II JERUSALEM A CITY TO DIE FOR WHY

II. JERUSALEM, A CITY TO DIE FOR WHY HAD VIOLENCE ALWAYS BEEN SO STRONG IN THIS CITY? Jerusalem, the ending point of all wars. . . The place where peace should be enforced. . . The cradle of monotheism. . . Yet, the emblem of massacres and religious intolerance Why?

HOW IT WORKS When destructions and killings were perpetrated 1450 BCE EGYPTIANS HITTITES MYCENIANS AEGEANS By who Against who and how 630 CE BYZANTINES Emperor Heraclius Massacre of Jews Forced conversions Expulsions

WHO KILLED AND DESTROYED IN JERUSALEM? 1450 BCE EGYPTIANS HITTITES MYCENIANS AEGEANS 1300 BCE ISRAELITES Israel = struggle with god * 900 BCE PHILISTINES Palestinians « the invaders from the sea » 900 -800 BCE ASSYRIANS * The name Israel derives from the Hebrew yisra'el, “He that fights with God”, which in turn derives from sara, “he fights”, and El, “God”. This is the name that God gave to Jacob (and all his descendants) after their wrestling match. Genesis 32: 24 - “And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 25 - And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh (fémur); and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. 26 - And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. 27 - And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. 28 - And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed”.

WHO KILLED AND DESTROYED IN JERUSALEM? 597 / 587 BCE BABYLONIANS Nebuchadnezzar II invaded and deported 20, 000 Jews (esp. elite group - Samaritans) Then the 587 BCE riot full destruction of Salomon’s Temple « 1 st diaspora » 63 BCE ROMANS Conquest of Judaea by Pompey, renamed Palestinaeus, a name given as an insult to the Jews (the term meant « the land of the Phillistines » ) 33 CE ROMANS + PRIESTS The calvary of Jesus 66 / 73 CE ROMANS Titus and 100, 000 soldiers sacked Jerusalem, destroying the Second Temple, leaving only supporting walls, including the Western Wall. According to Josephus, the estimated death toll was 250, 000 to 1. 1 M Ended in the fortress of Masada 132 / 136 CE ROMANS Last Jewish-Roman war (Bar Kokhba revolt). 580, 000 Jews were killed, 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed Syria Palaestina – city of Aelia Capitolia Jews expelled from JM until the 4 th c.

WHO KILLED AND DESTROYED IN JERUSALEM? 614 -617 CE SHAHRBARAZ (Persian ruler) JEWS 10, 000 s Christians killed 37, 000 deported The Holy Sepulcher was burnt 630 CE BYZANTINES Emperor Heraclius Massacre of Jews Forced conversions Expulsions http: //www. worldology. com/Iraq/arab_muslim_caliphate. ht m 636 CE ARAB-MUSLIMS Oubayda and Walid No killing; Jews reallowed to enter and worship In 635 CE, the region, including Jerusalem, was conquered by the Arabs and was to remain under Muslim control for the next 1, 300 years Jerusalem is named “Iliya”, from the Roman “Aelia” The harmonious relations between Muslims and non-Muslim “tolerated” peoples (the Madinah contract, or Pact of Umar) gave place to harder tensions and violence.

WHO KILLED AND DESTROYED IN JERUSALEM? 720 CE 831 CE MUSLIMS Omar II Jews are forbidden from praying on Mount Temple 1004 -1014 CE MUSLIMS Abbasid caliph Haroun Al-Rashid Executions and tortures before to deploy tolerance towards pilgrims 960 s CE MUSLIMS JEWS Killings of Christians Holy Sepulcher burnt 10 th c CE FATIMIDS, ABBASIDS, BEDOUINS Regular attacks and slaughters of civilians MUSLIMS Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim the Laws of religious differentiation After relative tolerance towards the « Peoples of the Book » . . . He decreed that the Christians could no longer celebrate Epiphany (the revelation of baby Jesus “God the Son” as a human being in Jesus Christ by the 3 Biblical Magi) or Easter (Pâques = celebrating the resurrection of JC on the third day after his crucifixion at Calvary) He outlawed the use of wine; a hardship for both Christians and Jews He ordered that Jews and Christians follow ghiyār "the law of differentiation" – using a black belt and turban. In addition, Jews had to wear a wooden calf necklace and Christians an iron cross. In the public baths, Jews had to replace the calf with a bell Women of the Ahl al-Kitab (Peoples of the Book) had to wear two different colored shoes, one red and one black. On 18 October 1009, al- Hakim ordered the destruction of the Holy Sepulcher, apparently outraged by the “fraud” practiced by the monks in the "miraculous" Descent of the Holy Fire. Processions were prohibited. A few years later all of the convents and churches in the region were said to have been destroyed or confiscated

