1. Biblical criticism (ie scholarship on the authorship of the Bible)
● A way of reading the Hebrew Bible (est. circa 19th century) as a historical text
with multiple author and books written at different times
● Shows difference between internal and scholarly narrative
● Refers to the use of critical analysis to learn and understand the bible
● Example 1- Initially ancient Israelites were not monotheistic, later saw themselves
as that
● Different voices of the bible
● J: Yahwist; uses Yahweh for God the most (2nd creation account)
● E: Elohist; refers to God as Elohim (1st creation account)
● P: Priestly; what priests should do in the Temple
● D: Deuteronomist; summary prior books as well as information on Conquest of
Canaan
● IMPORTANCE:
● J and E 1000 BCE, okay with Israelites worshipping religions around them; P and
D post-586 BCE, D doesn't like Ashevah (wife of Baal) being worshipped in
Temple
2. Solomon’s Temple (First Temple)
● David purchased the land for the Temple but the Jewish God didn’t want him to
be the one to have it build
● Built under king Solomon’s reign on Mount Zion
● Our knowledge of the Temple is derived entirely from Biblical writers
● Scholars believe that the site of the Temple may have been one of the holy places
for public meetings or prophetic divination or in the fertility cult of Baal
● Internal narrative doesn't mention this possibly because they are disturbed by the
idea of their temple being built in a pagan cult place.
● The temple was seen as an extremely important spiritual monument for the jewish
people
● He placed the Ark of Covenant in the Holy of Holies, the windowless innermost
room and most sacred area of the Temple
● According to the Bible, the Temple not only served as a religious building, but
also as a place of assembly for the Israelites
● The construction of the Temple was an act of conquest, a means of occupying the
Promised Land with divine backing
● The Temple is important in Judaism becoming a monotheistic religion
3. Babylonian Exile
● Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylonia, destroys the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem
● Scholarly narrative: Israelite elites sent to exile in Babylon
● Internal narrative: All Israelites were exiled
● Judaism becomes a much more cohesive and exclusivist religion (defining
themselves against another, which is the Babylonians)
● Jerusalem acquires a more special identity & Jews try to find ways to stay
connected to Jerusalem (the Temple used to be the only place of worship):
○ They turn into the direction of Jerusalem, rituals to worship with
Jerusalem in mind
● The exile doesn’t last very long - Persians conquer Babylonia 47 years later.
● hard on Israelites → lead to questions about what it means to worship
4. Ezra the Prophet
● Ezra was the descendant of the last high priest to serve in the First Temple of
Solomon
● He was living in Babylonia and was very educated, Babylonian Jew
● Sent from Persia to Jerusalem in 398 BCE, “read the law” to the Israelites there
on the Jewish New Year
● What he saw in Jerusalem was not what he read about Judaism (probably
Deuteronomist)
○ Shocked by intermarriage with other religions
● By the time of Ezra, there were educated elites that thought Jews should follow
the Hebrew Bible → no intermarriage, more exclusivist
● He is significant to Jerusalem because he changed the nature of the Jewish faith in
Jerusalem
5. Second Temple
Background:
● The Jews who had been deported in the aftermath of the Babylonian conquest
were eventually allowed to return and rebuild their temple, known as the Second
Temple
● Cyrus II of Persia defeated Babylonians at River Tigris & inherited all Babylonian
territory
● Cyrus issues decree that Temple should be rebuilt
Body:
● The building no longer housed the Ark; it had disappeared
● Initially quite a modest structure
● During the time of Herod’s rule, the original structure was completely refurbished
and overhauled to create a much more elaborate structure
● The new temple became a tourist attraction for people to visit on their journeys,
hence increasing the importance of the city of Jerusalem
Conclusion:
● The Romans destroyed the second temple as retaliation for an ongoing jewish
revolt
● Once the temple was destroyed, the Jewish morale was destroyed and they no
longer had a place to unite them
● Fair amount of archaeological and literary evidence for the existence of the
second temple
6. Alexander the Great
● King of Macedonia
● Hellenism in Jerusalem starts with Alexander the Great
● Defeated Persian Empire in 333 BCE: ruled Jerusalem and the rest of Canaan
● He united a huge part of the Mediterranean for the first time.
● Hellenic culture (Greek culture) was well-developed and seductive
● Gymnasion – exercise, school; everything you needed to learn to become an
educated Greek elite.
● Power vacuum after his death
● After Alexander died, his empire split up to different kingdoms, the influence of
Hellenism lasted long after him.
● After Alexander conquered Jerusalem, the Torah continued to be the official law
(the life in Jerusalem didn't change)
● This changed when Alexander died and his land was convulsed by six successors
○ Jerusalem was conquered around six times --> peaceful isolation over
7. Hellenism
Definition:
● Greek culture spread by Alexander the Great in the vast territories he conquered
● secular, dependent upon independent intelligence
● Important concept: polis (city states), gymnasia
● Gymnasion: The Gymnasium was a Greek building originally used for athletic
activities but which came, over time, to be used also as a place of study and
philosophical discussion → evolved into a multi-purpose complex
Jerusalem:
● The local people who learned to speak and write Greek became Hellenes and
could enter lower ranks of the army and administration
● Usually native people weren't allowed in gymnasia but Ptolemies allowed
foreigners to be admitted → Jews of Alexandria trained in the gymnasion there
and achieved a fusion of Greek and Jewish culture
● At first - Jerusalem is not a polis and does not have a gymnasion → temple state
governed by its priests
● The high priest didn’t want Judah to be an old-fashioned temple state based on the
Torah
○ A gymnasion was built
○ Many Jews were attracted to the Greek ideal of world citizenship
Conclusion:
● fusion of two cultures, but also made differences even more obvious (internal
conflict within Jewish people as some want to Hellenize and some don’t)
○ Ben Sirah believed that the Torah could become the basis of a liberal
education for all male Jews (similar to gymnasia)
○ The lower classes of Jews who couldn't share in the new prosperity
clinged more to the Law
● Greek educational ideals laid ground for Rabbinic Judaism
● Important to Jerusalem as it brought about a fusion of Greek and Jewish culture
and caused controversy over what law was true law of land
● Laid the groundwork for the Maccabean revolt
8. Maccabean Revolt
● The Maccabean Revolt was a Jewish rebellion led by the Maccabees against the
Seleucid Empire and Hellenistic influence on Jewish life
● In 198 BC, the Seleucid empire took control of all of Judea
● After a report that Antiochus had been killed, Jason attempted a coup which was
subdued when a very much alive Antiochus entered the city
○ He plundered the Temple treasury, stormed into Temple buildings
○ Antiochus outlawed the practice of Jewish faith in Judah - first religious
persecution in history
○ Transformed the Temple to resemble an old bamah, dedicated to Zeus
○ Seleucides were occupied in Mesopotamia where the Parthians were
trying to drive them out, Maccabeus' campaign succeeded in forcing
Antiochus to rescind his edict and Maccabeus gained control of Jerusalem
Importance:
● The revolt was successful and Jerusalem was captured and the Temple of
Jerusalem re-consecrated, an act still commemorated today in the Jewish
Hanukkah festival
● The revolt was essentially due to overthrow Greek influence, but Jerusalem
ironically became a hellenized state:
○ marketplace similar to a Greek agora
○ Gymnasion closed but there was a xystos which was used for athletic
competition in a normal polis
○ Despite Hellenistic features, the Temple and the Torah still dominated the
city
9. Jesus
● Most of evidence for Jesus’s life is from the New Testament, which was written
after his death
○ Scholars: these people were not eyewitnesses, so cannot be taken as facts
○ Scholarly consensus: we can’t know anything about Jesus
● 4 BCE: Born in Bethlehem (a city very close to Jerusalem) to a Jewish family
from the Galilee
○ He was probably illiterate, he was born poor
○ Formed a movement of Jews in the countryside
● Jesus crucified
○ By Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Palestine with the help of
Jewish leader
○ Seen as a disruptive force
● After his death, some of his disciples began to think that he was the Messiah
(chosen one) – gradually and over a long time
○ There would be a restoration of Jewish rules in Jerusalem
○ All the bad things that happen in the world would go away
○ Traditional Jewish narrative is that the Messiah still has not come yet
○ Jesus was not trying to create a new religion but getting Jews to be better
Jews.
