tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/jerusalem-13634/articlesJerusalem – The Conversation2024-03-27T12:37:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259652024-03-27T12:37:57Z2024-03-27T12:37:57ZEaster 2024 in the Holy Land: a holiday marked by Palestinian Christian sorrow<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584385/original/file-20240326-22-4jhbih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C51%2C5604%2C3699&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A procession at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed by many Christians to be the site of the crucifixion and burial place of Jesus Christ.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelPalestiniansEaster/d33a91bd48b94dd7b7cae10a29bdeef0/photo?Query=%20Church%20of%20the%20Holy%20Sepulchre%20easter&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=901&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=29&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year, Christians from across the world visit Jerusalem for Easter week, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/following-jesuss-steps-millions-christians-via-dolorosa-walking-wrong-way">walking the Via Dolorosa</a>, the path Jesus is said to have walked on the way to his crucifixion over 2,000 years ago. Easter is the holiest of days, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Holy-Sepulchre">Church of the Holy Sepulchre</a>, the site where Jesus is believed to have died, is one of the most sacred sites for Christians.</p>
<p>But not all Christians have equal access to these sites. If you are a Christian Palestinian living in the city of Bethlehem or Ramallah hoping to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem, you have to <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240325-israel-bans-palestinian-christians-from-jerusalem-on-palm-sunday/">request permission from Israeli authorities</a> well before Christmas – without guarantee that it will be granted. Those were the rules even before Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-latest-02-28-2024-5fb126981031984395a228598fa9e4a9">launched an attack on southern Israel</a>. The Israeli response to the Hamas attack has resulted in even more <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/11/middleeast/west-bank-restrictions-violence-intl-cmd/index.html">severe restrictions on freedom of movement</a> for Palestinians in the West Bank.</p>
<p>The site where the Bible says Jesus was born, in Bethlehem, and the place he died, in Jerusalem, are only about six miles apart. Google Maps indicates the drive takes about 20 minutes but carries a warning: “<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Church+of+the+Nativity,+P635%2BP2C,+Bethlehem+Territory/Church+of+the+Holy+Sepulchre,+Jerusalem/@31.7444436,35.1267403,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x1502d87be687c8f9:0xd060c37bd524261c!2m2!1d35.2075288!2d31.7043034!1m5!1m1!1s0x150329cf1c246db5:0x2d04a75cfc390360!2m2!1d35.2296002!2d31.7784813!3e0?entry=ttu">This route may cross country borders</a>.” That is because Bethlehem is located in the West Bank, which is under Israeli military occupation, whereas <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/22/how-does-israels-occupation-of-palestine-work#:%7E:text=Israel%20occupied%20the%20West%20Bank,were%20the%20capital%20of%20Israel">Jerusalem is under direct Israeli control</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.sjsu.edu/justicestudies/about-us/directory/abusaad-roni.php">human rights scholar</a> and Christian Palestinian who grew up in Bethlehem, I have many fond memories of Easter, which is a special time of gathering and celebration for Christian Palestinians. But I also saw firsthand how the military occupation has denied Palestinians basic human rights, including religious rights.</p>
<h2>A season of celebration</h2>
<p>Traditionally, Palestinian families and friends exchange visits, offering coffee, tea and a cookie stuffed with dates called “<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/04/11/522771745/maamoul-an-ancient-cookie-that-ushers-in-easter-and-eid-in-the-middle-east">maamoul</a>,” which is made only at Easter. A favorite tradition, especially for children, is taking a colorfully dyed hard-boiled egg in one hand and cracking it against an egg held by a friend. The breaking of the egg symbolizes the rise of Jesus from the tomb, the end of sorrow and the ultimate defeat of death itself and purification of human sins.</p>
<p>For Orthodox Christians, one of the most sacred rites of the year is the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Holy-Fire">Holy Fire</a>. On the day before Orthodox Easter, thousands of pilgrims and local Christian Palestinians of all denominations gather in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Greek and Armenian patriarchs enter the enclosure of the tomb in which Jesus was said to have been buried and pray inside. Those inside have <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IpyPCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT285&lpg=PT285&dq=%22From+the+core+of+the+very+stone+on+which+Jesus+lay+an+indefinable+light+pours+forth.+It+usually+has+a+blue+tint,+but+the+color+may+change+and+take+many+different+hues.+It+cannot+be+described+in+human+terms.+The+light+rises+out+of+the+stone+as+mist+may+rise+out+of+a+lake+%E2%80%94+it+almost+looks+as+if+the+stone+is+covered+by+a+moist+cloud,+but+it+is+light.&source=bl&ots=l47MXGss14&sig=ACfU3U3c3GuHU35fJ_j6Uxpnf8zITGO9gA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiW4d74n5KFAxVGCTQIHUNrAgsQ6AF6BAhKEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false">reported</a> that a blue light rises from the stone where Jesus lay, and forms into a flame. The patriarch lights candles from the flame, passing the fire from candle to candle among the thousands assembled in the church. </p>
<p>That same day, delegations representing Eastern Orthodox countries carry the flame in lanterns to their home countries via <a href="https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/aircraft-fleet-brings-easter-holy-fire-to-orthodox-communities">chartered planes</a> to be presented in cathedrals in time for the Easter service. Palestinians also carry the flame using lanterns to homes and churches in the West Bank.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Christians celebrate the Holy Fire under Israeli restrictions in 2023.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Deep roots in the Holy Land</h2>
<p>Palestinian Christians <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/Sociology-of-early-Palestinian-Christianity/oclc/3609025">trace their ancestry</a> to the time of Jesus and Christianity’s founding in the region. Many <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/9781">churches and monasteries</a> flourished in Bethlehem, Jerusalem and other Palestinian towns under Byzantine and Roman rule. Throughout this period and into the modern day, Christians, Muslims and Jews <a href="https://www.iis.ac.uk/learning-centre/scholarly-contributions/academic-articles/muslim-jews-and-christians-relations-and-interactions/">lived side by side in the region</a>. </p>
<p>With the Islamic conquest in the seventh century, the <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/decline-of-eastern-christianity-under-islam-from-jihad-to-dhimmitude-seventh-twentieth-century/oclc/33276531">majority of Christians gradually converted to Islam</a>. However, the remaining Christian minority persisted in practicing their religion and traditions, including through the rule of the Ottoman empire, from 1516 to 1922, and to the present day.</p>
<p>The establishment of Israel in 1948 led to the expulsion of <a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=17079">750,000 Palestinians, over 80% of the population</a>, which is referred to by Palestinians as the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-at-75-palestinians-struggle-to-get-recognition-for-their-catastrophe-204782">nakba,” or the catastrophe</a>. Hundreds of thousands became refugees throughout the world, including many Christians.</p>
<p>Christians accounted for about <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-204267/">10% of the population in 1920</a> but <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/west-bank/#people-and-society">constitute just 1% to 2.5%</a> of Palestinians in the West Bank as of 2024, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep25112">because of emigration</a>. Christians in the West Bank belong to multiple denominations, including Greek Orthodox, Catholic and various Protestant denominations.</p>
<p>Thousands of Palestinians rely on the pilgrims and tourists who come to Bethlehem every year for their livelihoods. Two million people visit Bethlehem annually, and more than <a href="https://www.bethlehem-city.org/en/the-city-economy">20% of local workers are employed in tourism</a>. Another important local industry is carved olive wood handicrafts. In 2004, the mayor of Beit Jala, which borders the city of Bethlehem, estimated <a href="https://unispal.un.org/pdfs/Beth_Rep_Dec04.pdf">200 families in the area</a> made their living from carving olive wood. Christians around the world have <a href="https://sg.news.yahoo.com/christmas-journey-olive-orchard-nativity-180326957.html">olive wood nativity sets</a> or crosses carved by Palestinian artisans, a tradition that has been passed down through generations.</p>
<h2>Impact of the occupation</h2>
<p>The neighborhoods of the occupied West Bank have been fragmented by the building of over 145 illegal Israeli settlements. Both Christian and Muslim Palestinians face huge barriers to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jsa.2019.0003">accessing holy sites in Jerusalem</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Men wearing long green garbs walk in a procession and one in the center holds a tall crucifix." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Israeli policeman stands guard during a March 1997 procession of Franciscan monks led by traditionally dressed guards coming out of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MIDEASTJERUSALEMEASTER/95dacad9cce0da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo?Query=%20bethlehem%20holy%20week%20guards&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=733&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=0&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Peter Dejong</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bethlehem is encircled by several Jewish-only settlements, as well as the <a href="https://pij.org/articles/1042/the-impact-of-the-separation-wall-on-jerusalem">separation wall</a> built in the 2000s, which snakes around and across the city. Across the West Bank, over 500 checkpoints and bypass roads designed to connect settlements have been built on Palestinian lands for the exclusive use of settlers. As of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-02-02/israeli-settler-population-west-bank-surpasses-500000">Jan. 1, 2023</a>, there were over half a million settlers in the West Bank and another 200,000 in East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The highways and bypass roads cut through the middle of towns and separate families. It is a system that former <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-165X.2007.tb01647.x">President Jimmy Carter</a> and numerous human rights groups have described as “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-jerusalem-israel-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-83b44a2f6b2b3581d857f57fb6960115">apartheid</a>.” This system severely restricts freedom of movement and separates students from schools, patients from hospitals, farmers from their lands and worshipers from their churches or mosques. </p>
<p>Additionally, Palestinians have a different license plate color on their cars. They can’t use their vehicles to access <a href="https://apnews.com/article/a0c47ad493fb4b31a444bfe432194f2e">private roads</a>, which restricts their access to Jerusalem or Israel.</p>
<p>Going far beyond separate roads, Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to a separate legal system – a military judicial system – whereas Israeli settlers living in the West Bank have a civilian court system. This <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/01/chapter-3-israeli-settlements-and-international-law/">system</a> allows indefinite detention of Palestinians without charge or trial based on secret evidence. All of these restrictions on freedom of movement disrupt the ability of Palestinians of all faiths to visit holy sites and gather for religious observances.</p>
<h2>Prayers for peace</h2>
<p>The barriers to celebrating Easter, especially this year, are not just physical but emotional and spiritual. </p>
<p>As of March 25, 2024, the number of <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/health-ministry-in-hamas-run-gaza-says-war-death-toll-at-32-333-fd31aa61">Gazans killed in the war had surpassed 32,000</a> – <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/29/1234159514/gaza-death-toll-30000-palestinians-israel-hamas-war">70% of them women and children</a>, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/3/22/israel-arrested-over-7350-west-bank-palestinians-since-war-on-gaza-began">arrested 7,350 people in the West Bank</a>, with over 9,000 currently in detention, up from 5,200 who were in Israeli prisons before Oct. 7, 2023. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/palestinian-christians-and-muslims-have-lived-together-in-the-region-for-centuries-and-several-were-killed-recently-while-sheltering-in-the-historic-church-of-saint-porphyrius-216335">Israel bombed the world’s third oldest church</a>, St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church, in Gaza in October 2023, killing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/20/gaza-church-strike-saint-porphyrius/">18 of the more than 400 people</a> sheltering there.</p>
<p>Christian Palestinians in the West Bank <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/15/bethlehem-cancels-christmas-display-martyrs-israel-hamas/">suspended celebrations</a> for Christmas in 2023 in hopes of bringing more attention to the death and suffering in Gaza. But the situation has only worsened. An estimated <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/unrwa-situation-report-82-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem-all-information-22-24-february-2024-valid-24-february-2024-2230-enar">1.7 million Gazans</a> – over 75% of the population – had been displaced as of March 2024, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/19/middleeast/famine-northern-gaza-starvation-ipc-report-intl-hnk/index.html">half of them on the verge of famine</a>.</p>
<p>Many Palestinians have long turned to their faith to endure the occupation and have found <a href="https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.70464">solace in prayer</a>. That faith has allowed many to hold on to the hope that the occupation will end and the Holy Land will be the place of peace and coexistence that it once was. Perhaps that is when, for many, Easter celebrations will be truly joyful again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roni Abusaad, PhD does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A Christian Palestinian human rights scholar who grew up in Bethlehem writes about the special time of Easter, but also about the restrictions on Palestinian Christians.Roni Abusaad, PhD, Lecturer, San José State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2253672024-03-12T14:39:29Z2024-03-12T14:39:29ZIsrael-Hamas conflict: Ramadan brings fresh fears of escalation on both Gaza Strip and West Bank<p>Ramadan has begun, but the 2 million or so inhabitants of the Gaza Strip will have little choice about whether they can observe the customary daylight fasting during the month-long festival. The continuing blockade of the 141 square mile enclave has reportedly reduced some people to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68239320">eating cattle feed</a>, and there remains the dire prospect of <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/02/1146997">widespread famine</a> if there isn’t a massive and rapid increase in the volume of aid getting to people.</p>
<p>A sea corridor <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/12/first-aid-ship-to-gaza-leaves-cyprus-port">has been opened</a> between Cyprus and Gaza and the first shipments of aid are arriving from Europe. But it’s thought that it <a href="https://theconversation.com/joe-bidens-plan-to-build-a-pier-to-get-aid-into-gaza-isnt-enough-here-are-six-issues-needed-for-an-effective-aid-strategy-225369">will be difficult</a> to get a sufficient amount of food, fuel and medicine in by sea.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, negotiations between Israel and Hamas have come to a grinding halt. Both sides have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-chief-blames-israel-stalled-ceasefire-talks-leaves-door-open-2024-03-10/">accused each other</a> of hindering the talks, which were meant to secure the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.</p>
<p>Last month Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would begin a ground offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza, to coincide with the start of Ramadan. This varies depending on where you are in the Islamic world and depends on the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/world/middleeast/ramadan-moon-sighting.html#">appearance of the early crescent moon</a>. So while authorities in Saudi Arabia reported a sighting on Sunday March 10, other countries, including Iran, reported seeing the crescent moon a day later. </p>
<p>The idea of a major Israeli offensive timed to coincide with Islam’s most important festival has drawn <a href="https://globalaffairs.org/bluemarble/ramadan-israel-hamas-war-impact">criticism from around the world</a>. It “adds a layer of distastefulness and outrage to an already pretty horrendous situation,” Khaled Elgindy, director of the Middle East Institute’s program on Palestine, told Foreign Policy. “It adds more pressure on Arab governments to at least look like they’re doing something,” he added.</p>
<p>Ramadan is a central event in the Islamic holy calendar, commemorating Muhammad’s first revelation of what would later become the Qur'an. A duality of emotions characterises the month-long festival.</p>
<p>On the one hand, Ramadan is a joyous religious holiday when Muslim friends and families celebrate by sharing large meals and exchanging presents. On the other, it is a time of profound spiritual communion with Allah and the Muslim Ummah (community). It is marked by disciplined fasting, intense study of the Qur'an and prayer, accompanied by acts of charity towards less fortunate Muslims facing hardship.</p>
<p>A major military offensive would be a serious provocation to Muslims across the world. It could trigger a new wave of anti-Israeli demonstrations, and completely derail the Arab-Israeli normalisation process that began with the signing of the <a href="https://www.state.gov/the-abraham-accords/">Abraham Accords</a> in September 2020.</p>
<p>If it goes ahead, an Israeli assault on Rafah – where more than a million Palestinians have fled to escape the violence – could play into the hands of those in Hamas’s leadership, including the group’s leader in Gaza, Yahyah Sinwar, who said in February that international pressure would force Israel to end the war. The death toll, according to the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/12/israels-war-on-gaza-live-2000-medical-staff-starving-in-north-ministry">Gaza health ministry</a>, has topped 31,000 with nearly 73,000 more people injured. </p>
<h2>West Bank</h2>
<p>Reports <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/rising-concerns-tensions-east-jerusalem-ramadan-begins-no-cease-fire-s-rcna142749">from the Old City of Jerusalem</a>, meanwhile, describe how the usual festivities that take place on Ramadan’s eve were replaced by feelings of sadness over the situation in Gaza and apprehension about the future of the Palestinian people. Instead of being bustling with activity, the narrow alleys of the Old City were almost empty, with many local shops closed. The traditional lights and decorations were <a href="https://www.jerusalemstory.com/en/blog/no-public-celebrations-or-decorations-jerusalem-ramadan">not in evidence</a>.</p>
<p>There is apprehension, too, that al-Aqsa mosque on what Jews call the Temple Mount could become a significant flashpoint for further disturbances, which could quickly spiral out of control. According to <a href="https://www.islamicstudies.info/tafheem.php?sura=17&verse=1&to=1#">Surah 17 in the Qur'an</a>, Muhammad ascended to heaven from the site of Al-Aqsa after his miraculous night journey from Mecca. The holy site is traditionally visited by tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims each day as part of their Ramadan celebrations.</p>
<p>Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir – a far-right ideologue on whom Netanyahu depends to hold on to his majority in the Knesset – <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-gvir-calls-to-bar-palestinian-authority-residents-from-temple-mount-on-ramadan/">proposed a blanket ban</a> on “Palestinian authority residents” from accessing the site during Ramadan. But the war cabinet has ruled this out. Instead the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has ruled that men over the age of 55, women over 50, and children up to the age of ten will be allowed access.</p>
<p>Restrictions on worshippers visiting the holy site could be particularly problematic during the last ten days of Ramadan when Muslims sleep inside the mosque and rise early for morning prayers. </p>
<p>It is still uncertain whether the delicate calm at al-Aqsa will persist throughout the upcoming month. On March 10, despite Netanyahu’s assurances that there would be no restrictions, the Israeli security forces prevented many young Palestinians <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-scuffle-with-worshipers-outside-al-aqsa-mosque-compound-on-1st-night-of-ramadan/">from entering the mosque</a> for Ramadan’s opening prayer. </p>
<p>That instantly resulted in scuffles at one of the shrine’s entrances, with Israeli officers using batons on the Palestinian crowd. The situation in the days ahead may become far more challenging as thousands of Muslims are expected at Al-Aqsa for Friday prayers. </p>
<p>A new IDF campaign in overcrowded Rafah, a drastic curtailment of Muslim worship rights at al-Aqsa or an excessive use of violence by the Israeli police in the Old City of Jerusalem could be all it takes to ultimately ignite the fuse and set the whole region on fire.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225367/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlo Aldrovandi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A major ground assault on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during one of Islam’s most important months could result in a major escalation of violence.Carlo Aldrovandi, Assistant Professor in International Peace Studies, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2235602024-02-15T12:48:21Z2024-02-15T12:48:21ZIsrael-Egypt peace treaty has stood the test of time over 45 years: expert explains its significance<p><em>The peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, signed in 1979 to end hostilities and normalise relations between them, turns 45 on 26 March. The Conversation Africa asked Ofir Winter, a senior researcher at the <a href="https://www.inss.org.il/">Institute for National Security Studies</a>, who studies Egyptian politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict, for his insights on the peace deal and the key challenging moments since it was signed.</em></p>
<h2>When and why did the peace treaty come into force?</h2>
<p>After <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Arab-Israeli-wars">five wars</a> over three decades, Egypt and Israel <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Camp-David-Accords">signed a historic peace agreement</a> in March 1979. It marked the first treaty of its kind between an Arab country and Israel. Since then, five more Arab countries – <a href="https://icds.ee/en/new-peace-treaties-in-the-middle-east/">Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/18/where-do-morocco-and-sudan-relations-stand-with-israel">Morocco and Sudan</a> – have made peace with Israel.</p>
<p>The peace deal, and its consequences, are viewed as having reshaped the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict for <a href="https://www.inss.org.il/publication/egypt-israel-peace-leaders-armies-peace-peoples">the better</a>.</p>
<p>Jerusalem and Cairo had various motivations to choose peace over conflict. Israel wanted to secure its southern border and neutralise the region’s largest and most powerful Arab country.</p>
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<p>Egypt wanted to restore its sovereignty over the Sinai Peninsula, which it lost in the <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-1967-six-day-war">1967 Six-Day War</a>. It also wanted to redirect resources from military spending to strengthen its economy. And it wanted to <a href="https://www.state.gov/the-u-s-egypt-relationship/#:%7E:text=Egypt%20is%20a%20valued%20U.S.,a%20pillar%20for%20regional%20stability">strengthen its ties with the United States</a>, by being at peace with its ally, Israel.</p>
<p>Peace with Israel contributes to Egypt’s regional and international standing. It positions it as a positive stabilising actor in Middle Eastern politics, and as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians.</p>
<p>The Israel-Egypt agreement, although labelled “<a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-16-2717-0_74-1">cold peace</a>”, grants both countries diplomatic and military cooperation. It also boosts tourism between them (mainly from Israel to southern Sinai), and allows modest mutual trade. </p>
