and others. Outside of what is mentioned written in the Old and New Testaments, there is no tangible evidence of any Jewish traces remains in the old city of Jerusalem and its immediate vicinity."—Palestinian Authority Information Ministry Press Release, December 10, 1997

 

 

• "The claims being made by the rulers of Israel and its rabbis about the alleged Temple are pure fabrications without any base or foundation."—Statement by the Higher Islamic Authority of Palestine Al-Quds (PA), December 28, 2001 (Translation by BBC Worldwide Monitoring)

Jewish claims of exclusivity

• Few Israelis object to the continued Arab presence on the Temple Mount.

• One extremist fringe group, the Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement advocates the removal of the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque, which they deem signs of "Islamic conquest and domination", suggesting that they be "rebuilt at Mecca" and claiming "God ... expects Israel to re-liberate the Temple Mount from the pagan Arab worshippers." This group has very little support in Israel.

• In a posthumously-published interview with Haaretz, General Uzi Narkiss reported that on June 7, 1967, a few hours after East Jerusalem fell into Israeli hands, Rabbi Shlomo Goren had told him "Now is the time to put 100 kilograms of explosives into the Mosque of Omar so that we may rid ourselves of it once and for all." His request was denied; according to Goren's aide Menahem Hacohen, he had not suggested blowing up the mosque, but had merely stated that "if, during the course of the war a bomb had fallen on the mosque and it would have - you know - disappeared - that would have been a good thing." Later that year, in a speech to a military convention, he added: "Certainly we should have blown it up. It is a tragedy for generations that we did not do so. ... I myself would have gone up there and wiped it off the ground completely so that there was no trace that there was ever a Mosque of Omar there.

Acknowledgements of the bases for its holiness to other religions

Jewish

As Jews do not consider the Qur'an sacred, their tradition ideologically refutes Muhammed's status as a prophet and his journey to Jerusalem. Some Jews hold that the Qur'an's discussion of the night trip never involved Jerusalem or the Temple Mount (as the place of the event is not specified), but rather that this was a later Muslim reinterpretation of the verse, made for political reasons. See the discussion of this topic at Isra and Mi'raj).

However, the Government of Israel and most Jews recognize that Muslims regard the site as holy based upon their beliefs, and respect the rights of Muslims to hold such beliefs and to pray there in their fashion. The State of Israel allows Muslims access to the site since capturing it in the Six-Day War, and they are the only ones who are permitted to pray on the site [26]; however, Palestinians under the age of 45 have been barred from entry during past periods of conflict. [27], Palestinians were restricted due to Israeli-claims of architectural integrity [28], and, further, Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are often currently unable to reach the site due to restrictions on their movements [29]. Recent controversy has developed when Israeli authorities allowed non-Muslims to enter the mosque compound, against the wishes of the Waqf who administers the site

Muslim

The main reason that the Temple Mount is holy in Judaism is that it was the site of the Temple. This fact provides a reason for its holiness in Islam; it is still considered to be the orthodox Islamic position. A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif, a booklet published in 1930 by the "Supreme Moslem Council", a body established by the British government to administer waqfs and headed by Hajj Amin al-Husayni during the British Mandate period, states:

"The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest times. Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings." A footnote refers the reader to 2 Samuel 26:25. [citation needed]

More recent examples include a fatwa issued by the Saudi Sheikh M. S. al-Munajjid, quoted on IslamOnline, 18 March 2001, stating that:

Al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) was the first of the two qiblahs (prayer direction), and is one of the three mosques to which people may travel for the purpose of worship. And it was said that it was built by Sulayman (Solomon, peace be upon him), as stated in Sunan an-Nasa’i and classed as authentic by al-Albani. [citation needed]

Since the beginning of Islam, this has been the orthodox position. Starting in the 1990s, however, some people, including the PA-appointed Sheikh Ikrima

Sabri, chairperson of the Palestinian Higher Islamic Commission and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, have denied that the site is connected with Solomon, and that it had any history involving the Jews.

