The Land of Israel and its uncontested Capital
Jerusalem
The Qur'an 17:104 - states the land belongs to the Jewish people.
If the historic documents, comments written by eyewitnesses and declarations by
the most authoritative Arab scholars are still not enough, let us quote the
most important source for Muslim Arabs:
"And thereafter we [Allah] said to the Children of Israel: 'Dwell securely
in the Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to pass, we will
gather you together in a mingled crowd'.".
017.104
YUSUFALI: And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, "Dwell
securely in the land (of promise)": but when the second of the warnings
came to pass, We gathered you together in a mingled crowd.
PICKTHAL: And We said unto the Children of Israel after him: Dwell in the land;
but when the promise of the Hereafter cometh to pass We shall bring you as a
crowd gathered out of various nations.
SHAKIR: And We said to the Israelites after him: Dwell in the land: and when
the promise of the next life shall come to pass, we will bring you both
together in judgment.
- Qur'an 17:104 -
Any sincere Muslim must recognize the Land they call "Palestine" as
the Jewish Homeland, according to the book considered by Muslims to be the most
sacred word and Allah's ultimate revelation.
“The birthplace of the Jewish people is the Land
of Israel (Eretz Yisrael). There, a significant part of the
nation's long history was enacted, of which the first thousand years are
recorded in the Bible; there, its cultural, religious and national identity was
formed; and there, its physical presence has been maintained through the centuries,
even after the majority was forced into exile. During the many years of
dispersion, the Jewish people never severed nor forgot its bond with the Land.
With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Jewish independence,
lost two thousand years earlier, was renewed.”
If people of any nation were exiled to other country’s and than years later
were able to reclaim their country, the world population as a whole would
support such action and would not consider giving a piece of the country to the
foreigners who are residing there, and under no circumstances would they
consider parceling portions of the county to be set up as a separate State for
the foreigners.
Why should anyone in the world consider doing this very same action with the land
of Israel which is a Jewish land for thousands of years?
The Arabs living in the land
of Israel have come from the surrounding Arab countries; they
have no right whatsoever to any part of the land
of Israel.
In the past hundred years many Jews were ejected from Arab countries
surrounding the land of Israel, their property taken and their homes and lands taken
over.
Let those Arabs who want to Claim the land
of Israel as theirs go to those Arab countries and the homes
and lands that the Jews were occupying.
Any part of the land of Israel is not occupied territory; it is legally a Jewish
land and has been for thousands of years, no Arab has any right to claim any
rights to the land of Israel. The surrounding Arab countries compose of over 100
million people and millions of square miles, why do they have to bother little
Israel with its territory about the size of the State of New Jersey.
Maybe the world should consider giving European countries or parts to the
Italians, since the Romans occupied it for many years.
JERUSALEM
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its cunning.
May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
(Psalms 137:5-6)
Jerusalem, the uncontested and undivided capital of Israel, is located in the heart of the country, nestled
among the Judean Hills. The city's ancient stones, imbued with millennia of
history, and its numerous historical sites, shrines and places of worship
attest to its meaning for Jews..
Jerusalem the "eternal and undivided capital" of the
Jewish people,
Jerusalem is -- and must remain -- the uncontested, undivided
capital of Israel.
Jerusalem is the only city that can prove the validity of
Israeli-Jewish existence. No one should question Jewish historic claim and
affinity to Jerusalem which dates back the Canaanite period (3000-1200
BCE). The re-capture of the old city in 1967 was widely seen by the Israelis as
nothing less than the renewal of God's covenant with the Jews. Jerusalem represents their past and present, a source of
religious and cultural continuity without which Israel's very existence could unravel. The hope of returning
to Jerusalem has sustained the Jews throughout their dispersion,
and centuries of exile have been unable to extinguish it.
Abraham, Isaac and Jacobs resided in the land
of Israel and Jerusalem from the year 1948 from Creation (circa 1800 BCE).
King David made Jerusalem the capital of his kingdom, as well as the religious
center of the Jewish people, in 1003 BCE. Some forty years later, his son
Solomon built the Temple (the religious and national center of the people of Israel) and transformed the city into the prosperous capital
of an empire extending from the Euphrates to Egypt.
The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 586 BCE, destroyed the Temple, and exiled the people. Fifty years later, when Babylon was conquered by the Persians, King Cyrus allowed the
Jews to return to their homeland and granted them autonomy. They built a Second Temple on the site of the First, and rebuilt the city and
its walls.