<p>In 2018, the countries signed a deal for Israeli gas exports to Egypt for 10 years, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1G31BK/">worth US$15 billion</a>. This was followed by the establishment of the <a href="https://emgf.org/">Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum</a> in Cairo with other regional partners. Israel’s gas exports are crucial for Egypt’s economy. They also support its aspiration to become a regional energy hub.</p>
<h2>What challenges has the treaty faced?</h2>
<p>During the era of President Hosni Mubarak (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hosni-Mubarak">1981-2011</a>), both countries experienced several crises, such as the recalls of Egyptian ambassadors in protest against Israeli policies following the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1981-1988/lebanon">First Lebanon War</a> (1982-1986) and amid the <a href="https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/jcs/article/view/220/378">second Palestinian intifada (uprising) (2000-2005)</a>.</p>
<p>The attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo by Egyptian protesters <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/egypt-cracks-down-after-israeli-embassy-attack/2011/09/10/gIQA78JIIK_story.html">in September 2011</a>, following a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/03/world/middleeast/israel-egypt-border-shootings.html">terrorist incident</a> at the Egyptian-Israeli border resulting in the death of eight Israelis and three Egyptians, also left a lasting negative impact on their relations. Since then, the Israeli embassy has left its previous permanent residence and operates on a reduced scale and with a lower profile.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hamas-israeli-conflict-whats-at-stake-for-egypt-215710">Hamas-Israeli conflict: what's at stake for Egypt</a>
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<p>However, past crises did not escalate to the point of suspending the peace agreement. Cairo still considers peace an important asset that serves its core interests. These include its strategic relationship with the United States. This provides it annual military and economic aid of <a href="https://pomed.org/publication/fact-sheet-u-s-military-assistance-to-egypt-separating-fact-from-fiction/">over US$1 billion</a>. Egypt also benefits from intelligence cooperation with Israel in the fight against terrorism in Sinai. In addition, the two countries have various economic collaborations worth billions. </p>
<h2>Gaza conflict and the peace treaty</h2>
<p>Since the outbreak of the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/2/15/israels-war-on-gaza-live-four-dead-as-israel-hits-city-in-lebanons-south">war in Gaza</a> following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-israels-intelligence-chiefs-failed-to-listen-to-october-7-warnings-and-the-lessons-to-be-learned-219346">7 October 2023</a>, Egypt has consistently stated that the temporary or permanent displacement of Gaza residents to its territory, whether intentional or unintentional, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/jordan-egypt-reject-any-palestinian-displacement-into-their-countries/7329543.html">is not up for discussion</a>. </p>
<p>The only exceptions are limited humanitarian cases, such as admitting injured individuals for medical treatment in Egypt.</p>
<p>Hosting Gaza refugees could strain the Egyptian economy. It could also facilitate Islamist and jihadist infiltration to the country, and provoke internal security issues, further complicating the Israel-Egypt border situation.</p>
<p>Even before the current war, Egypt had long been concerned about alleged Israeli plots to <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/palestinians-slam-israeli-minister-over-sinai-homeland/982790">resolve the Gaza issue at its expense</a>. These concerns have been heightened by <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-expert-warns-israel-cannot-afford-to-take-cairos-cooperation-for-granted/">recent statements</a> from Israeli right-wing politicians that were wrongly interpreted as reflecting Israeli official policy. And Egypt fears that Hamas and other Islamist groups may challenge its sovereignty in pursuit of their own agenda.</p>
<p>Another Egyptian concern relates to possible Israeli violation of their demilitarisation agreements. According to the <a href="https://www.gov.il/en/Departments/General/israel-egypt-peace-treaty">military appendix of the 1979 peace agreement</a>, areas C and D near the Egyptian-Israeli border are subject to demilitarisation. Any temporary or permanent changes require mutual coordination.</p>
<p>Should Israel undertake military operations <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/14/erdogan-egypt-visit-talks-continue-gaza-ceasefire-deal-israel">in Rafah</a> involving more than the four battalions allowed under the appendix, Egypt may assert a breach of the agreement. A mechanism of military coordination between the Israeli and Egyptian defence forces monitors the parties’ commitments in the peace agreement. They work to solve disputes and to prevent escalations.</p>
<p>The current tensions coincide with an <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/4/egypts-economy-will-be-its-biggest-challenge-during-el-sisis-third-term">economic crisis in Egypt</a> and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-tel-aviv-rally-protesters-denounce-government-call-for-new-elections/">political protests in Israel</a>. They undermine the legitimacy of both governments. </p>
<p>This situation pushes both sides to take a more populist approach towards each other. This could divert attention from domestic criticism to external threats. Also, Egypt is cautious not to be perceived by domestic and Arab audiences as collaborating with Israel against the Palestinians. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/un-genocide-ruling-wont-change-israels-behaviour-three-reasons-why-222128">UN genocide ruling won't change Israel's behaviour: three reasons why</a>
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<p>Such an atmosphere, where politicians prioritise short-term public opinion considerations over long-term interests, could escalate the problem.</p>
<p>Even amid the tensions stemming from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-war-in-gaza-is-wiping-out-palestines-education-and-knowledge-systems-222055">war in Gaza</a>, Egypt has no intention of abrogating its peace treaty with Israel. The Egyptian foreign minister has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-says-peace-treaty-with-israel-safe-despite-jitters-over-rafah-offensive/">reaffirmed Cairo’s commitment to the agreement</a>.</p>
<p>However, Egypt may still take additional steps to express its protest towards Israel. These include recalling the Egyptian ambassador from Tel Aviv, before resorting to more severe actions like suspending the peace treaty or some of its aspects, which could be harmful for both sides.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hamas-assault-echoes-1973-arab-israeli-war-a-shock-attack-and-questions-of-political-intelligence-culpability-215228">Hamas assault echoes 1973 Arab-Israeli war – a shock attack and questions of political, intelligence culpability</a>
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<p>Finally, the 7 October Hamas attack has already stalled the process of normalising relations <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67922238">between Israel and Saudi Arabia</a>. Undermining the delicate relations between Israel and Egypt could potentially grant Hamas another strategic political achievement. It is in the interest of both Israel and Egypt, as well as the wider international community, to prevent such an outcome and ensure another 45 years of stable peace between the two nations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223560/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ofir Winter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Undermining the delicate relations between Israel and Egypt could potentially grant Hamas a strategic political achievement.Ofir Winter, Senior Researcher, Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2229152024-02-08T17:38:32Z2024-02-08T17:38:32ZJerusalem: Jewish settler movement makes bid for large slice of Armenian quarter<p>The Armenian quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City is facing its biggest crisis in a long time. A Jewish businessman with connections to the <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-02-05/fights-settlers-and-a-luxury-hotel-an-opaque-land-deal-puts-jerusalems-armenians-on-the-warpath.html">radical settler movement</a> is poised to develop a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68034722">quarter of the neighbourhood’s territory</a>, with plans to build a luxury hotel. If this goes ahead, it will significantly change part of Jerusalem’s Old City and hasten the demographic shift towards the city’s Jewish population which has been happening for some years.</p>
<p>The Armenian quarter actually makes up one-sixth of the Old City (the other quarters being the Muslim, the Christian, and the Jewish) and the <a href="https://jewishstudies.washington.edu/israel-hebrew/history-armenians-in-jerusalem/">Armenian presence</a> in Jerusalem dates back to the 4th century. Together with the neighbouring Christian quarter, it is a stronghold for the city’s small Christian minority. The threat of a takeover of parts of the quarter by Jewish settlers is widely seen as altering the demographic status quo to favour Israel’s interests. </p>
<p>In 2021, the Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem, <a href="https://beta.armenianchurch.org/en/bishops-college/8">Nourhan Manougian</a>, agreed a 98-year lease over part of the Armenian quarter with the developers. The agreement covers a significant area that today includes a parking lot, buildings belonging to the office of the Armenian church leader – known as the patriarchate – and the homes of five Armenian families.</p>
<p>News of the deal prompted <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-jerusalems-old-city-armenian-community-members-fear-eviction-over-land-deal/">strong protests</a> among the neighbourhood’s Armenians last year. Such was the depth of feeling that in October, the patriarch and the other church leaders felt compelled to <a href="https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1123292.html">cancel the agreement</a>. This led to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/land-dispute-in-jerusalems-armenian-quarter-escalates-as-residents-fear-eviction/">violent confrontations</a> between settlers and local Armenians.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574022/original/file-20240207-26-4b3tkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of Jerusalem showing the various traditional ethnic quarters." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574022/original/file-20240207-26-4b3tkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574022/original/file-20240207-26-4b3tkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574022/original/file-20240207-26-4b3tkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574022/original/file-20240207-26-4b3tkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574022/original/file-20240207-26-4b3tkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574022/original/file-20240207-26-4b3tkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574022/original/file-20240207-26-4b3tkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Contested: Jerusalem’s Armenian quarter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ermeniniane kwartiri i Jarsa</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>After a few quiet weeks, <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231230-group-of-30-men-attack-armenian-quarter-in-jerusalem/">fighting broke out again</a> at the end of December when more than 30 men armed with stones and clubs reportedly attacked the Armenians who had been guarding the area for several weeks. </p>
<p>The dispute has now <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/cna/land-dispute-in-jerusalem-threatens-armenian-christians-nonviolent-group-says">gone to court</a>. The question is whether the lease agreement is valid or whether the unilateral termination makes the agreement void. The patriarchate has engaged lawyers – local and from Armenia and the US – who will present its case that the agreement was not entered into properly because of irregularities in the contract. </p>
<h2>Changing East Jerusalem’s demography</h2>
<p>This is not a single incident. Since the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-39960461">1967 six-day War</a>, when the whole of Jerusalem came under Israeli control, there has been a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/03/mount-of-olives-jerusalem-israeli-settler-movement-palestinians-christian-holy-city">concerted effort</a> to change the demography in the traditionally Arab East Jerusalem. </p>
<p>In many places the authorities are evicting the Arab families who have lived there for decades with the explanation that they lack documents that they own the house. Then a Jewish family moves in. </p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.btselem.org/jerusalem">change</a> of the demography of East Jerusalem happens through evictions, demolitions and buildings restrictions. This is also happening in Jerusalem’s iconic and touristic Old City.</p>
<p>Almost 20 years ago, there was a minor <a href="https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/real-estate/article-710903">scandal</a> when it emerged that the Greek Orthodox patriarchate, a large property owner, had entered into a long lease agreement with a Jewish settler organisation regarding two historic hotels. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574369/original/file-20240208-30-tkjsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of East Jerusalem" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574369/original/file-20240208-30-tkjsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574369/original/file-20240208-30-tkjsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574369/original/file-20240208-30-tkjsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574369/original/file-20240208-30-tkjsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574369/original/file-20240208-30-tkjsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574369/original/file-20240208-30-tkjsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574369/original/file-20240208-30-tkjsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Contested territory: In most plans for a two-state solution East Jerusalem would be the capital of a Palestinian state.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Now we have a similar incident concerning the Armenian patriarchate. Selling or renting out property to Jewish settlers for a long time is viewed extremely negatively by the Palestinians, who have long fought against illegal Jewish settlements in Palestinian areas.</p>
<p>East Jerusalem is of vital importance to the Palestinians. In proposed plans for a <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-two-state-solution-to-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-221872">two-state solution</a>, it is the intended capital of a future Palestinian state. Decisively changing the demography there is therefore a priority goal for some in Israel – including the prime minister, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/21/middleeast/netanyahu-palestinian-sovereignty-two-state-solution-intl/index.html">Benjamin Netanyahu</a>, who doesn’t want a two-state solution. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-two-state-solution-to-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-221872">Explainer: what is the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?</a>
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<h2>Hierarchical institutions</h2>
<p>This conflict also underlines an old problem with the Jerusalem’s Christian churches – namely the gap between the leadership and the people. Old churches are by nature hierarchical and the leaders at the top rule supremely. In Jerusalem there is an additional problem in that the church leaders are not always drawn from the local population.</p>
<p>The largest Christian denomination in the Holy Land is the <a href="https://cnewa.org/eastern-christian-churches/orthodox-church/the-autocephalous-churches/the-patriarchate-of-jerusalem/">Greek Orthodox Church</a>. Its members are largely Arabs, but the patriarch and the other leading prelates are Greeks. </p>
<p>Nourhan Manougian, the current and 97th Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem, was born in Syria to an Armenian family. The Armenian patriarchate has been accused of corruption and illegitimate sale of property <a href="https://www.academia.edu/38121413/Bedross_Der_Matossian_The_Armenians_of_Jerusalem_in_the_Modern_Period_The_Rise_and_Decline_of_a_Community_in_Bedross_Der_Matossian_Sulaiman_Mourad_and_Naomi_Koltun_Fromm_eds_Routledge_Handbook_on_Jerusalem_Milton_Park_Abingdon_Oxon_New_York_NY_Routledge_2018_pp_396_407">in the past</a>, long before the current crisis.</p>
<p>If the Armenians lose this battle and the settler movement is able to gain control of such a key site, it will harm a vulnerable small minority. And the settler campaign to colonise East Jerusalem under Jewish control will have achieved yet another victory.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222915/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Svante Lundgren does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An Australian businessman with links to the settler movement is trying to buy up about a quarter of the ancient Armenian Quarter.Svante Lundgren, Researcher, Lund UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2152942023-10-09T16:16:13Z2023-10-09T16:16:13ZWhy Al-Aqsa remains a sensitive site in Palestine-Israel conflict<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552792/original/file-20231009-18-w1sjg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C25%2C5580%2C3712&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A view of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and its Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem's Old City.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-picture-taken-from-the-mount-of-olives-shows-a-view-of-news-photo/1708612985?adppopup=true">Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a <a href="http://www.kenchitwood.com/">scholar of global Islam</a>, I teach an introduction to Islam course and include a discussion about Al-Aqsa as part of the syllabus. That’s because Al-Aqsa has deep religious significance for Muslims around the world. </p>
<p>But it is also important to highlight its remarkable political relevance for Palestinians. </p>
<p>These two facts make it a focal point for conflict. </p>
<h2>The night journey of Muhammad</h2>
<p>The Masjid al-Aqsa, or simply Al-Aqsa, means “the farthest mosque” or “the farthest sanctuary,” and <a href="https://books.google.de/books/about/The_Oxford_Dictionary_of_Islam.html?id=6VeCWQfVNjkC&redir_esc=y">refers to the lead-domed mosque</a> within the sacred precinct of Haram al-Sharif – “the Noble Enclosure.” The precinct includes the Dome of the Rock, the four minarets, the compound’s historic gates and the mosque itself.</p>
<p>Mentioned in Sura 17, verse 1 of the Quran, the mosque is linked to the story of Muhammad’s “Isra” – the “night journey” from Mecca to Jerusalem – that in part confirms him as the last and most authoritative of the prophets for Muslims. <a href="https://quran.com/53">The Quran says</a> the prophet was “carried … by night from the Sacred Mosque [in Mecca] to the Farthest Mosque [al-Aqsa], whose precincts we have blessed.” </p>
<p>From there, it is believed that Muhammad ascended to heaven – called the Mir'aj. The Dome of the Rock – Qubbat as-Sakhra – is said to shelter the rock <a href="https://books.google.de/books/about/The_Oxford_Dictionary_of_Islam.html?id=6VeCWQfVNjkC&redir_esc=y">from where Muhammad physically ascended</a>. </p>
<p>The mosque’s origins stretch back to the seventh century. It was <a href="https://books.google.de/books/about/The_Oxford_Dictionary_of_Islam.html?id=6VeCWQfVNjkC&redir_esc=y">first built in A.D. 637</a>, just five years after the prophet’s death. It has been destroyed, rebuilt and renovated multiple times.</p>
<p>The current building largely dates to the 11th century and hosts daily prayers and Friday gatherings that draw large crowds. It lies adjacent to important Jewish and Christian religious locales, particularly the site of the First and Second Jewish Temples. </p>
<p>At times, the Dome of the Rock – a shrine – and Al-Aqsa – a mosque – have been confused as one and the same. While part of the same “Noble Sanctuary,” they are two distinct buildings with different histories and purposes. </p>
<p>However, the term Al-Aqsa is sometimes used to indicate the entire “Noble Sanctuary” complex. Originally, it is believed that the term <a href="https://books.google.de/books/about/Aspects_of_Islam.html?id=FAWPAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">“the farthest sanctuary” referred to Jerusalem as a whole</a>. </p>
<h2>Place in Islamic history</h2>
<p>After Mecca and Medina, the vast majority of Muslims worldwide consider <a href="https://www.google.de/books/edition/Palestinians_Born_in_Exile/qRnUAAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=palestinians+born+in+exile&printsec=frontcover">Jerusalem the third-holiest place on Earth</a>. </p>
<p>Referenced frequently in Islamic tradition and hadith – records of something the Prophet Muhammad said, did or tacitly approved of – it is believed that while in Mecca, Muhammad originally oriented his community’s prayers toward Al-Aqsa.</p>
<p>In A.D. 622, the community fled Mecca because of persecution, seeking refuge in Medina to the north. After a little over a year there, Muslims believe God instructed Muhammad to face back toward Mecca for prayers. In Surah 2, verses 149-150, the Quran says, “turn thy face toward the Sacred Mosque [the Kaaba in Mecca] … wheresoever you may be, turn your faces toward it.”</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Jerusalem and its sacred locales – specifically Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock – have remained sites of Islamic pilgrimage for 15 centuries. </p>
<h2>The ‘most sensitive site’ in conflict</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A golden dome and columns decorated by elaborate byzantine decorations." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The decorated interior of the golden dome inside the Dome of the Rock mosque at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, in Jerusalem’s Old City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/picture-taken-with-a-fisheye-lens-on-january-10-shows-the-news-photo/903284924?adppopup=true">Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given its sacred significance, there was great concern about the precinct’s fate after Israel’s victory in the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/de/academic/subjects/history/middle-east-history/1967-arab-israeli-war-origins-and-consequences?format=PB">1967 Arab-Israeli War and its subsequent annexation of East Jerusalem</a>.</p>
<p>Although Israel granted jurisdiction of the mosque and complex to an Islamic waqf – “endowment” – Israel still commands access to the grounds and security forces regularly perform patrols and conduct searches within the precinct. Under the <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Protection+of+Holy+Places+Law.htm">Preservation of the Holy Places Law</a>, the Israeli government has also allowed entry to different religious groups – such as Christian pilgrims. </p>
<p>Many Israelis respect the sanctity of the place as the holiest site in Judaism. In 2005, the <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/1.4706117">chief rabbinate of Israel said it is forbidden for Jews to walk on the site</a> to avoid accidentally entering the Holy of Holies – the inner sanctum of the Temple, believed to be God’s dwelling place on earth. Nonetheless, certain ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups controversially advocate for <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/laying-the-groundwork-for-a-third-temple-in-jerusalem/">greater access and control of the site</a>, seeking to reclaim the historic Temple Mount, in order to rebuild the Temple.</p>
<p>Described as “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/violence-erupts-al-aqsa-mosque-israel-marks-jerusalem-day-2021-05-10">the most sensitive site in the Israel-Palestinian conflict</a>,” it has frequently been host to political acts. </p>
<p>For example, in August 1969, an Australian Christian named Dennis Michael Rohan <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-an-australian-sheepshearers-al-aqsa-arson-nearly-torched-middle-east-peace/">attempted to burn down</a> Al-Aqsa, destroying the historically significant and intricately carved minbar – or “pulpit” – of Saladin, a treasured piece of Islamic art. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Israeli security forces fire sound grenades inside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israeli security forces fire sound grenades inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem on Aug. 11, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/israeli-security-forces-fire-sound-grenades-inside-the-al-news-photo/1160931707?adppopup=true">Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>On Sept. 28, 2000, Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon and a delegation guarded by hundreds of Israeli riot police <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/29/world/sharon-touches-a-nerve-and-jerusalem-explodes.html">entered the precinct</a>. This sparked protests and a violent crackdown by Israeli authorities, with multiple casualties. Many Muslims worldwide considered this a “<a href="https://books.google.de/books/about/111_Questions_on_Islam.html?id=fkZAnNDuNvsC&redir_esc=y">desecration” of the sacred mosque</a>, and the event helped ignite the Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising. </p>
