Judgement Day Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City


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GUNSHOTS

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GUNFIRE

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Jerusalem, the Holy City.

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Coveted, prized and disputed by three of the world's great faiths,

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Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

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Jerusalem has been conquered and occupied

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more than any other city in history.

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In Jerusalem, the history is drenched in blood.

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It's been destroyed and rebuilt many times.

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The more it's destroyed, the more revered it's become.

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These stones have been fought over for centuries.

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The holiness of the city dates back long before the arrival of Islam,

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long before the advent of Christianity,

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long, even, before Judaism.

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Each borrowed the sanctity of those who came before,

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making Jerusalem the centre of the world.

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Today, it's a divided city, the capital of two peoples.

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Its sacred sites have never been more intensely contested

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nor with such universal implications.

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So why did this holy city become the object of such violent competition?

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And how did the nationalist struggle for Jerusalem

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become so infected with apocalyptic religious fervour?

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I'm a historian but I also have a personal connection to the city,

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I've been coming here with my family, since I was a boy.

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Some 4,000 years ago, Jerusalem was a minor Canaanite stronghold,

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with a vital spring and a pagan shrine.

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With the arrival of the Hebrews,

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Jerusalem became the holy city of the Jews.

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In the Hebrew Bible, it's described as the City of the temple,

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existing in heaven and on earth,

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the setting for the final day of judgement.

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With the spread of Christianity,

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the fame of Jerusalem's holiness became truly global.

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When the new faith of Islam was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed,

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he too revered Jerusalem.

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At first Mohammed directed his prayer not to Mecca but to here.

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And it was here that Muslims built the Dome of the rock

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on the very place sanctified by the Jews before them.

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This is the place where some believe Adam's skull was buried,

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where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac,

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where the Jewish Holy of Holies supposedly stood.

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This is the place whence Mohammed the Prophet ascended to heaven.

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In the Middle Ages,

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this became the epicentre of a clash of civilisations.

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Christian Crusaders competed for control of the Holy City

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with its Islamic rulers.

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The conflict that followed left the city in ruins.

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By the late 13th century, the prospect of Jerusalem becoming

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once again a city of world renown, must have seemed highly unlikely.

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After the bloody trauma of the Crusades,

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Jerusalem had been devastated by the Tartars

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and laid waste by the Mongol hordes.

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Not for the first time in its history,

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most of the population had either been slaughtered or had fled.

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Even the walls had been reduced to rubble.

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And now, scarcely 2,000 ragged souls struggled to survive

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amongst the ruins.

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Indeed, Jerusalem's very survival as a city was in doubt.

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Jerusalem was in need of a saviour.

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When he emerged, it was in the form of a brutal Islamic soldier

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who'd risen to power from the slave markets of Central Asia.

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Baibars was a pagan orphan, sold as a boy into

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an Egyptian army of slaves, known as the Mamluks.

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As he climbed the ranks, he was freed by his master

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and rose to become a general.

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By the time he was 30,

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Baibars was the most formidable officer in this new empire.

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And he was ready to take on the might of the Mongol hordes.

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Baibars' Mamluk army defeated the Mongols in the hills of Galilee.

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Baibars then declared himself ruler from Egypt to Syria.

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Jerusalem lay at the centre of his new domain.

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Baibars was a spectacularly cruel warlord,

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he liked to build towers of the skulls of his fallen enemies,

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his favourite punishment was public bisection, slicing in half.

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No wonder he adopted the prowling panther as his personal symbol.

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The Mamluk capital was in Cairo,

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but Jerusalem was the religious heart of their world.

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Although they were born pagans,

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these former slaves had been forced to convert to Islam.

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The Mamluks possessed all the fanaticism of the convert

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and they revered Jerusalem as the jewel of their faith.

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Baibars embarked on a mission to re-embellish

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and re-sanctify the Holy City.

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The Mamluks' religious enthusiasm for Jerusalem gave rise to

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some of the city's finest buildings.

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Baibars also helped to restore its sacred status in Islam.

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The most important legacy that Baibars left Jerusalem

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was not a building, it was a festival.

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Baibars borrowed from Christian

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and Jewish traditions to create a new religious celebration.

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Every Easter Jerusalem was still dominated by Christian pilgrims

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and so, at the time of Christian Easter and Jewish Passover,

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Baibars gave Jerusalem its own festival.

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After Baibars, every year

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thousands of Jerusalemites and Palestinian Arabs

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from the rest of Palestine would gather here on the temple mount,

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they would party, they would celebrate and they would gallop out

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on horses and camels all the way to the shrine, near Jericho,

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of Nebi Musa, the Prophet Moses.

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And this festival remained

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Jerusalem's own special festival for 700 years.

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The festival celebrated Moses, originally a Jewish patriarch,

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now revered as a prophet in Islam.

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Eventually, Baibars himself became a victim

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of his own murderous instincts.

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Baibars, that most talented but also most cruel of generals,

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died after absentmindedly drinking a glass of poisoned qumiz,

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fermented mare's milk,

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that he'd meant to give to one of his dinner companions.

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I guess that's bound to happen sooner or later

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if you're in the habit of poisoning too many of your dinner guests.

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Baibars' successors may have lacked his manic style,

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but they were his equal in piety

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and surpassed him in their love of architecture.

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They built many of the finest buildings in the Old city.

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Some of them were rediscovered in the 1970s

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by the architectural historian Michael Burgoyne.

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This is, I think, one of the most interesting Mamluk buildings

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in Jerusalem, it has fabulous architecture,

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architecture that's as good as any in the world, in my view.

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It's beautifully built

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with joints that you can hardly get a razor blade into for instance,

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this stalactite canopy here, is something that a stonemason today

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couldn't even begin to think about building

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and yet, this is now 700 years old and still standing.

