Jerusalem

Jerusalem (jər`sələm, –zələm), Heb. Yerushalayim, Arab. Al Quds, city (1994 pop. 578,800), capital of Israel. It is situated on a ridge 2,500 ft (760 m) high that lies west of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River. Jerusalem is an administrative, religious, educational, cultural, and market center. Tourism and the construction of houses and hotels are the city's major industries. Manufactures include cut and polished diamonds, plastics, clothing, and shoes, and electronic printing and other high-technology industries have been developed. The city is served by road, rail, and air transport.

Jerusalem is a holy city for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Often under the name of Zion, it figures prominently in Jewish and Christian literature as a symbol of the capital of the Messiah. Jerusalem's churches and shrines are legion. The traditional identifications vary in reliability from certainty (such as Gethsemane) to pious supposition (such as the Tomb of the Virgin). The most famous and most difficult identification is that of Calvary. Excavations have been made in Jerusalem since 1835, and after 1967, the Israelis increased this activity, uncovering remains of the Herodian period and ruins of a Muslim structure of the 7th or 8th cent. Many of Jerusalem's original streets, including the main Cardo, have been excavated and turned into tourist sites.

The Old City

The eastern part of Jerusalem is the Old City, a quadrangular area built on two hills and surrounded by a wall completed in 1542 by the Ottoman sultan Sulayman I. Within the wall are four quarters. The Muslim quarter, in the east, contains a sacred enclosure, the Haram esh-Sherif (known as the Temple Mount to Jews), within which, built on the old Mt. Moriah, are the Dome of the Rock (completed 691), or Mosque of Omar, and the Mosque of al-Aksa. The wall of the Haram incorporates the Western Wall, or Wailing Wall, a remnant of the retaining wall of the Second Temple and a holy place for Jews. Nearby and southwest of the Haram is the Jewish quarter, with several famous old synagogues. Partially destroyed in previous Arab-Israeli fighting, the Old City was captured in 1967 by the Israelis, who began to rebuild and renovate the Jewish quarter. To the west of the Jewish quarter is the Armenian quarter, site of the Gulbenkian Library. The Christian quarter occupies the northern and northwestern parts of the Old City. Its greatest monument is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Through the area runs the Via Dolorosa, along which Jesus is said to have carried his cross.

The New City and Other Districts

The New City, extending west and southwest of the Old City, has developed tremendously since the 19th cent. It is the site of several educational institutions, as well as the Knesset (Israeli parliament) and other government buildings (including the striking Supreme Court building, which opened in 1992). Yad Vashem, a memorial to the Holocaust, is also in that section of the city. To the east of the Old City is the Valley of the Kidron, beyond which lie the Garden of Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives. To the north is Mt. Scopus, a Jewish intellectual center that is the site of the Hadassah Medical Center, Hebrew Univ., and the Jewish National Library. Another campus of Hebrew Univ. is located on the western edge of the city at Ein Karem. From 1948 to 1967, Mt. Scopus was an Israeli exclave in Arab territory. To the west and south of the Old City runs the Valley of Hinnom; this meets the Kidron near the pool of Siloam, which is next to the site of the original city of Jerusalem, now partly excavated and called the City of David (see Ophel).

Cultural and Educational Institutions

Jerusalem has numerous museums; one of the finest is the Israel Museum, in the New City, whose collection ranges from the contemporary to displays of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The city is the seat of Hebrew Univ., the British School of Archaeology, the Dominican Fathers' Convent of St. Étienne, with the attached Bible School and French Archaeological School, the American College, the Greek Catholic Seminary of St. Anne, the Pontifical Biblical Institute, the Swedish Theological Institute, the Near East School of Archaeology, the Rubin Academy of Music, and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

History

Early History to 1900

Despite incomplete archaeological work, it is evident that Jerusalem was occupied as far back as the 4th millenium B.C. In the late Bronze Age (2000–1550 B.C.), it was a Jebusite (Canaanite) stronghold. David captured it (c.1000 B.C.) from the Jebusites and walled the city. After Solomon built the Temple on Mt. Moriah in the 10th cent. B.C., Jerusalem became the spiritual and political capital of the Hebrews. In 586 B.C. it fell to the Babylonians, and the Temple was destroyed.

The city was restored to Hebrew rule later in the 6th cent. B.C. by Cyrus the Great, king of Persia. The Temple was rebuilt (538–515 B.C.; known as the Second Temple) by Zerubbabel, a governor of Jerusalem under the Persians. In the mid-5th cent. B.C., Ezra reinvigorated the Jewish community in Jerusalem. The city was the capital of the Maccabees in the 2d and 1st cent. B.C.