<p>Tensions peaked again after an attack on Yehuda Glick, a controversial right-wing rabbi, in autumn 2014. In response, Israeli authorities <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2014/11/03/world/meast/jerusalem-temple-mount-crisis-lister">closed down access to Al-Aqsa for the first time since 1967</a>. In March and April of that year, Israeli police <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/world/israeli-forces-storm-al-aqsa-mosque/2014/07/18/8ab345c0-0ea4-11e4-b0dd-edc009ac1f9d_video.html">used tear gas and stun grenades on Palestinians inside Al-Aqsa</a>, prompting an international outcry. </p>
<p>Numerous other incidents between Israeli forces and worshipers <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/3/12/israeli-police-assault-worshippers-close-al-aqsa-compound">have occurred at Al-Aqsa</a> in recent years. </p>
<p>Controlled access to the site reminds Palestinians of their relative powerlessness in their ongoing land disputes with Israeli authorities. At the same time, attacks at Al-Aqsa resonate with Muslims across the world who react with horror to what they see as the desecration of one of their most sacred sites. </p>
<p>Defending Al-Aqsa and fighting for rights to access it, I argue, have become proxy conflicts for both Palestinian claims and the need to defend Islam as a whole.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-al-aqsa-mosque-has-often-been-a-site-of-conflict-160671">piece originally published on May 12, 2021</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215294/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ken Chitwood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Al-Aqsa mosque, a flashpoint in Hamas’ recent assault against Israel, hosts daily prayers and Friday gatherings. It lies adjacent to important Jewish and Christian religious locales.Ken Chitwood, Senior Research Fellow, Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at IUPUI and Journalist-fellow, USC Dornsife Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2059222023-05-25T21:24:04Z2023-05-25T21:24:04ZAnti-government protesters are reclaiming the Israeli flag from the far-right<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527861/original/file-20230523-20169-2671gg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C33%2C5599%2C3699&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Israeli flag has become a contested symbol recently as both anti-government and far-right demonstrators use it to bolster their message.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/anti-government-protesters-are-reclaiming-the-israeli-flag-from-the-far-right" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Thousands of people recently took to the streets of the Old City in Jerusalem <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-05-18/ty-article-live/.premium/hundreds-of-jews-visit-temple-mount-thousands-more-expected-to-attend-flag-march-in-jlem/00000188-2db9-df65-abfc-edb9ad300000">for the annual far-right Flag March</a>. </p>
<p>Every year, on <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-police-jerusalem-march-palestinians-rcna85018">Jerusalem Day</a>, marchers descend on Jerusalem with Israeli flags in hand and terrorize the city’s non-Jewish population. As they make their way to the Western Wall at the heart of the Old City, they chant racist slogans, vandalize storefronts and homes and beat up anyone in their path.</p>
<p>As with previous flag marches, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/flower-march-spreads-love-inclusion-to-counter-contentious-jerusalem-flag-march/">counter-protests also took place</a>. But this year, Israeli pro-democracy organisation <em>Tikva</em> called on its supporters to participate in a counter-march in an unusual way. <a href="https://twitter.com/YallaTikva/status/1659097148745564160">The group tweeted</a>: “After we took back the flag and the Declaration of Independence, it’s time we take back Jerusalem Day as well!” The statement was accompanied by an Israeli flag emoji.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People at a march wave Israeli flags in front of an old wall with a gate." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrators wave Israeli flags during a march marking Jerusalem Day in front of the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City. The event marks the day in 1967 when Israeli forces captured East Jerusalem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The tweet referred to the rapid transformation the Israeli flag has undergone recently. The flag has long been associated with the political right. As evidenced by the Flag March, the right often uses national symbols centred around the flag. </p>
<p>But in just a few short weeks of protest, Israeli pro-democracy activists managed to make the flag switch sides. What was previously staunchly seen as the property of the right is now a contested political battleground. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israels-domestic-turmoil-raises-serious-questions-about-its-long-term-survival-204009">Israel's domestic turmoil raises serious questions about its long-term survival</a>
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<h2>Claiming the flag</h2>
<p>Since late 2022, Israel has been swept by an intense wave of protests against the government’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65086871">proposed judicial reforms</a>. Critics say the reforms are anti-democratic and will undermine the county’s judiciary and weaken the separation of powers. </p>
<p>The government’s efforts to enact the reforms have been met by <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/strike-called-flights-grounded-in-israel-over-netanyahus-judicial-overhaul-plan-e8c95930">massive demonstrations across the country</a>.</p>
<p>The most striking visual element of the protests is the overwhelming presence of Israel’s national flag, practically drowning out all other symbols. </p>
<p>Given that anti-government protesters are generally associated with Israel’s centre-left, this is quite unusual. Israeli left-of-centre politics has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/on-israels-75th-birthday-the-flag-takes-on-new-meaning-as-a-symbol-of-protest/">tended to downplay national symbols, and particularly the flag</a>, in recent decades for various reasons, leaving the right to lay claim to them mostly uncontested. </p>
<p>Yet the national flag is now taking centre stage at anti-government protests. This shift has dramatically changed attitudes towards the flag across the Israeli political spectrum. Protesters report <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-06/ty-article-magazine/.premium/how-the-pro-democracy-camp-reclaimed-the-israeli-flag-from-right-wingers-and-settlers/00000186-b6c4-d7ce-a5b6-fee6c9200000">they no longer feel alienated by the flag and fly it proudly</a>, while right-wing figures are <a href="https://www.makorrishon.co.il/opinion/605807/">calling on their supporters to not give up on the flag</a>.</p>
<p>The association between the flag and anti-reform dissent had grown so strong that police refused to grant a licence to protesters on Independence Day <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/police-bar-zichron-independence-day-march-with-israeli-flags-other-signs-of-protest/">unless they promised not to fly the flag</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527858/original/file-20230523-29-aky8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People at a protest wave blue and white Israeli flags featuring the Star of David. They also hold placards in Hebrew." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527858/original/file-20230523-29-aky8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527858/original/file-20230523-29-aky8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527858/original/file-20230523-29-aky8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527858/original/file-20230523-29-aky8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527858/original/file-20230523-29-aky8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527858/original/file-20230523-29-aky8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527858/original/file-20230523-29-aky8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israelis protest in Jerusalem against the government’s plans to overhaul the country’s judicial system on May 23, 2023. The Israeli national flag has become a symbol of the protests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Flags as protest symbols</h2>
<p>Throughout Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s many years in power, opposition groups have used different symbols to mobilize popular dissent, with varying degrees of success. The 2020-2021 protests that briefly ousted Netanyahu used the <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2020/10/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-benny-gantz-gillon-black-flag.html">Black Flag</a> as its primary symbol, imagery taken from a well-known Israeli proverb.</p>
<p>Using the national flag this time around didn’t happen by chance. Movement leaders <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-06/ty-article-magazine/.premium/how-the-pro-democracy-camp-reclaimed-the-israeli-flag-from-right-wingers-and-settlers/00000186-b6c4-d7ce-a5b6-fee6c9200000">organized to make Israeli flags available to demonstrators at major protest sites</a>. </p>
<p>Shikma Schwartzman-Bressler, one of the protest movement’s leaders, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-17/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/how-a-particle-physicist-became-the-reluctant-face-of-israels-protest-movement/00000186-f139-df90-a19e-f9bf0c940000">told Israeli newspaper <em>Haaretz</em></a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Our activity is having an effect. We have already reclaimed the national flag, the national anthem, the Declaration of Independence – symbols that until not long ago were [seen as] assets of the nondemocratic camp. Today it is clear to the public that the flag is us and democracy is us.” </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/on-its-75th-birthday-israel-still-cant-agree-on-what-it-means-to-be-a-jewish-state-and-a-democracy-204770">On its 75th birthday, Israel still can't agree on what it means to be a Jewish state and a democracy</a>
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<hr>
<p>Symbols are able to convey complex cultural meanings quickly, and activists use them to capture fleeting public and media attention and as powerful aids for mobilization. </p>
<p>It’s no surprise that when we think of social movements, often the first thing that comes to mind are the symbols most strongly associated with them. </p>
<p>Think of the rainbow flag, for instance, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/story/how-did-the-rainbow-flag-become-a-symbol-of-lgbt-pride">originally designed as a protest symbol in the 1970s</a> and now often the first thing that comes to mind when we think of the LGBTQ2S+ community. These symbols are imbued with meaning by social movements during times of protest and continue to resonate long after the protest has subsided.</p>
<p>By reclaiming the Israeli flag, protesters are denying their opponents one of their most powerful symbols. But more importantly, flying the flag allows activists to frame their protest as a popular uprising and deny the right the opportunity to label any type of dissent as anti-patriotic and treasonous. Pictures of the protests frequently show a sea of Israeli flags stretching out as far as the eye can see in every direction. How can this kind of protest be unpatriotic?</p>
<p>Centering the Israeli flag has benefited the protest in some ways, but it has also <a href="https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-citizens-israel-government-protests/">alienated Israel’s Palestinian population</a>. As the Israeli flag’s prominence grew, Arab and Jewish anti-occupation activists found that <a href="https://www.972mag.com/radical-bloc-israel-protests-tel-aviv/">tolerance towards the Palestinian flag diminished</a>, prompting some to ask <a href="https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-citizens-anti-government-protests/">whether Palestinians are even welcome</a> and <a href="https://www.972mag.com/problem-israeli-flag-protests/">what kind of democracy</a> protesters are advocating for. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People in a field waving Palestinian flags." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinians in Gaza wave their national flag during a protest against an Israeli march through Jerusalem’s Old City on May 18, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Israel is experiencing an open public debate over who gets to claim national symbols, which national symbols are represented, who gets to speak for the Israeli public and who is included in that public.</p>
<p>This debate might ring a bell for Canadians as they recall the Freedom Convoy protests. Truckers and their supporters <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/01/world/canada/canada-day-flag-freedom-convoy.html">adopted the Canadian flag as a symbol of their movement</a> which served as a major element in their messaging. </p>
<p>For many Canadians, seeing the flag used that way — particularly, seeing it flying next to hate symbols like swastikas and Confederate flags — <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/after-freedom-convoy-canadian-flag-has-taken-on-new-meaning-for-some-this-year-1.5969503">sparked uneasiness with the flag and what it represents</a>. That led <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/flag-convoy-canada-1.6505885">to a debate</a> about what the flag represents, what it should represent and the history of the flag.</p>
<p>Protests are social arenas in which meanings are made and fought over. The Israeli and Canadian cases demonstrate how battles over meaning aren’t limited to new or obscure symbols. Israeli activists’ swift rewriting of the political meaning surrounding their national flag, and Canadian trucker’s co-opting the Canadian flag, show how even very established symbols can be dramatically reinterpreted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205922/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Einhorn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Israeli flag has long been associated with the country’s far-right, but anti-government protesters have recently begun using the flag to bolster and legitimize their movement.Tom Einhorn, PhD Candidate, Sociology, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1927722022-10-18T23:50:38Z2022-10-18T23:50:38ZAustralia’s reversal on recognising Jerusalem as Israeli capital is simply a return to status quo<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490489/original/file-20221018-18-w4jk1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Albanese Labor government’s <a href="https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/media-release/reversal-recognition-west-jerusalem">decision</a> to reverse its predecessor’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has elicited a predictable reaction from Israel and its supporters in Australia.</p>
<p>Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/lapid-assails-australia-for-dropping-recognition-of-jerusalem-ambassador-summoned/">condemned</a> what he described as a “hasty response” to indications in the Australian media Canberra was about to shift ground on recognition of West Jerusalem.</p>
<p>Guardian Australia had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/17/australia-quietly-drops-recognition-of-west-jerusalem-as-capital-of-israel">noted</a> a change on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.</p>
<p>In Australia, Colin Rubenstein, spokesman for the Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), <a href="https://www.jwire.com.au/a-pointless-own-goal/">called</a> the reversal a “pointless own goal”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This decision by the government is not only deeply disappointing, [it] risks denting Australia’s credibility with some of our closest allies.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Is this true?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1582165631910060032"}"></div></p>
<p>The short answer is that it is unlikely Australia’s “credibility” will be harmed by a decision that reinstates what has been, until recently, a status quo policy under successive Labor and Coalition governments.</p>
<p>Rather, the decision announced by Foreign Minister Penny Wong will likely reinforce Canberra’s reputation as a middle power seeking to navigate its way in the shifting sands of Middle East politics.</p>
<p>Importantly, Australia’s neighbours in the region, including principally <a href="https://www.medcom.id/english/world/eN4q4o7b-indonesia-welcomes-australia-s-decision-to-drop-recognition-of-west-jerusalem-as-israel-capital">Indonesia</a>, have welcomed the decision.</p>
<p>The simple fact is Australia has now realigned itself with all its friends and allies, with the exception of the United States, on this issue.</p>
<p>Under US President Donald Trump, Washington had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/world/middleeast/trump-jerusalem-israel-capital.html">diverted</a> from the policy of his predecessors and recognised West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017. The following year, the US embassy was moved there.</p>
<p>The Morrison government then <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/14/australian-government-to-recognise-jerusalem-as-israels-capital">followed the US lead</a>, without moving the Australian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This was a half, or three-quarter, step towards all-out recognition.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/morrisons-decision-to-recognise-west-jerusalem-the-latest-bad-move-in-a-mess-of-his-own-making-108892">Morrison's decision to recognise West Jerusalem the latest bad move in a mess of his own making</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Circumstances surrounding Canberra’s precipitate decision in 2018 to recognise west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital are relevant.</p>
<p>That decision coincided with the lead-up to a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2018/oct/20/wentworth-by-election-live-results-liberal-dave-sharma-kerryn-phelps-exit-poll-latest-news-updates">knife-edge by-election</a> in the Sydney seat of Wentworth, where there is a significant Jewish population. The byelection was called to fill a casual vacancy caused by the resignation from parliament of former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull.</p>
<p>As it turned out, the Morrison government’s decision to overturn what had been settled Australian policy did not yield the desired result. The independent Kerryn Phelps won the seat.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The decision to recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital came in the lead-up to the hotly contested 2018 Wentworth byelection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In all of this, history is important.</p>
<p>In the years since the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, successive Australian governments, Coalition and Labor, had adhered to a policy of not recognising West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. This decision was made pending final status negotiations on the future of the city.</p>
<p>Until the 1967 <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Six-Day-War">six-day war</a>, following Israel’s <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/arab-israeli-war">war of independence</a> in 1948, Jerusalem was a divided city between its west, which is the seat of the Israeli government, and east, then under the control of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.</p>
<p>That ended with Israel’s smashing victory over the Arabs in 1967. Israel occupied east Jerusalem, the West Bank, Syria’s Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip until then under Egyptian mandate, and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.</p>
<p>In six days, Israel had turned the map of the Middle East upside down.</p>
<p>This was followed by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Yom-Kippur-War">1973 Yom Kippur war</a>, in which Egypt sought to wrest back the Sinai from its Israeli occupiers. After making initial inroads along the Suez Canal, Egypt was on the verge of a heavy defeat when America brokered a ceasefire and laid the ground for what became the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/camp-david">Camp David Accords of 1978</a>.</p>
<p>This ushered in a cold peace between Israel and Egypt, with Israel withdrawing from virtually all of the Sinai.</p>
<p>In the years since Camp David, repeated attempted by successive American administrations to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/two-state-solution">broker peace</a> between Israel and the Palestinians under a two-state formula have failed, even as Israel has continued to settle territory seized in 1967.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/moving-the-australian-embassy-to-jerusalem-makes-sense-heres-why-105037">Moving the Australian embassy to Jerusalem makes sense: here's why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is the background to Wong’s <a href="https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/media-release/reversal-recognition-west-jerusalem">announcement</a> that Australia had “reaffirmed’’ its </p>
<blockquote>
<p>longstanding position that Jerusalem is a final status issue that should be resolved in any peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There was a sting in the tail to Wong’s announcement.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I regret that Mr Morrison’s decision to play politics resulted in Australia’s shifting position, and the distress these shifts have caused to many people in the Australian community who care deeply about this issue.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Labor’s own political interests are not absent from this statement. The government holds a swag of seats in western Sydney and north and west of Melbourne where the issue of Palestine is among voter concerns.</p>
<p>Much has been made of the messy way in which the Wong announcement was made. Due to diligent reporting by Guardian Australia, Labor’s pending shift was revealed.</p>
<p>Wong was then put in a position of first denying there had been a change without a cabinet decision, and then making her announcement. This clumsiness should not have happened on such an important policy shift, given the domestic political sensitivities involved.</p>
<p>All of this brings into focus Labor’s <a href="https://www.markdreyfus.com/media/opinion-pieces/labor-s-policy-on-israel-and-the-palestinian-territories-mark-dreyfus-qc-mp/">guiding policy</a> on the Israel-Palestine dispute.</p>
<p>At its 2018 National Conference and reaffirmed at its 2021 conference, its policy states that a Labor government:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>supports the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states within secure and recognised borders</p>
<p>calls on the next Labor government to recognise Palestine as a state</p>
<p>expects that this issue will be an important priority for the next Labor government.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This does not mean Labor will be in any rush to recognise Palestine as a state separate from a full-blown peace process in which a two-state solution becomes a reality. Since there is little chance of that happening in the foreseeable future, Labor’s national conference policy will remain "on the books” as a potential irritant to Israel’s supporters in Australia, but no more than that for the time being.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: this article originally said the government’s decision again recognises Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital. This is incorrect - it simply no longer recognises West Jerusalem as the capital.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Walker is a member of The Conversation's board.</span></em></p>Rather than harming Australia’s credibility, the decision will likely reinforce Canberra’s reputation as a middle power seeking to navigate its way in the shifting sands of Middle East politics.Tony Walker, Vice-chancellor's fellow, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1813862022-04-14T21:54:52Z2022-04-14T21:54:52ZChristians hold many views on Jesus’ resurrection – a theologian explains the differing views among Baptists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458226/original/file-20220414-20-dk713t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C27%2C2967%2C1963&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Resurrection of Christ depicted in 14th-century fresco in Chora Church, Istanbul, Turkey.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/resurrection-fresco-in-chora-church-istanbul-turkey-royalty-free-image/124516452?adppopup=true">LP7/Collections E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year, Christians from around the world gather for worship on Easter Sunday. Also known as Pascha or Resurrection Sunday, Easter is the final day of a weeklong commemoration of <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/327976/the-historical-figure-of-jesus-by-e-p-sanders/">the story of Jesus’ final days</a> in the city of Jerusalem leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection.</p>
