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The Greeting – As Salaamu Alaykum, Peace Be Upon You: Is Altruistic Salaamism since It Implies ‘I am Responsible for Your Safety’ | source |
The History of Jerusalem
since its Destruction in 70 AD
A friend observed that Palestinians never owned Israel's land. That the land of Canaan has been theirs since Moses, when dying, left Josua in charge to lead Israel's 12 tribes into Canaan (aka, the Promised Land) which God Promised to the Jews since Abraham.
However, if dispossession is wrong at all times then:
(1) did God sin by acting evilly upon the Canaanites?
Or, (2) if God is a God of love can we say Israel's kind of God acted more like the warring Semitic kingdoms around Israel... or even,
(3) That Israel itself used the God-card to justify their warring actions of seizure and removal?
But then (4) people cry foul and exclaim, "Canaan's sin lost their lands!" And with that argument we could all point fingers at each other and nation after sinful nation whose sin should be met by God's vengeance.
I think then, we need to back up and rethink our flat statements and unethical religious dogmas which appear more self-righteous and self-justifying than fair and loving...
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My Response
After Rome decimated Jerusalem there were very few Israelis who remained. The last 2000 years have seen awave after wave of regional wars between Europeans and Muslims which has led to the state of Palestine today (2024).
This legendary centuries-old enmity between two monotheistic brothers (Esau and Jacob, who stole Esau's birthright by trickery) has gone unresolved and is currently tearing the Middle East apart leaving hundreds of innocents on both sides to suffer harm and loss.
As the horrific European Crusades genocidally removed whole regional populations in Europe, and then in the Middle East, Christianity's claim of radical love was shown to be mere words without action no less today as parts of the Christian Church continues to forment civil rebellion into the United States and institutionalized-initiated strife through support of hard line governments across Europe (Hungary, Italy) and the Middle East (Israel's current administration) and into South America (Brazil).
By and by Israel's claim became severely nullified under Lenin's pograms and Hitler's Nazism making Israel returned to the land inevitable, and by Jewish thinking, a necessary reclamation in lieu of purposeful genocide. That is, having no where to, dispossed Jews returned either to Palestine or to free democracies in Europe, America, Australia, India, and so forth.
Personally, I do not know if Israel took Palestinian land (most possibly) or paid for it (probably not; they were unorganized, without an official government, and had nothing as refugees). So part of the rub is how fleeing refugees dispossed landed Palestinians (themselves with a weak or negligible government) when reclaiming a land removed from them since Rome's extermination in 70 AD.
Secondly, unlike how the United States attempts to welcome and reverence refugees fleeing to America's shores - though the rightwing church is making assimilation extremely difficult and is forcing citizens to forcifully execute naturalization or to prevent it altogether under inhumane white nationalism and supremacy) - Israel may not have wanted to assimilate with Islam and vice versa.
Hence, there may not have been any effort of goodwill on either side so racism and cultural discrimination went both ways. Then over the years Israel bullied Palestine and Palestine responded in kind. And all this might be blame on British control of the region as its churches attempt a forced resurrection of Israel to its Promised lands based upon a God of Moses stating it was there's due to Canaan's sin.
Neither side has been innocent... and when reading of Palestine's treatment over the years by Israel it's hard to not have sympathy upon the loss of their own land to flering refugees feeling a deep terror to their own lives and fighting for whatever chance of survivorship they could find.
And so we watch two stubborn monotheistic religions fighting it out between one another as brother to brother. Both are stubborn. Both unyielding. Both reciprocating ill upon ill upon the other. Both sure of their human rights. And both sure of their claims.
Firstly, the God they each claim as become a sour God of violence and damnation. I do not recognize this God nor do I understand how this God intended for Moses to enter Canaan without some form of injustice to its acclaimed "wicked" inhabitants to Israel's own acts of wicked dispossesseion in the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, etc.
Further, the grievances of the ancient past must be put to bed. Today's unholy wars are displeasing to humanity and discontinuous with this false God of War as acclaimed in the bible. Certainly we all want justice both religious and non-religious. But war, grievance, and theft is not tge way for two mature religious brothers to act towards one another.