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How important was Jerusalem for the Mamluks?

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Well, judging by the architecture they built here, very important.

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The Mamluks really re-ignited

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the idea of pilgrimage to Jerusalem,

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it had kind of fizzled out during the period of the crusades

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and it was re-introduced right at the start of the Mamluk period.

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Throughout history, Jerusalem has been most prosperous

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when it's been most holy.

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Pilgrimage has always been its greatest industry.

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With this religious renaissance,

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Jerusalem under the Mamluks once again became splendid and affluent.

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But their affluence was not to last.

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By the early 16th century the Mamluk Empire was exhausted

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by war, corruption and plague.

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Its hold on the Middle East was starting to look tenuous.

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The Mamluks were now threatened by a dynamic new Islamic empire

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that had already conquered the Balkans and Turkey.

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The battle that followed would decide Jerusalem's destiny

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for the next 400 years, right up into the twentieth century.

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North of Jerusalem, in what is now Syria,

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a sophisticated, modern army from Turkey confronted the Mamluks

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with their old-fashioned swords and lances.

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The Mamluks were routed by what would become the world's

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greatest Islamic Empire.

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The ruler of this great empire exulted in the name Selim the Grim.

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Selim was given the keys to the Haram al Sharif,

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the Islamic Noble Sanctuary.

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When Selim the Grim arrived in Jerusalem,

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he came here to the al Aqsa mosque. He prostrated himself and declared,

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"I am the now possessor of the first qibla",

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the direction of prayer, because Mohammed had originally decreed

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the Muslims should pray towards Jerusalem,

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only later changing it to Mecca.

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Like all the Muslim rulers before him,

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Selim agreed to tolerate the Jews and Christians

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as long as they paid a tax of submission

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and recognised the supremacy of Islamic rule.

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He had earned his macabre soubriquet by killing all his brothers,

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and probably some of his sons.

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When he died, he was survived by just one son, Suleiman.

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At the age of 25, shrewd, lean and inscrutable,

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Suleiman became the most powerful man in the world.

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His empire stretched from the Balkans to the borders of Persia,

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and from Egypt to the Black sea.

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Ottoman expansion seemed unstoppable,

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challenged only by a coalition of Christian monarchs in the West.

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In a dream, the Prophet came to see Suleiman and told him that,

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if he wished to defeat the Christians and be a great emperor,

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he must first rebuild the walls of Jerusalem

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and restore the Haram al Sharif, the temple mount.

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The Haram al Sharif had become Jerusalem's most important shrine,

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an Islamic site of global renown.

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Surrounded by high retaining walls,

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it housed the Aqsa mosque

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and the Dome of the rock.

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The Dome was built on a rock that

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had already been revered for 2,000 years.

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The site of the first Jewish temple during the reign of King Solomon.

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Suleiman regarded himself as a world emperor and a monarch of Islam.

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His name Suleiman actually means Solomon.

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Therefore he took his responsibilities in Jerusalem

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especially seriously.

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He immediately set about, restoring this,

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the Dome of the rock.

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He began by replacing its fading mosaics with tiles.

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So many tiles were needed, 450,000 in fact,

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that Suleiman ordered that

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a factory be created up here, on the temple mount.

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And this is a beautiful tribute to the glory of Suleiman,

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the majesty of his new Ottoman dynasty

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and, of course, the splendours of Islam.

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Jerusalem had been without walls for 300 years.

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Now Suleiman embarked on the enormous task

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of building new defences for the city.

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Today's walls and gates, including the magnificent Damascus Gate,

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are all the work of Suleiman.

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Suleiman's achievements in Jerusalem were so colossal

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that it's true to say that the Old City today,

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belongs as much to him as it does to anyone else.

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Under Suleiman, Jerusalem, though still small, began to thrive again.

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The population more than tripled to 16,000.

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But among the Muslim population there was also

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a growing minority of Jews.

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The Jews had been stateless since they were expelled from Jerusalem by the Romans.

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Most Jews now lived scattered across Europe and the Middle East,

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but they never lost their longing for a return to Jerusalem,

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which they called Zion,

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after the Biblical name for David's original stronghold.

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During the Spanish inquisition,

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the Christian king expelled tens of thousands of Arabic speaking Jews.

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They sought refuge in the more tolerant Ottoman Empire.

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By the time of Suleiman, many of these Jews, known as Sephardi,

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from the Hebrew word for Spain, had come to the Promised Land.

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The Sephardic Jews now felt safe enough to build

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four new Synagogues in what was becoming the Jewish Quarter.

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This is one of them, the Ben Zaki synagogue.

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And it would have been the centre of all Jewish life

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in Suleiman's Jerusalem.

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There was also a new influx of Jews

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fleeing persecution in eastern Europe.

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They were known as the Ashkenazis,

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after the son of Noah,

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said to be the original ancestor of the northern tribes.

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Since the construction of the Islamic Haram al Sharif,

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the Jews had been banned from visiting their holiest site.

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But the temple mount was so holy

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that Jews continued to pray as close to it as they could get.

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For generations, Jews had prayed

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at all the gates and walls of the temple mount.

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But Suleiman the Magnificent saw himself as the Islamic emperor

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and custodian of the Dome of the Rock sanctuary,

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so he restricted the Jews to one small section of wall

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with a narrow passage way, just nine feet wide.

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From now on, this narrow section of the western wall of Herod's temple

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became the focal point for the prayers of the Jewish faithful.

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They were subject to bouts of repression

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and with no outside champions, they were ultimately powerless.

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But, according to Islamic tradition,

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the Jews were tolerated, as people of the book.

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The Ottomans also tolerated the city's other religious minority, the Christians.

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Some of the Christians were indigenous to Palestine,

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some lived here as monks and thousands more came annually,

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as pilgrims to the Sepulchre, where Jesus had been buried.

