Religious Influence On Jerusalem

Many Palestinians are religious, and when the Israelis seized their homeland, they took away many of their sacred sites. Palestine is home to a multitude of sacred sites such as Jerusalem. As you can see by the changes from Document 1 to Document 2, in the span of about sixty years, Palestine has endeavored many changes. Palestine originally was composed of predominately Israeli occupied territories, but that fact is not correct today. Both, Jews and Muslims find Jerusalem sacred, which could lead to future problems. When attempting to establish a peace settlement, there will be vast conflict about it; neither group of people would be willing to give up such a holy city where so many vital biblical events have occurred. Religion is extremely powerful and important in places such as these, so it would be difficult and highly unlikely for one group to compromise. If anything, this may result in further violence. Thus, people’s religion contributes a large factor to the reason why there is a small chance for a peaceful settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Despite current misconceptions of the tensions between Muslims and Jews, the current political conflict began in the early 20th century. The Palestinians, both muslims and christians, lived in peace for centuries. Control of the city had historically, since 637 AD, been under Muslim control with guarantee of Christians’ safety, right to property, and right to practice religion. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire led to European nations colonizing many of its former lands, and the British gained control of Palestine. Social and political issues prompted European jews to flee from political unrest from their homes in Europe, and migrate to Palestine. Seeing the influx of Jews as a European colonial movement, the Arabs fought back. The British couldn’t control the violence, and in 1947 the United Nations (UN) voted to split the land into two countries. The continued political unrest in the Middle East is the cause of United States involvement.

In 1917 the British government started to bring their own ideas on how history of Palestine should emerge. For gaining Jews support they issued “Balfour declaration”, which promised establishment of Jewish people in territory of Palestinians. Which meant developing state for Jews. Of course we can see that British government were over promising, because at that time results of First World War were unknown and unseen for participants. Palestine was still under the Ottoman Empire. British government was confident about wining in war, so they started to dream about what they will do after it and how they will divide territories. This emerged in there communication with France. A year before they issued “Balfour declaration” they already deviated

The big question we ask ourselves today is, will Israel and Palestine ever agree to stop fighting? The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been traced all the way back to 1948 through 2005 in The Israel Palestine Land Settlement Problem, written by Charles Rowley and Jennis Taylor. However, this conflict did not end in 2005. This article was written in 2006, so anything within the last 10 years is not included. The conflict between the two counties still continues to this day and still remains a major problem. Israelis and Arabs have been fighting over Gaza on and off for decades now. The three issues laid out in this article are the four major wars that took place, the refugee problem, and the conflict between religions. It concludes with the road map to peace. Throughout his whole book, The Israel-Palestine Conflict, Gelvin speaks of the same historical events that occurred between Israel and Palestine, while the article reveals there are still other conflicts, the land settlement problem has been the major conflict between Israel and Palestine since 1948.

Ninety nine years ago on November 2, 1917, Lord Balfour, Foreign Secretary of the British Government, wrote a letter that stated the British support to facilitate a Jewish homeland in the Middle East. This letter, the Balfour Declaration, is viewed as one of the founding documents of the State of Israel that was birthed some years later in 1948. However, the foundation of the formation of the State of Israel was not an easy task. It is important to understand the historical context to the Balfour Declaration, but more importantly, whether it is considered a valid document under international law.

The crisis in Jerusalem dragged both Israel and Palestine into a vortex of violence and a religious conflict. Both Israelis and Palestinians had claim the city as a sacred religious site and their political capital. The conflict became quite violent causing the closure of holy sites, a deadly terrorist attack caused the Palestinian's to end all contact with Israel. Despite the peace efforts between the states, societies continued to rupture along ethnic and religious lines. Israel's continued unfolding with religious conflict and persisted in illegal actions causing living conditions for Palestinian civilians to become unlivable. Jews have formed the largest religious group in the city and have been in the majority. However, the Arab and Jewish communities in Palestine were in mortal dispute. Under an agreement approved by the United Nations, Jerusalem was meant to become a separated body but due to Arab forces sieging Jerusalem, and withdrawing of the British mandate, Jerusalem became a huge battleground. Jewish settlers pushed Muslim Arabs out of their homes and established the state of Israel on their land during the middle of the 20th century. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are extremely tied to the ancient city due to them recognizing Jerusalem as a holy place. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is over which gets what land and how that land is

In the early stages of the Zionist movement, Theodore Herzl, the founder and “Father of Zionism”, negotiated with Britain, a major world power at the time, to give up five thousand square miles of Uganda. In 1903, this idea was brought to the Zionists, which offered geographical protection and isolation from Russia. These negotiations, however, came to a halt when Herzl died in 1904. Months later, however, the cause did find potential in the area of Palestine. Palestine was remote enough that Jews had geographical protection and had suitable weather for agricultural purposes. Similarly, Palestine was religiously significant because it contained the holy land of Jerusalem. As a result, in a span of twelve years (1902-1914), the Zionists move around 70,000 Jews within two migration periods known as the First and Second Aliyahs. These major movements gave the Jews the manpower they needed to make a serious threat to the Palestinian forces. Nevertheless, WWI put a halt in the Zionist efforts until the end of the war in 1917.