Al-Aqsa Mosque

The Al-Aqsa Mosque , is part of the complex of religious buildings in Jerusalem known as either the Majed Mount or Al-Haram al-Sharif and the third holy site (the Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims and the Har ha-Bayit (Temple Mount) to Jews. It is located in East Jerusalem, a disputed territory governed as part of Israel but demanded by Palestinians as part of a future State of Palestine. The largest mosque in Jerusalem, it can accommodate about 5,000 people worshipping in and around it.

Origin of name

The name "Al-Aqsa Mosque" translates to "the farthest mosque", and is probably derived from the Isra and Mi'raj, a Muslim tradition about a miraculous journey around 621 by Mohammed (c. 570-632). According to a Koranic verse, Mohammed took a journey in a single night on a winged steed Buraq from "a sacred mosque" (probably in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia) to "the farthest mosque" (al-Masjid al-Aqsa), and from a rock there, Mohammed again mounted the Buraq and briefly ascended to heaven, accompanied by the Archangel Gabriel, and spent some time touring heaven and receiving the Islamic prayers before returning to his home on Earth to communicate them to the faithful. The location of the "farthest mosque" was not explicitly stated, but came to be associated with Jerusalem, though the city is never specifically mentioned in the Koran.

About 50 years after Mohammed's death, sometime between 687-691, Caliph Abd al-Malik built a shrine over what was believed to be the sacred rock, and its name, Qubbat As-Sakhrah, means "The Dome of the Rock." Some years after that, in 709-715, Umayyad caliph al-Walid, son of Abd al-Malik, built a new mosque near the Dome, at the location of a previous temporary wooden structure which had been built by Omar (c. 581-644), the Moslem caliph who conquered Jerusalem in 637, five years after Mohammed's death. al-Walid called his new mosque Al Aqsa, "distant place" or "farthest mosque".

Construction

Construction of the Mosque began around 674 about 48 years after the traditional date given for Muhammad 's death. Little remains of the original structure, which, owing to the position of the mosque over Herod’s artificial addition to the Temple Mount, was in constant danger of collapse. In 747 it was badly damaged by earthquake, and then rebuilt on a much larger scale. In 1033, it was destroyed again during the Crusader attacks of Jerusalem, and then converted into a wing of the royal palace of the Crusader Kings.

Damage from earthquakes in 1927 and 1936 necessitated an almost complete rebuilding of the mosque, in the process of which ancient sections of the original mosque were brought to light.

Analysis of wooden beams and panels removed from the building during renovations in the 1930s shows they are made from Cedar of Lebanon and Cyprus. Radiocarbon dating indicates a large range of ages, some as old as 9th century BC, showing that some of the wood had previously been used in older buildings.

Association with Knights Templar

Around 1119, King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, who had converted the large mosque into his palace, assigned one wing to the small and yet little known Order of the Knights Templar. The Crusaders called the Temple Mount "Templum Solomonis" or "Templum Domini" as they believed that it was over the ruins of Solomon's Temple, and it was from this location that the Order took their name of "Templar", also sometimes referring to themselves as "the Knights of the Temple" or simply "the Temple." The Templars used the mosque as their headquarters for many years, and designed other Templar buildings in Europe in a round shape, after the architecture from the Temple Mount. Templar seals were also frequently adorned with the shape of a dome.

When Saladin re-took Jerusalem in 1187, he reconverted Al Aqsa back into a mosque.

Modern significance

Since part of the mosque's extended surrounding wall is the Western Wall venerated by Jews, this relatively tiny spot in Jerusalem can become the source of friction. There have been times when exasperated Muslims worshipping at the mosque threw rocks downward at the Jews below at the Western Wall. A group of Jews known as the Temple Mount Faithful have expressed a desire to rebuild the ancient Jewish Temple in that area, turning into an attack on the mosque in 1990, resisted by Palestinians.

The Al-Aqsa Intifada is named after the mosque (due to Ariel Sharon's controversial visit to the Temple Mount in September 2000), as are the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

Some Muslims have accused Israel of weakening the walls of the mosque during archaeological excavations that began in 1967 and continue today. In response to concerns about the structure's stability, renovations are being carried out by the Islamic Waqf Foundation.

The Muslim Waqf is in charge of the Al Aqsa mosque, along with most of the important Muslim shrines in Israel.