<p>Most Christians refer to the week before Easter as <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/this-is-the-night-9780567027603/">Holy Week</a>. In Western Christianity, Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, which commemorates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Easter is the third day of the larger three-day festival known as <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/36244?rskey=v0m9To&result=1">Holy Triduum</a>, which begins on the evening of Maundy Thursday, marking the night of Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples. Good Friday marks Jesus’ suffering, crucifixion and death. Holy Saturday marks Jesus’ burial in a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea. The festival reaches its climax on early Sunday morning with the Easter Vigil and ends on the evening of Easter Sunday.</p>
<p>As a Baptist minister and <a href="https://virginia.academia.edu/JasonOEvans">theologian</a> myself, I believe it is important to understand how Christians more generally, and Baptists in particular, hold differing views on the meaning of the resurrection. </p>
<h2>The resurrection</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/2120/exploring-and-proclaiming-the-apostles-creed.aspx">According to the Christian faith</a>, resurrection is the pivotal event when “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%208%3A11-13&version=NCV">God raised Jesus from the dead</a>” after he was <a href="https://www.fortresspress.com/store/product/9780800628864/The-Crucifixion-of-Jesus">crucified</a> by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate.</p>
<p>While none of the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-gospels-and-jesus-9780199246168?cc=us&lang=en&">four canonical Gospels</a> of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John describe the actual event of the resurrection in detail, they nonetheless give varying reports about the <a href="http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/the-story-of-jesus-in-history-and-faith/338111">empty tomb and Christ’s post-resurrection appearances</a> among his followers both in Galilee and Jerusalem.</p>
<p>They also report that it was women who discovered the empty tomb and received and proclaimed the first message that Christ was risen from the dead. These narratives were passed down orally among the earliest Christian communities and <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/6782/the-oral-gospel-tradition.aspx">then codified in the Gospel writings</a> beginning some 30 years after Jesus’ death.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.fortresspress.com/store/product/9780800626792/The-Resurrection-of-the-Son-of-God">Earliest Christians believed</a> that by raising Jesus of Nazareth from the dead, God cleared Jesus from any wrongdoing for which he was tried and unjustly condemned to death by Pilate.</p>
<p>By affirming the resurrection, Christians do not mean that Jesus’ body was merely resuscitated. Rather, as New Testament scholar <a href="https://candler.emory.edu/faculty/emeriti-profiles/johnson-luke-timothy.html">Luke Timothy Johnson</a> <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-real-jesus-luke-timothy-johnson?variant=32117576564770">writes</a>, resurrection means that “[Jesus] entered into an entirely new form of existence.” </p>
<p>As the risen Christ, Jesus is believed to share God’s power to transform all life and also to share this same power with his followers. So the resurrection is believed to be something that happened not only to Jesus, but also an experience that happens <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+15&version=NRSV">to his followers</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395102/original/file-20210414-17-gwacnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Christ standing before Roman governor Pontius Pilate, in a tile from the Cathedral of Siena, Italy." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395102/original/file-20210414-17-gwacnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395102/original/file-20210414-17-gwacnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395102/original/file-20210414-17-gwacnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395102/original/file-20210414-17-gwacnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395102/original/file-20210414-17-gwacnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395102/original/file-20210414-17-gwacnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395102/original/file-20210414-17-gwacnp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christ before Pilate: Detail of a tile from the Cathedral of Siena, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/siena-museo-dellopera-metropolitana-christ-before-pilate-news-photo/146325687?adppopup=true">DeAgostini/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Opposing views</h2>
<p>Over the years, Christians have engaged in passionate debates over this central doctrine of Christian faith.</p>
<p>Two major approaches emerged: the “liberal” view and the “conservative” or “traditional” view. Current perspectives on the resurrection have been predominated by two questions: “Was Jesus’ body literally raised from the dead?” and “What relevance does the resurrection have for those struggling for justice?” </p>
<p>These questions emerged in the wake of <a href="https://www.fortresspress.com/store/product/9780800637958/Modern-Christian-Thought-Second-Edition">theological modernism</a>, a European and North American movement dating back to the mid-19th century that sought to reinterpret Christianity to accommodate the emergence of modern science, history and ethics.</p>
<p>Theological modernism led liberal Christian theologians to create an alternative path between the rigid orthodoxies of Christian churches and the rationalism of atheists and others. </p>
<p>This meant that liberal Christians were willing to revise or jettison cherished Christian beliefs, such as the bodily resurrection of Jesus, if such beliefs could not be explained against the bar of human reason. </p>
<h2>Baptist views on the resurrection</h2>
<p>Just like all other Christian denominations, Baptists are divided on the issue of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Arguably, what may be unique about the group is that <a href="https://www.helwys.com/sh-books/the-baptist-identity/">Baptists believe</a> that no external religious authority can force an individual member to adhere to the tenets of Christian faith in any prescribed way. One must be free to accept or reject any teaching of the church. </p>
<p>In the early 20th century, Baptists in the United States found themselves on both sides of a schism within American Christianity over doctrinal issues, known as the <a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/fundamentalism-and-american-culture-9780195300475?cc=us&lang=en&">fundamentalist-modernist</a> controversy. </p>
<p>The Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, a liberal Baptist pastor who served First Presbyterian Church and later Riverside Church in Manhattan, <a href="https://www.mupress.org/Baptist-Theology-A-Four-Century-Study-P1014.aspx">rejected the bodily resurrection of Jesus</a>. Rather, Fosdick viewed the resurrection as a “persistence in [Christ’s] personality.” </p>
<p>In 1922, Fosdick delivered his famous sermon “<a href="http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5070/">Shall the Fundamentalists Win</a>?” rebuking fundamentalists for their failure to tolerate difference on doctrinal matters such as the infallibility of the Bible, the virgin birth and bodily resurrection, among others, and for downplaying the weightier matter of addressing the societal needs of the day.</p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.grandcentralpublishing.com/titles/clayborne-carson/the-autobiography-of-martin-luther-king-jr/9780759520370/">autobiography</a>, civil rights leader and Baptist minister the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. explained that in his early adolescence he denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus. </p>
<p>While attending Crozer Seminary in 1949, <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/what-experiences-christians-living-early-christian-century-led-christian">King wrote a paper </a> trying to make sense of what led to the development of the Christian doctrine of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. For King, the experience of the early followers of Jesus was at the root of their belief in his resurrection.</p>
<p>“They had been captivated by the magnetic power of his personality,” King argued. “This basic experience led to the faith that he could never die.” In other words, the bodily resurrection of Jesus simply is the outward expression of early Christian experience, not an actual or, at least, a verifiable event in human history. </p>
<p>It is not clear from his later writings that King changed his views on the bodily resurrection. In one of his notable <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/questions-easter-answers-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church">Easter sermons</a>, King argued that the meaning behind the resurrection signaled a future where God will put an end to racial segregation. </p>
<p>Others within the Baptist movement disagreed. Like his fundamentalist forebears, conservative evangelical Baptist theologian <a href="https://www.crossway.org/books/god-revelation-and-authority-tpb/">Carl F.H. Henry argued in 1976</a> that all Christian doctrine can be rationally explained and can persuade any nonbeliever. Henry rigorously defended the bodily resurrection of Christ as a historical occurrence by appealing to the Gospels’ telling of the empty tomb and Christ’s appearances among his disciples after his resurrection.</p>
<p>In his six-volume magnum opus, “<a href="https://www.crossway.org/books/god-revelation-and-authority-tpb/">God, Revelation, and Authority</a>,” Henry read these two elements of the Gospels as historical records that can be verified through modern historical methods.</p>
<h2>Alternative views</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395137/original/file-20210414-16-54fl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A fresco of Christ with lifted arms, his head encircled by a halo, or nimbus, wearing a tunic and a mantle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395137/original/file-20210414-16-54fl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395137/original/file-20210414-16-54fl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395137/original/file-20210414-16-54fl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395137/original/file-20210414-16-54fl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395137/original/file-20210414-16-54fl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395137/original/file-20210414-16-54fl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395137/original/file-20210414-16-54fl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christians hold a diversity of perspectives on Christ’s resurrection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/italy-basilicata-matera-cripta-di-santa-maria-alle-malve-news-photo/187388766?adppopup=true">Bruno Balestrini / Electa / Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite their predominance, the liberal and conservative arguments on the resurrection of Jesus are not the only approaches held among Baptists. </p>
<p>In his book “<a href="https://wipfandstock.com/9781592445172/resurrection-and-discipleship/">Resurrection and Discipleship</a>,” Baptist theologian <a href="https://wipfandstock.com/author/thorwald-lorenzen/">Thorwald Lorenzen</a> also outlines what he calls the “evangelical” approach, which seeks to transcend the distinctions of “liberal” and “conservative” approaches. He affirms, with the conservatives, the historical reality of the resurrection, but agrees with the liberals that such an event cannot be verified in the modern historical sense. </p>
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<p>Other than these, there is a “liberation” approach, which stresses the social and political implications of the resurrection. Baptists who hold this view primarily interpret the resurrection as God’s response and commitment to liberating those who, like Jesus, <a href="https://www.fortresspress.com/store/product/9780800698782/We-Have-Been-Believers">experience poverty and oppression</a>.</p>
<p>Given this diversity of perspectives on the resurrection, Baptists are not unique among Christians in engaging matters of faith practice. However, I argue that Baptists may be distinct in that they believe that such matters must be freely believed by one’s own conscience and not enforced by any external religious authority.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a piece <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-baptists-hold-differing-views-on-the-resurrection-of-christ-and-why-this-matters-158572">first published on April 15, 2021</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181386/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Oliver Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Christians have engaged in passionate debates over the meaning of the resurrection. Baptists may be distinct in that they believe an external religious authority cannot enforce views on such matters.Jason Oliver Evans, Ph.D. Candidate in Religious Studies, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1756902022-01-27T14:30:54Z2022-01-27T14:30:54ZJerusalem: evictions show how urban planning is being weaponised against Palestinians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442794/original/file-20220126-19-qx8u2i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C11%2C1590%2C1144&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Palestinian residents protest evictions in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Haim Yacobi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>One olive in my garden is better than anything material in the whole world. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/messenger_media/?thread_id=563173474&attachment_id=3120106328261644&message_id=mid.%24cAAAAAADfowqErzNtil-fe1mSAj1Y">These sad words</a> were uttered by Mahmoud Salhiya after his home in Sheikh Jarrah was recently <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/19/israeli-forces-demolish-palestinian-home-in-sheikh-jarrah?fbclid=IwAR1BZ-3Qq3E8UCfQN_-5CRJO_K4W4ZU-vUtsFbYnBi1ub1E_exAo_L3E3RQ">demolished by Israeli forces</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://bimkom.org/eng/wp-content/uploads/2.6_ash-sheik-jarrah-w.pdf">Sheikh Jarrah</a> is a Palestinian neighbourhood of 3,000 inhabitants at the eastern part of Road 1 that runs north to south through Jerusalem and separates Israeli and Palestinian sectors. The neighbourhood has two distinctive sections: the north is the part inhabited by wealthier Palestinians while the poorer, southern part is populated by hundreds of Palestinian refugees from 1948.</p>
<p>The Salhiya family house is in Sheikh Jarrah’s southern area on land designated by an old urban scheme authorised in the 1980s for the construction of a public building. But part of the house already existed, along with some other structures, when the plan was being prepared. In fact, the house and the other buildings on the plot are already visible on maps of Jerusalem from the 1930s. </p>
<p>Importantly, according to <a href="https://www.mekomit.co.il/%D7%9C%D7%90-%D7%94%D7%99%D7%94-%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%9D-%D7%A6%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%9A-%D7%9C%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%A1-%D7%90%D7%AA-%D7%91%D7%99%D7%AA-%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%A4%D7%97%D7%AA-%D7%A1%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%97%D7%99/">the Jerusalem Municipality itself</a>, Palestinian houses built in East Jerusalem before 1967 are considered legal and therefore cannot be demolished. But zoning the Salhiya plot for public use – which ignored the fact of the existing residential property already on the site – is indicative of a common practice that has characterised <a href="http://bimkom.org/eng/wp-content/uploads/Deliberately-Planned-Exec-Summary.pdf">Israeli planning of East Jerusalem</a> since 1967. </p>
<p>The Israeli authorities argued that the Salhiya property had been expropriated to establish a “special needs” school for the benefit of the neighbourhood’s residents. But this “top-down” planning did not include any consultation with the family or the community. </p>
<h2>Demolition as a tool of control</h2>
<p>The police are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/19/israeli-police-evict-palestinian-family-from-sheikh-jarrah-home">reported to have</a> arrived at the property in the early hours of what was one of the coldest nights so far this winter, and forcibly removed 15 members of the Salhiya family before bulldozing the house. They arrested Mahmoud Salhiya and five members of his family, as well as some of their supporters, both Palestinian and Israeli activists. </p>
<p>This traumatic event is part of an ongoing attempt of displacing Palestinians from their homes – <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/57239690">not only in Sheikh Jarrah</a> but also in other neighbourhoods such as <a href="https://emekshaveh.org/en/category/publications/silwan-city-of-david/">Silwan</a>, on the outskirts of the Old City, which is the subject of the continuing conflict between Jewish settlers and the local Palestinian community over archaeology, tourism development and housing. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ir-amim.org.il/en/node/2672">Housing demolitions</a> have become an all-too-regular occurrence. According to a <a href="https://www.btselem.org/video/202112_demolitions_in_jm_area_nov_2021#full">report by B'tselem</a> (the Israeli information centre for human rights in the occupied territories) between 2006 and November 2021, Israeli authorities demolished at least 1,176 Palestinian housing units in East Jerusalem. At least 3,769 people lost their homes – including 1,996 children. Housing demolition serves Israel’s attempt to control the city’s “<a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/75006">demographic balance</a>” – keeping a Jewish majority within Jerusalem’s municipal territory back to the 70:30 ratio that has driven Israeli policy since 1967.</p>
<h2>Emerging urban geopolitics</h2>
<p>The Salhiya family’s case should be understood within a wider context of the political processes taking place in Jerusalem since June 1967 and the declaration of the city as Israel’s unified capital. The expropriation of Palestinian land by the state through legal measures was central to the colonisation of East Jerusalem at this stage. </p>
<p>Planning further contributed to the colonisation of the city and was characterised by the <a href="https://www.btselem.org/jerusalem">construction of settlements</a> (“satellite neighbourhoods”). Since 1967, Israel has expropriated over one-third of the Palestinian land that was annexed to Jerusalem’s municipality new boundaries – 24.5 square kilometres – most of it privately owned by Palestinians. Some 11 neighbourhoods have been erected for Jewish inhabitants only. </p>
<p>Under international law, the status of these neighbourhoods is the same as the Israeli illegal settlements throughout the West Bank. As a complementary step, a series of <a href="https://bimkom.org/eng/planning-survey-and-planning-assistance/">masterplans</a> were drawn that have effectively limited the growth of Palestinian neighbourhoods by limiting construction rights and defining most Palestinian land as not eligible for housing construction.</p>
<p>The beginning of the 21st century marked a shift into a more radical policy in Jerusalem with the <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jq-articles/JQ_53_The_next_Jerusalem_0.pdf">construction of the separation barrier</a>. This has allowed Israel to de facto annex another 160 square kilometres of the Occupied Territories. </p>
<p>The route of the barrier creates a sharp division between the walled city of Jerusalem and the Palestinian hinterland. The concrete barrier deliberately disrupts the functional integration of Palestinian neighbourhoods and isolates them from their hinterland in the West Bank.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442925/original/file-20220127-26-1tw8ju4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="2013 Map of Jerusalem showing the route of the Barrier and current and planned Israeli developments." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442925/original/file-20220127-26-1tw8ju4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442925/original/file-20220127-26-1tw8ju4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442925/original/file-20220127-26-1tw8ju4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442925/original/file-20220127-26-1tw8ju4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442925/original/file-20220127-26-1tw8ju4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442925/original/file-20220127-26-1tw8ju4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442925/original/file-20220127-26-1tw8ju4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Separation: how the barrier has affected Jerusalem’s Palestinian communities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ir-amin</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The construction of the separation barrier has placed the vast majority of territory and resources in the Jerusalem metropolitan under Jewish control. Palestinians are confined to disjointed enclaves, without sovereignty, freedom of movement, control over natural resources, or contiguous territory.</p>
<h2>Micro colonisation</h2>
<p>Recent events in Sheikh Jarrah clearly mark the current phase in colonising Jerusalem. This is a micro-scale appropriation of Palestinian territory accompanied by evictions and displacements of Palestinians who remain in the city. Palestinian homes are demolished or colonised by settlers such as in the case of <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-les-cahiers-de-l-orient-2018-2-page-119.htm">Silwan</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/57239690">Sheikh Jarrah</a> while agricultural land is confiscated from its Palestinian owners – as in the case of <a href="https://www.972mag.com/in-one-palestinian-village-the-whole-story-of-the-occupation/">Walajeh</a> where the separation barrier surrounds the village and cuts it off from most of its inhabitants’ land. </p>
<p>This is a new phase in which Palestinian space is appropriated not solely through military acts or large-scale urban planning (such as described above) but rather on small-scale urban spaces and the use of planning policies. These include land-use changes, planning for the apparent “public good” (such as the attempt to build a school on Salhiya’s plot in Sheikh Jarrah), infrastructure development and touristic development. There is also clear discrimination in the <a href="https://peacenow.org.il/en/jerusalem-municipal-data-reveals-stark-israeli-palestinian-discrepancy-in-construction-permits-in-jerusalem">distribution of building permits</a>. While 38% of the city’s residents are Palestinians, only 16.5% of the building permits were given for construction in Palestinian neighbourhoods.</p>
<p>In this way, Jerusalem has become a model for using “banal” apparatuses such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-urban-planning-plays-a-role-in-israel-palestine-161035">urban planning</a> to reinforce Israeli domination of this divided and contested city.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>We are grateful to Dr Mandy Turner for providing the translation of Mahmoud Salhiya’s words at the opening of this article and the linked video.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How the Israeli authorities are using planning laws to expropriate Palestinian land in East Jerusalem.Haim Yacobi, Professor of Development Planning, UCLIrit Katz, Assistant Professor in Architecture and Urban Studies, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1655962021-08-18T12:13:08Z2021-08-18T12:13:08ZWarrior, servant, mother, unifier – the Virgin Mary has played many roles through the centuries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416629/original/file-20210817-27-15azmcx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C4%2C712%2C357&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Several celebrities have been seen wearing coats designed by Brenda Equihua, with an image of Mary displayed at the back.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KptcBY7HKw">Screen grab from Shelley FKA DRAM - Exposure (Official Music Video)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a recent article in the “Religion News Service,” author <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/07/26/mary-mother-of-jesus-returns-as-an-icon-for-pop-stars-and-social-justice-warriors/%22%22">Whitney Bauck pointed out</a> that the Virgin Mary has become “an icon for pop stars and social justice warriors.”</p>
<p>Visitors to the <a href="https://equihua.us/">website of designer Brenda Equihua</a>, for example, will find <a href="https://equihua.us/collections/new-classics/products/devotion-hoodie-coat">outerwear</a> with a colorful image of Mary displayed on the back. These coats feature prominently in the closets of numerous celebrities. The Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny wears one <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvAUZQxb0ME">in his “Cuidao por Ahí” music video</a>,“ and rappers Lil Nas X and Shelley FKA DRAM, among others, have likewise <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KptcBY7HKw">been spotted</a> wearing theirs in various settings. Equihua keeps <a href="https://equihua.us/pages/press">a full list of such appearances on her website</a>. </p>