Alexander the Great conquered Jerusalem in 332 BCE. After his death the city was ruled by the
Ptolemy's of Egypt and then by the Seleucids of Syria. The Hellenization
of the city reached its peak under the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV; the
desecration of the Temple and attempts to suppress Jewish religious identity
resulted in a revolt.
Led by Judah Maccabee, the Jews defeated the Seleucids, rededicated the Temple (164 BCE), and re-established Jewish independence
under the Hasmoneans dynasty, which lasted for more than a hundred years, until
Pompey imposed Roman rule on Jerusalem. King Herod the Idumean, who was installed as ruler
of Judah by the Romans (37 - 4 BCE), established cultural
institutions in Jerusalem, erected magnificent public buildings and refashioned
the Temple into an edifice of splendor.
Jewish revolt against Rome broke out in 66 CE, as Roman rule after Herod's death
became increasingly oppressive. For a few years Jerusalem was free of foreign rule, until, in 70 CE, Roman
legions under Titus conquered the city and destroyed the Temple. Jewish independence was briefly restored during the
Bar Kochba revolt (132-135), but again the Romans prevailed. Jews were
forbidden to enter the city, which was renamed Aelia Capitolina and rebuilt
along the lines of a Roman city.
For the next century and a half, Jerusalem was a small provincial town. This changed radically
when the Byzantine Emperor Constantine transformed Jerusalem into a Christian center. The Church of the Holy
Sepulcher (335) was the first of numerous grandiose structures built in the
City.
Muslim armies invaded the country in 634, and four years later Caliph Omar
captured Jerusalem. Only during the reign of Abdul Malik, who built the
Dome of the Rock (691), did Jerusalem briefly become the seat of a caliph. The century-long
rule of the Umayvad Dynasty from Damascus was succeeded in 750 by the Abbasids from Baghdad, and with them Jerusalem began to decline.
The Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099, massacred its Jewish and Muslim inhabitants,
and established the city as the capital of the Crusader Kingdom. Under the Crusaders, synagogues were destroyed, old
churches were rebuilt and many mosques were turned into Christian shrines.
Crusader rule over Jerusalem ended in 1187, when the city fell to Saladin the
Kurd.
The Mamluks, a military feudal aristocracy from Egypt, ruled Jerusalem from 1250. They constructed numerous graceful
buildings, but treated the city solely as a Muslim theological center and
ruined its economy through neglect and crippling taxes.
The Ottoman Turks, whose rule lasted for four centuries, conquered Jerusalem in 1517. Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt the city
walls (1537), constructed the Sultan's Pool, and placed public fountains throughout
the city. After his death. The central authorities in Constantinople took little interest in Jerusalem. During the 17th and 18th centuries Jerusalem sunk to one of its lowest ebbs.
Jerusalem began to thrive once more in the latter half of the
nineteenth century. Growing numbers of Jews returning to their land, waning
Ottoman power and revitalized European interest in the Holy Land
led to renewed development of Jerusalem.
The British army led by General Allenby conquered Jerusalem in 1917. From 1922 to 1948 Jerusalem was the administrative seat of the British
authorities in the Land of Israel (Palestine), which had been entrusted to Great Britain by the League
of Nations following the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. The city developed rapidly,
growing westward into what became known as the "New City."
Upon termination of the British Mandate on May 14, 1948, and in accordance with the UN resolution of November 29, 1947, Israel proclaimed its independence, with Jerusalem as its capital. Opposing its establishment, the Arab
countries launched an all-out assault on the new re-established state,
resulting in the 1948-49 War of Independence. The armistice lines drawn at the
end of the war divided Jerusalem into two, with Jordan occupying the Old City and areas to the north and south, and Israel retaining the western and southern parts of the
city.
Jerusalem was reunited in June 1967, as a result of a war in
which the Jordanians attempted to seize the western section of the city. The
Jewish Quarter of the Old City, destroyed under Jordanian rule, has been restored,
and Israeli citizens are again able to visit their holy places, which had been
denied them during the years 1948-1967.
Conclusion, the land of Israel and Jerusalem as its undivided capital for the Jewish people is a
historical fact for thousands of years and shall remain that way for eternity.
Rising in defense of our security, our liberty and our values.
YJ Draiman, LA. CA
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