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Since its foundation, Christianity had spread throughout Europe,

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the Middle East and the horn of Africa.

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Many competing denominations had arisen.

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And all of them wanted a piece of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

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The competition between the three faiths, for Jerusalem's holy places

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was mirrored by an equally intense competition

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between the Christian churches themselves.

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Since most of the Christian sects were backed

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by different Christian kings,

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disputes fought in Jerusalem had reverberations around the world.

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This is special leave. I've never been at a night service.

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-This is yours, isn't it?

-Yes, this is ours but ...

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George Hintlian has studied how the Ottoman rulers manipulated

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and exploited the Christians' interminable squabbles.

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By the 16th century, when the Ottomans came,

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there were about nine communities on the spot

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and the Ottomans had the simple rule whoever pays stays,

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so the minor ones like the Georgians, the Maronites, the Serbians

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couldn't afford and they dropped out, while the stronger ones

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could consolidate their hold on the church.

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The Ottomans' simple system meant

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only the wealthiest churches could remain.

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The denominations who controlled the church by the end of the 16th century

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were the Catholics, backed by Europe,

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the orthodox, backed by Russia,

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and Armenians who had strong representation of the court of the Sultan.

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So by the end of the 16th century

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this was three communities who could stay.

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Even these three churches seldom agreed

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on who should be allowed to pray at the tomb itself.

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The communities were struggling for dominance.

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Sometimes the tomb of Christ changed hands

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sometimes the Latin's would get it

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and sometimes the orthodox would get it.

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The Catholics, or Latins,

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were supported and encouraged by the French government,

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while Russia promoted the Orthodox church.

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Both attached great importance to the prestige of

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controlling the holy places and they lobbied, bribed and threatened

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the Ottoman Sultans to give more space in the church

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to their own priests.

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As a result, even the most mundane tasks in the church

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were laden with international and sacred significance.

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In this church, there are no fences and hedges,

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it's open spaces.

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The churches have their own private areas

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but there are many shared and common areas.

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Cleaning the holy sepulchre means possessing the area.

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You would only be able to clean what you possess

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and slowly some of these sacristans were trying to clean

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several inches of the property and the territory of the other person.

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So this is where the other sacrosanct would be very vigilant

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that his broom doesn't progress into his own area.

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Even an imagined conception,

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that his broom moved a little further, could ignite a fight.

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The Ottomans kept the church locked

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so they could charge a fee to anyone going in or out.

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The key was held by an Arab Muslim family, the Nusseibehs.

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To this day, each morning before dawn,

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they still climb up to unlock the ancient church door.

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The Ottomans let the Nusseibehs keep a share of the income

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from the entry fees to the Church.

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They were one of a select group of aristocratic Arab families

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allowed by the Ottomans to run the city's affairs.

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One family controlled the temple mount,

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another family controlled access the church of the holy sepulchre.

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I'm standing in the library of the Khalidi family

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that controlled the Islamic law courts.

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They were great connoisseurs and collectors.

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And, over many centuries,

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they amassed this extraordinary collection

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of early Islamic manuscripts and books.

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As Muslims, these elite Arab families had

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far more power in Ottoman Jerusalem than any Christian or Jew.

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But even the Arabs were often harassed

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by their Turkish Ottoman masters.

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In 1702, the Ottoman governor demanded a massive rise

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in taxes, throughout Palestine.

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He had to raise money to help fund wars in distant Europe and Russia.

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According to the historian Adel Manna,

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these tax rises were the last straw for the ruling Arab families.

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The notable families of Jerusalem

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were angry on this new policy.

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What they did after the Friday prayer

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on the mosque at Al Aqsa

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they had a gathering of all the elite

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and they decided together that we would rebel against

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the policy and the governor.

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The local people of Jerusalem took control of the city

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and then they closed the gates.

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The rebels succeeded to have the control of the city

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for about two years and a half.

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The Ottomans came with a stronger army

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and put siege again on the city,

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they were besieging the city from all sides,

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from the north, from the south, from east, from west.

0:25:270:25:32

Inside, life under the siege was harsh.

0:25:320:25:37

The rebels split.

0:25:370:25:39

Those who wanted to hold out for victory

0:25:390:25:42

and those in favour of a compromise.

0:25:420:25:45

Some of the people against the rebellion opened the gate

0:25:470:25:51

for the Ottoman soldiers, who were able to get into the city.

0:25:510:25:56

Thousands of Ottoman soldiers went in

0:25:560:26:00

it was a matter of time until

0:26:000:26:03

the Ottomans were able to crush the rebellion.

0:26:030:26:06

The Ottomans may have crushed the rebellion

0:26:080:26:10

but the great powers of Europe sensed

0:26:100:26:13

that their hold on Jerusalem was weakened.

0:26:130:26:16

The British, the French and the Russians all began to compete

0:26:160:26:19

for influence in the city's holy places.

0:26:190:26:22

Jerusalem's status as the holy city of Christianity

0:26:370:26:41

made it a great prize for the Christian rulers of Europe.

0:26:410:26:45

They promoted their interests through their clients in the city.

0:26:450:26:49

The French backed the Catholics, the Russians backed the orthodox.

0:26:490:26:53

The British, as Protestants, had a particular reverence for Jerusalem.

0:26:530:26:58

Ever since the time of Cromwell and the Puritans,

0:27:010:27:04

Protestants had prayed for the return of the Jews

0:27:040:27:07

to the Biblical Holy Land.

0:27:070:27:09

British foreign secretary Lord Palmerston

0:27:120:27:14

built a consulate in Jerusalem to promote British interests

0:27:140:27:18

and a church to convert Jews to Christianity.

0:27:180:27:21

Imperial ambition dovetailed perfectly with evangelical zeal.