○ There is no evidence of Jesus proclaiming himself as the Messiah, or the
son of God.
○ “The Parting of the Ways” after Jesus’s death – parting between Judaism
and Christianity
● death in Jerusalem and by the hands of Jews led to Christian dislike towards Jews
and towards the city, "guilty city"
● start of another monotheistic religion in Jerusalem
● Christianity is not rooted in a specific place
10. Destruction of the Second Temple
● the Romans destroyed the Second Temple after a Jewish revolt
● Herod, the Roman-appointed King of Judea erects a golden eagle, the symbol of
Jupiter and imperial Rome, over the Temple Gate.
● Demonstration against the pollution of the Temple → sentenced the
demonstrators to death
● Years later, Florus, the governor of Judaea, takes money from the Temple
treasury → riots
● A radical party of Zealots emerged during this time to start the Jewish War
● The Jewish War:
○ Roman general Vespasian is sent to Palestine
○ When Vespasian is made emperor, his son Titus is left in charge of the
Jewish war
○ The fighting centered around the Temple, Temple bombarded
○ Roman soldiers broke into the Temple’s inner courts to see 6000 Jewish
Zealots waiting to fight to death (Jews are still not entering forbidden
areas)
● Jews fought romans during the siege of Jerusalem but gave up at the sight of the
Temple being destroyed
● Jews had to find a way to live without the Temple
● cemented the idea of a "guilty city" for Christians and thought the Jewish religion
would fail
11. Aelia Capitolina
After the Jewish war:
● Jews are in a period of asceticism: life isn’t as before, a mourning & abstinence
● Jerusalem no longer a spiritually important city as it was in the past, now just a
military base
Hadrian:
● He wants to replace the army base of Jerusalem with a metropolis called Aelia
Capitolina
● The plan included building a temple to Jupiter on Mount Zion
● Important names to the Jewish identity: “Jerusalem” and “Zion” is replaced by the
names of a pagan emperor and his idols
● Hadrian outlawed major Jewish practices like circumcision and teaching of Torah
● Provides a very different image of the city than was seen historically
● Tries to erase Jewish presence and influence from the city of Jerusalem
● Leads to the Bar Kokhba revolt
12. Bar Kokhba Revolt
● Jewish revolt to Hadrian in response to building of a temple for Jupiter on Temple
Mount and outlaw of Judaism
● When the 10th legion was forced to leave Jerusalem to fight Jews in the
countryside, Bar Koseba’s soldiers occupied the city.
● 3 years later, Hadrian sends one of his best generals to the city, and 580k Jews are
killed
● Marked a time of high hopes followed by violent despair
● Revolt showed level of sensitivities related to the temple and Jerusalem in general
particularly for the jewish community
● Jews won the respect of Romans
● The Bar Kokhba revolt resulted in the extensive depopulation of Judean
communities
● Jews concentrated in Galilee
● After Hadrian crushes the revolt in AD 135, he expels the Jews from Jerusalem,
and the city is transformed to a Hellenic city.
13. Rabbinic Judaism
● Much of the Rabbis at this time were much more moderate in their beliefs and
teachings and were beginning to evolve their faith
● Jews did not have to be in Jerusalem to practice Judaism
● Not based around temple service but rather charismatic leaders (rabbis) and texts
written by the rabbis (Aramaic word for teacher) or their teachers.
● Allied with the Pharisees’ ideal: let’s not try to fight the Romans bc we’ll lose,
let’s try to be Jews under the current circumstances, quiet approach like not
getting involved in politics and rebellions
● New way of being Jewish almost unrecognizable to Judaism 1.0
○ New texts (Mishnah)
○ Jewish tradition says Mishnah was passed down orally from Moses
○ Scholars see Mishnah as a totally new approach to Judaism
○ Jews believe Mishnah is a part of scripture
○ The discussions in Mishnah are incredibly precise and legalistic
○ Rabbis, not priests, are the new leaders
● Focus on study
● Communal prayer instead of sacrifice: synagogues
○ There is evidence of Jews praying in synagogues before the destruction of
the Temple, but because now sacrifice couldn’t be made in the Temple,
prayer became a part of daily life
○ Jerusalem and the temple became an important symbol – synagogue
mosaics had images of the temple
○ The synagogues are oriented towards Jerusalem so the prayer could be
made towards that
○ Rebuilding of Jerusalem correlates to God taking away all the bad from
the world
● Not all Jews were on board with this revolution, they reject Rabbinic Judaism:
Karaites
● Different version of Judaism – similar in terms of synagogues and communal
prayer
● This helped improve relations between the Romans and the jews within this time
period
14. Constantine
● Became the Emperor of Western Rome after his victory at the Milvian bridge
● He defeated emperor of the eastern provinces to become the sole emperor
● legalized Christianity after attributing a war victory to the Christian God
● Baptized on his deathbed
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stopped the persecution of Christians
made the conversion to Judaism illegal
Christianity becomes one of the most important religions of the empire
Constantine didn’t promote Christianity at the expense of other faiths
Importance:
● Built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, over the tomb of Jesus
○ Increased pilgrimages
○ One of the first steps in building the city’s Christian character/sacred
geography
○ Shift in earlier attitude to Jerusalem → Christians want to affiliate
themselves with the earthly city, not just the spiritual Jerusalem
○ Inspires the same kind of belief and legend as the Jewish temple →
thinking it was built on Jesus’s tomb
● Jews are not allowed to live in Jerusalem while Christians are in power
15. Muhammad’s Night Journey
● Muhammad ascended to heaven from the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, carried
here by Buraq
● Meets prophets in different heavens, meets Abraham at the seventh heaven
● Here he is said to have met god/seen the light of god
● Details for prayer given here (Muslims should pray 5 times a day)
● This journey was a trial for islam and the followers of Muhammad as it was easy
to say the account was a lie, label him as a madman → Many people stopped
believing while others had their faith strengthened
● Shows an acknowledgment of other religons showing islam as a superseccsion of
other religions
● Importance of this event links back to importance of Jerusalem as a city in Islam
as Al Aqsa mosque is located here
16. ‘Umar (Caliph)
Background:
● Second Muslim caliph
● Conquered Mesopotamia and Syria and began the conquest of Iran and Egypt
● Islamic empire: local religious power → world empire
● Was a close friend of Muhammad
● Lived simply, wore humble clothes
Jerusalem:
● Conquers Jerusalem: little to no blooshed
● Start of Islamic rule in Jerusalem
● Did not take over churches
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Allowed Christians and Jews to live in Jerusalem under dhimmi status
Had people of other religions pay jizya tax for living within the city
Started cleaning of Temple Mount restored its spiritual significance
Built the al-aqsa mosque as a small wooden building, prayed facing Mecca
Muslims did not convert people to their religion, allowed them to continue
practicing the religions they did before