<p>While Mary may be enjoying renewed popularity as of late, this is not the first time she has been "in the spotlight.” In fact, because of the enormous and consistent impact that she has had on both Christians and some non-Christians <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300076615/mary-through-centuries">for nearly 2,000 years</a>, it’s difficult to conceive of a time in which Mary wasn’t a prominent figure. </p>
<p><a href="https://hcommons.org/members/evandeneykel/">As a scholar of early Christian literature</a> who has done <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/but-their-faces-were-all-looking-up-9780567682543/">extensive research on traditions about Mary</a>, I argue that the early interest in Mary came from her role as mother of Jesus, and that ancient authors transformed her into a sort of mythological figure by putting special emphasis on her virginity.</p>
<p>But others also came to emphasize Mary as an important character in her own right. For nearly 2,000 years, different Christian groups have understood Mary in various ways: as a servant, a warrior, an advocate, a leader, an exemplar, or as some combination of these.</p>
<h2>Mary the mother</h2>
<p>The four New Testament Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – are the earliest sources that mention Mary. </p>
<p>She is a minor character in Matthew, and never speaks, even <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt+1%3A18-2%3A12&version=NRSV">at the time of Jesus’ birth</a>. She has a slightly more pronounced role in Luke, which is the only other New Testament Gospel that mentions the birth of Jesus. In Luke, she <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A26-38&version=NRSV">talks with an angel</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A39-45&version=NRSV">visits a family member</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A46-56&version=NRSV">speaks words of prophecy</a>. She also visits Jerusalem on two occasions: once for <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A22-35&version=NRSV">a purification ritual in the temple</a>, and a second time <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A41-51&version=NRSV">to celebrate Passover</a>.</p>
<p>In Mark, she <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+3%3A31-35&version=NRSV">seeks out Jesus while he is preaching</a>, and she is also <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+6%3A1-6&version=NRSV">mentioned in passing</a> by people in Jesus’ hometown. The first of these scenes also appears in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+12%3A46-50+&version=NRSV">Matthew</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+8%3A19-21&version=NRSV">Luke</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, she appears twice in the Gospel of John. The first is at <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+2%3A1-12&version=NRSV">a wedding where the wine has run out</a>, and the second is at Jesus’ crucifixion, where <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+19%3A25-28&version=NRSV">she stands nearby while he dies</a>.</p>
<p>Apart from <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%201%3A14&version=NRSV">one fleeting reference</a> to her in the Book of Acts, Mary appears nowhere else in the New Testament. </p>
<p>Because Jesus is the chief focus of the New Testament Gospels, it is not surprising that they contain so few biographical details about Mary. She is present as a supporting character because she was integral to how these ancient authors thought about her son. The fact that Jesus has a mother, for example, reminds readers that Jesus was, at a basic level, a human being.</p>
<h2>Mary the virgin</h2>
<p>The Gospel authors also use Mary to stress that Jesus was a particularly noteworthy person.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt+1%3A18&version=NRSV">Matthew</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+1%3A26-27&version=NRSV">Luke</a> accomplish this by “mythologizing” the story of his birth, by emphasizing that Mary was a virgin when he was conceived, and that her pregnancy was of divine origin rather than the result of human sexual activity.</p>
<p>The theme of the virgin mother impregnated by a god is not uncommon in the ancient world, and early readers of Matthew and Luke would have understood Mary’s pregnancy in the context of other well-known stories of “divine children” born to virgin mothers.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/ovid/">Roman poet Ovid</a>, for example, writes that the <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Perseus/">mythical hero Perseus</a> was born from a divine-human relationship between the <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028%3Abook%3D4%3Acard%3D604">god Zeus and Perseus’ mother Danaë</a>. The <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/plutarch/">Greek historian Plutarch</a> makes a similar claim about <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Romulus_and_Remus/">Romulus and Remus</a>, the legendary twins whose virgin mother Rhea Silvia insisted that <a href="http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0007.tlg002.perseus-eng1:3.2">her pregnancy was the result of divine intercourse with Ares</a>, the god of war.</p>
<p>Because Matthew and Luke use Mary’s purported virginity in order to make claims about what they see as the importance of her offspring, this detail is only important for them until Jesus is born. Matthew, for example, alludes to the consummation of Mary and Joseph’s marriage after Jesus’ birth when <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+1%3A25&version=NRSV">he writes that</a> “[Joseph] had no marital relations with [Mary] until she had borne a son.”</p>
<p>By contrast, some later, Christian authors highlight Mary’s virginity as something that defines her even after Jesus’ birth. In the late-second century, for example, an anonymous Christian author wrote an influential collection of stories about Mary’s birth and early life. This text is known to scholars today as the “<a href="https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/protevangelium-of-james/">Proto-Gospel of James</a>,” and in it, Mary remains a virgin even after Jesus is born.</p>
<p>The Proto-Gospel is important for how scholars understand Mary for a number of reasons. Not least of those is that it evidences an early fascination with Mary not only as the mother of Jesus, but as an important character in her own right. Jesus is a character in this text, but he is a relatively minor one, appearing only toward the end. The author’s primary focus is the life of the Virgin.</p>
<h2>Mary the mirror</h2>
<p>Like so many biblical characters, the way that a group understands Mary has much to do with how that group understands itself.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Statues of the Virgin Mary on sale near site where the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared in an apparition on August 15, 2020 in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=150%2C20%2C6468%2C4396&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Virgin Mary has held tremendous appeal for both Christians and non-Christians over the centuries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/statues-of-the-virgin-mary-are-offered-for-sale-to-catholic-news-photo/1228064555?adppopup=true">Damir Sagolj/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On one level, this plays out clearly in artistic representations of Mary. In the <a href="https://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/sm_maggiore/index_en.html">Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome</a>, for example, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1510002">fifth-century mosaics</a> portray Mary as <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/60661697@N07/16241936529/in/photolist-2kiRctG-N5Frq1-QoCjG2-qpJFeW-p43mR4-x5P673-oBqiXe-EXqngJ-DWLNJf-qy7yzE-mqMWgf-fGapzT-qKfaSr-oi6WxB-oGrPGp-osYeGY-xUDzgh-otTKX2">a noble woman dressed in Roman imperial clothing</a>, which reflects the historical context in which these mosaics were made.</p>
<p>On the other side of the world, in Mexico City, is the famous 16th-century icon of Mary known as Our Lady of Guadalupe. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Our-Lady-of-Guadalupe-patron-saint-of-Mexico">According to legend</a>, Mary appeared in 1531 to an Aztec man named Juan Diego, and she left this image of her imprinted on his cloak. Visitors to Our Lady of Guadalupe will note Mary’s darker complexion, which is indicative of the icon’s Spanish-Mexican context. Historically, it has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-virgin-of-guadalupe-is-more-than-a-religious-icon-to-catholics-in-mexico-151251">a powerful and unifying symbol of Mexican identity</a>.</p>
<p>A more recent example is the artist Ben Wildflower and <a href="https://benwildflower.com/collections/prints-1/products/magnificat-print">his popular woodcut of Mary</a>, in which she clenches her raised fist and stomps on a serpent while surrounded by the words “Fill the hungry. Lift the lowly. Cast down the mighty. Send the rich away.” When asked about Mary’s presence in his art, Wildflower commented: “<a href="https://udayton.edu/blogs/marianlibrary/2020-06-23-miraculous-metal.php">Mary is who I want to be in the world</a>.”</p>
<p>This phenomenon is at work also in the values that are imposed on Mary, and which sometimes seem at odds with one another. Mary has been upheld both as an exemplar for motherhood, for example, but also as a model for a more strictly ascetic, virginal life.</p>
<p>Her temperament is another detail that frequently shifts according to context. Mary is hailed by some Catholics as “Queen of Peace” and is frequently upheld as a paragon of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012/12/let-it-be-marys-radical-declaration-of-consent/266616/">free submission to the divine will</a>. Yet, there are also medieval manuscript illustrations that show her in a more active and perhaps even violent role, <a href="http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/other/largeimage74639.html">punching</a> and <a href="https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=29241">wrestling with demons</a>.</p>
<p>Drawing from this image of the seemingly “violent” virgin, some online retailers have begun to sell <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/565274719/hail-mary-punch-the-devil-mug-hail-mary">merchandise featuring the slogan “Hail Mary, full of grace, punch the devil in the face</a>.”</p>
<p>As Christians and non-Christians encounter Mary in various media and settings, they may do well to recall the myriad ways that she has been used to unite and comfort, but also to divide and convict. As I see it, she will no doubt continue to fascinate in both new and familiar ways for years to come.</p>
<p>[<em>Explore the intersection of faith, politics, arts and culture.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-explore">Sign up for This Week in Religion.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165596/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Vanden Eykel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mary has acquired popularity among celebrities of late. A religion scholar writes about how for nearly 2,000 years, the mother of Jesus has been viewed as an exemplar by different Christian groups.Eric Vanden Eykel, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Ferrum CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1612902021-05-28T12:17:28Z2021-05-28T12:17:28ZJerusalem: eyewitness account from a divided city<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402651/original/file-20210525-15-vxu9fr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C1198%2C901&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Traditional Ramadan meeting place: Jerusalem's Damascus Gate, after police removed barriers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ade Ruished</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Not long after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into force on Friday May 21, members of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) entered the al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2021/may/21/palestinians-and-israeli-police-clash-at-jerusalems-al-aqsa-mosque-hours-after-gaza-truce-video">reportedly using teargas and stun grenades</a> to disperse Muslims praying there. </p>
<p>Over the weekend, IDF personnel escorted Jewish visitors to Temple Mount, which occupies the same site as al-Aqsa and holds special religious significance as the site of the biblical temple. The waqf, or Islamic authority that controls the site, said the IDF had cleared young Palestinians from the site and barred entry to any Muslims under the age of 45. It was reported that a <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-aqsa-police-raid-ceasefire">small number of Muslim protesters were detained</a>. Details remain unclear.</p>
<p>The incidents <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/21/middleeast/israel-palestinian-conflict-friday-intl/index.html">have been reported</a> as attempts at provocation. Over the years, al-Aqsa mosque has been a flashpoint for violence between Israelis and Palestinians and was the site of the outbreak of the second intifada uprising in 2000. This occurred after Ariel Sharon – the then prime minister of Israel – visited the site with a heavily armed defence-force escort, not long after peace talks at Camp David with then Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had failed. The five-year uprising cost an estimated 3,000 Palestinian lives. </p>
<p>As a PhD researcher in political science, I have been in East Jerusalem interviewing people and trying to understand various methods of control used by the Israeli government for regulating the Palestinian population in the city. I have been observing the actions of young Palestinian activists and have been impressed by the ways in which many have avoided turning to violence, instead using peaceful forms of protest to make their point to the watching world media.</p>
<p>This was manifested in the early days of Ramadan (April 13 to May 12) when Israeli border police installed metal barricades at <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/jerusalem-damascus-gate-palestine-beacon-hope">Damascus Gate Square</a>. These gates restricted people’s movement and made it impossible for local street sellers to carry on their business. It also prevented Palestinians from sitting on the steps in the square itself, which is a traditional meeting place after evening prayers during Ramadan.</p>
<p>So young Palestinian activists gathered in crowds in and around the square. As I watched, young activists faced off against Israeli police stationed at the barricades, singing songs and performing gymnastic exercises. Looking on, the Israeli police seemed unprepared. Neither their kit nor their rules of engagement equipped them for dealing with this form of peaceful protest.</p>
<p>So they used teargas and stun grenades to clear the areas. They also sprayed the demonstrators with foul chemically synthesised water, which leaves an unpleasant smell in peoples’ clothing that is hard to remove. They used mounted police to chase down, intimidate and disperse young protesters. I watched this happen from the balcony of a nearby restaurant whose owner is a friend of mine. Another friend, who was among the protesters, was sprayed with the foul water.</p>
<p>Protesters kept regrouping and returning. For two weeks they carried on with these demonstrations. On April 26, the Israeli authorities gave in to pressure and <a href="https://www.dailysabah.com/world/mid-east/palestinians-remove-barricades-near-jerusalems-damascus-gate">removed the barriers</a>, allowing Palestinians to return to their traditional gatherings in the few days left of the holy month.</p>
<h2>Challenging coercive eviction</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, May 17, the date allocated by the Israeli District Court for settlers to evict and replace several Palestinian families from their homes at the nearby neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, was getting ever closer. Israeli authorities have misleadingly described this as a “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-15/palestinian-families-living-in-sheikh-jarrah/100133672">real estate dispute</a>”. </p>
<p>But it is widely viewed among Palestinians as a deliberate act of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/17/palestinians-sheikh-jarrah-jerusalem-city-identity">ethnic cleansing</a>” to change the demographic of this traditionally Muslim Arab neighbourhood. Settlers had been reportedly intimidating and attacking the families and demonstrators, often <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/israeli-forces-violently-suppress-protests-in-sheikh-jarrah-videos/">with the support of Israeli security forces</a>.</p>
<p>Settlers reportedly resorted to both <a href="https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/ben-gvir-moves-his-office-to-sheikh-jarrah-amid-tensions-667447">legal and violent extra-legal means</a>, for example, spraying pepper at demonstrators preparing for iftar, the Ramadan breakfast meal. Once again, Palestinian activists who gathered to offer support to families slated for eviction, avoided violence, dancing the dabke and singing patriotic songs.</p>
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<p>These activists also used social media well, regularly posting details and information on Twitter – see the hashtag #SaveSheikhJarrah – as well as Facebook and TikTok to expose aggression by settlers and explain the legal issues behind the attempted evictions. </p>
<p>As a result of the global attention focused on the eviction attempts and the level of support for the Palestinian families under threat, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered the eviction proceedings in the supreme court to be frozen on May 9.</p>
<h2>Avoiding violence</h2>
<p>Similarly, Israeli authorities realised that routing the “flag march” through the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem via the Damascus Gate against a background of such tension risked further violence and condemnation from the watching world. So the march <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-change-route-of-flag-march-through-old-city-as-jerusalem-simmers/">was rerouted</a> to pass through the Jaffa Gate instead of Damascus Gate, keeping marchers closer to West Jerusalem, almost on the 1967 border line. </p>
<p>It seems that these peaceful demonstrations were at least part of the reason that an explosion of violence was mostly avoided in Jerusalem at this time. I like to think of it as the “Jerusalem spring”.</p>
<p>But Israeli national politics suddenly reared its ugly head. Netanyahu was realising that after the March 23 election, he would be unable to form a government. Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, had asked opposition politician Yair Lapid to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/05/israeli-opposition-leader-yair-lapid-tasked-with-forming-a-government">form a coalition</a> with the defence minister, Naftali Bennett, which would have meant Netanyahu losing power. </p>
<p>Against this background, Israeli police <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/10/dozens-injured-in-clashes-over-israeli-settlements-ahead-of-jerusalem-day-march">raided al-Aqsa mosque</a>. There have been reports of retaliatory violence by Muslims in the mosque, including the throwing of petrol bombs by young activists. But I was there that day and saw nothing.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jerusalem-the-politics-behind-the-latest-explosion-of-violence-in-the-holy-city-160647">Jerusalem: the politics behind the latest explosion of violence in the Holy City</a>
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<p>Meanwhile, Hamas fighters started to launch missiles into Israel from Gaza, prompting massive Israeli retaliation. For 11 days, the world’s attention was on the tiny Palestinian enclave where 2 million people were under almost constant bombardment from Israeli airstrikes. </p>
<p>But on May 18, Palestinians in East Jerusalem <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/arabs-strike-across-israel-as-palestinians-declare-day-of-rage/">staged a one-day strike</a>. Again, this was peaceful. Creative protests during the strike included organising chess competitions in the street outside the homes of families threatened with eviction.</p>
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<p>After global pressure, Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire on May 21. As we now know, within hours Israeli security forces had entered al-Aqsa and used force to disperse people praying. The provocation continues, but we can only hope that peaceful demonstrations will prevail and avoid another outbreak of violent conflict in this divided city.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161290/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adel Ruished does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Watching young Palestinian activists, I was impressed at how they kept their cool under pressure.Adel Ruished, PhD Researcher in Politics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1610352021-05-26T15:00:32Z2021-05-26T15:00:32ZHow urban planning plays a role in Israel-Palestine<p>On May 21, a ceasefire was agreed to between Israel, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, putting an end to a bloody 11-day conflict. Despite the relative calm that has ensued, the violence of these past weeks across Israel-Palestine has unveiled distinct urban fronts.</p>
<p>The conflict was triggered in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/jerusalem-sheikh-jarrah-occupation-aqsa/2021/05/09/822ce066-af68-11eb-82c1-896aca955bb9_story.html">Sheikh Jarrah</a> neighbourhood of East Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. It took hold of the Israeli <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/12/gaza-crisis-fuels-escalating-violence-mixed-towns-israel">so-called mixed cities</a>, such as Jaffa and Lod/al-Lidd, and engulfed Gaza, where Israeli air raids retaliated against the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-57066275">rockets</a> Hamas fired on cities including Tel Aviv. </p>
<p>For some, this <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-civil-war-frontline-lod-b1847798.html">felt like civil war</a>. As <a href="https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/dpublog/2020/04/21/gaza-and-the-covid-19-crisis-breaking-the-cycle-of-structural-vulnerability-first/">our</a> research demonstrates, these urban frontlines reveal how urban planning itself is weaponised. </p>
<p>Across the territory, cities and towns are controlled and demographically engineered by the state. This occurs on both sides of the Green Line (the 1949 ceasefire boundary between the West Bank and Israel, which Israel <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/07/world/middleeast/07borders.html">rejects as indefensible</a>), in the West Bank itself and in the Gaza Strip. Increasingly seen as <a href="https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid">an apartheid regime</a>, the government’s goal throughout is to encourage Jewish expansion and restrict Palestinian growth.</p>
<h2>The mixed city</h2>
<p>Heterogeneity is a basic urban condition. The term <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Jewish-Arab-City-Spatio-politics-in-a-mixed-community/Yacobi/p/book/9780415845502">“mixed city”</a>, widely used in Israel to describe an urban conglomeration occupied by Jewish and Arab communities, suggests a diversified and well-integrated society. </p>
<p>The reality, however, is that Jewish and Arab residents are divided – both spatially and socially – through an ongoing Judaisation of the territory. The state apparatus is actively spreading Jewish populations while <a href="https://www.academia.edu/16991244/Spreading_and_Concentrating_the_Camp_as_the_Space_of_the_Frontier">dispossessing</a> Palestinian populations. </p>
<p>This process is <a href="https://www.academia.edu/29167751/Camp_evolution_and_Israels_creation_Between_state_of_emergency_and_emergence_of_state_">rooted</a> in Israel’s territorial and urban history. After the Palestinian Nakba (“the catastrophe”) and the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948, the Palestinian citizens who stayed became a marginalised minority. Many of their cities, meanwhile, were transformed by Israeli Jewish <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/d47j">town planners and residents</a>. </p>
<p>The example of <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Jewish-Arab-City-Spatio-politics-in-a-mixed-community/Yacobi/p/book/9780415845502">Lod/al-Lidd</a> is instructive. The 1948 war saw 250 Palestinians killed in the city and a further 20,000 become refugees. </p>
<p>The Israeli Military Administration initially placed the 1,030 people who remained under strict surveillance in an enclosed area known as <a href="https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/3327/3289">the Sakna</a>. The city’s Palestinian houses and land, meanwhile, were expropriated by the state, who redivided and rented them out to Jewish immigrants. </p>
<p>From the 1950s, the state drew up a master plan for the city, now known as Lod. Intensive demolition (of the historical urban fabric) was followed by extensive reconstruction (of modernist housing blocks, infrastructure and services) to the benefit of Jewish immigrants. Palestinian housing and infrastructure needs, however, <a href="https://www.adalah.org/uploads/oldfiles/eng/publications/makan/haim.pdf">were overlooked</a>. </p>