WHO KILLED AND DESTROYED IN JERUSALEM? 11 th c CE PIRATS BEDOUINS Regular attacks 5, 000 Christians pilgrims killed in 1064 1073 CE MUSLIM Seljuq dynasty Captured JM Killed people of all confessions ''The Normans killed everyone they could find, of course. The concept of mercy being frequently devoid in Christianity during the Crusades. The Muslims, when they retook Jerusalem after a short siege by Saladin, didn't want to kill everyone. They wanted slaves. Makes more profits. '' 1099 – 13 th c CE CHRISTIAN CRUSADERS Holy massacres. . . E. g. 1095 -1099: crusading armies crossed Europe, exterminating Jewish communities In 1099: all inhabitants of JM slaughtered, even women and children beheaded, disemboweled (éventrés), raped, burnt and buried alive. . . 1191: Richard Lionheart besieged the city

WHO KILLED AND DESTROYED IN JERUSALEM? 1187 CE MUSLIMS Saladin Recaptured Jerusalem and drove Crusaders out of it. Massive enslavement. Christian buildings destroyed 1229 CE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE Frederick II Expulsion of Jews but Muslims respected (in retaliation, the papacy will close him the doors of Holy Sepulcher). Destroyed the city’s fortifications 1244 – 1250 s CE TATARS Barba Khan Raided JM. Slaughter; monks were beheaded and disemboweled on the altar on the Holy Sepulcher. 2, 000 Xan pilgrims killed. Then regular warlords and bandits attacked and plundered the city. 1250 s 1510 s MAMELOUK MUSLIMS The Mamluks were originally Muslim soldiers of slave origin, from Turkic tribes. In 1250, they took the power in many Muslim sultanates and exerted fierce dictatorship everywhere they could. This warrior class aggravated the lot of Xans and Jews in JM: -Extermination in 1264 (300 Xans and 2 Jews remained alive) -Regular mystic slaughters -Dhimmi discriminations As a consequence, the city became a nest of vipers for its residents. Christian denominations struggled for the Holy Sepulcher while taxes on pilgrims generated tremendous profits.

WHO KILLED AND DESTROYED IN JERUSALEM? 1550 s CE OTTOMAN MUSLIMS Soliman the Magnificent Inferiorized the Peoples of the Book: Jews expelled from Temple Mount cult restricted to a 3 mlarge street, dubbed ha-Kotel (“the Wall”) = called Western or Laments’ Wall today Franciscans expelled from the Tomb of David 1600 s – 30 s MUSLIM Rulers & mercenaries Jews and Christians tortured A Portuguese nun burnt alive Increased taxes “on the back of the 20, 000 infidels doomed to Hell” ARMENIAN MONKS Allied with Ottomans and tried to get rid off the other denominations in the Holy Sepulcher Control of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is divided six ways: Franciscans, Greeks, Armenians, Egyptians, Ethiopians and Syrians 1700 s – 1720 s CE MUSLIMS Husseini families Took control of the keys of the Holy Sepulcher Extortion of money on the back of Jews Increased disciminations and violence Dhimmis forced to kill and bury dead dogs Christians and Jews were beaten with shoes 1757 CE CHRISTIANS Priests Greek priests attack Franciscans with axes

”Monotheism, rather than offering a cosmological solution, is actually a social and cultural mechanism by which moral forces and submission to a higher power are combined, to evoke phalanx societies, which have a high degree of internal cooperation, which enables these societies to survive in crude Darwinian terms, by being more able to compete with and conquer other societies. Despite their pretenses to being under the banner of God, the merciful and compassionate, the realities are enforcement of moral codes through splitting the souls of believers between glowing accounts of heaven and dire penalties, both in this life and the imagined after-life, for any transgressor…. The clash of the cultures between the Muslim and the tacitly Judeo-Christian Western world, although also accused of being rampantly materialist, exemplifies this incapacity to heal monotheism into one autonomous faith, except by conquest and submission, because of the intrinsic violence of domination and utopian supremacy implicit in all monotheistic faiths. ” http: //madamepickwickartblog. com/2010/04/holy-wars-frivolous-missions/