Jerusalem

IV

History

The early written history of Jerusalem is largely that recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Old Testament of the Bible, much of which is supported by archaeological evidence. The site of Jerusalem was occupied during the Stone Age; the indigenous inhabitants were driven out in the period 5000 to 4000 bc by a people called in the Old Testament the Canaanites, who had advanced into the Bronze Age. The invaders, a mixed people among whom the Jebusites were dominant, came under Egyptian rule in the 15th century bc, during the conquests of King Thutmose III. Then, in about 1250 bc, the Hebrews began their conquest of Canaan, initially under their leader Joshua. So powerfully fortified was Jerusalem, however, that it did not fall until more than 200 years later, when David finally captured it some years after being anointed King of Israel (see 2 Samuel 5:6-9; 1 Chronicles 11:4-7).

A

Holy City of the Jews

According to the Old Testament, David decided to make Jerusalem his residence and the capital of his country. The new king brought the Ark of the Covenant to his capital from its obscurity at Qiryat Ye’crim (a holy place of the time, west of Jerusalem) and installed it in a new tabernacle (see 2 Samuel 6:1-17), built a royal palace and many other buildings, and strengthened the city’s fortifications. David’s son and successor, Solomon, continued the development of Jerusalem. He built a city wall and many buildings on a scale of magnificence previously unknown to Israel. Solomon’s principal buildings were the Temple and a new royal palace, encircled by a wall. The palace, built on successive terraces, consisted of a house (constructed of cedar beams and pillars brought from the forests of Lebanon) that was about 28 m (92 ft) wide, 55 m (180 ft) long, and 17 m (56 ft) high; the throne hall; the palace proper, or royal apartments; and the prison (see 1 Kings 5-7; Nehemiah 3:25-27; Jeremiah 32:2). The courts and buildings of the Temple were constructed on a level above the palace. The main building of the Temple was considered to be of great beauty, but was comparatively small, being only 20 cubits wide and 60 cubits long (about 11 m wide and 33 m long), exclusive of the porch and the side chambers. The Temple was built of cedar and stone (see 1 Kings 6:3-6) and was surrounded by a court that contained the altar of burnt offerings and a “molten sea”, or bronze water tank (see 1 Kings 7:9-12, 23-47).

Jerusalem continued to expand after Solomon’s reign until the ten northern tribes of Israel seceded from the rule of the House of David. Thereafter, as the capital of only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, its importance diminished greatly. Jerusalem was racked for the next two centuries by costly sieges, incursions, and unsuccessful military undertakings. Not until the reigns of King Uzziah of Judah (reigned 783-742 bc) and his son Jotham (reigned 742-735 bc) did the city begin to regain its previous status (2 Chronicles 26, 27). Between this period and the rise of the powerful Maccabee family, about six centuries later, the history of Jerusalem is that of the Jews. Under the Maccabees, Jerusalem entered upon an era of unprecedented prosperity. It became the holy city of Judaism and the great pilgrim shrine of the Jewish world.

B

Roman Occupation

Conquest by the Romans under the general and statesman Pompey the Great in 63 bc resulted in no serious material disaster to the city. Its greatest prosperity was attained under Herod the Great. Besides a complete reconstruction of the Temple on a scale that was truly magnificent, involving the expenditure of vast sums of money, Herod undertook the building of the Xystus, an open place surrounded by a gallery; his own great palace, on the western side of the city; and a hippodrome, theatre, and large reservoir. In addition to these works, minor improvements were made, including the general strengthening of the city’s fortifications. Less than a century later, however, during a Jewish rebellion against Roman authority, Titus, son of the Roman emperor Vespasian, captured and razed the city (ad 70); only a few remnants of the western fortifications remained. With this calamity, the history of ancient Jerusalem came to an end.

The Roman emperor Hadrian visited the city, which was largely in ruins, in about ad 130 and began its reconstruction. The rebellion of the Jews, led by Simon Bar Kokhba, against the Romans between the years 132 and 135 led the emperor to make the new city a pagan one, called Aelia Capitolina, and to prohibit all Jews from entering it. The wall that encircled it was, in general, on the line of the old wall, except on the south, where it excluded a large portion of the former city.