● He was very important towards making Jerusalem an important Muslim city that
would eventually draw Pilgrims and great Muslim interest
17. Al-Aqsa Mosque
● Quran mentions the Al-Aqsa mosque (the furthest) in the description of the Night
Journey
● This site is associated with Jerusalem based on the Hadith, there is no mention of
the al-aqsa mosque in correlation to Jerusalem in the Quran
● built on the sight where Muhammad tethered his horse, al-Buraq, who had carried
him from Mecca to Jerusalem on the night of the Night Journey
● One of the most holy places in Islam
● relates to night journey; links Jerusalem to the life of Muhammad and hence,
Muslim sacred geography
● Initially a humble wooden building when ‘Umar built it → austere ideal of early
Islam
● Evolution of Jerusalem to being a Holy City for Muslims
18. Dome of the Rock
● When Muslims took Jerusalem over from Christians, the Temple Mount was in
ruins
● They built a shrine in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount
● Later Muslims believed to house the spot where Muhammad rose into heaven and
where Jews believe Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac to God
● The rock was seen as the foundation of the Temple, the center of the world, the
entrance to the Garden of Eden, etc
● Archetype of all future Muslim shrines
● The Rock and its cave symbolize the Earth; surrounded by an octagon → first
step away from the fixity of the square and ascent to the circle; perfect circle of
the Dome → wholeness, perfection and eternity
● Abd-al Malik decreed that there would be a new dome to challenge the Dome of
the Anastasis
Importance:
● "Islam had no great monuments, and in Jerusalem, a city filled with magnificent
churches, the Muslims felt at a disadvantage"
● Dome of the rock defied Christian buildings and asserted its presence in
Jerusalem
● Spiritual map for Muslims, built on the site of the first qiblah
19. Hadith
● Sayings and actions of Muhammad
● Moves down a chain of narrators
● The Hadith supplements the quran and fills in the gaps from the quran
● The Quran talks about the night journey of the prophet and details the events
however, it says nothing about where Al Aqsa is
● Hadith informed us that Al Aqsa is within Jerusalem
● Jerusalem’s importance as a city for the muslim faith is shown largelt by the
hadith instead of the quran
● Hadith talks about how pilgrimage can be done in Mecca, Medina or Jerusalem
showing exalted position of Jerusalem in Islam and proving importance of the city
for this religion
20. Cairo Geniza
● A collection of 300,000 Jewish manuscript fragments found in the "geniza" or
storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in old Cairo.
● Trade agreements; notes; letters
● Storage room that held many jewish documents
● Allowed historians to put together history of Jerusalem
● Stored and contained any document that could be considered
○ General understanding is writing God in Hebrew letters
○ Any document with Hebrew letters could be kept
● This was a big archeological find as the documents within it provided detail
insight into everyday life in Jerusalem during this time
● Provide an extremely diverse set of primary sources delving into different matters
that concerned economic and cultural life in Jerusalem
21. First Crusade
● Peter the Hermit started talking about the idea of a holy war to cleanse the Holy
Land of Islam upon returning from his pilgrimage to Jerusalem
● The Crusades were thought of as a way to spread the Pope’s power
○ Europe is divided into a lot of states that are decentralized
○ Nobles fighting each other for money and power
○ Pope is trying to reunite all these states that are Catholics against the
common enemy Muslims
● Crusade called by Pope Urban II after Byzantines asked for help against Muslim
invaders
● People were encouraged to go fight and have their sins cleansed
● Crusaders made it to Jerusalem after losing many many men during the journey
● They stopped in various parts of Germany, where Jewish population was high,
local leaders of the crusades decided to fight the Jews all through central Europe,
the Pope was not happy
● Fatimids were weakened by Seljuqs, which allowed the Crusaders to get through
Seljuq territory
● Crusaders massacred Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem (Christians had left bc they
heard about the Crusades)
● Conquest of Jerusalem many people started moving to Jerusalem, seen as a
miracle and God helped, during and after the Crusades, Christians start to
increasingly hate Muslims
● They set up Frankish kingdoms
● First Christian rule in the area since the Romans
22. Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem (ie 1099-1187)
● Daimbert of Pisa – highest Christian authority in the city (Latin patriarch of
Jerusalem)
○ Bans all non-Catholic Christians from the Church of Holy Sepulcher
○ Ironic bc the whole purpose of the Crusades was united Christians and
help Orthodox Byzantines
○ No Muslims or Jews can live in Jerusalem
○ Towards the end, all non-Catholics are banned from Jerusalem the most
exclusivist approach ever taken in Jerusalem
○ Set up their palace on the Haram al-Sharif, convert Muslim buildings to
their own palaces etc.
● King Baldwin
○ Reversed the anti-Eastern Christian policy of Daimbert: welcomed all
Christians back to the city
○ Got rid of Daimbert
○ Before becoming King of Jerusalem, Baldwin was Count of Edessa, where
he ruled over Armenians
○ Married an Armenian woman
23. Salah al-Din
● Took over the rule of the Ayyubid dynasty
● Battle of Hittin - won a decisive battle over the Crusaders
● Took Jerusalem peacefully with no bloodshed
● Christians were taken as prisoners or enslaved instead
● Contrasted the way the Crusaders took over the city
● Saladin’s conquest is in accordance with the Islamic ideal: always granted a truce
when Crusaders asked for one, mostly treated his prisoners fairly, believed in
humanity in the hour of triumph
Jerusalem:
● First task is to purify the Haram: cleared al-Aqsa from Templars’ latrines and
furnitures
● In the Dome of the Rock: pictures and statues removed, Quranic inscriptions
revealed
● Building is an ideological weapon, has to be a Muslim city
● A few thousand Syrian and Armenian Christians stayed as dhimmis
● Greek Orthodox has the custody of the Holy Sepulcher
● Jews are allowed to come back
Importance:
● Jerusalem is once again a Muslim city
● Jews were upset about the Islamization of the city
24. Ottoman Empire
● Turkic people who conquered a lot of land, masters of diversity within the lands
they conquered
● Most powerful and long-lasting Islamic Empire
● Predominantly military power
● The Ottomans took over all Mamluk territory including Jerusalem
● There was no attempt to repopulate Jerusalem with Turks
● A lot of peace within Jerusalem during the time of Ottoman rule
● Understanding that Ottomans are chill about the existence of other religions
○ Jews were being kicked out of European Christians at the time.
○ Spanish Jews came to the ottoman empire in such large numbers that the
Jewish language in Turkey was a Spanish dialect called Ladino (written in
Hebrew letters)
○ Romaniot Jews adopted Ladino
○ Christians started speaking Ottoman but wrote it in Greek letters.
25. Suleiman the Magnificent
● The most illustrious sultan of the Ottoman Empire (r. 1520-1566); also known as
'The Lawgiver.'
● He significantly expanded the empire in the Balkans and the eastern
Mediterranean.