After Jerusalem had been taken for the Romans by Pompey, it became the capital of the Herod dynasty, which ruled under the aegis of Rome. The Roman emperor Titus ruined the city and destroyed the Temple (A.D. 70) in order to punish and discourage the Jews. After the revolt of Bar Kokba (A.D. 132–35), Hadrian rebuilt the city as a pagan shrine called Aelia Capitolina but forbade Jews to live on the site.

With the imperial toleration of Christianity (from 313), Jerusalem underwent a revival, greatly aided by St. Helena, who sponsored much building in the early 4th cent. Since that time Jerusalem has been a world pilgrimage spot. Muslims, who believe that the city was visited by Muhammad, treated Jerusalem favorably after they captured it in 637, making it the chief shrine after Mecca. From 688 to 691 the Dome of the Rock mosque was constructed.

In the 11th cent. the Fatimids began to hinder Christian pilgrims; their destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher helped bring on the Crusades. Jerusalem was conquered by the Crusaders in 1099 and for most of the 12th cent. was the capital of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1187, Muslims under Saladin recaptured the city. Thereafter, under Mamluk and then Ottoman rule, Jerusalem was rebuilt and restored (especially by Sulayman I); but by the late 16th cent. it was declining as a commercial and religious center.

In the early 19th cent., Jerusalem began to revive. The flow of Christian pilgrims increased, and churches, hospices, and other institutions were built. Jewish immigration accelerated (especially from the time of the Egyptian occupation of Jerusalem by Muhammad Ali in 1832–41), and by 1900, Jews made up the largest community in the city and expanded settlement outside the Old City walls.

The Twentieth Century

In 1917, during World War I, Jerusalem was captured by British forces under Gen. Edmund Allenby. After the war it was made the capital of the British-held League of Nations Palestine mandate (1922–48). As the end of the mandate approached, Arabs and Jews both sought to hold sole possession of the city. Most Christians favored a free city open to all religions. This view prevailed in the United Nations, which, in partitioning Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, declared that Jerusalem and its environs (including Bethlehem) would be an internationally administered enclave in the projected Arab state. Even before the partition went into effect (May 14, 1948), fighting between Jews and Arabs broke out in the city. On May 28, the Jews in the Old City surrendered. The New City remained in Jewish hands. The Old City and all areas held by the Arab Legion (East Jerusalem) were annexed by Jordan in Apr., 1949. Israel responded by retaining the area it held. On Dec. 14, 1949, the New City of Jerusalem was made the capital of Israel.

In the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, Israeli forces took the Old City. The Israeli government then formally annexed the Old City and placed all of Jerusalem under a unified administration. Arab East Jerusalemites were offered regular Israeli citizenship but chose to maintain their status as Jordanians. Israel transferred many Arabs out of the Old City but promised access to the holy places to people of all religions. In July, 1980, Israel's parliament approved a bill affirming Jerusalem as the nation's capital. With suburbanization and housing developments in formerly Jordanian-held territory, Jerusalem has become Israel's largest city. Strife between Arabs and Jews persists. The issue of the status of East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel but regarded by Palestinians as the eventual capital of their own state, remains difficult. In 1998, Israel announced a controversial plan to expand Jerusalem by annexing nearby towns.

Bibliography

See S. B. Cohen, Jerusalem: Bridging the Four Walls (1977); M. Har-El, This Is Jerusalem (1977); L. Collins and D. Lapierre, O Jerusalem (1980); M. Gilbert, Jerusalem: Rebirth of a City (1985); F. E. Peters, Jerusalem (1985); A. L. Eckardt, ed., Jerusalem: City of Ages (1987); A. Rabinovich, Jerusalem on Earth (1988); H. Shanks, Jerusalem: An Archaeological Biography (1995).

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Jerusalem

 Hebrew Yerushalayim Arabic Al-Quds

City (pop., 2005 est.: 704,900), capital of Israel (see below). Located in the heart of historic Palestine, it is nestled between the West Bank and Israel. The Old City is a typical walled Middle Eastern enclosure; the modern city is an urban agglomeration of high-rises and housing complexes. It is holy to Judaism as the site of the Temple of Jerusalem, to Christianity because of its association with Jesus, and to Islam because of its connection with the Mi'raj (the Prophet Muhammad's ascension to heaven). Jewish shrines include the Western Wall. Islamic holy places include the Dome of the Rock. In 1000 BC David made it the capital of Israel. Razed by the Babylonians in the 6th century BC, it thereafter enjoyed only brief periods of independence. The Romans devastated it in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, banishing the Jewish population. From 638 it was ruled by various Muslim dynasties, except for short periods during the Crusades when it was controlled by Christians. Rule by the Ottoman Empire ended in 1917, and the city became the capital of the British mandate of Palestine. It was thereafter the subject of competing Zionist and Palestinian national aspirations. Israel claimed the city as its capital after the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 and took the entire city during the Six-Day War of 1967. Its status as Israel's capital has remained a point of contention: official recognition by the international community has largely been withheld pending final settlement of regional territorial rights.