C

A Christian City

Little is known of the city from the time of Hadrian until that of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, when Christianity became the religion of the empire. The population of Jerusalem was gradually supplemented by Christians, and pilgrims flocked to the city. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built at the order of Constantine. Other buildings of like character were subsequently constructed, and Jerusalem became a Christian city. Among the noteworthy buildings belonging to this period are the Church of St Stephen, north of the city, built by the Byzantine empress Eudocia, who also rebuilt the ancient southern wall; and the great Church of St Mary on the Temple hill, which was built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I.

After being captured by the Persians under King Khosrau II in 614, and then recovered by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius in 628, Jerusalem was taken in 637 by the Muslims under the caliph Umar I (see Caliphate). A shrine, the Dome of the Rock, was erected over the rock believed to be the altar place of Solomon’s Temple. The Christian population was treated leniently by its Muslim conquerors, but when the Egyptian Fatimid caliphs became the rulers of Jerusalem in 969 the situation became more precarious. The Seljuk Turks conquered the city in 1071, and their maltreatment of Christians and destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre were among the causes of the Crusades. In 1099 the Crusaders, under the French nobleman Godfrey of Bouillon, gained possession of the city and slaughtered many of its inhabitants (Christian and Muslim). Jerusalem again became a Christian-dominated city and the capital of the so-called Latin Kingdom, until its capture in 1187 by the Muslim leader Saladin all but ended Christian rule (see Jerusalem, Latin Kingdom of).

D

Later History

From the 13th century, when Jerusalem was captured by the Egyptian Mamelukes, through Ottoman rule, beginning in 1517, the city’s importance declined. During these centuries, however, many Jews, fleeing persecution in Europe, returned to Jerusalem; by the late 19th century they had become a majority of the population. The city was taken by British forces in 1917, and from 1922 to 1948 it formed part of the British mandate in Palestine. After the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, Jerusalem was the site of some of the most bitter fighting between the Jews and the Arabs. The United Nations General Assembly, in its original partition plan of November 29, 1947, had proposed to establish Jerusalem and its environs as an international enclave. The objective was to ensure free access for all religious groups to the holy places of the city. In the spring of 1948, however, the opposing armies of Israel and Jordan seized Jerusalem—Israel occupied the western portion of the city, containing the modern residential and business sections, and Jordan occupied the eastern portion, including the Old City. In addition, the Israeli forces held a corridor to Jerusalem extending from Tel Aviv-Yafo on the coast. In the armistice signed on April 3, 1949, between Israel and Jordan, each side recognized the other’s holdings in Jerusalem. In 1950 the New City was made the capital of Israel. During the Six-Day War of June 1967, Israeli forces captured the Old City, and the Israeli Knesset unilaterally decreed the reunification of the entire city. This was reiterated by the Knesset in 1980, when the undivided city was declared the eternal capital of Israel.

Social divisions between Israelis and Arabs persisted in the unified city of Jerusalem, and neighbourhoods were constructed with buffers separating members of the two groups. By 1990 West Jerusalem was exclusively Jewish, and the population of East Jerusalem was evenly divided between Arabs and Jews. While Jewish sections of the city have been the target of government-supported development efforts, Arab areas have been largely neglected.

Jerusalem has remained a disputed city into the 21st century, with Israel claiming authority over the city as a whole, and the Palestinians demanding the return of East Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites. In September 1993, a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization called for a negotiated settlement on the future political status of Jerusalem. Because of its centrality and sensitivity, however, the topic of Jerusalem was largely set aside as negotiations on implementation of the peace accord continued. However, the peace process was severely set back in September 1996 when Israeli security forces clashed with the city’s Palestinian population in the worst disturbances since the intifada. They began as Palestinian protests against the opening of a pedestrian tunnel from near the Western (or Wailing) Wall to the Via Dolorosa that Palestinians believed would damage two of Islam’s most holy sites: the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. More than 70 people were killed in ensuing riots in Jerusalem and elsewhere. Although peace was restored, Palestinians restated their aim of establishing East Jerusalem as the capital for a future state: a possibility that the Israeli government rejected.

A visit by Pope John Paul II, who in March 2000 came to Jerusalem in the course of his tour of the Middle East, had a symbolic meaning for religions and faiths represented in the city and the entire region. The pope visited important Christian landmarks as well as a mosque; reiterated the Church's apology for past Christian anti-Semitism, at Yad Vashem; and prayed at the Western Wall. In October 2000 violence between Israelis and Palestinians erupted again, following a visit to the Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif, by Israeli hardline politician Ariel Sharon, who later became prime minister, and continued despite diplomatic efforts to defuse the conflict.