When I first came to Jerusalem as a student in 1971, I wrote my return address in outsized letters to stress that I had returned home. This was in the shadow of the 1967 war and the rebuilding of the Jewish Quarter after the destruction and deliberate desecration during the Jordanian-Palestinian occupation.
Like other Jews catching up for the lost centuries, I explored every building and alleyway, breathing in the immense history, architecture and religious significance.
The Hebrew word Yerushalayim means City of Peace, but we have witnessed as least as many periods of war as we have had peace. The Byzantines followed the Romans, and then came the Arab conquest (637 CE). A few centuries later, during the Crusades, Jews and Muslims were massacred, and the violence continued as Muslim leaders retook Jerusalem. After each wave of destruction (what would be called ethnic cleansing in today’s parlance), Jews began to return to this holiest of cities, first in small numbers and under very difficult conditions, but eventually returning to a significant presence. A census in the mid-1800s (during the Ottoman occupation) showed that the majority of residents were Jewish.
In the last century, Zionism and the return of the Jewish People to the realm of politics and national sovereignty added many more Jews, but also triggered more hate and violence. While previously an Islamic backwater, once the Jews began to become more visible and active, Muslims reasserted exclusivity. An ambiguous reference in the Qur’an to a far mosque that Muhammad was said to have visited on a magical night journey on his horse was associated with Jerusalem, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount (the Haram al-Sharif in Arabic) suddenly grew in importance.
In parallel, the Muslim world in general, and Palestinians in particular, promoted a myth that denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem. Preachers in mosques would repeat this myth while demonizing Jews, and the false “narrative” was taught to children of all ages in schools as well as repeated in the media. In July 2000, at the Camp David “peace summit” with then-U.S. president Bill Clinton, then-Palestinian president Yasser Arafat rejected all plans that involved sharing Jerusalem – he told the Americans that there was never a Jewish Temple in the city. And at the United Nations and other frameworks dominated by Arab and Islamic countries, Israel is absurdly accused of “Judaizing” Jerusalem.
To manipulate and fan the hate and violence, rumours have circulated periodically claiming “the Jews” were planning to destroy the mosque, rebuild the Temple, or take other drastic measures that would endanger the Islamic narrative and sacred sites. Such incitement triggered a pogrom in 1929, which led to the massacre of the Jewish community in Hebron. Similar pogroms were launched in November 1947 (after the UN adopted the Partition Plan), as well as in 1991 and again in 2000. (Palestinian public relations teams spun this into the “al-Aqsa intifadah” – a highly misleading term adopted quickly by journalists and public officials, including many Israelis.)
We are again in a period of terrible and tragic bloodshed, following the same pattern. While pundits and politicians give us advice, it usually takes the form of blaming the Israeli “occupation” of “Palestinian east Jerusalem” and “settlements” as the cause of terror. In contrast, none of the peace projects funded by European governments and private donors teach Muslims about Jewish history in Jerusalem, about the ethnic cleansing of the Old City in 1948, and the need for tolerance and compromise. Instead, they propagate the Palestinian incitement and mythologies, and under the façade of human rights, Israel is condemned for defending its citizens from these inhuman attacks.
For 2,000 years, Jews scattered around the world prayed daily for the peace of Jerusalem, and ended every Passover seder with the words “Next year in Jerusalem.” Now that we’re back, we’re not going to leave again, regardless of the terror and incitement.