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Jerusalem

1. the de facto capital of Israel (recognition of this has been withheld by the United Nations), situated in the Judaean hills: became capital of the Hebrew kingdom after its capture by David around 1000 bc; destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 bc; taken by the Romans in 63 bc; devastated in 70 ad and 135 ad during the Jewish rebellions against Rome; fell to the Arabs in 637 and to the Seljuk Turks in 1071; ruled by Crusaders from 1099 to 1187 and by the Egyptians and Turks until conquered by the British (1917); centre of the British mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, when the Arabs took the old city and the Jews held the new city; unified after the Six Day War (1967) under the Israelis; the holy city of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Pop.: 693 200 (2003 est.)

2. the New Jerusalem Christianity Heaven

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Jerusalem

destroyed in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar, and in A.D. 70 by Titus. [Jew. Hist.: Collier’s, XI, 16, 17]

See : Destruction

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Jerusalem

(Hebrew, Yerushala’im; Arabic, el-Kuds), a city in Palestine, west of the Dead Sea on a semidesert plateau. Population, 283,100 (1970). The city has a railway station and is an automobile highway junction. It is an industrial, commercial, transport, and cultural center. The most important industries are food, textiles, leather and shoes, metalworking, pharmaceuticals, glass, and printing. Handicrafts are well developed, and there is a radio-manufacturing plant in the city. Jerusalem is considered a “holy city” by Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

The first reference to Jerusalem dates from the middle of the second millennium B.C. Later, it was held at various times by the Kingdom of Judah, Alexander the Great, the Seleucid state, ancient Rome, Byzantium, the Arab Caliphate, the Crusaders, the Ayyubid state, the Mameluke state, and the Ottoman Empire. English troops occupied the city in December 1917, and from 1920 to 1947 it was the administrative center of the Mandate of Palestine. After the abolition of the English mandate in Palestine by a resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations on Nov. 29, 1947, Jerusalem was to become an independent administrative unit with a special international regime under the administration of the United Nations. After the Arab-Israeli War of 1948–49, Jerusalem was divided into two parts; the eastern part went to Jordan, and the western part to Israel. In January 1950, the government of Israel, contrary to the resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations of Nov. 29, 1947, proclaimed Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Great Britain, the USSR, the USA, France, and other states did not recognize this Israeli action. Israel seized the eastern part of Jerusalem in the beginning of June 1967, and on June 28, 1967, the Israeli government adopted a resolution annexing it to the western part of the city. The fifth extraordinary special session of the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the resolutions of July 4 and July 14, 1967, demanding that Israel reverse all measures annexing the eastern part of Jerusalem. However, these resolutions were not carried out. On May 21, 1968, the Security Council called on Israel to refrain from any actions that could change the status of the city, which had been defined by previous UN resolutions. This position was reaffirmed in the Security Council’s resolutions of July 3, 1969, and Sept. 25, 1971.

The remains of Hellenistic and Roman monuments are located in the eastern part of Jerusalem. The ruins of early Christian monuments, beginning with the fourth century A.D. , include the rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which has been rebuilt numerous times, several crypts of the fifth century, and the basilica on the Mount of Olives. The monuments of Arab culture include the Kubbet es-Sakhra mosque, built in 687–91 on the site of the temple of Solomon, which had been built in the tenth century B.C. and was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70, and al-Aksa, altered from a Christian basilica in the beginning of the eighth century and reconstructed completely in 780 and 1035. A number of churches of the 11th and 12th centuries are still standing, including St. Anna and St. Jacob. The citadel dates from the 14th century (reconstructed in the 16th century). The city walls and gates (including the Damascus Gates, 1537) date from the 16th century. The building of the western part of the city was begun in the second half of the 19th century. There are many public buildings in Jerusalem; among the most important of these are the new university complex (begun in 1954) and the medical center (1960, J. Neufeld). Jerusalem is the site of the Museum of National History, the Bezalel National Museum, and the Hebrew University (founded in 1918).