0:27:230:27:28

Evangelical Christians,

0:27:360:27:38

who were hugely influential in Victorian Britain,

0:27:380:27:41

believed that the longed-for second coming of Christ

0:27:410:27:45

would only happen once the Jews had returned to Jerusalem

0:27:450:27:49

and been converted to Christianity.

0:27:490:27:52

This belief was based on Biblical prophecies

0:27:540:27:56

of the events that would bring about the final day of judgment.

0:27:560:28:01

All the kings of Europe, motivated by the same combination

0:28:020:28:05

of religious faith and imperial ambition,

0:28:050:28:08

began to build churches in Jerusalem.

0:28:080:28:12

But, of all the European governments vying for power in the city,

0:28:170:28:20

it was the Russians who were most aggressive.

0:28:200:28:23

And their aggression was about to spark a war.

0:28:230:28:26

On good Friday 1846, the never-ending competition for territory

0:28:330:28:38

in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, erupted in a fight.

0:28:380:28:42

The French-backed Catholics and the Russian-backed Orthodox churches

0:28:430:28:47

both wanted to pray in the tomb at the same time.

0:28:470:28:51

It's a continuing dispute that sometimes erupts in violence

0:28:510:28:55

even now.

0:28:550:28:56

Back then, the priests came armed with guns and daggers,

0:28:590:29:02

hidden under their vestments.

0:29:020:29:04

Forty were killed.

0:29:040:29:07

The Ottoman Sultan divided the Church between the Christian sects

0:29:120:29:15

in a power sharing deal that still stands.

0:29:150:29:19

But it wasn't enough to prevent the Russians going to war with the French and the British.

0:29:210:29:26

All the great powers were vying for influence in Jerusalem,

0:29:300:29:34

but Tsar Nicholas The First of Russia had greater ambitions.

0:29:340:29:37

He saw himself, not just as the heir to the Ottoman Empire,

0:29:370:29:41

but as the actual ruler of Jerusalem.

0:29:410:29:43

When he invaded Ottoman territories to force the Sultan's hand

0:29:430:29:48

Britain and France went to war against him, to stop him.

0:29:480:29:52

They fought the war in the Crimea,

0:29:520:29:54

but even though the battles were far away,

0:29:540:29:57

it was also a war for Jerusalem.

0:29:570:30:00

The Russians lost the Crimean war

0:30:100:30:14

but then set about conquering Jerusalem culturally,

0:30:140:30:18

building their own Russian compound.

0:30:180:30:21

Over 10,000 Russian Christian pilgrims

0:30:210:30:24

visited the city every year.

0:30:240:30:26

Meanwhile, most of the Jews of Jerusalem

0:30:280:30:31

were living in abject poverty.

0:30:310:30:34

Appalled by their conditions, a British Jew named Moses Montefiore,

0:30:340:30:39

a financier, philanthropist and friend of Queen Victoria,

0:30:390:30:43

built the first suburb outside Jerusalem's city walls,

0:30:430:30:48

complete with a Kentish windmill,

0:30:480:30:51

to encourage the Jews to bake their own bread.

0:30:510:30:55

Montefiore was my great, great uncle and it was thanks to him

0:30:550:30:59

that I started coming here.

0:30:590:31:01

The old city was so filthy and poverty stricken

0:31:010:31:04

that Montefiore decided to build his new village

0:31:040:31:07

out here in the clean countryside, outside the city walls,

0:31:070:31:11

it became the first Jewish suburb of Jerusalem.

0:31:110:31:16

At the same time, the elite Arab families were building mansions

0:31:180:31:22

in their own new suburbs, east of the old city.

0:31:220:31:25

But as the century wore on,

0:31:270:31:30

Jerusalem was set to become increasingly Jewish.

0:31:300:31:33

The millions of Jews of the Russian Empire

0:31:350:31:37

had faced persecution throughout the 19th century,

0:31:370:31:40

but in the 1880s anti-Semitic violence became official Tsarist policy.

0:31:400:31:45

Now they faced waves of attacks and massacres, known as the pogroms.

0:31:450:31:50

Thousands of Russian Jews started to plan their escape to Jerusalem.

0:31:500:31:56

The idea of returning to Jerusalem had inspired Jews for centuries,

0:31:570:32:03

ever since they'd been expelled by the Romans in 70AD.

0:32:030:32:08

It wasn't just about finding refuge from persecution,

0:32:080:32:12

but also about a spiritual idea, returning to the Promised Land

0:32:120:32:16

and living closer to God.

0:32:160:32:19

In 1895 an Austrian journalist published a book

0:32:190:32:23

that would change the history, not only of Jerusalem,

0:32:230:32:26

but of the entire Middle East.

0:32:260:32:28

The journalist's name was Theodor Herzl.

0:32:280:32:31

The book was called The Jewish State.

0:32:310:32:33

Herzl observed the new racial anti-Semitism

0:32:350:32:39

spreading across Europe

0:32:390:32:41

and he predicted that persecution was about to get worse.

0:32:410:32:45

He argued, the only way Jews could be safe

0:32:460:32:49

was to have their own country.

0:32:490:32:52

His project became known as Zionism.

0:32:540:32:57

Many of Jerusalem's Jews had been here for centuries,

0:33:090:33:12

speaking Arabic and living alongside

0:33:120:33:15

their Christian and Muslim neighbours.

0:33:150:33:18

The diaries of a Palestinian musician, Wasif Jawariyeh,

0:33:180:33:23

give a surprising insight into the decadence of life

0:33:230:33:27

in this cosmopolitan city.

0:33:270:33:29

"It was the period of total anarchy in my life, sleeping all day

0:33:290:33:33

"and partying all night, I only went home to change my clothes.

0:33:330:33:37

"Sleeping in a different house every day.

0:33:370:33:40

"My body totally exhausted from drinking and merry-making.