● Suleiman the magnificent rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in 1556
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○ Announcing a period of peace – he wouldn’t invest in walls if he thought
Crusaders could conquer it.
○ Damascus Gate (built by Sinan) - portal to the Old City of Jerusalem
These are the walls still there now
Suleiman noticed Jewish people visiting Western wall, cleared it in order to allow
it to be a place of worship for the jews
Wanted Jerusalem to be a place where jews visited
Encouraged diversity within the region
Encouraged the building of madrasas- schools of Islamic learning
He and his wife Roxelana established the importance of waqfs in Jerusalem.
Waqf (pious endowment) Led to the building of the Takiyya Hospice in Jerusalem
which acted as a social services center
Capitulations - The status known as extraterritoriality: Europeans in the Ottoman
Empire did not pay taxes and were exempt from local jurisdiction (kind of like
diplomatic immunity)
26. Western Wall (or Wailing Wall)
● The last remaining part of the Jewish Temple
● Gained sacrality and became a place Jews prayed at
● Suleiman excavated the area around the Western Wall to allow for easier access
● Center of Jewish religious life in Jerusalem
● Jews liked to spend the afternoon there, reading the psalms and kissing the stones
● Jewish legend: Suleiman helped clear the site himself and washed the wall with
rose water to purify it as ‘Umar and Saldin had done when they reconsecrated the
Temple
● Attracted many of the usual myths connected with a sacred place
○ Gate of Heaven is situated directly above the Western Wall and prayers
ascended from the enclave to the divine Throne
● The wall is a symbol of the Jewish people: the wall was a run - destruction &
defeat
● Reminded the desecration of their Temple - mourn everything they lost
27. Garden Tomb
● Archaeology during the late 19th century became a very political act because
religious groups wanted to find artifacts that would solidify and validate their
presence in Jerusalem
● General Charles “Chinese” Gordon, who was killed in Sudan after the fall of
Khartoum
● His main contribution to Jerusalem was the discovery of the Garden Tomb
● Many Europeans had become repelled by the Holy Sepulcher Church, didn’t want
to associate the musty building with angry monk with their faith
○ There was previous controversy because the church of the Holy Sepulcher
was within the city walls, and people were not buried within the walls
● When Gordon studied Wilson’s ordnance survey of Jerusalem, he noticed that
one of the contour lines resembled a woman’s body, whose “head” was a little
hill north of the Damascus Gate → “Place of the Skull”
● Gordon found an apparently ancient rock tomb there, he identified the hill as
Golgotha and the tomb as Jesus’
● After his death, the Garden Tomb became a Protestant holy place.
● Monument to British imperialism
● We cannot think of religion as being fixed, how religion can be used for political
purposes
● The Garden Tomb, a unique property, was part of a larger process of the
development of new holy places in Palestine by Europeans.
● Lastly, the research provides insight into the creation of a holy site and the role
that private organisations and private investors could play in land issues in
Palestine. New holy sites were established and developed frequently in the Holy
Land in the 19th century, primarily by the Franciscan order of the Catholic
Church which acquired a number of ruins, such as the synagogue at Tabgha, and
developed them into sites that recollected the travels of Jesus
○ Kark, Ruth & Frantzman, Seth. (2010). The Protestant Garden Tomb in
Jerusalem, Englishwomen, and a Land Transaction in Late Ottoman
Palestine. Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 142. 199-216.
10.1179/003103210X12789453090165.
28. Theodor Herzl (1860-1904)
● Mordechai Ben-Ami, the delegate from Odessa in the first Zionist conference in
1899: “a man of the House of David, risen all of a sudden from his grave in all his
legendary glory”
● His book The Jewish State became a Zionist classic
● He wasn’t religious - France’s Dreyfus affair showed him the vulnerability of the
Jewish people - he foresaw an anti-Semitic catastrophe
○ The Dreyfus Affair: Jewish Dreyfus is believed to have committed treason
→ wave of anti-Semitism in France
■ Association of Jews with capitalism (Edouard-Adolphe Drumont
says expropriating Jewish wealth would produce around ten to
fifteen billion → wake-up call for Herzl
○ Herzl used to believe emancipation was the answer, the Dreyfus Affair
and Drumont showed him that anti-Semitism will not go away → there
should be a Jewish state.
● Brought Zionism to the attention of world’s political leaders - approached the
sultan, the pope, the Kaiser, the British colonial secretary
● He didn’t believe that the Jewish state should be in Palestine -- strongly opposed
at the Second Zionist conference
● The moaning and the craven attitudes of the Jews who clung to the Western Wall
symbolized everything that Zionism must transcend
29. Modern Hebrew
● Modern Hebrew is not due to Zionism
○ But Zionist movement gives modern Hebrew a boost
○ Zionist activity becomes caught up with the language of Hebrew
○ Unlike how Italian nationalists were obsessed with Dante, Zionists had to
teach everyone their language bc no one was speaking it
● The Zionist movement wanted Hebrew to be the national language of the new
Jewish state, but biblical Hebrew only really existed in writing
● In response, a form of modern spoken Hebrew was developed by Eliezer Ben
Yehuda
● This effort shows that Zionism was an especially cultural movement because it
attempts to revive Jewish culture.
● Make Jewish culture more adapted for the modern world
30. Zionism
● Zionism’s roots are unclear --- when Jews were kicked out of Jerusalem, they
wanted to go back, some people refer to this as Zionism
○ The supporters of this say that Zionism has been with Jewish people from
the start
○ External narrative doesn’t regard this as Zionism
○ The concept of narrative is helpful, but it looks different in the modern
period
● Modern nationalist movement, arises in mid-19th century, based in the premodern
and religious sentiment that Jews have a deep connection to Jerusalem
● This nationalist movement for a Jewish homeland originated in Western Europe
● The Jewish 'nation' as a culture already exists, so there needs to be a homeland for
the Jews to call their own so that they don't have to live as second class citizens in
other countries
● Came in response to widespread anti-semitism
● Jews were considered equal to Christians in Western Europe, contrary to Eastern
Europe
○ Emancipation: the end of former distinctive legal regimes, Jews and
Christians have the same rights, same professions, etc. (France is the first
to do this under Napoleon)
○ Even in France, there was extreme anti-Semitism that sparked the Zionist
movement
● If Jews are not welcome in any country, then they should be able to have their
own homeland run by Jews.
● While there were options to establish this state in multiple areas around the world,
Zionists at the first Zionist council in 1899 and then in 1902 all agreed that the
state must be in Palestine with Jerusalem as the capital
● “The Redemption will begin with the efforts of the Jews themselves” -- Yehuda
Hai Alchelai, a Sephardic rabbi of Sarajevo
● The father of Zionism → Moses Hess, a disciple of Marx and Engels, who
reinterpreted the biblical mythology according to the revolutionary ideals of
socialism and nationalism.