<p>Waves of internally displaced Palestinians have since settled in Lod, from Bedouins whose lands in the Triangle region were expropriated to Palestinians expelled from Gaza and the West Bank for collaborating with the Israelis in the 1967 war. If only 9% of the Lod population was Palestinian in the 1950s, today they account for almost 30%. </p>
<p>The Israeli state, in its attempts to control what it terms the “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/238704497_Urban_Ethnocracy_Ethnicization_and_the_Production_of_Space_in_an_Israeli_%27Mixed_City%27">demographic balance</a>” has continued to actively settle Jewish immigrants in the city. It also supports a growing number of settler organisations developing residential projects <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269702910_Tzfadia_E_and_Yacobi_H_2007_Identity_migration_and_the_City_Russian_Immigrants_in_Contested_Urban_Space_in_Israel_Urban_Geography_28_5_436-455">for Jews only</a>. This is happening in other mixed cities too, including <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT.MAGAZINE-the-hebronization-of-jaffa-1.9775349">Jaffa</a>.</p>
<h2>The divided city</h2>
<p>After the 1948 war, Jerusalem was divided by a walled border zone separating Israel from Jordan. When Israel occupied and annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, the state proceeded to reshape the city on both a territorial and a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/48007481/Borders_Boundaries_and_Frontiers_Notes_on_Jerusalems_Present_Geopolitics">demographic level</a>.</p>
<p>A massive construction programme of Jewish settlements and neighbourhoods pushed beyond the city’s outer ring. Palestinian development, however, was stifled. The state demolished housing, limited Palestinian construction, allowed unequal distribution of infrastructure (including schools, roads and sewage systems), and prevented Palestinian immigration to the city. </p>
<p>Today, East Jerusalem accommodates <a href="https://jerusaleminstitute.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/PUB_505_facts-and-trends_eng_2019_web.pdf">around 40%</a> of the city’s Jewish population, up from 4% in the early 1970s. And supposedly neutral urban trends (privatisation, gentrification) only serve to further contain and <a href="https://emekshaveh.org/en/a-privatized-heritage-how-the-israel-antiquities-authority-relinquished-jerusalems-past/">control Palestinian urban space</a>. </p>
<p>Even <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-les-cahiers-de-l-orient-2018-2-page-119.htm">touristic planning</a> is co-opted, as our research into the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/may/26/jerusalem-city-of-david-palestinians-archaeology">contested archaeological site</a> of Silwan shows. Despite the fact that scholars agree there have been no archaeological finds proving the biblical king David’s presence, tourists flock to the site. The dig has seen much Palestinian property acquired in bad faith. The tourism industry that has arisen around it, meanwhile, has state backing.</p>
<p>In Jerusalem’s Palestinian neighbourhoods such as Sheikh Jarrah, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/17/palestinians-sheikh-jarrah-jerusalem-city-identity">real-estate disputes</a> belie how the state uses the courts to further its settler-colonial project. The recent violence was triggered, in part, by the threatened <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-east-jerusalems-sheikh-jarrah-palestinians-brace-for-battle-over-evictions/">eviction of Palestinian families</a> from their homes in favour of the Jewish settler organisation Nahalat Shimon. </p>
<p>Israel’s violence is enacted through discriminatory land-use policies, court rulings and planning strategies. The aim is to maintain a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution">solid Jewish majority in the city</a>. </p>
<h2>The disconnected city</h2>
<p>With the occupied territories of the West Bank and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m2kThIVCkc">Gaza Strip</a>, the aim is to create well-connected Jewish settlements that link into one Israeli-controlled territory. Palestinian space, meanwhile, is an ever-shrinking <a href="https://conquer-and-divide.btselem.org/map-en.html">territorial archipelago</a> of disconnected enclaves. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/longstanding-access-restrictions-continue-undermine-living-conditions-west-bank-palestinians">Checkpoints and roadblocks</a> restrict Palestinian movement in the West Bank and maintain its separation from the Gaza Strip which is, in itself, tightly controlled by Israel.</p>
<p>Since 2007, the state has implemented an <a href="https://gisha.org/UserFiles/File/publications/50_Shades/50_Shades_Of_Control_EN.pdf">air, land and sea blockade</a>, adapting the colonial effort to limit Palestinian space into a large-scale project, only this time there are no settlers. </p>
<p>Instead, with 2 million inhabitants, around 70% of whom are refugees, Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas on earth. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRPnvdCbNGM">Basic necessities</a> (medicines, fuel, food and building materials) are in constant deficit. It is also one of the most polluted: 97% of its drinking water is <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-expert-warns-97-of-gaza-drinking-water-contaminated-by-sewage-salt-1.5747876">contaminated</a> by sewage and salt. </p>
<p>This is in addition to Israel’s <a href="https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/dpublog/2020/04/21/gaza-and-the-covid-19-crisis-breaking-the-cycle-of-structural-vulnerability-first/">brutal destruction</a> of Gaza’s natural resources and the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-57205968">built environment</a>.</p>
<p>The Israeli state aims to expand, connect and invest in Jewish spaces while dividing, shrinking and destroying Palestinian spaces. Urban planning is used as an inherent part of this endeavour, designing density, vulnerability, separation and displacement into the very fabric of Palestinian urban areas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From discriminatory land-use policies to evictions and demolitions, urban planning has long been weaponised against the Palestinian peopleIrit Katz, Assistant Professor in Architecture and Urban Studies, University of CambridgeHaim Yacobi, Professor of Development Planning, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1609582021-05-15T21:50:38Z2021-05-15T21:50:38ZAs the Palestinian minority takes to the streets, Israel is having its own Black Lives Matter moment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400851/original/file-20210515-23-99t1ht.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C20%2C6629%2C4426&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Palestinians gesture and wave Palestinian flags at Israelis in a Jewish community building, during renewed riots in the city of Lod on May 11. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/may-2021-israel-lod-israeli-arabs-gesture-and-wave-news-photo/1232825386?adppopup=true">Oren Ziv/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/12/middleeast/gallery/israeli-palestinian-tensions-2021/index.html">images and reports coming from Israel, Jerusalem and Gaza</a> in recent days are shocking. They are also surprising to those who thought the 2020 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/us/politics/trump-israel-united-arab-emirates-uae.html">Abraham Accords</a> and subsequent agreements to normalize relations between Israel and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/ilm.2021.18">United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan</a> would place the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians permanently on the backburner. </p>
<p>As someone who has been <a href="https://history.ucla.edu/faculty/james-gelvin">writing and teaching about the Middle East</a> for more than 30 years, I had no such illusions. The reason for this is that at its heart, the so-called “Arab-Israeli conflict” has always been about Israelis and Palestinians. And no matter how many treaties Israel signs with Arab states, it will remain so.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/05/12/readout-of-president-joseph-r-biden-jr-call-with-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-of-israel-2/">In a phone call on May 12</a>, President Joe Biden assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his “unwavering support for Israel’s security and for Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself and its people.” Biden was referencing the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/palestinian-rocket-fire-israeli-air-strikes-gaza-2021-05-11/">rocket attacks on Israel launched by Hamas</a>, the Islamist group that governs Gaza. By <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/biden-expects-spiralling-israel-gaza-conflict-end-soon-2021-05-12/">targeting civilians</a>, Hamas is committing a war crime. In all probability, so is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-bombing-gaza-apartment-buildings-potential-war-crime-rights-groups-2021-5">Israel, by bombing and shelling Gaza</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bright trails of rockets fired towards Israel from the Gaza strip, lighting up the orange night sky" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rockets light up the night sky as they are fired towards Israel from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 14, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rockets-light-up-the-night-sky-as-they-are-fired-towards-news-photo/1232873731?adppopup=true">Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the carnage the Hamas rocket attacks and Israeli retaliation inflicts on Israelis and Gazans, the Biden administration is focusing on a sideshow, not the main event. </p>
<p>That main event is an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/13/world/israel-gaza-news">unprecedented conflict taking place on the streets</a> of Jerusalem, Haifa, Lod and elsewhere. It’s what scholars call an “intercommunal conflict,” pitting elements of Israel’s Jewish population against elements of Israel’s Palestinian population <a href="https://theconversation.com/protests-by-palestinian-citizens-in-israel-signal-growing-sense-of-a-common-struggle-160753">who have had enough and have taken to the streets</a>. </p>
<p>Hamas could not maintain its credibility as a movement if it sat by while Palestinians in Israel battled Jewish Israelis there. The reality is that Israel is having its Black Lives Matter moment. </p>
<p>As in the United States, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/world/middleeast/israel-apartheid-palestinians-hrw.html">brutalized minority group, facing systemic racism and discriminatory acts</a>, has taken to the streets. And, as in the United States, the only way out starts with serious soul-searching on the part of the majority. </p>
<p>But after the spate of Palestinian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/apr/09/israel">suicide bombings in the early 2000s that horrified Israelis and hardened their attitudes</a> toward Palestinians, this is unlikely to occur. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in grief on his knees next to the bodies of three of his family members laid out on stretchers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C7630%2C4971&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Relatives of the Abu Hatab family mourn over the bodies of their family members after an Israeli air strike struck their house without warning during the night, in Gaza City early on May 15, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/graphic-content-topshot-relatives-of-the-abu-hatab-family-news-photo/1232892703?adppopup=true">Mahmoud Hams/AFP/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Many reasons, one source</h2>
<p>Palestinian anger can be attributed to multiple issues. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jerusalem-middle-east-lifestyle-government-and-politics-43d4cab031c28da0abf98d694dd169ac">In April, Israel attempted to impede access</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-al-aqsa-mosque-has-often-been-a-site-of-conflict-160671">to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem</a> for Palestinians living in the West Bank. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/al-aqsa-clashes-palestinians-israeli-police/">Israeli police then raided the Muslim holy site</a>, reportedly after Palestinians threw stones at them, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/over-330-palestinians-wounded-in-clashes-with-israeli-police-at-al-aqsa-mosque-1.9790737">injuring 330</a>. At the beginning of May, Mahmoud Abbas, the current president of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/world/middleeast/palestinian-vote-delayed.html">cancelled the first Palestinian legislative elections</a> in 15 years. Finally, when the current conflict spilled over into the West Bank, the Israeli occupation and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2201473X.2014.947671">continued colonization of Palestinian territory</a> were thrown into the mix.</p>
<p>These significant issues explain Palestinian anger. However, the intercommunal nature of the ongoing conflagration is due to two other issues.</p>
<p>First, Jewish settlers attempted to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/east-jerusalems-sheikh-jarrah-becomes-emblem-palestinian-struggle-2021-05-10/">evict eight Palestinian families</a> from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/unrwa-joins-other-un-entities-raising-alarm-over-eight-sheikh-jarrah">had settled the families in the neighborhood during the 1950s</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/world/middleeast/israeli-court-palestinian-families-east-jerusalem.html">Jewish settlers filed suit</a> in 1972 <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/1/what-is-happening-in-occupied-east-jerusalems-sheikh-jarrah">claiming their right to the homes</a> where those families lived. They argued that Jews had owned the Palestinians’ homes before the division of the city in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. By right, they argue, the homes belong to their community.</p>
<p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-religion-6437efa7d19c63006bc2b6d3abbf8169">Jewish neighborhoods housing more than 215,000</a> encircle the predominantly Palestinian eastern part of Jerusalem, where Sheikh Jarrah is located. For Palestinians, the attempt to evict the families is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/east-jerusalems-sheikh-jarrah-becomes-emblem-palestinian-struggle-2021-05-10/">representative of Israel’s overall policy of pushing them out of the city</a>. It is not only a reminder that <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-what-it-s-like-to-be-a-palestinian-citizen-in-israel-1.6878243">in a Jewish state Palestinians are second-class citizens</a>, but a reenactment of the central tragedy in the Palestinian national memory: <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080030/israel-palestine-nakba">the Nakba of 1948</a>, when 720,000 Palestinians fled their homes in what would become the state of Israel, becoming refugees.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three members of the Israeli security forces. One is firing tear gas." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A member of the Israeli security forces fires tear gas at Palestinian protesters, during confrontations with them in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, on May 14, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/member-of-the-israeli-security-forces-fires-tear-gas-at-news-photo/1232882492">HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Growing anti-Arab racism</h2>
<p>The second reason for the intercommunal nature of the current conflict is the <a href="https://mepc.org/commentary/netanyahu-brings-far-right">emboldening of Israel’s extreme right-wing politicians</a> and their followers. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-elections-benjamin-netanyahu-exit-polls-6fc44df2043b04b1b823a45d6d508859">Among them are latter-day Kahanists</a>, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-election-netanyahu-ben-gvir/2021/03/19/c3992b7c-85c4-11eb-be4a-24b89f616f2c_story.html">followers of the late Meir Kahane</a>. Kahane was an American rabbi who moved to Israel. <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-05-14/radical-rabbis-followers-rise-in-israel-amid-new-violence">Kahane’s anti-Arab racism</a> was so extreme that the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/kach-kahane-chai-israel-extremists">United States listed the party he founded as a terrorist group</a>. Kahane proposed <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-why-racist-rabbi-meir-kahane-is-roiling-israeli-politics-30-years-after-his-death-1.6958031">paying Israel’s Palestinian population $40,000 each to leave Israel</a>. If they refused, Israel should expel them, he argued.</p>
<p>Kahanism and like-minded movements are on the rise in Israel. A <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-elections-benjamin-netanyahu-exit-polls-6fc44df2043b04b1b823a45d6d508859">Kahanist was recently elected to the Israeli Knesset, or parliament</a>, and Netanyahu courted his support when the prime minister was attempting <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/24/world/middleeast/benjamin-netanyahu-otzma-yehudit-jewish-power.html">to form a government in February, 2019</a>. Kahanists and other ultranationalist thugs — the “Proud Boys” of Israel — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/radical-rabbis-followers-rise-in-israel-amid-new-violence/2021/05/14/733b5130-b474-11eb-bc96-fdf55de43bef_story.html">march through Palestinian-Israeli neighborhoods chanting “Death to Arabs”</a> and assault them.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/how-evictions-jerusalem-led-israeli-palestinian-violence">The current crisis began on May 6, 2021</a>. Pro-Palestinian protesters in Sheikh Jarrah had been breaking the Ramadan fast together each night of the holiday, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-eid-al-fitr-and-how-do-muslims-celebrate-it-6-questions-answered-118146">a custom called iftar.</a> On this particular night, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jerusalem-middle-east-israel-lifestyle-religion-f4c2594aab82ca8117c39b577a42ff01">Israeli settlers set up a table opposite them</a>. In the settlers’ group was Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Kahanist deputy. Rocks and other objects began to fly. Then the violence spread.</p>
<p>In the coastal city of <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-clashes-resume-in-central-israeli-city-of-lod-ahead-of-police-imposed-curfew-1.9800313">Bat Yam, a Jewish mob marched down the street busting up Palestinian businesses</a>, while another mob attempted to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-clashes-resume-in-central-israeli-city-of-lod-ahead-of-police-imposed-curfew-1.9800313">lynch a Palestinian driver</a>. The same scene was replayed in Acre, only this time it was a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/world/asia/israel-lod-arab-jewish.html">Palestinian mob that assaulted a Jewish man</a>. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/fear-stalks-streets-israeli-city-where-jews-arabs-mixed-freely-2021-05-13/">Another Palestinian mob burned a police station</a> to the ground in the same city. And in a Tel Aviv suburb, a man presumed to be a Palestinian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/13/live-tv-shows-israeli-mob-lynch-motorist-in-tel-aviv-suburb">was pulled from his car and beaten</a>.</p>
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<p>Lod is a city south of Tel Aviv with a mixed Palestinian and Jewish population. Not only was it the site of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/12/father-and-daughter-killed-in-rocket-attack-on-israeli-city-of-lod">Hamas missile strike that killed two Palestinians</a>, it was where <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/world/middleeast/arab-jewish-violence-lod.html">heavy fighting took place between Palestinian and Jewish mobs</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-57085023">The fighting began</a> after a funeral of a Palestinian man who was killed by an assailant presumed to be Jewish. It was so heavy at times that the Israeli government brought in border guards from the West Bank to quell the unrest. The mayor characterized what was happening in his town as a “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-civil-war-frontline-lod-b1847798.html">civil war</a>.”</p>
<p>The mayor also reminded the residents of Lod, “The day after, we still have to live here together.” </p>
<p>He did not explain how this was to happen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160958/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James L. Gelvin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The fighting between Israelis and Palestinians grew quickly and ferociously after being ignited by a conflict in an Arab part of Jerusalem. Why did things go so bad so quickly?James L. Gelvin, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1607532021-05-13T12:34:29Z2021-05-13T12:34:29ZProtests by Palestinian citizens in Israel signal growing sense of a common struggle<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400403/original/file-20210512-21-1syx769.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">GettyImages</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The world’s attention has turned again to deadly scenes of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/11/israel-launches-fresh-air-raids-on-besieged-gaza-strip-live-news">Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip</a> and the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/cogat-announces-closure-of-gaza-border-crossing-over-rocket-fire-667730">launching of rockets by the militant group Hamas into Israel</a>. It follows two weeks of protests in East Jerusalem against <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-religion-2ba6f064df3964ceafb6e2ff02303d41">attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians</a> from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and Israeli police raids on worshippers in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-al-aqsa-mosque-has-often-been-a-site-of-conflict-160671">al-Aqsa mosque</a> compound. </p>
<p>But in towns across Israel, another important – and underreported – development is taking place. And it could change how we talk about Palestinians and Israelis.</p>
<p>Since May 9, 2021, thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel, numbering some <a href="https://www.cbs.gov.il/en/mediarelease/Pages/2019/Population-of-Israel-on-the-Eve-of-2020.aspx">1.9 million people</a> and often referred to as “Arab Israelis,” have taken to the streets to express support for their fellow Palestinians in Gaza and Jerusalem. Protests are taking place in both mixed Arab-Jewish cities like Haifa, Jaffa and Lod, known as Lydda to Palestinians, as well as in predominantly Palestinian cities and towns like Nazareth and Umm al-Fahm.</p>
<p>The size and scope of the demonstrations have <a href="https://twitter.com/AnshelPfeffer/status/1391860885048680451">surprised</a> many political analysts who usually discuss these Palestinians as part of the Israeli social and political fabric, separate from Palestinians elsewhere. </p>
<p>But as <a href="https://menas.arizona.edu/people/maha-nassar">a historian of the Palestinian citizens of Israel</a>, I’m not surprised by this recent turn of events. Palestinian citizens of Israel have a long history of identifying with their fellow Palestinians, though rarely on this scale.</p>
<h2>Policy of isolation, integration</h2>
<p>As I argue <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=23697">in my book “Brothers Apart</a>,” following the establishment of Israel in 1948, state officials tried to cultivate a sense of loyalty among the minority of Palestinians who remained in their homeland. It was part of a larger Israeli effort to isolate them from the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-44114385">vast majority of Palestinians who either fled or were expelled</a> from the newly established state. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black-and-white image shows two men pushing a wooden cart of belongings through a city street. An armed man follows them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400404/original/file-20210512-23-d7f6ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400404/original/file-20210512-23-d7f6ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400404/original/file-20210512-23-d7f6ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400404/original/file-20210512-23-d7f6ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400404/original/file-20210512-23-d7f6ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400404/original/file-20210512-23-d7f6ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400404/original/file-20210512-23-d7f6ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinian Arabs being expelled from their home in Haifa in 1948.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/three-members-of-haganah-the-jewish-agency-self-defence-news-photo/878485436?adppopup=true">AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These “Arab Israelis” were placed under <a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC12_scans/12.arabs.israel.1966.pdf">military rule until 1966</a> and were <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=21669">unable</a> to directly contact family members living in refugees camps. Most were granted Israeli <a href="https://www.academia.edu/41869961/Citizenship_as_Domination_Settler_Colonialism_and_the_Making_of_Palestinian_Citizenship_in_Israel">citizenship</a> in 1952, but they faced a host of <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=21669">discriminatory laws</a> that denied them access to their land, limited their economic opportunities and restricted their movements. While they could vote, form political parties and hold public office, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/63325">extensive government surveillance</a> – and <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=23697">punishment</a> of those who criticized the state – created a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316159927">pervasive climate of fear</a> among these Palestinian citizens of Israel.</p>