0:33:400:33:44

"One moment I'm picnicking with members of Jerusalem's noble families.

0:33:440:33:49

"The next day I'm holding an orgy with thugs and gangsters

0:33:490:33:53

"in the back alleys of the old city."

0:33:530:33:57

The most fascinating thing about this

0:33:570:33:59

is how all these different worlds

0:33:590:34:01

Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Arab and Turk

0:34:010:34:06

continued to mix and coexist.

0:34:060:34:08

But this cultural coexistence was about to come to an end

0:34:120:34:17

with consequences no-one could have foreseen.

0:34:170:34:22

The growing number of European Jews arriving

0:34:220:34:25

to settle in Palestine had started to alarm the Arabs of Jerusalem

0:34:250:34:29

as well as the Ottoman authorities.

0:34:290:34:32

When the First World War broke out in 1914,

0:34:370:34:40

the Ottomans sided with Germany, against Britain and her allies.

0:34:400:34:45

By 1916-17 things were going badly for the British.

0:34:460:34:51

In order to secure their support,

0:34:510:34:53

they made promises to the Arabs and the Jews

0:34:530:34:56

that they never would have made in any other circumstances.

0:34:560:35:00

To get Arab support for the war,

0:35:020:35:04

the British promised to hand over

0:35:040:35:07

virtually the entire Middle East to Arab rule,

0:35:070:35:10

if the Arabs would rise up against the Ottomans.

0:35:100:35:14

But Prime minister David Lloyd George was also keen

0:35:140:35:18

to get Jewish support for the British campaign.

0:35:180:35:22

Lloyd George was steeped in the stories of the Bible.

0:35:240:35:27

He longed to see the Jews returned to the Holy Land

0:35:270:35:30

after centuries of exile and repression.

0:35:300:35:34

He also believed that backing the Jewish cause might win the support

0:35:340:35:38

of the millions of Jews in America and Russia,

0:35:380:35:42

Britain's most important allies.

0:35:420:35:45

So he declared his approval

0:35:450:35:47

for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

0:35:470:35:51

When General Allenby, the British commander in Egypt, invaded Ottoman Palestine,

0:35:540:35:59

Lloyd George demanded that he capture Jerusalem

0:35:590:36:03

as a "Christmas present to the British nation".

0:36:030:36:06

When Allenby arrived to take possession of the city,

0:36:130:36:16

he received a telegram from the foreign office

0:36:160:36:18

"Strongly advise dismounting", it said.

0:36:180:36:22

The government was keen that he avoid any Christ-like pretension.

0:36:220:36:26

He duly got off his horse at the Jaffa Gate

0:36:260:36:28

in reverence of the city's holy status.

0:36:280:36:31

In a speech on the steps of the Citadel,

0:36:310:36:35

Allenby promised protection and tolerance to all religions.

0:36:350:36:39

Soon afterwards, the defeated Ottoman Empire collapsed.

0:36:420:36:45

The map of the Middle East was redrawn.

0:36:470:36:50

The territory lost by the Ottomans was divided between the victors.

0:36:530:36:58

Syria and Lebanon went to the French,

0:36:580:37:01

while the British took Jordan and Palestine.

0:37:010:37:04

They agreed to rule their new territories, not as colonies,

0:37:060:37:10

but under international mandates

0:37:100:37:12

from the newly formed League of Nations.

0:37:120:37:16

They built a palatial new governor's residence

0:37:220:37:25

on a hill above the city. Government House.

0:37:250:37:28

For the first time since the crusader kingdom,

0:37:300:37:33

Jerusalem under the British mandate, was a capital city.

0:37:330:37:38

The British set about creating a modern,

0:37:380:37:41

elegant and cosmopolitan Jerusalem.

0:37:410:37:44

The economy flourished and the standard of living rose.

0:37:480:37:52

Honouring their promise to the Zionists,

0:37:540:37:57

Britain welcomed tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants.

0:37:570:38:00

Many were idealistic Europeans who wanted to build a secular,

0:38:000:38:05

socialist country for Jews from around the world.

0:38:050:38:09

But as they bought more and more land from the Arabs,

0:38:120:38:15

tension with their new neighbours grew.

0:38:150:38:18

As so often in her history, it was Jerusalem's holiest site

0:38:200:38:24

that would become the focal point of conflict.

0:38:240:38:28

The Palestinian Muslim leader, the Mufti of Jerusalem,

0:38:310:38:34

was from one of the elite Arab families, the Husseinis.

0:38:340:38:39

He gave voice to a widespread Arab fear of Jewish immigration.

0:38:390:38:43

He feared the Jews were planning to destroy the Haram al Sharif

0:38:430:38:48

to build a Jewish temple in its place.

0:38:480:38:52

He launched a campaign against Jews praying at the Western Wall.

0:38:520:38:55

The Mufti ordered that the Jewish worshippers at the wall

0:38:590:39:02

would be harassed from above and below

0:39:020:39:05

he knocked through a doorway

0:39:050:39:07

that turned the narrow space in front of the wall into a thoroughfare,

0:39:070:39:11

through which donkeys were driven, to interrupt the Jewish prayers.

0:39:110:39:16

The Mufti was trying to make life,

0:39:160:39:18

for the Jewish worshippers here, impossible and unbearable.

0:39:180:39:22

In response, 300 Jewish nationalists

0:39:240:39:28

staged an angry protest.

0:39:280:39:30

The next day after Friday prayers,

0:39:320:39:34

2,000 Arabs descended from the Al Aqsa Mosque

0:39:340:39:36

and attacked the Jewish worshippers.

0:39:360:39:39

The tension between Arabs and Jews turned the city into a tinderbox.