● “The Torah, the Nation, and the Holy Land stand, one might say, in a mystical
relationship with one another, they are inseparably united by an invisible bond.” Heinrich Graetz “The Structure of Jewish History” p.71
● Early Zionists were secularists who no longer shared the theological beliefs of
traditional Judaism
● Zionist Congress
○ First Zionist congress met in 1899
■ In Basel, Switzerland
■ Held annually thereafter
○ Zionist Congress of 1902
■ Discussed alternate sites for a Jewish State, including East Africa
■ This was rejected: a consensus that Palestine could be the only site
of the Jewish homeland emerged
■ Tension at the heart of Zionism
■ Vast majority of them were secular Jews (not Orthodox)
■ Zionism is not about Messianic fulfillment, felt strongly about the
deep historic ties that Judaism had with Palestine
■ They had no interest in the Temple but the idea of a national
homeland where Jews once had sovereignty
○ Early on in the Zionist movement, Zionism and Palestine go together
○ Zionism was not the only Jewish nationalist idea (Bundism Jews are a
nation, language is Yiddish, stay within Russia)
○ Beginning to think about ideas to move the Jewish people to Palestine
○ Shape is not clear: autonomous, full-on state?
○ Nation-states were still a minority even though nationalism was becoming
extremely popular (Ottoman, Russian, Austro-Hungarian…)
31. Arab identity
● Up until the mid-nineteenth century, to Arabic speakers, Arabs were designated
Bedouins (nomadic, tribal people who lived in rural areas in various parts of the
Middle East)
● To the Ottoman government, generally simply described people who spoke
Arabic
● Not widespread as a way for people to self-identify
● Initially, being Arabic didn’t mean one was against the Ottoman Empire and
wanted a separate state
● The municipal council of Jerusalem represented Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
○ One of the leading people was Yusuf al-Khalidi, mayor for nine years
■ Spoke out about the corruption of the administration and the
unconstitutional behavior of Sultan Abdulhamid
■ Removed from office in 1879 by governor Rauf Pasha who wanted
to break the power of local families
■ Rauf Pasha’s attempt at replacing Arab notable with Turkish
officials was seen as an Anti-arab move → new development as
religion used to be more important as a “determinant of identity
than race” (359)
● “The new Arab consciousness that had first surfaced during the 1825 uprising
showed the first stirrings of Arab nationalism in Palestine”(360) → Turks were
resented as usurpers
● 1872 - Arab members of the Greek Orthodox Church felt marginalized by the
elite Greek minority → campaign for greater participation in the church, started
in Jerusalem and spread across Palestine
○ The Orthodox church favored Greek-speakers but most Greek-Orthodox
people in Palestine spoke Arabic
■ Question about who should rule the Orthodox church
■ As nationalism becomes popular, Arabic-speaking Christians
wanted control over religious institutions (bc they couldn’t
communicate with Greek-speaking priests)
● Arab identity is a separate identity
● In 1891, a number of Jerusalem notables sent a petition to Istanbul, asking the
government to prevent further immigration of Jews and the sale of land to
Zionists
○ Much of the land is owned by Jewish immigrants
○ European interest in buying land
○ They are not getting Ottoman citizenships, claim extraterritoriality
○ Struggle between the Ottoman central administration and Arab local
authorities
○ Arabs think Ottomans aren’t doing enough to address Jewish concerns in
Palestine nudge Arab nationalism
○ Arab nationalism develops against Zionism
● After the Young Turk Revolt in 1908, Arab nationalists of Palestine began to
dream of a state of their own, free of Turkish control
○ Overthrew the Ottoman sultan constitutional monarch
○ Democratic ideas implemented
○ Arabs were initially excited about this
○ CUP went from being secular to repressive – ethno-nationalist
■ Everyone should speak Ottoman Turkish
■ Arab-identified activists are angry
■ Executions of Arab reforms for their criticism of CUP
■ Helps in the development of an Arab identity and nationalism –
anti-Ottoman
● When the first Arab Congress met in Paris in 1913, a telegram of support was
signed by 387 Arabs from the Near East, 130 of them Palestinians.
32. Wasif Jawhariyyeh
● A talented composer, oud player, poet and chronicler from the Old City of
Jerusalem.
● served in the Ottoman army during World War I in the Jerusalem Defense
Regiment
● Importance is best brought out in his memoirs (four volumes in manuscript form).
To these he appended seven more volumes containing a photographic collection
covering the social, political, and cultural daily life in Jerusalem during the late
Ottoman period, British military rule (1917-21), and the Mandate period (192148).
● His close relations with the Husseini family, the Ottoman command in Jerusalem,
and then with officialdom in the Mandate government allowed him, in describing
the momentous events in Palestine, to move from the viewpoint of the ruling elite
to that of the popular classes whose concerns he shared.
● His work is a popular source to study intra-ethnic relations in Jerusalem at the
time of Late Ottoman rule, British Military rule and during the Mandate period.
33. Albert Antébi
● Born in Damascus to a Jewish family
●
Moved to Palestine in 1896, became the head of the Alliance Israelite Universelle
school in Jerusalem
● Worked as a representative of the Jewish Colonization Association in Jerusalem
(was a Zionist organization)
○ Nonetheless feared that political Zionism would endanger Jews
○ Didn’t want to screw up the relationships with the Ottoman Empire
● Many Jews in Palestine were caught between Zionism and Ottomanism
○ Those sympathetic to Zionism saw it more as a culture movement, rather
than a political attempt to establish a state
○ Many laws were merely indifferent, especially religious Jews
○ Many Ottoman-Jews saw Zionism as incompatible with being a loyal
Ottoman subject
34. Ihsan Turjman
● Arabic man who lived in Jerusalem during the first World War. worked for the
Ottoman empire
● Wrote a diary which showed the daily life of people in Jerusalem (sympathetic to
Arab Nationalism)
● Showed the difficulties people faced due to the famine and the lack of quality
solutions
● Clearly shows the transition for Arab nationalism. He directly calls into question
the power of the Ottoman empire by saying that "we Ottomans- or should I say
them Turks" should exit the war with a peace treaty.