<p>Discrimination and economic disadvantage continue today. Palestinian towns and villages in Israel face <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/12/israel-discriminatory-land-policies-hem-palestinians">housing shortages</a> and economic <a href="http://doi.org/10.1057%2F9781137336453_9">underdevelopment</a>. Hiring practices that require job applicants to live in certain areas or to have served in the military – something <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/mena/palestinians-join-israeli-army-for-better-life-1.485303">very few Palestinian citizens</a> do – end up pushing Palestinians into precarious <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0038038595029003004">low-wage jobs</a>. </p>
<p>While direct housing discrimination was banned by the courts, Jewish communities often set up admissions committees that <a href="http://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743817000915">effectively limit</a> the number of Palestinian citizens living in majority Jewish towns.</p>
<p>This de facto segregation is also reflected in Israel’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233559498_Separate_and_unequal_The_role_of_the_state_educational_system_in_maintaining_the_subordination_of_Israel%27s_Palestinian_Arab_citizens">school system</a>. Students in Arab state schools <a href="http://taubcenter.org.il/wp-content/files_mf/theeducationsystemanoverview2019eng.pdf">receive less funding per capita</a> than those in majority Hebrew state schools.</p>
<p>In addition, Palestinian citizens are subjected to “<a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/law/view/597">stop-and-frisk</a>” police policies. And professionals face everyday forms of racism from some <a href="http://doi.org/10.1080/00380253.2017.1296337">Jewish Israeli colleagues</a> who are surprised by their level of education.</p>
<p>Palestinian citizens of Israel have been protesting these conditions since the founding of the state, but within limits. In 1964, the Arab nationalist Ard group called for “a just solution for the Palestinian question … in accordance with the wishes of the Palestinian Arab people.” In response, the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293241109_Political_mobilization_of_palestinians_in_Israel_The_al-%27Ard_movement">Israeli government banned</a> the group and arrested its leaders on charges of endangering state security.</p>
<h2>Centering Palestinian identity</h2>
<p>Despite these restrictions, their expressions of Palestinian national identity have grown louder. </p>
<p>Following Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in 1967, Palestinian citizens of Israel and those under occupation met one another regularly, leading them to develop a <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=23697">sense of joint struggle</a>.</p>
<p>That joint struggle was on display in October 2000 when thousands of Palestinian citizens rallied in Palestinian towns and mixed cities across Israel in support of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising. Israeli security forces <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/8639">killed 12 unarmed protesting Palestinian citizens of Israel and arrested over 600</a>, undermining the idea that Palestinian citizens could achieve full equality in Israel. </p>
<p>Since then, Israel has launched several economic development and civil service initiatives aimed at integrating Palestinian citizens into the state. But these initiatives have <a href="https://www.inss.org.il/publication/integrating-arab-palestinian-minority-israeli-society-time-strategic-change/">not done much</a> to alleviate the discrimination that Palestinian citizens still face. Moreover, the <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/05/06/israel-palestine-united-states-extremism-netanyahu-lehava-jerusalem-violence-sheikh-jarrah/">right-wing shift</a> in Israeli politics has led to even more explicitly racist rhetoric from some quarters, including growing support for <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2016/03/11/how-israels-jewishness-is-overtaking-its-democracy/">expelling</a> Palestinian citizens from Israel altogether.</p>
<p>In response, more Palestinian citizens identify themselves as belonging to one people who are collectively resisting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2014.947671">settler colonial rule</a>. A younger generation of grassroots organizers has taken the lead, as seen in the annual <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-nakba-identity-idUSKCN1SF20R">commemorations of the Nakba</a> – the loss of Palestine in 1948 – every May 15.</p>
<p>This centering of Palestinian identity was on display in March 2021 in the Palestinian town of Umm al-Fahm. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/19/umm-al-fahm-protests-against-israeli-police-amid-surge-in-crime">Protests against seemingly local problems</a> – crime and gun violence – turned into an expression of Palestinian national identity as protesters waved Palestinian flags and <a href="https://twitter.com/Rawan_19jd/status/1368299050504687622">sang Palestinian songs</a>. </p>
<p>The latest protests around Sheikh Jarrah and incursions in the al-Aqsa compound likewise promote a common Palestinian cause. At a rally in the mixed city of Lydd, a few miles south of Tel Aviv, one Palestinian citizen protester scaled a lamppost and <a href="https://twitter.com/CarolDkas/status/1391854263098384386">replaced the Israeli flag</a> with a Palestinian one.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the funeral of Lydd protester Moussa Hassoun on May 11 drew <a href="https://twitter.com/yarahawari/status/1392182519282475008">8,000 mourners</a> as he was laid to rest wrapped in a Palestinian flag. Since then, protests have swelled even further, leading Israeli security officials to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-declares-state-of-emergency-in-mixed-arab-israeli-town-after-clashes-erupt-1.9797299">impose a curfew</a> on the town and call in reinforcements.</p>
<h2>Fragmented no more?</h2>
<p>The current protests suggest that Israeli government attempts to isolate Palestinian citizens of Israel from Palestinians in the occupied territories and in exile and to integrate them into the Israeli state have failed. And any heavy-handed reaction to demonstrators could only serve to further alienate Palestinian citizens from the state of Israel.</p>
<p>Scenes of police violently <a href="https://twitter.com/JbareenYanal/status/1392144694365282307">breaking up</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/benabyad/status/1392135511293239297">peaceful protests</a>, Israeli security forces being <a href="https://twitter.com/theIMEU/status/1392491713051205639">deployed</a> into Palestinian neighborhoods inside the country, and armed Israeli Jewish vigilantes <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-armed-settlers-lod-mosque-attacked-night-curfew">attacking Palestinians in mixed cities</a> could also, I believe, further reinforce the image of Israel as a colonial power in the minds of not only its marginalized Palestinian minority, but also their international supporters as well.</p>
<p>What could result is a new type of Palestinian mobilization, one that belies the idea of a fragmented people and unites all Palestinian people in a joint struggle.</p>
<p>[<em>This week in religion, a global roundup each Thursday.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-global-roundup">Sign up.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160753/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maha Nassar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Attempts to integrate Palestinian citizens of Israel into the Israeli state have failed. What is emerging is growing solidarity with those living in occupied territories, argues a scholar of the region.Maha Nassar, Associate Professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1606712021-05-12T18:20:47Z2021-05-12T18:20:47ZWhy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has often been a site of conflict<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400318/original/file-20210512-14-xeolar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C5168%2C3422&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muslims pray at the Mihrab, a niche in a wall indicating the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca, at the Foundation Stone, located under the Dome of the Rock in the Al- Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/muslims-pray-at-the-mihrab-a-nich-in-a-wall-indicating-the-news-photo/486224293?adppopup=true">Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This piece was updated on Oct. 9, 2023</em></p>
<p>The violence that spread from Jerusalem to cities across Israel and the Palestinian territories, leaving <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/35-killed-gaza-3-israel-violence-escalates-2021-05-12/">at least 60 dead so far</a>, has both historical and contemporary roots.</p>
<p>In recent weeks, tension has flared over the eviction of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities blocking access to the important Damascus Gate plaza during Ramadan, and a march of thousands of Israeli ultra-nationalists through the city on May 6, 2021, in celebration of “<a href="https://news.yahoo.com/violence-erupts-israel-marks-jerusalem-072749484.html">Jerusalem Day</a>,” which marks the capture of East Jerusalem in 1967. </p>
<p>But the one incident that led to a significant escalation involved Israeli security forces <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/thousands-pack-al-aqsa-mosque-protest-palestinian-evictions-jerusalem-2021-05-07/">firing rubber-coated bullets, tear gas and stun grenades</a> at worshipers gathered at Al-Aqsa mosque on May 7. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1392026529291542533"}"></div></p>
<p>As a <a href="http://www.kenchitwood.com/">scholar of global Islam</a>, I teach introduction to Islam and include a discussion about Al-Aqsa as part of the syllabus. That’s because Al-Aqsa has deep religious significance for Muslims around the world. But, it is also important to highlight its remarkable political relevance for Palestinians. These two facts make it a focal point for conflict. </p>
<h2>The night journey of Muhammad</h2>
<p>The Masjid al-Aqsa, or simply Al-Aqsa, means “the farthest mosque” or “the farthest sanctuary,” and <a href="https://books.google.de/books/about/The_Oxford_Dictionary_of_Islam.html?id=6VeCWQfVNjkC&redir_esc=y">refers to the lead-domed mosque</a> within the sacred precinct of Haram al-Sharif – “the Noble Enclosure.” The precinct includes the Dome of the Rock, the four minarets, the compound’s historic gates and the mosque itself.</p>
<p>Mentioned in Sura 17, verse 1 of the Quran, the mosque is linked to the story of Muhammad’s “Isra” – the “night journey” from Mecca to Jerusalem – that in part confirms him as the last and most authoritative of the prophets for Muslims. <a href="https://quran.com/53">The Quran says</a> the prophet was “carried…by night from the Sacred Mosque [in Mecca] to the Farthest Mosque [al-Aqsa], whose precincts we have blessed.” </p>
<p>From there, it is believed that Muhammad ascended to heaven – called the Mir'aj. The Dome of the Rock – Qubbat as-Sakhra – is said to shelter the rock <a href="https://books.google.de/books/about/The_Oxford_Dictionary_of_Islam.html?id=6VeCWQfVNjkC&redir_esc=y">from where Muhammad physically ascended</a>. </p>
<p>The mosque’s origins stretch back to the seventh century. It was <a href="https://books.google.de/books/about/The_Oxford_Dictionary_of_Islam.html?id=6VeCWQfVNjkC&redir_esc=y">first built in A.D. 637</a>, just five years after the prophet’s death. It has been destroyed, rebuilt and renovated multiple times.</p>
<p>The current building largely dates to the 11th century and hosts daily prayers and Friday gatherings that draw large crowds. It lies adjacent to important Jewish and Christian religious locales, particularly the site of the First and Second Jewish Temples. </p>
<p>At times, the Dome of the Rock – a shrine – and Al-Aqsa – a mosque – have been confused as one and the same. While part of the same “Noble Sanctuary,” they are two distinct buildings with different histories and purposes. </p>
<p>However, the term Al-Aqsa is sometimes used to indicate the entire “Noble Sanctuary” complex. Originally, it is believed that the term <a href="https://books.google.de/books/about/Aspects_of_Islam.html?id=FAWPAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">“the farthest sanctuary” referred to Jerusalem as a whole</a>. </p>
<h2>Place in Islamic history</h2>
<p>After Mecca and Medina, the vast majority of Muslims worldwide consider <a href="https://www.google.de/books/edition/Palestinians_Born_in_Exile/qRnUAAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=palestinians+born+in+exile&printsec=frontcover">Jerusalem the third holiest place on Earth</a>. </p>
<p>Referenced frequently in Islamic tradition and hadith – records of something the Prophet Muhammad said, did or tacitly approved of – it is believed that while in Mecca, Muhammad originally oriented his community’s prayers toward Al-Aqsa.</p>
<p>In A.D. 622, the community fled Mecca because of persecution, seeking refuge in Medina to the north. After a little over a year there, Muslims believe God instructed Muhammad to face back toward Mecca for prayers. In Surah 2, verses 149-150, the Quran says, “turn thy face toward the Sacred Mosque [the Kaaba in Mecca]…wheresoever you may be, turn your faces toward it.”</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Jerusalem and its sacred locales – specifically Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock – have remained sites of Islamic pilgrimage for 15 centuries. </p>
<h2>The ‘most sensitive site’ in conflict</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A golden dome and columns decorated by elaborate byzantine decorations." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400320/original/file-20210512-19-btu5d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The decorated interior of the golden dome inside the Dome of the Rock mosque at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, in Jerusalem’s Old City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/picture-taken-with-a-fisheye-lens-on-january-10-shows-the-news-photo/903284924?adppopup=true">Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given its sacred significance, there was great concern about the precinct’s fate after Israel’s victory in the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/de/academic/subjects/history/middle-east-history/1967-arab-israeli-war-origins-and-consequences?format=PB">1967 Arab-Israeli War and its subsequent annexation of East Jerusalem</a>.</p>
<p>Although Israel granted jurisdiction of the mosque and complex to an Islamic waqf – “endowment” – Israel still commands access to the grounds and security forces regularly perform patrols and conduct searches within the precinct. Under the <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Protection+of+Holy+Places+Law.htm">Preservation of the Holy Places Law</a>, the Israeli government has also allowed entry to different religious groups – such as Christian pilgrims. </p>
<p>Many Israelis respect the sanctity of the place as the holiest site in Judaism. In 2005, the <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/1.4706117">chief rabbinate of Israel said it is forbidden for Jews to walk on the site</a> to avoid accidentally entering the Holy of Holies – the inner sanctum of the Temple, believed to be God’s dwelling place on earth. Nonetheless, certain ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups controversially advocate for <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/laying-the-groundwork-for-a-third-temple-in-jerusalem/">greater access and control of the site</a>, seeking to reclaim the historic Temple Mount, in order to rebuild the Temple.</p>
<p>Described as “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/violence-erupts-al-aqsa-mosque-israel-marks-jerusalem-day-2021-05-10">the most sensitive site in the Israel-Palestinian conflict</a>,” it has frequently been host to political acts. </p>
<p>For example, in August 1969, an Australian Christian named Dennis Michael Rohan <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-an-australian-sheepshearers-al-aqsa-arson-nearly-torched-middle-east-peace/">attempted to burn down</a> Al-Aqsa, destroying the historically significant and intricately carved minbar – or “pulpit” – of Saladin, a treasured piece of Islamic art. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Israeli security forces fire sound grenades inside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400322/original/file-20210512-14-1tuw3mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israeli security forces fire sound grenades inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem on Aug. 11, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/israeli-security-forces-fire-sound-grenades-inside-the-al-news-photo/1160931707?adppopup=true">Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On Sept. 28, 2000, Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon and a delegation guarded by hundreds of Israeli riot police <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/29/world/sharon-touches-a-nerve-and-jerusalem-explodes.html">entered the precinct</a>. This sparked protests and a violent crackdown by Israeli authorities, with multiple casualties. Many Muslims worldwide considered this a “<a href="https://books.google.de/books/about/111_Questions_on_Islam.html?id=fkZAnNDuNvsC&redir_esc=y">desecration” of the sacred mosque</a>, and the event helped ignite the Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising. </p>
<p>Tensions peaked again after an attack on Yehuda Glick, a controversial right-wing rabbi, in autumn 2014. In response, Israeli authorities <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2014/11/03/world/meast/jerusalem-temple-mount-crisis-lister">closed down access to Al-Aqsa for the first time since 1967</a>. In March and April of that year, Israeli police <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/world/israeli-forces-storm-al-aqsa-mosque/2014/07/18/8ab345c0-0ea4-11e4-b0dd-edc009ac1f9d_video.html">used tear gas and stun grenades on Palestinians inside Al-Aqsa</a>, prompting international outcry. </p>
<p>Numerous other incidents between Israeli forces and worshipers <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/3/12/israeli-police-assault-worshippers-close-al-aqsa-compound">have occurred at Al-Aqsa</a> in recent years. </p>
<p>Controlled access to the site reminds Palestinians of their relative powerlessness in their ongoing land disputes with Israeli authorities. At the same time, attacks at Al-Aqsa resonate with Muslims across the world who react with horror to what they see as the desecration of one of their most sacred sites. </p>
<p>Defending Al-Aqsa and fighting for rights to access it, I argue, have become proxy conflicts for both Palestinian claims and the need to defend Islam as a whole.</p>
<p>[<em>This week in religion, a global roundup each Thursday.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-global-roundup">Sign up.</a>]</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: The piece has been updated to add details related to Jewish beliefs about the site.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160671/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ken Chitwood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Masjid al-Aqsa of Jerusalem is linked in the Quran to the story of the night journey of Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and has deep religious meaning for Muslims across the world.Ken Chitwood, Senior Research Fellow, Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at IUPUI and Journalist-fellow, USC Dornsife Center for Religion and Civic Culture, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1606972021-05-12T04:23:32Z2021-05-12T04:23:32ZIsrael-Palestinian violence: why East Jerusalem has become a flashpoint in a decades-old conflict<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400171/original/file-20210512-13-1qup7xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=404%2C147%2C7026%2C5064&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mahmoud Illean/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Weeks of tensions between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem have boiled over in recent days, unleashing some of the worst violence between Israel and the Palestinians in years. </p>
<p>Israeli airstrikes in Gaza <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-airstrikes.html">have left 30 Palestinians dead</a>, including ten children, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising not to ease up anytime soon. Palestinians militants, meanwhile, have launched hundreds of missiles into Israel, killing three people.</p>
<p>Ostensibly, the rocket launches by Hamas were a response to Israeli police <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-boosts-security-forces-ahead-tense-night-jerusalem-2021-05-08/">storming</a> the al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem on <a href="https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/uae-ramadan-27-tonight-laylat-al-qadr-explained">Laylat al-Qadr</a>, the Night of Power, one of the holiest nights of the year for Muslims. The incident injured hundreds over the weekend. </p>
<p>Hamas then issued an ultimatum demanding Israeli forces withdraw from the compound — the third holiest site in Islam, part of which comprises the Wailing Wall — by a specific deadline. When Israel refused, Hamas’s military wing followed through on its threat by firing rockets toward Jerusalem, forcing Israeli lawmakers to flee parliament.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An Israeli airstrike on Gaza." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400183/original/file-20210512-13-10k4u63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400183/original/file-20210512-13-10k4u63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400183/original/file-20210512-13-10k4u63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400183/original/file-20210512-13-10k4u63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400183/original/file-20210512-13-10k4u63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400183/original/file-20210512-13-10k4u63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400183/original/file-20210512-13-10k4u63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinian health officials say more than 200 people have been wounded in the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MOHAMMED SABER/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Jerusalem divided</h2>
<p>Beyond the mosque confrontation, though, there are broader historical and political factors at work. </p>
<p>Monday’s airstrikes fell on Jerusalem Day, when Israeli Jews celebrate the “reunification” of Jerusalem following the Six Day War of 1967. As the ongoing unrest demonstrates, the city is far from unified. </p>
<p>Adding to the tensions, thousands of Jewish ultra-nationalists had planned <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-11/israel-hamas-rocket-fire-palestine-jerusalem-gaza-deaths/100129940">to march</a> through Palestinian-dominated East Jerusalem on Jerusalem Day as a demonstration of Jewish sovereignty over the entire city.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/palestinians-will-never-be-convinced-a-deal-with-israel-is-worth-making-if-annexation-is-packaged-as-peace-130629">Palestinians will never be convinced a deal with Israel is worth making if annexation is packaged as peace</a>
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<p>Israeli police <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/violence-erupts-al-aqsa-mosque-israel-marks-jerusalem-day-2021-05-10/">changed the route</a> at the last moment, partly due to the increasingly violent clashes between security forces and Palestinian demonstrators during Ramadan. </p>
<p>There were also concerns of unrest if the Israeli Supreme Court handed down its decision on whether four Palestinian families should be <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/05/1091492">evicted from their homes</a> in the Shiekh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, to be replaced by Jewish settlers. This is the culmination of a decades-long legal battle dismissed as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/world/middleeast/evictions-jerusalem-israeli-palestinian-conflict-protest.html">a real estate dispute</a>” by Israeli officials. </p>
<p>This case is emblematic of the systematic appropriation of Palestinian homes and land in East Jerusalem since 1967. The seizure of Palestinian property is so common here, an Israeli settler was <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/4/if-i-dont-steal-your-home-someone-else-will-jewish-settler-says">captured on video</a> recently telling a Palestinian, </p>