0:39:430:39:48

In a totally unrelated and tragic incident,

0:39:520:39:55

some Jewish schoolboys were playing football in street,

0:39:550:39:59

when they kicked the ball into an Arab garden.

0:39:590:40:01

When one went to get it back, he was stabbed to death.

0:40:010:40:05

At his funeral, Jewish youths attacked Arab passers by

0:40:050:40:09

and at Friday prayers, thousands of armed Arabs, screaming for revenge,

0:40:090:40:14

descended on Jewish neighbourhoods with the cry, "Death to the Jews."

0:40:140:40:19

131 Jews were killed by Arabs.

0:40:250:40:29

116 Arabs were also killed,

0:40:290:40:33

mostly by the British security forces.

0:40:330:40:38

A decade of surprisingly calm British rule was brought to an end.

0:40:380:40:44

When Hitler came to power in 1933,

0:40:480:40:52

the flow of Jews fleeing Europe reached a new high.

0:40:520:40:56

Never, since the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans,

0:40:560:40:59

had so many Jews lived in the city.

0:40:590:41:02

But while it may have felt like a return to Zion for these refugees,

0:41:020:41:07

their presence convinced many Palestinians

0:41:070:41:10

they'd have to fight to keep hold of their land.

0:41:100:41:13

The British were caught completely unawares when the first shots were fired.

0:41:150:41:19

Here in Jerusalem the Mufti assumed leadership of the revolt,

0:41:190:41:23

and soon it was a full scale uprising, throughout Palestine.

0:41:230:41:27

The rebels attacked the British and the Jews.

0:41:270:41:31

And, at one point, they even managed to capture this,

0:41:310:41:34

the citadel of Jerusalem.

0:41:340:41:36

Jerusalem descended into chaos.

0:41:410:41:44

Palestinians attacked the British and Jews.

0:41:440:41:47

The Jews responded in kind.

0:41:470:41:49

Both committed atrocities against civilians.

0:41:490:41:52

The British suppressed the revolt brutally,

0:41:550:41:58

punishing whole Palestinian villages for the crimes of individual rebels.

0:41:580:42:03

One in ten Palestinians was killed, arrested or exiled.

0:42:080:42:13

Britain had defeated the Arabs,

0:42:200:42:22

but as they faced the prospect of a second world war,

0:42:220:42:25

they regretted their promises to the Jews.

0:42:250:42:28

Jerusalem's fate would once again be determined

0:42:280:42:31

by events beyond her borders.

0:42:310:42:34

As war with Nazi Germany became inevitable,

0:42:340:42:38

Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain

0:42:380:42:40

decided the British needed the backing of the Arabs.

0:42:400:42:43

"If we have to offend one side or the other," he said,

0:42:430:42:47

"let it be the Jews and not the Arabs."

0:42:470:42:49

He believed the Jews would want to fight Hitler regardless

0:42:540:42:57

but the Arabs would need encouragement.

0:42:570:43:00

He offered to put a cap on Jewish immigration

0:43:000:43:04

and give the Palestinians total independence within ten years,

0:43:040:43:08

with no Jewish state at all.

0:43:080:43:11

It was the best offer the Palestinians were to receive

0:43:110:43:15

throughout the 20th century.

0:43:150:43:17

But for the Mufti, it wasn't enough, he rejected it out of hand.

0:43:170:43:23

When war broke out, many Arab Jerusalemites supported the Germans,

0:43:240:43:28

not out of anti-Semitism but out of nationalism,

0:43:280:43:32

they hoped if Britain was defeated, they would get their own state.

0:43:320:43:36

The Mufti himself went further.

0:43:380:43:42

He moved to Berlin where he publicly supported Hitler and Nazi policies.

0:43:420:43:47

After the end of the Second World War,

0:43:530:43:55

the British forces found themselves

0:43:550:43:57

completely out of their depth in the Holy Land.

0:43:570:44:01

To appease the Arabs,

0:44:060:44:08

they continued to enforce a limit on Jewish immigration.

0:44:080:44:12

Even after the scale of Hitler's slaughter

0:44:130:44:15

of European Jews was known,

0:44:150:44:17

they intercepted ship-loads of survivors from the Nazi death camps.

0:44:170:44:22

The Jews turned firmly against them.

0:44:230:44:26

And it wasn't enough to secure Palestinian support anyway.

0:44:260:44:30

Now it was the Jews turn to rebel.

0:44:320:44:35

"Tight security measures are imposed by the British.

0:44:390:44:42

"Scores of Jewish leaders are jailed

0:44:420:44:44

"and rigid searches are conducted for terrorist weapons.

0:44:440:44:48

"Palestine becomes an armed camp."

0:44:480:44:51

In retaliation, fighters from the underground Jewish militia,

0:44:540:44:58

the Irgun, planted a massive car bomb at the unofficial headquarters

0:44:580:45:04

of the British Mandate, the King David Hotel.

0:45:040:45:07

The bomb destroyed an entire wing of the King David Hotel.

0:45:120:45:16

92 people were killed including British, Jews and Arabs.

0:45:160:45:21

The British called it "An act of terror aimed at civilians."

0:45:210:45:25

And certainly, it remains the bloodiest bombing of the entire war.

0:45:250:45:29

The British were now caught between the Jews of Palestine,

0:45:320:45:36

determined to found their own Jewish state,

0:45:360:45:39

and the larger Arab population,

0:45:390:45:42

equally determined to stop them and win their own independence.

0:45:420:45:46

Both wanted Jerusalem.

0:45:460:45:49

The British lost their will to rule Palestine

0:45:510:45:54

and turned to the newly formed United Nations for an exit strategy.

0:45:540:45:58

The United Nations voted to partition Palestine into two states,

0:46:010:46:05

one Jewish and one Palestinian.

0:46:050:46:09

Jerusalem was to have a unique status, under UN protection.