● Discusses impending decline of Ottoman Empire and angry for their attacks on
Arab Nationalists
35. WWI
● Ottoman Empire has lost a lot of land by 1914
○ Nationalists separated by establishing other countries (separatist
movements)
● Germany, Italy, Austro-Hungarian vs. Great Britain, Russia, France
● Ottomans abolish extraterritoriality before entering WW1 legally
○ Not practically though like the Anglo-Palestinian company staying open
● When Ottoman Empire joins World War I, it is foreboding of Ottoman’s
dismemberment
○ Arabs in Jerusalem are starting to form a Palestinian identity, forming
ideas about what will happen to Jerusalem after the war
○ Financial meltdown in Europe banks are losing money Jerusalem has
foreign banks that close when the war starts
● Sea blockade people → could no longer come into Jerusalem
● Ottoman raised taxes to make up for war efforts and sea blockade
○ Financial cries
○ Ottoman authorities clamped down on freedom of the press
■ Targeted both Zionist and Arab nationalist newspapers
○ Sea blockade meant that no ships could dock at Palestinian ports
○ Massive invasion of locust they eat crops
○ Famine and war at the same time
● Unanticipated opportunity for people abroad to change the future of Jerusalem
mainly Jewish and Christian charitable organizations in America start to get very
involved in trying to help the inhabitants of Jerusalem and surrounding Palestine
○ America has not yet entered WW1 no financial crisis
○ They feel connected to their co-religionists in the Holy Land
○ In the Jewish site, this has been interpreted as Zionism not clear if this is
necessarily the case, can be more traditional reasons involved
○ Disproportionately aimed at Jews because of Zionism
○ Ottomans require that all charity must be distributed equally without
regard for religion
● American support for Jews in Jerusalem
○ Anglo-Palestine Company
■ A bank founded in 1903 to support Zionist immigrants to Palestine
■ The only bank that remained open in Jerusalem during WW1
■ American Consulate asked the Ottomans to not close this bank
○ Joint Distribution Committee
■ American Jewish charitable organization
■ Sent shipments of food to Palestine
○ Sense that Jews are Christians are becoming more important in the city
(OE is not able to provide supplies to Muslims in the area) shift local
balance of power to the disadvantage of Muslims
36. McMahon Correspondence (or McMahon Promise)
● Husain ibn ‘Ali, Sharif of Mecca
○ From a family that had long been appointed as the governors of Mecca
under the Ottomans
○ Began an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire in 1916, which was
supported by the British
○ Takes the example of ‘Umar → Arab nationality comes before religious
unification
■ ‘Umar had not gone into HSC to avoid turning it into a mosque
● Promised British recognition of future independent Arab states
● Stirrings of Arab nationalism --- not identifying as Arabs at first but identifying as
being anti-Ottomans
○ Ottomans are presented as invaders and colonizers which are threats to
Arab nationalism
○ Internal narrative: Arab nationalism has existed forever but was repressed
under the Ottomans
● Getting British support → avoiding colonization
● McMahon: British high commissioner in Egypt – highest British authority in
Egypt
○ Egypt is a frontier in WW1 (British are thinking about how Egypt can be
used to attack Ottomans)
○ McMahon is excited about an ally in Ottoman territory
○ Sends T.E Lawrence: romanticized orientalism
■ Help Husain with his revolt
37. Balfour Declaration
● The British are behind the idea of making a national home for Jewish people in
Palestine (national home (?) cultural or political sense unclear)
● Chaim Weizmann -- Jew from Russian Empire
○ Zionist, trying to convince Britain
○ you don’t want the Holy Land in the hands of France (France is a secular
place)
○ English education had focused on Jerusalem – Jerusalem is important to
them
● Fear that Germans are thinking of taking over Palestine if they win
● British favoring of Jewish autonomy in Palestine may be good for Britain
○ “A British protectorate of grateful Jews might counter French ambitions in
the region” (373)
● Jews are not unified by this idea, some are not Zionists.
38. Sykes-Picot agreement
● Sykes from British, Picot from French empires
● Before the war is over, they come up with a vague idea of how they are going to
split up Middle East when Ottomans fall
● Agreed to leave Jerusalem and most of Palestine as an international zone
39. British Mandate in Palestine
● League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (1922)
○ Recognizes Jewish people’s historical connection to Palestine
○ Approval of the Balfour Declaration
●
●
●
●
●
●
○ Doesn’t say a national state for Jews – “national home”
Britain is in charge during this period
David Ben-Gurion:
○ Born in 1886 in Russian Poland into a Zionist family
○ Emigrated to Palestine in 1906
○ Leader of Labor Zionism
○ In 1935, became chairman of the Jewish Agency (the Zionist governing
body in Mandate Palestine)
■ Included a parliament, town councils, and schools
All this Zionist activity is taking place in Hebrew
Zionists developed an interest in part of the scripture – not interested in Mishnah
and Talmud; saw them as the beginning of Judaism starting its downward spiral.
○ Not as a religious text but a historical text
○ Textbook for why Zionist belonged in Palestine
○ From the Mandate period to Israel today - in Zionist schools, the Hebrew
Bible is an important part of the curriculum – Mishnah and Talmud only
in religious schools.
Palestinian perspective: the British are pro-Zionist
Zionist perspective: the British are trying to appease Palestinians, putting limits
on immigration etc.
40. Labor Zionism
● Socialist, secular, mainstream
● Reinvention of the Diaspora Jew (they want to be the opposite of the Diaspora
Jew)
○ Life in Diaspora seen as problematic and limiting
○ Only life in Palestine would allow Jews to return to full health
○ Bring him back to his homeland and become strong, no longer vulnerable
and at the mercy of non-Jews, in charge of his own destiny
○ Physical unhealthiness was a caricature with a certain amount of
internalized anti-Semitism – Jews are pale, sickly, weak, spend all day
reading book, obsessed with religious texts
● Labor Zionists ignored the fact that other people were living in Palestine
○ Tended to talk about Palestinian people in a way that was out of touch
with reality
■ They will be happy when Zionists move to Palestine and make it
into a prosperous land
41. Revisionist Zionism
● Headed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, revisionist zionism was a right-wing movement of
Zionism which focused on the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine
through militaristic means.
● It was especially concerned with reducing anti-semitic crimes by encouraging a
Jewish majority in Palestine and a greater military presence to deter hateful
attacks
● Jews usually felt that the police of Jerusalem sided too strongly with the Arabs
which helps explain why this form of zionism was so militaristic
42. Ze'ev Jabotinsky
● Born in Odessa (Russia) 1880
● Advocated for Jews’ involvement in armed struggle against Ottomans and Arabs
to create a Jewish state
● Founded World Union of Zionist Revisionists in 1925
● Starting in 1933, worked to bring Jews to Palestine, including using illegal and
violent means
● Disagrees with Labor Zionism in terms of their relationship with the British –
didn’t like playing nice, thinks the others are not realistic, confront the reality of a
conflict
● Accept that the Zionists should be colonizers – colonizing isn’t that bad
● There should be an iron wall to protect the Zionists from Arab resistance
● In 1931, British authorities exiled him from Palestine for his militant politics
● Starting in 1933, with the rise of Hitler, he and Revisionist Zionists worked to
bring Jews to Palestine in any way they could, including illegal and violent means
● In 1937, became supreme commander of Etzel, underground military of
Revisionist Zionists
● Died in 1940
● “I suggest that they consider all the precedents with which they are acquainted,
and see whether there is one solitary instance of any colonisation being carried on
with the consent of the native population. There is no such precedent.” from the
Iron Wall
43. Brit Shalom (Covenant of Peace, 1925-33)
● Founded by a group of Jewish intellectuals
○ Martin Buber (philosopher)
○ Gershom Scholem (scholar of religion)
○ Judah Magnes (first president of the Hebrew University)
● Tried to encourage Jews to align with Arabs
○ Offered Arabic classes
●
○ Idea that Jews should learn about the culture of the local people if they are
going to live in Palestine
Falls apart with the rise of Hitler
44. Abraham Isaac Kook
● Religious Zionist (first prominent rabbi to say that Zionism was a good idea and
fit with the understanding of their religion)
○ Born in Russia in 1865
○ 1904, moved to Jaffa
○ Appointed first Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Palestine in 1921
○ 1924, founded Merkaz ha-Rav, a yeshiva in Jerusalem (equivalent of a
madrasa)
■ Mainstream belief is that Zionists are taking into their own hands
what the Messiah is supposed to do – Abraham has a different
view
○ Pro-Jewish immigration to Jerusalem
○ Religious and secular Jews can help to bring the Messiah by settling in
Palestine; helping the Messianic cause
■ The virtue of Jews moving to Palestine and establishing a Jewish
homeland is a religiously valid and helpful act
■ Agree to disagree: Abraham thinks it is a good reason because of
religious reasons and Zionists because of nationalistic reasons
45. Nabi Musa riots
● Nabi Musa celebrations originally initiated by the Mamluks when Jerusalem was
endangered by the Crusaders → regarded as a symbolic way of taking possession
of the Holy City
● Arabs stormed the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem out of fear that they were losing
possession of the Holy City
● During a Muslim pilgrimage holiday, violence broke out between Muslims and
Jews
● Took part in the British-controlled part of Jerusalem
● Muslims attacked the Jewish quarter in Jerusalem
○ The question about nationalism – opposition to Zionism
○ 5 Jews were killed, and 4 Arabs were killed: over 200 injured
● The Arab police sided with the rioters, the British troops didn’t come out to quell
the violence, and the Jews were forbidden to organize their own defense
● Jews blamed the British for not adequately protecting them
● Palestinians blame the British for supporting Zionism in the first place
46. Palestinian identity
● Palestine made a separate Ottoman province in 1874
● Increasingly, local Muslims feared encroachment by European Christians → they
wanted to become a separate province
○ Initially, Palestine was a part of the Syrian province
○ This is not a separatist movement – not yet anti-Ottoman
○ Anti-imperial move
● Opposition to Zionism
○ Demography of Jerusalem changes with the waves of Jewish immigration
■ More than half of the population is Jewish
■ Arabs are worried about the increasing Jewish population that
don’t try to integrate into the Palestinian/Ottoman culture – don’t
learn the language etc.