Nor do we wish these brothers to further harm each other. I, personally, am grieved by their enmity and unforgiving spirit each harming the other in displays of hatred and evil. We would plead for the brothers to reconsider each other in other terms than avenging judgment. To revise their faiths and the God they follow.
We would propose Rewriting their faith history in loving terms and Rewriting their violent god as a false god not worthy of the Loving, redeeming God whom Jesus envisioned and perhaps Muhammad had envisioned too, though I do not know my Muslim history as well on this point nor how the Koran could be interpreted.
But what I suspect Christians with their Holy Bible, and Jews with their vast assortments of Torah interpretation, and the brotherhood of Muslims with their Holy Koran, must do is to reform their religion as religions of love and not enmity. I would suggest setting each faith upon a process theology of love as begun by A.N. Whitehead in his process philosophy of how nature works. And by this common philosophic theology reset each religious faith around love and not vengeance.
I might also suggest various forms of restitution to so many who have been harmed or killed by their own religion or another's. Peace must be made. The scornful and strivings put away. Tools of war turned to plowshares and plowshares but to work to revive, renew, reclaim, redeem, and resurrection the many injustices placed upon the brotherly lands Abrahamic progeny.
Let then peace become each nation's faith marked in goodwill and restitution. Let these ancestral hatreds cease and remove all elements who speak against peace and love. Let their be brotherly love unlike the rivalry of Jacob and Esau of years and years and years ago.
Shalom Aleichem (Jewish)
As-Salaam-Alaikum (Islamic)
“Peace be with you.” (Christian)
R.E. Slater
February 27, 2024
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History of Jerusalem since its Destruction
History of Jerusalem since its Destruction in the First Century
Here is a brief history of Jerusalem since its destruction in AD 70:
After the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in AD 70, the city lay dormant and unoccupied except for a few Roman military camps. Jerusalem was so thoroughly destroyed that much of the rubble was left in place. But eventually, new buildings were built on top of the old. This cycle has repeated itself many times. As a result, the ground level of Jerusalem has been raised significantly over the last 2,000 years. For example, some of the exposed streets that go back to the Roman period are more than 10 feet below the level of the current city streets.
After tearing the city apart, Roman Emperor Hadrian rebuilt it on a Roman plan. This included the usual cardo (or “main street”), which went north and south, a forum, Roman temples, etc. He also expanded the city walls to extend further north. These walls reached several blocks beyond the northern boundary of the “Old City” walls we see today.
Another huge change to the city occurred after Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. He began to pour resources into the region. This started what is now known as the Byzantine era. During the Byzantine era, the population of Jerusalem increased. Many new buildings, including churches, were constructed during the 4th through 6th centuries. The most famous of these churches include the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Church of the Apostles, and the Nea Church. But all of these churches suffered damage or destruction in later invasions by Persians and Muslims.
History of Jerusalem since its Destruction – The Last Thousand Years
While much of Jerusalem suffered destruction from these later attacks, the outline of the walls remained about the same. Eventually, the walls were rebuilt and the city was well fortified when the Crusaders came to retake Jerusalem from the Fatimid Islamic rulers in 1099. Following the Crusader takeover of Jerusalem, the size of the walled city shrank considerably—even smaller than the Old City walls of today. This was due to the smaller population, more limited resources, and need to rebuild the fortifications to guard against impending attack.
Jerusalem was re-conquered by the Islamic Ayyubid dynasty under Saladin in 1187 and some rebuilding was done. Then, over the next three centuries, Jerusalem suffered from various attacks and conquests by the Tartars, Muslims, Crusaders, and probably even suffered from the bubonic plague. During this period, there were various building projects, but no significant expansion of the walls.
Eventually, the Ottoman Turks took the city in 1517 under Suleiman the Magnificent. He rebuilt the city walls, and his layout is what we see today around the “Old City.” These walls continued to be repaired and rebuilt over the 400-year period of Ottoman rule. Today, certain sections of the walls give a visual history of Jerusalem reaching back over 2,000 years.
So, that’s a brief history of Jerusalem since its destruction during the first century AD. All of these events have left their mark on the “Old City” of Jerusalem you see today. Jerusalem is like no other city in the world with regard to its historical significance. Everywhere you look, there is a story to tell.
History of Jerusalem since its Destruction
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