0:46:120:46:17

For Jews it was a cause for celebration.

0:46:200:46:23

After 2,000 years the Zionist dream of a Jewish state

0:46:230:46:26

in the Holy Land was finally possible.

0:46:260:46:29

But the Palestinians rejected the resolution and civil war broke out.

0:46:340:46:40

The partition was never enforced.

0:46:400:46:43

As the British made their ignominious exit,

0:46:430:46:47

the Zionists declared the existence of the State of Israel.

0:46:470:46:51

Immediately, the surrounding countries of the Arab League

0:46:590:47:02

invaded to destroy the fledgling Jewish state.

0:47:020:47:06

The Jordanians had the best trained

0:47:060:47:09

and most effective of the invading armies.

0:47:090:47:11

They made straight for Jerusalem.

0:47:110:47:13

Both sides committed appalling atrocities,

0:47:130:47:17

civilians were massacred, neighbourhoods were lost, captured and destroyed.

0:47:170:47:21

Both Israelis and Arabs feared desperately

0:47:210:47:24

they were losing Jerusalem.

0:47:240:47:26

The Israeli forces in the old city were soon surrounded and cut off.

0:47:300:47:35

The battle for the Jewish quarter

0:47:350:47:36

was especially intense and desperate.

0:47:360:47:38

The crack troops of the Jordanian Arab legion

0:47:380:47:41

fought their way in, house by house, alleyway by alleyway,

0:47:410:47:46

until, for the Jews of the Jewish quarter, there was no way out.

0:47:460:47:50

2,000 Jews were expelled from their homes.

0:47:530:47:56

The Jordanians looted the empty houses

0:47:560:47:59

and then blew up 22 of the 27 synagogues.

0:47:590:48:03

Jews were banned totally from the Western wall.

0:48:030:48:07

Once again, the Jews had lost access to their holiest shrine.

0:48:100:48:15

They, in turn, expelled thousands of Palestinians

0:48:150:48:19

from the Jewish suburbs they now held.

0:48:190:48:21

Jews, Christians and Muslims,

0:48:240:48:26

many of whom had lived side by side for centuries, were driven apart.

0:48:260:48:30

Jerusalem became a divided city,

0:48:340:48:36

according to historian Salim Tamari.

0:48:360:48:40

By the end of May, most of the Arabs had fled

0:48:400:48:43

and then the Jewish forces came

0:48:430:48:46

and cleared all the Arabs from West Jerusalem.

0:48:460:48:49

Jerusalem became ethnically pure, if you like.

0:48:490:48:54

The Jewish population in the old city

0:48:540:48:56

were also cleared from the Jewish Quarter.

0:48:560:48:59

But the people cleared in the Jewish side

0:48:590:49:02

were much more than the Arab side.

0:49:020:49:05

The city was sealed, you have barbed wire

0:49:050:49:10

and then a wall was built

0:49:100:49:14

to separate the Arab city,

0:49:140:49:17

the eastern part,

0:49:170:49:19

from the Jewish city, the western part.

0:49:190:49:23

It was absolutely hermitically sealed,

0:49:230:49:26

there was nobody allowed to move in and out.

0:49:260:49:30

Israel was engaged in a desperate,

0:49:320:49:35

but ultimately victorious, struggle for survival.

0:49:350:49:39

The real losers were the Palestinians.

0:49:390:49:43

Over three quarters of a million lost their homes.

0:49:430:49:46

Some were expelled by force,

0:49:460:49:49

some left to avoid the fighting hoping to return,

0:49:490:49:52

many of them ended up in camps of tents

0:49:520:49:55

around the west bank of the Jordan river.

0:49:550:49:58

About half became citizens of Israel.

0:49:580:50:01

The tragedy of the Palestinians became known as the Naqba,

0:50:010:50:05

the Catastrophe.

0:50:050:50:06

In 1949, Israel and Jordan signed an Armistice treaty

0:50:100:50:14

that divided the city along a mile and a half of frontier.

0:50:140:50:20

The Jordanians controlled East Jerusalem and all of the old city,

0:50:200:50:24

the Israelis kept the western suburbs.

0:50:240:50:28

The Armistice line was not meant to be a permanent border.

0:50:280:50:32

It just happened to be where the armies stood

0:50:320:50:35

when the fighting stopped.

0:50:350:50:37

But for 20 years it formed an impenetrable, impassable barrier

0:50:370:50:41

between the Israelis on one side and the Arabs on the other.

0:50:410:50:45

It's futile to divide any city,

0:50:450:50:48

but it's especially tragic to divide Jerusalem.

0:50:480:50:53

Jerusalem was to remain divided until June of 1967,

0:50:530:50:58

when another conflict broke out

0:50:580:51:01

between Israel and her Arab neighbours.

0:51:010:51:04

Threatened with war on three fronts, Israel struck first

0:51:060:51:10

and soon got the upper hand.

0:51:100:51:12

"And that victory is a swift, smashing and total one.

0:51:130:51:17

"As crack air force, infantry, artillery and tank corps combine,

0:51:170:51:21

"thousands of prisoners are taken while Jordan announces

0:51:210:51:25

"she lost 15,000 troops in the sudden and devastating campaign."

0:51:250:51:29

In just six days of fighting, Israel conquered the Gaza strip,

0:51:320:51:36

the Golan heights, the Sinai peninsular

0:51:360:51:38

and the West Bank of the Jordan river.

0:51:380:51:41

But the conquest of the old city of Jerusalem was the climax of the war.

0:51:430:51:48

"Without doubt, the most personally moving moment for Israeli troops

0:51:520:51:56

"was the capture of the old city of Jerusalem.

0:51:560:51:59

"The location of an ancient Jewish holy place, revered by the Israelis."

0:51:590:52:03

When Israeli soldiers captured the wall,

0:52:030:52:05

it was an event of absolute exultation.