○ Zionist narrative: Palestinians didn’t exist before Zionism, there is no
separate Palestinian identity (they are just Arabs), thy don’t need their own
Arab land in Palestine, they can just go and live in another Arab land
○ This somehow delegitimizes Palestinian identity because it is developed
in opposition to Zionism
○ However, in general, “self-definition takes place with reference to an
‘other’…”
■ Example: Christianity in opposition to Judaism
● After WW1, most Arab nationalists wanted a single Arab state in Greater Syria;
many referred to Palestine as “Southern Syria”
○ Many Arab leaders in Palestine were enthusiastic supporters of King
Faysal, who ruled a short-lived independent kingdom in part of the
Ottoman province of Syria
○ When King Faysal’s kingdom was occupied by the French in 1920, many
Arab nationalists increasingly focused their patriotism on Palestine
■ The French established their own colonial state after kicking
Faysal out
● Start thinking of themselves as Palestinians rather than Greater Syrians
● Dominant way of identifying
47. Riots of 1929-30
● Began in Jerusalem: centered on a conflict over Jews’ use of the Western Wall
● Anyone who tries change the status quo are accused of trying to start conflict
because the tensions are so high
○ Jews are bringing in furniture to the Western Wall to make it into a
permanent place like a synagogue (not sth they used to do)
○ Praying in ways that are loud and destructive
●
●
●
●
●
●
○ Right next to the Western Wall are important madrasas where Muslims are
trying to study and pray
Also sparked by Jabotinsky’s speech at the World Zionist Congress in late Julyearly August 1929
○ Jabotinsky says that they need a state; a homeland will not do
○ Starts stoking tensions in a massive way among Palestinians
Then on August 19, Arabs killed a Jewish boy who had strayed into their garden:
Zionists protested
Arabs then attacked Jews after Friday prayers in Jerusalem
Starts in Jerusalem and spreads over Palestine
Many of the Palestinian deaths are from the British police → endorses the idea
of the British favoring the Zionists
Arabs win the fight; set regulations on Jewish worship at the Wall
48. Arab Revolt of 1936-7
● Uprising by Palestinian Arabs against British Colonial rule as a demand for
independence and opposition to mass Jewish immigration
● Arab leaders called a general strike in April 1936
○ Including a boycott of Jewish products
○ Led to violence between Arabs and Jews
○ Hundreds died (both Jews and Palestinian Arab)
● Second Phase: increasingly violent uprising aimed at the British and Zionists
49. Peel Commission (1937)
● Commission appointed by the British government to try to find a solution to the
conflict in Palestine
○ In response to the Arab Revolt, begun in 1936
○ Made up of distinguished British government servants
● Conducted interviews with Zionist and Palestinian leaders
○ Came up with a plan to partition Palestine
● First time that the British say that they should not allow for the vagueness of the
Balfour Declaration to persist and instead have a set plan for the future of
Palestine – two separate states in Palestine
● Plants a seed for the idea of partitioning the land (even though current lines are
nothing like it)
● Zionists have the north and some of the coast, Palestinians have the south
bordering on Jordan, Jerusalem remains under British mandate (similar to the
Sykes-Picot agreement)
● Palestinian leadership reject it, Zionists accept it
○ Palestinians refuse to accept any kind of Jewish state on their land
50. White Paper of 1939
● There is a shift in the British colonial administration’s approach to the question of
Palestine
● Revoked the Peel Partition Plan
○ “It was a severe blow to the Zionists, who would never trust Britain again”
● The British are admitting that the Balfour Declaration is ambiguous
● Unequivocal declaring that Palestine cannot become a Jewish state
● British government statement regarding its policy on Palestine, issued in May
1939, which limited Jewish immigration (no more than 75000 immigrants in next
5 years) to Palestine and Jewish land acquisition in Palestine, and declared its
intention of establishing an Arab state there in 1949
● Lehi (paramilitary organization)
○ In response to the White Paper and the prevention of Jewish migration to
Palestine
○ Acronym for Lohamei Herut Yisrael (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel)
○ Founded in 1940 by Abraham Stern
○ Fought against British to try to force the creation of a Zionist state
○ Committed acts of terrorism
○ Before this, most of the violent resistance towards the British were coming
from Palestinians
○ They are disgusted by British indifference by not allowing Jews who were
being slaughtered all across Europe to escape to Palestine
■ Thought of aiding and abetting the Nazis – seen just as bad as them
51. WWII
● Jews desperate to get out of Europe but British won't let them into Palestine
● Talks of immigration start among Leftist Zionists in 1933 when Hitler introduces
anti-semitic values as führer
● People use illegal means to get Jews to Palestine
● White Paper of 1939 puts limitations on Jewish immigration (≤ 75,000) per
pressure from Arabs
● When the first news of nazi death camps reached Palestine, the old gradualist
policies were abandoned.
● “Zionists were convinced only a fully Jewish state could provide a safe haven for
the Jews, even if it meant evicting the Arabs from the country” (385)
● The postward period saw an escalation of terrorism on both sides
○ 1946 – bombing of the King David hotel in Jerusalem
■ One of the most spectacular acts of Jewish terrorism
■ Active resistance by these groups even after WW2 ended
■ Partially due to British rejection of allowing Jews into Palestine
even after WW2
● Jewish Displaced Persons post-WW2
○ Relatively few survivors from Nazi concentration camps
○ Most Jewish DPs came from Eastern Europe, where antisemitic pogroms
broke out shortly after WW2
○ By December 1946, there were about 250k Jews in Germany, Italy, and
Austria
○ Most lived in DP camps
● Significance:
○ “Had it not been for Hitler’s Nazi crusade against the Jews, the Zionist
enterprise might never have succeeded. The guilt, shock, and outrage
occasioned by the discovery of the camps had evoked a wave of sympathy
for the Jewish people after the Second World War which certainly helped
the Zionist cause.” (394)
52. United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) and the UN Partition
Plan of 1947
● United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP)
○ Operated from June to August 1947
○ Representatives from Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala,
India, Holland, Peru, Iran, Sweden, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia
○ Recommended partition into an Arab state and a Jewish state
■ Jerusalem would be an international zone
○ UNSCOP was divided – majority backed this report, but a minority did
not
■ Minority says we shouldn’t partition Palestine, there should be
one state that is neither Jewish nor Palestine but both
■ Cooperate on certain aspects of government and be independent on
others
● UNSCOP Partition plan:
○ Arab leaders insisted that the Western World was seeking to salve its
conscience for the atrocities of the war and was paying its own debt to the
Jewish people with someone else’s land (Tessler, 259).
