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?

EGYPTIANSHITTITES

MYCENIANS AEGEANS

1450 BCE

BYZANTINESEmperor HeracliusMassacre of Jews

Forced conversionsExpulsions

630 CE

HOW IT WORKS

When destructions and killings were perpetrated

By who

Against whoand how

WHO KILLED AND DESTROYED IN JERUSALEM?

EGYPTIANSHITTITES

MYCENIANS AEGEANS

1450 BCE

ISRAELITESIsrael = struggle with god *

1300 BCE

PHILISTINES Palestinians

« the invaders from the sea »

900 BCE

ASSYRIANS

900-800 BCE

* 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?

BABYLONIANSNebuchadnezzar II

invaded and deported 20,000 Jews (esp. elite

group - Samaritans)Then the 587 BCE

riot full destruction of

Salomon’s Temple« 1st diaspora »

597 / 587 BCE

ROMANSConquest of Judaea by

Pompey, renamed Palestinaeus, a name

givenas an insult to the Jews (the term meant « the

land of the Phillistines »)

63 BCE

ROMANS + PRIESTSThe calvary of Jesus

33 CEROMANS

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 1.1MEnded in the fortress of

Masada

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 4th c.

66 / 73 CE

132 / 136 CE

WHO KILLED AND DESTROYED IN JERUSALEM?

SHAHRBARAZ (Persian ruler)

JEWS10,000s Christians killed37,000 deportedThe Holy Sepulcher was burnt

614-617 CE

BYZANTINESEmperor HeracliusMassacre of Jews

Forced conversionsExpulsions

630 CE

ARAB-MUSLIMSOubayda and WalidNo killing; Jews re-

allowed to enter and worship

636 CE

http://www.worldology.com/Iraq/arab_muslim_caliphate.htm

In 635 CE, the region, including Jerusalem, was conquered by the Arabs and was to remain under Muslim control for the next 1,300 yearsJerusalem 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?

MUSLIMSOmar II

Jews are forbidden from praying on Mount Temple

720 CE

MUSLIMSAbbasid caliph Haroun Al-RashidExecutions and tortures before to

deploy tolerance towards pilgrims

831 CE

MUSLIMS JEWS

Killings of ChristiansHoly Sepulcher

burnt

960s CE

FATIMIDS, ABBASIDS, BEDOUINS

Regular attacks and slaughters of

civilians

10th c CE

MUSLIMSFatimid 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

1004-1014 CE

WHO KILLED AND DESTROYED IN JERUSALEM?

PIRATSBEDOUINS

Regular attacks5,000 Christians pilgrims killed in

1064

11th c CE

MUSLIMSeljuq dynastyCaptured JM

Killed people of all confessions

1073 CE

CHRISTIAN CRUSADERSHoly 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

1099 – 13th c CE

''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.''

WHO KILLED AND DESTROYED IN JERUSALEM?

MUSLIMSSaladin

Recaptured Jerusalem and

drove Crusaders out of it.Massive

enslavement .Christian buildings

destroyed

1187 CE

HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE

Frederick IIExpulsion of Jews

but Muslims respected (in

retaliation, the papacy will close him the doors of Holy Sepulcher).Destroyed the

city’s fortifications

1229 CE

TATARSBarba KhanRaided 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.

1244 – 1250s CE

MAMELOUK MUSLIMSThe 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.

1250s 1510s

WHO KILLED AND DESTROYED IN JERUSALEM?

OTTOMAN MUSLIMSSoliman the Magnificent

Inferiorized the Peoples of the Book: Jews expelled from

Temple Mount cult restricted to a 3m-

large street, dubbed ha-Kotel (“the Wall”) =

called Western or Laments’ Wall todayFranciscans expelled

from the Tomb of David

1550s CE

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 MONKSAllied with Ottomans and tried to get rid off

the other denominations in the

Holy Sepulcher

1600s – 30s

MUSLIMSHusseini families

Took control of the keys of the Holy

SepulcherExtortion of money on the back of Jews

Increased disciminations and

violenceDhimmis forced to kill and bury dead

dogsChristians and Jews were beaten with

shoes

1700s – 1720s CE

CHRISTIANSPriests

Greek priests attack Franciscans with axes

1757 CE

Control of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is divided six ways: Franciscans, Greeks, Armenians, Egyptians, Ethiopians and Syrians

”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/