(History of Zionism Web). “The success of Zionism has meant that the percentage of the world's Jewish population who live in Israel has steadily grown over the years and today 40% of the world's Jews live in Israel. There is no other example in human history of a nation being reestablished after such a long period of existence as a diaspora.”(History of Zionism) That diaspora was cause by anti-Semitism and persecution, but the Jews managed to still thrive. Even with the creation of their own state there are still problems among them. “The 1967 war between Israel and the Arab states (the "Six-Day War") marked a major turning point in the history of both Israel and of Zionism. Israeli forces captured the eastern half of Jerusalem, including the holiest of Jewish religious sites, the Western Wall of the ancient Temple.” (History of Zionism Web) The Palestinians and the Jews fought for power over the state. The Zionist pursued and gain most land in Israel. They were not going to let their promised land go. They took power over the Gaza strip, Golan Heights and West Bank. In 1968 the “Jerusalem Program” was established as the start of modern

Tweed states in his article “Space” that religious spaces are “differentiated”, “kinetic” and “interrelated”. In other words, they are intangible locales, only sensorially experienced, that stand out in some ways, that are able to be shaped by the natural and cultural influences, and thus that are not perfectly sacred and detached from secular objects. Correspondingly in the Hebrew Bible, the city Jerusalem is indeed portrayed as such a special, changing and holy but also worldly religious space that God was present in the city and He unprecedentedly approved King David’s supplication of building a temple for Him, that it could still undergo a period of desolation given the high recognition and thus the prosperity it once owned, and that some cultural impacts from a certain locale could be found on the First Temple in the city.

First in the Torah (The Jews Holy Book) it says that the land was given to the by God. And in 1000A.D Saul, David, and Solomon ruled the land and now the Arabs/Muslims are trying to take it all away.second is that the Arabs because they have owned that land since the 7th century and the Jews are trying to claim it again and the arabs have had that land since 1800 even though the jews had that land in 1000 A.D but they didn't acknowledge it until so it's just a big controversy on who land is it and to conclude that the city, The Holy city of Jerusalem is anyone's at this point because there's too much war as it is and there just adding on they should

The fight over Jerusalem is not a new issue. Rather, it is one that has been a matter of contention for hundreds of years, from the Third Crusade, a fight between Western and Eastern leaders, to today’s conflicts between Israel and Palestine. Both are over control of the territory. The Holy Land and the surrounding area have always inspired strong feelings in the three major monotheistic religions and their kingdoms, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, enough that they are willing to shed blood over it throughout history and to present day for the right to control it.

The Balfour Declaration allowed for the establishment of a new Jewish national homeland called Israel and the striping of land from the native Palestinians. Ironically, this declaration came at a time when the idea of self-determination was beginning to be recognized (Hisham, 1990). During an address to the United States Senate in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson highlighted that:

The Balfour Declaration would have many positive impacts for the Jewish population. Not only did it give support for “a Jewish national home in Palestine,” but it saw Britain’s recognition of Jewish

Ever since the Islamic religion was founded, Christians and Muslims have been at odds. Due to major differences in these two religions’ beliefs, Christians, in particular, have not been very accepting and tolerant to the newest addition to the Abrahamic religions; Islam. This rings true especially when it comes to the Holy City of Jerusalem, which is considered sacred in both religions. Originally, Jerusalem was under the control of the Christians who frequently performed pilgrimages to Jesus’s tomb but, ever since 638 CE, which is approximately 450 years before the First Crusade Muslims have had control over these sacred grounds. Christians believed that they should have control over the Holy Land, not the Muslims, which they viewed as

The conflict between Israel and Palestine is just one of the many facets that have shaped modern day politics in the Middle East. It is a conflict rooted in generations of violence, discrimination and prejudice that is complicated by a history older than any of the modern day superpowers. Ever since the creation of the state of Israel by the 1947 UN partition of Palestine