○ Jews are willing to take whatever they can get
■ “Possession of the Holy City was not, at this stage, regarded as
essential to the new Jewish state”(386) -- religion is purely a
means for political agenda
○ UN GA voted in favor of the plan on November 29, 1947
○ USA was crucial in convincing certain countries that were initially
opposed to partition
○ Britain declared it would leave Palestine on May 15, 1948
○ May 14 – Zionist leaders officially declare the creation of the state of
Israel
○ David Ben-Gurion is elected the first prime minister of Israel
○ May 15 – official war declared on Israel by surrounding Arab countries
(Egypt, Syria, Lebanon…)
○ West Jerusalem is a part of Israel, East Jerusalem was supposed to be
Palestine but was annexed by Jordan
■ Neighboring Arab states protested against Jordanian occupation
but eventually accepted it as fait accompli.
53. Naqba/ War of Independence, 1947-8
● Phase 1: Civil War between Jews and Arabs of Palestine (11/29/1947 - 5/14/1948)
○ November 29, 1947: Palestinian guerillas attack Jewish settlements after
UNSCOP vote for partition
○ February - June 1948: Siege of Jerusalem; battling between Jews and
Palestinians for Jerusalem
○ April 9, 1948: Deir Yassin Massacre
■ Two militias attacked the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin outside
of Jerusalem
● Etzel (also known as the Irgun) and Lehi
■ Killed between 100 and 200 Palestinians, out of a population of
400-600
■ Way to achieve a Jewish majority is forcing Palestinians to leave
the land
■ Ben Gurion renounced the massacre
○ Lehi and Irgun paramilitary organizations massacre Palestinian village
○ May 14, 1948: David Ben Gurion declared the establishment of the State
of Israel at a ceremony in Tel Aviv.
● Phase 2: War of Independence against outside countries (5/15/1948 - 1/1949)
○ May 15, 1948: Israel officially recognized as an independent state;
invasion by the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq.
○ War concluded with an armistice signed by Israel and surrounding battling
countries
○ Israel ends up with 50% more land than originally allocated with partition
plan; owns around 78% of Mandatory Palestine
● 1947-1949: Palestinian refugee crisis; hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled
to new state of Israel and became refugees; many lived in refugee camps; also
went to neighboring Arab states
● The Naqba and the Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Crisis
○ During the war, Zionist militias- and eventually, the army of the state of
Israel – attacked
○ By the end of the war, between 600k and 760k refugees had been
displaced
○ Went to neighboring Arab states, the West Bank, or the Gaza strip
○ Many still live in refugee camps today
● Parts of the land that were supposed to be Palestinian were occupied by other
countries – Egypt took the Gaza Strip and Jordan took the West Bank
54. East and West Jerusalem
● West Jerusalem is a part of Israel, East Jerusalem was supposed to be Palestine
but was annexed by Jordan
● The explosion in the King David Hotel (1946) – Jewish terrorist organization
opposed to Britain rule of Palestine + Semiramis Hotel (cut electricity to be
unseen)
● Barricade of barrels + guards to separate Jewish and Palestinian quarters –
constant state of worry that they would be killed by Jewish forces, Palestinian
children had guns
● Shortly after the proclamation of the state of Israel, in May 1948, they an
armistice with Jordanian soldiers who occupied the Old City which agreed that
Jews would be evacuated from the old city they went to other parts of Jerusalem,
became known as West Jerusalem
55. Six-Day War (1967)
● Arabs want to claim all of Palestine for Palestinians
● Egypt and other Arab allies were preparing for war with Israel
○ Israel had intelligence on this
● On June 5, Israel launched a preemptive strike (Israel attacked on various fronts
instead of waiting to be attacked), which was far more successful than anyone
thought it would be
○ There was fear that Israel would lose and that would be the end of the state
of Israel
● The war was over in six days: armistice signed on June 11
● Israel occupied the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza strip, the West Bank, and the Golan
Heights (Syria)
●
●
●
●
○ They managed to occupy parts that were originally given to Palestinians
and then annexed by other Arab states, also parts of Syria and Egypt that
have never been a part of Mandate Palestine
○ West Bank: the first time since 1948 that Israelis went into the Old City
Armistice at the end of the war in early 1949 divided Israel from Palestine, which
became Jordan -- the old city was on the Jordan side → unification of Jerusalem
for Israelis
June 7, Israeli troops took Jerusalem from Jordan
○ Entered the old city in Jerusalem; soldiers immediately went to the
Western Wall
○ Went up on the Temple Mount – religious Jews wouldn’t have done this
June 10, the Israeli commanding authorities in Jerusalem (military officers and
civilian authorities from West Jerusalem) raised the Maghribi Quarter
○ 619 Palestinians are given 3 hours to leave their homes (houses were then
destroyed) and created an enormous plaza in front of the Western Wall to
accommodate to huge influx of Jewish pilgrims after the war
○ Raising of the Maghribi Quarter was a signal that Israel intended to keep
East Jerusalem → dismantling of historic Arab Jerusalem
“The bodies of about two hundred soldiers of the Arab Legion lay in the streets;
Arab civilians had been killed” (402)
56. Unified Jerusalem
● June 28, 1967, Israel annexed East Jerusalem
○ Different status from the other Occupied Territories (the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip)
■ They are not part of Israel according to the UN Partition Plan and
the armistice
■ Remains occupied territory, not annexed by Israel to this day
○ Now Jerusalem’s municipal borders included large parts of East Jerusalem
● Today it is often impossible to distinguish parts of the city annexed in 1967 from
those that constituted West Jerusalem before 1967.
● Technically, after June 28, there is no divided Jerusalem according to the
municipal boundaries, but the experience is still very different
● Palestinians who remained in the new state of Israel, by late 50s, became citizens
of Israel – on paper, they have full citizenship status
● Palestinians from East Jerusalem were given a different status
○ Not given Israeli citizenship but given a status are free to move throughout
Jerusalem and the rest of Israel, but they are not full citizens and cannot
vote in national elections but municipal elections
○ Many East Jerusalem Palestinians choose not to vote as part of protest
● Legal differentiation between East Jerusalem Palestinians and Palestinians from
the rest of the State of Israel
● The international community is unwilling to accept Israel’s annexation of
Jerusalem: the UN passed two resolutions calling for Israel to rescind this
“unification” and UNSC passed Resolution 242: Israel must withdraw form the
territories it occupied during the Six-Day War
QUOTES:
● Ben Gurion: “If Palestine is our country, it is not to the exclusion of other inhabitants; it
is also their country, the country of those who are born here and have no other homeland,
and we can come in without any limit except the limit not to displace the existing
inhabitants. ” -Palestine Royal Commission
● “A state may imply domination of others, the domination by the Jewish majority of the
minority, but that is not our aim.”
● “The inhabitants of Palestine had long perceived that control of Palestine was a prize of
value to Western powers, and such a consciousness did much to cement a sense of
community and belonging, and to spur patriotic feelings regarding Palestine” (175) - the
formation of Palestinian Identity