0:52:050:52:09

They danced, they sang, they prayed, they kissed the stones.

0:52:090:52:14

Even for secular Jews it was a moment of religious joy.

0:52:140:52:19

For the Jews, Israel was at last in Zion

0:52:270:52:31

and the cosmic order had been restored,

0:52:310:52:34

it was the end of exile, the fulfilment of Biblical prophecy.

0:52:340:52:38

But for thousands of Palestinians it was the beginning of a long

0:52:420:52:45

and bitter military occupation.

0:52:450:52:48

Winning the war presented the Israelis with the challenge faced

0:52:480:52:51

by all who have conquered Jerusalem, how to share its holy sites

0:52:510:52:57

They wanted to rule a Jerusalem of the three great Abrahamic faiths,

0:52:570:53:02

and that meant left leaving the Haram al Sharif to the Muslims.

0:53:020:53:06

The eyes of the world were upon them and they wanted to show that Israel

0:53:070:53:12

was a fit and suitable custodian for the Holy City.

0:53:120:53:16

Israel prided itself on being a young and open democracy,

0:53:160:53:21

and for that reason they wanted to show that they would have tolerance

0:53:210:53:25

for all the other faiths in Jerusalem.

0:53:250:53:28

But the challenge of giving all religions equal access

0:53:320:53:36

to their holy sites was not so easily achieved.

0:53:360:53:40

So many Jews were coming to pray at the newly captured western wall,

0:53:400:53:44

there was a demand for more space.

0:53:440:53:47

The Israeli authorities needed to clear a plaza.

0:53:470:53:50

But this meant destroying a historic Palestinian neighbourhood.

0:53:500:53:54

Deputy mayor Meron Benvenisti has mixed feelings about this.

0:53:550:54:00

We destroyed the whole area and removed the people

0:54:000:54:04

which caused us great distress, on the one hand,

0:54:040:54:09

and criticism of the world,

0:54:090:54:11

people said that it was similar to ethnic cleansing,

0:54:110:54:14

but I think it was inevitable.

0:54:140:54:17

This is the area of the plaza of the wall today.

0:54:170:54:20

Suddenly the reality of Jerusalem,

0:54:200:54:22

the earthly Jerusalem,

0:54:220:54:24

suddenly tarnished that heavenly Jerusalem,

0:54:240:54:29

Israelis began to understand

0:54:290:54:32

that still there is a problem,

0:54:320:54:36

because there cannot be peace

0:54:360:54:42

with exclusive possession.

0:54:420:54:44

This fundamental contradiction, that has plagued the city for centuries,

0:54:510:54:56

made the Haram al Sharif, yet again,

0:54:560:54:58

the focus of intense religious rivalry.

0:54:580:55:01

When Al Aqsa mosque was set on fire in 1969,

0:55:060:55:11

many of Jerusalem's Muslims rioted,

0:55:110:55:13

believing the fire bomb was a Jewish attempt to destroy the mosque.

0:55:130:55:18

Actually, the attack turned out to be the work

0:55:200:55:23

of an Australian Christian fundamentalist,

0:55:230:55:26

Dennis Rohan.

0:55:260:55:28

"The trial of Dennis Michael Rohan was a top security affair.

0:55:300:55:34

"Rohan later admitted starting the blaze, but pleaded insanity."

0:55:340:55:39

When Rohan was brought to court, it became clear he was suffering

0:55:390:55:42

from a special form of religious madness, peculiar to Jerusalem.

0:55:420:55:48

The psychotic condition is known as Jerusalem Syndrome.

0:55:500:55:53

An affliction that affects visitors to the Holy City

0:55:570:56:00

when their hopes of heavenly transcendence

0:56:000:56:03

collide with the reality of earthly life.

0:56:030:56:06

The intensity of Jerusalem's holiness has infected

0:56:070:56:11

not only believers, but visitors and conquerors alike,

0:56:110:56:15

with obsession, if not madness.

0:56:150:56:17

How to reconcile the dream of sanctity

0:56:170:56:21

with the chaos, complexity and violence of the real city.

0:56:210:56:25

The contradiction has never been more acute.

0:56:250:56:29

The long struggle for possession of the city continues,

0:56:300:56:33

aggravated on both sides by intolerant nationalism

0:56:330:56:37

and religious fundamentalism.

0:56:370:56:40

It has placed Jerusalem, once again

0:56:400:56:43

at the very centre of global politics.

0:56:430:56:46

The conflict has given rise to a vast concrete wall

0:57:010:57:05

between the Israelis and Palestinians,

0:57:050:57:08

the most visible symbol of the curse of Jerusalem

0:57:080:57:12

its division by nation and by religion.

0:57:120:57:15

4,000 years since it was founded,

0:57:190:57:22

Jerusalem today has never been larger, or more prosperous.

0:57:220:57:27

But it's also anxious, angry, and divided,

0:57:270:57:30

facing an uncertain future.

0:57:300:57:33

I can imagine a future where the insane acts

0:57:340:57:39

of a few outrageous fanatics would destroy Jerusalem altogether,

0:57:390:57:44

a catastrophe that would break the heart of the world.

0:57:440:57:49

But I can also foresee a future

0:57:490:57:51

when the Holy City would be shared

0:57:510:57:54

by its two peoples and its three faiths.

0:57:540:57:57

Jerusalem's holiness has been passed down

0:58:010:58:05

through generations of believers, Jew, Christian and Muslim.

0:58:050:58:10

Each generation has distilled and intensified

0:58:100:58:13

the city's sanctity and claimed it as their own.

0:58:130:58:17

Who will find it in their faith to share this hallowed place

0:58:220:58:26

where God meets man?

0:58:260:58:31

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:440:58:47

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0:58:470:58:50

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