Jerusalem between religion and international politics

Volume 20 , Issue 1 , January 2019 , Pages 274-304

Authors

خەسرەو عەبدولڕەحیم نەجم 1

1 قسم التاريخ، كلية العلوم الإنسانية، جامعة السليمانية، إقليم كردستان، العراق

DOI logo 10.17656/jzsb.10854

Keywords

Abstract

This is a brief summery of a post-doctorate research, relying on the academic and scientific
resources of the Vatican conducted in 2017. The research is an attempt to review the historical roots
of Jerusalem. Mostly, Jerusalem is known through the problem of Arabs and Jews, without
acknowledging the sanctity of this city for Christians whom their number more than two billion
and two hundred million people in the world. It is true that Jerusalem is a mosaic of religion and
nationalities, which it has Muslim, Christian and Jewish holy shrines. This creates a race for

international control over the city and made it an international political problem. The struggle
between the catholic, orthodox, protestant and Armenian have made America, Russia, Europe and
Vatican to interfere. These sides made religion a tool for strengthening their standing in those
regions. Palestine is a sacred place for the Christians; it has a deep relation with the history of their
religion: Jesus was born in Bethlehem, his crucifixion and raising his soul to heaven happened
there. Because of these specifications the popes of Rome and Vatican always had a moderate
strategy to keep the coexistence of the religions and to allow the religious individuals to visit their

sacred places without any problem. In those circumstances from the nineteenth century, the arab-
jew relationship became complicated, specifically after the appearance of the following two factors:

first, the establishment of Zionist movement which made the return to Palestine its target. Second,
since then, Britain made its standing stronger there and by the Belfour Declaration 1917 announced
its support to the Zionist project. A Jewish exodus started and changed the demography of the area.
One of the forces that stayed against the growth of Jewish power, side by side with the Christian
and Muslim Arabs, were the popes of the roman church and the Vatican. However the Jew, with the
help of Zionist movement and the British in 1948 established the State of Israel and empowered
itself on Jerusalem. Therefore, the project of the globalisation of Jerusalem which was in the benefit
of each side stayed incomplete.

References

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