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<p>If I don’t steal your home, someone else will steal it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The recent evictions in Shiekh Jarrah have been described by <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/sheikh-jarrah-evictions-ethnic-cleansing-meshaal/2234482">Hamas officials</a> — and <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ethnic-cleansing-ilhan-omar-responds-jerusalem-officials-remarks-amid-conflict-over-evictions-1589881">Palestinian supporters</a> elsewhere — as a form of ethnic cleansing.</p>
<p>The Biden administration <a href="https://www.state.gov/violence-in-jerusalem/">has also said</a> it is “deeply concerned” about the potential evictions, while urging leaders across the spectrum to “denounce all violent acts”. </p>
<h2>Decades of dispossession</h2>
<p>Israeli settlement building and expansion, especially in and around East Jerusalem, is a deliberate strategy. This is not only being done to appropriate Palestinian land, but to alter the demographics of the area and prevent the establishment of a sovereign Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital. </p>
<p>Israel exclusively claims Jerusalem - home of the ancient Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism - as its <a href="https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/1590159000-netanyahu-undivided-jerusalem-under-israeli-sovereignty-central-for-trump-s-mideast-vision">eternal undivided capital</a>. </p>
<p>The dispossession of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank is not new. Indeed, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/26/palestinian-refugees-middle-east-conflict">expulsion</a> of Palestinians in the areas now largely recognised as the official borders of the self-defined Jewish state of Israel was required to establish a Jewish majority. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Palestinian protest against evictions." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399938/original/file-20210511-8001-1ng987u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399938/original/file-20210511-8001-1ng987u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399938/original/file-20210511-8001-1ng987u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399938/original/file-20210511-8001-1ng987u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399938/original/file-20210511-8001-1ng987u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399938/original/file-20210511-8001-1ng987u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399938/original/file-20210511-8001-1ng987u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinians sing during a protest against evictions in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maya Alleruzzo/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On May 14, 1948, Zionist leaders unilaterally declared the independence of the state of Israel, sparking the first Arab-Israeli War. During the war, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/02/nakba-israel-palestine-zochrot-history">over 400 Palestinian villages and towns</a> were depopulated and obliterated to make way for modern Jewish towns and cities. </p>
<p>This Saturday marks <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-44114385#:%7E:text=Palestinians%20have%20been%20protesting%20at,%2DNakba%2C%20or%20the%20Catastrophe.">al-Nakba</a>, or the “Catastrophe”, for Palestinians. It is the day of mourning for the loss of historical Palestine and the expulsion of <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/palestine-refugees">over 700,000 Palestinians</a> from their ancestral homeland. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israels-proposed-annexation-of-the-west-bank-could-bring-a-diplomatic-tsunami-141688">Israel's proposed annexation of the West Bank could bring a 'diplomatic tsunami'</a>
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<p>This process has continued throughout East Jerusalem and the West Bank since their occupation in 1967. There are now <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/palestine-refugees">more than 5 million Palestinian refugees</a> registered with the UN, nearly a third of whom live in refugee camps.</p>
<p>The plight of Palestinian refugees remains a particularly contentious issue for the two sides. A <a href="https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/C758572B78D1CD0085256BCF0077E51A">UN General Assembly resolution</a> in 1948 asserted the right of refugees to return to the areas captured by Israel in 1948-49.</p>
<p>And in 1967, a <a href="https://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/7D35E1F729DF491C85256EE700686136">UN Security Council resolution</a> demanded Israeli forces withdraw from territories captured during the Six Day War. </p>
<h2>International law and internal brawls</h2>
<p>The Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem and its ongoing settler activities in the West Bank <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/01/chapter-3-israeli-settlements-and-international-law/">contravene international humanitarian law</a>. They are also not recognised by <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52756427">the vast majority</a> of the international community, with the notable exception of the US under the <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/22/trump-recognize-israeli-settlements-west-bank-end-pax-americana/">Trump administration</a>.</p>
<p>Yet, Palestinian dispossession continues today with over <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/sites/default/files/factsheet_booklet_final_21_12_2017.pdf">600,000 Israeli settlers</a> now living across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The continued Israeli occupation of these territories, coupled with the appropriation of Palestinian land, are among the primary causes of conflict between the two sides.</p>
<p>But there are also domestic political factors at play. Hamas is a resistance organisation, which is also responsible for administering the Gaza Strip. Its legitimacy largely rests on its resistance credentials, which means the movement routinely feels obligated to demonstrate its capacity to confront perceived Israeli aggression. </p>
<p>This is in stark contrast to the inaction of the Hamas’ rival party, Fatah, and its leader, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has remained largely silent in recent weeks despite the loss of Palestinian lives.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-elections-netanyahu-may-hold-on-to-power-but-political-paralysis-will-remain-157585">Israel elections: Netanyahu may hold on to power, but political paralysis will remain</a>
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<p>Israel’s political system is also in crisis, with no party able to form a stable government after <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahus-deadline-form-government-expires-rivals-eyed-2021-05-04/">four inconclusive elections</a> in the past two years (and now a fifth potentially in the offing). </p>
<p>With the government in flux, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/netanyahu-fights-on-for-survival-as-israel-goes-to-polls-yet-again-20210324-p57dh9.html">pro-settler parties</a> – namely Naftali Bennett’s New Right Party – have become the kingmakers in the Knesset. Any aspiring government will likely need their backing to form a majority, which requires the support of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-settlement-idUSKBN29G12E">pro-settler policies</a>.</p>
<p>With all of this in mind, we can expect more violence, regardless of who eventually wins power in Israel. Unless the international community — in particular, the Biden administration — intervenes to find a meaningful solution to the conflict.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160697/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One of main drivers of unrest has been the conflicting claims to East Jerusalem, dating back to the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948.Tristan Dunning, Sessional Lecturer, The University of QueenslandMartin Kear, Sessional Lecturer Dept Govt & Int Rel., University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1606472021-05-11T14:49:29Z2021-05-11T14:49:29ZJerusalem: the politics behind the latest explosion of violence in the Holy City<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400032/original/file-20210511-23-1sui4if.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C0%2C5439%2C3620&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is one of Islam's holiest sites.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/Ammar Awad</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-57053074">violence</a> at the al-Aqsa mosque/Temple Mount area and in the Old City of Jerusalem has spiralled into something bigger and more dangerous. Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters at the weekend have left hundreds injured. Tensions rose further on Monday and Tuesday after Israeli airstrikes launched in retaliation for Hamas rocket attacks killed 35 people, including 12 children, in Gaza City. </p>
<p>This latest episode cannot be attributed to a single cause. It should rather be connected to a broader landscape of destabilising factors whose cumulative weight led to the current crisis after months of incubation. </p>
<p>A chain reaction was nevertheless triggered by ongoing attempts to evict Palestinian families living for generations in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210511-sheikh-jarrah-is-a-historic-jerusalem-neighbourhood/">Sheikh Jarrah</a>. A legal battle is being waged between the Palestinian residents and <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/05/1091492">Nahalat Shimon</a> – a settler organisation tied to the Zionist movement in Israel which is trying to alter <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/6/15/israel-plans-to-entrench-annexation-of-east-jerusalem-report">east Jerusalem’s demographics</a> in favour of a Jewish population.</p>
<p>Support towards the Sheikh Jarrah families instantly came from several Palestinian constituencies, including an unprecedented number of Arab citizens of Israel from Umm al-Fahm and Jaffa. At the same time, thousands started demonstrating at Damascus Gate which in recent weeks has become <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-the-new-tahrir-square-damascus-gate-is-latest-symbol-of-palestinian-protest-1.9769190">east Jerusalem’s “Tahrir Square”</a> – the centre of Egypt’s 2011 “Arab Spring” revolution. Many of the protesters were Muslim worshippers who came together at the gate after having attended prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque. </p>
<p>It is worth noting that the crisis unfolded during the final days in the holy month of Ramadan: the climax of the Islamic calendar but also the <a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/1849416/middle-east">most volatile time of the year</a> in Jerusalem. On Friday May 7 alone, some 200 Palestinians were seriously injured and many more were arrested following fierce confrontations with the Israeli police. </p>
<p>Israeli police were aggressive in their <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-police-take-note-ramadan-is-not-the-time-for-a-show-of-strength-1.9789826">attempts to curb demonstrations</a>, which soon backfired with an with an <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-arab-citizens-of-israel-show-unprecedented-involvement-in-jerusalem-protests-1.9787513">expansion of Palestinian protests</a> across Jerusalem, the West Bank and many Arab villages in central and northern Israel.</p>
<h2>Turmoil on both sides</h2>
<p>Inability to contain violence in Jerusalem and other occupied territories is partly a result of internal issues with both the Palestinian leadership and the Israeli government. On the Palestinian side, there is a power struggle taking place between Hamas and the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas deliberately heightened tension with Israel by firing rockets from Gaza as a propaganda strategy to build political capital at Abbas’ expense. He, in turn, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/palestinian-elections-delayed-says-president-mahmoud-abbas-2021-04-29/">has postponed elections</a> to the Palestinian Legislative Council for fear of losing ground against his Islamist rivals.</p>
<p>Israeli politics, meanwhile, has reached a debilitating impasse after four general elections failed to establish a workable government. This has had severe ramifications for the handling of the crisis. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stark-choice-for-israel-as-voters-head-to-polls-for-fourth-time-in-two-years-157437">Stark choice for Israel as voters head to polls for fourth time in two years</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And it’s important not to underestimate – as Israel’s security chiefs obviously have – the disastrous consequences that COVID-19 has had on east Jerusalem, leaving all too many young Palestinians unemployed and even more <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-the-youth-at-damascus-gate-represent-and-misrepresent-the-palestinians-1.9749224?lts=1620736017636">hopelessly alienated</a> from their respective political leaderships. The young Palestinians demonstrating on the steps of Damascus Gate, the streets of the Old City and al-Aqsa are not animated by their parents’ ideologies, but mostly a sense of anger, revulsion and frustration.</p>
<h2>Provocation and counter-provocation</h2>
<p>With such soaring tensions and political dysfunction on both sides, the situation appeared likely to spin out of control during the flag march scheduled on <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/yom-yerushalayim-jerusalem-day/">Jerusalem Day</a>. That event takes place annually to commemorate the reunification of Jerusalem by Israel after the six-day war in 1967. </p>
<p>In recent times, with the growing influence of the settler movement within the Netanyahu government and Israeli society, the parade has become a cornerstone in the national consciousness of many religious Zionists. Every year, before reaching the celebrations at the Western Wall Plaza, hundreds of young Israelis make their way from Sheikh Jarrah, pause at Damascus Gate and then continue along Al-Wad street – the main artery in the Muslim Quarter in the Old City. </p>
<p>During the march, young Israelis wave their national flags defiantly and chant patriotic songs. Meanwhile Palestinians watch the procession from behind the security fences that the Israeli police forces put in place especially for the occasion.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1391865780216676355"}"></div></p>
<p>The way this celebration cuts across their everyday spaces is felt by most Palestinians as a blatant provocation and a painful reminder of the humiliation Israel inflicted on their national aspirations in June 1967. Not only did the Six-Day War mean large-scale Palestinian dispossession, it also established Israeli control over <em>al-Quds</em> (Jerusalem’s Arabic name) and al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam and a primary symbol of Palestinian identity. </p>
<p>On Sunday night thousands of Palestinians barricaded themselves in the mosque with stones and Molotov cocktails in anticipation of the Jerusalem Day Parade. According to the <a href="https://www.ifrc.org/en/who-we-are/vision-and-mission">Palestinian Red Crescent</a>, clashes between Israeli police forces and the demonstrators, which inevitably unfolded at al-Aqsa on Monday morning, left <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-57053074">another 300 Palestinians wounded</a>. That prompted an Israeli decision to prevent Jews from entering the al-Aqsa mosque/Temple Mount area during Jerusalem Day.</p>
<p>Sensing quite how dangerous it would be to allow a march to follow the route through some of the Palestinian population’s most symbolically important spaces – and, with Jerusalem already on a knife edge – the Israeli authorities announced that the flag march could go ahead but <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-change-route-of-flag-march-through-old-city-as-jerusalem-simmers/">rerouted its course</a> away from the Damascus Gate and the Muslim Quarter. The Israeli High Court of Justice <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-s-top-court-postpones-palestinian-eviction-hearing-amid-jerusalem-violence-1.9787755">also deferred</a> the hearings on the planned evictions of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah that had been scheduled for Jerusalem Day.</p>
<p>But these attempts to de-escalate appear to have been too little and too late. As we now know, Hamas made the decision to fire rockets at west Jerusalem and southern Israel, and the Israeli Defense Force retaliated with air strikes, <a href="https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/israel-air-strikes-kill-25-on-day-3-of-gaza-campaign-68920">killing 25 people</a>. Once more, Jerusalem is ablaze, with potentially dire consequences for the stability of the whole region.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlo Aldrovandi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Clashes in Jerusalem have led to rocket attacks and airstrikes in Gaza.Carlo Aldrovandi, Assistant Professor in International Peace Studies, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1520672020-12-17T13:30:17Z2020-12-17T13:30:17ZAs heavenly bodies converge, many ask: Is the Star of Bethlehem making a comeback?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375429/original/file-20201216-19-1jwxdbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=60%2C0%2C4963%2C3400&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Nativity presentation showing the three wise men being led by the Star of Bethlehem.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-three-wise-men-arrive-with-their-gifts-of-gold-news-photo/898543876?adppopup=true">Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Dec. 21, 2020, <a href="https://www.kdrv.com/content/news/Great-Conjunction-of-Jupiter-and-Saturn-will-be-the-closest-in-nearly-800-years-573393111.html#:%7E:text=%E2%80%93%20On%20the%20evening%20of%20the,planet%E2%80%9D%20in%20the%20night%20sky.&text=Aligning%20with%20the%20winter%20solstice,be%20the%20closest%20since%201623.">Jupiter and Saturn will cross paths in the night’s sky</a> and for a brief moment, they will appear to shine together as one body. While planetary conjunctions like this are not everyday events, they <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-great-conjunction-of-jupiter-and-saturn">also are not particularly rare</a>. </p>
<p>This year’s conjunction is different for at least two reasons. The first is the degree to which the two planets will be aligned. <a href="https://www.uml.edu/news/press-releases/2020/laycockpitch120920.aspx">Experts predict</a> that they will appear closer during this conjunction than they have in nearly eight centuries and also brighter. </p>
<p>But the second factor, and the one that has thrust this event into the spotlight, is that it will occur on the winter solstice, just before the Christmas holiday. The timing has <a href="https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/when-you-can-see-the-rare-christmas-star-in-the-night-sky-this-month/2393972/">led to a speculation</a> whether this could be the same astronomical event that the Bible reports led the wise men to Joseph, Mary and the newly born Jesus – the Star of Bethlehem.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://vandeneykel.hcommons.org/curriculum-vitae/">scholar of early Christian literature</a> writing a book on the three wise men, I argue that the upcoming planetary conjunction is likely not the fabled Star of Bethlehem. The biblical story of the star is intended to convey theological rather than historical or astronomical truths.</p>
<h2>Leading light</h2>
<p>The story of the star has long fascinated readers, both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004308473">ancient and modern</a>. Within the New Testament, it is found only in the Gospel of Matthew, a first-century account of Jesus’ life that begins with the story of his birth.</p>
<p>In this account, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A2&version=NRSV">wise men arrive in Jerusalem and say to Herod</a>, the king of Judea: “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage.” The <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A9&version=NRSV">star then leads them to Bethlehem</a> and stops over the house of Jesus and his family.</p>
<p>Many have read this story with the presupposition that Matthew must have been referencing an actual astronomical event that occurred around the time of Jesus’ birth. The astronomer <a href="https://www.michaelmolnar.com/">Michael R. Molnar</a>, for example, <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-star-of-bethlehem/9780813564715">has argued</a> that the Star of Bethlehem was an eclipse of Jupiter within the constellation Ares.</p>
<p>There are at least two issues involved in associating a specific event with Matthew’s star. The first is that scholars are not certain exactly when Jesus was born. The traditional date of his birth <a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/when-was-jesus-born-bc-or-ad/">may be off by as many as six years</a>.</p>
<p>The second is that measurable, predictable astronomical events occur with relative frequency. The quest to discover which event, if any, Matthew might have had in mind is therefore a complicated one.</p>
<h2>Beliefs about the star</h2>
<p>The theory that the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn may be the Star of Bethlehem is not new. It was proposed in the early 17th century by <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005AcMPS..45..115H/abstract">Johannes Kepler</a>, a German astronomer and mathematician. Kepler argued that this same planetary conjunction in or around 6 B.C. could have served as inspiration for Matthew’s story of the star.</p>
<p>Kepler was not the first to suggest that the Star of Bethlehem may have been a recognizable astronomical event. Four hundred years prior to Kepler, between 1303 and 1305, the Italian artist Giotto painted the star as a comet on the walls of the <a href="http://www.cappelladegliscrovegni.it/index.php/en/">Scrovegni Chapel</a> in Padua, Italy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Painting ‘Adoration of the Magi,’ by Giotto, showing the comet in Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Veneto, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/adoration-of-the-magi-by-giotto-detail-from-the-cycle-of-news-photo/170910688?adppopup=true">DEA / A. Dagli Orti/De Agostini via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82971-0_1">Scholars have suggested</a> that Giotto did this as an homage to Halley’s Comet, <a href="http://cometography.com/pcomets/001p.html">which astronomers have determined</a> was visible in 1301, on one of its regular flights past the Earth. Astronomers have also determined that Halley’s Comet <a href="http://cometography.com/pcomets/001p.html">passed by the Earth in or around 12 B.C.</a>, between five and 10 years before most scholars argue that Jesus was born. It is possible that Giotto believed Matthew was referencing Halley’s Comet in his story of the star.</p>
<p>Attempts to discover the identity of Matthew’s star are often creative and insightful, but I would argue that they are also misguided.</p>
<p>The star in Matthew’s story may not be a “normal” natural phenomenon, and Matthew suggests as much in the way that he describes it. Matthew says that the wise men come to Jerusalem “from the East.” The star <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A9&version=NRSV">then leads them to Bethlehem</a>, south of Jerusalem. The star therefore makes a sharp left turn. And astronomers <a href="http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/2014/02/ada388004.shtml">will agree</a> that stars do not make sharp turns.</p>
<p>Moreover, when the wise men arrive in Bethlehem, the star is low enough in the sky to lead them to a specific house. As physicist <a href="https://draaronadair.com/">Aaron Adair</a> <a href="http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/2014/02/ada388004.shtml">puts it</a>: “the Star is said to stop in place and hover over a particular lodging, acting as an ancient GPS unit.” The “description of the movements of the Star,” he noted, was “outside what is physically possible for any observable astronomical object.”</p>
<h2>Theological underpinning</h2>
<p>In short, there appears to be nothing “normal” or “natural” about the phenomenon that Matthew describes. Perhaps the point that Matthew is trying to make is a different one.</p>
<p>Matthew’s story of the star draws from a body of tradition in which stars are connected to rulers. The rising of a star signifies that a ruler has come to power. </p>
<p>In the biblical book of Numbers, for example, which dates to 5th century B.C., the prophet Balaam <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+24%3A17&version=NRSV">predicts the arrival</a> of a ruler who will defeat the enemies of Israel. “A star shall come out of Jacob, [meaning Israel]…it shall crush the borderlands of Moab.” </p>
<p>One of the most well-known examples of this tradition from antiquity is the so-called “Sidus Iulium,” or “Julian Star,” a comet that appeared a few months after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. Roman authors Suetonius and Pliny the Elder report that the comet was so bright that it was visible in the late afternoon, and that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/apa.2013.0010">many Romans interpreted the spectacle</a> as evidence that Julius Caesar was now a god.</p>
<p>In light of such traditions, I believe Matthew’s story of the star exists not to inform readers about a specific astronomical event, but to support claims that he is making about the character of Jesus.</p>
<p>Put another way, I argue that Matthew’s goal in telling this story is more theological than it is historical. </p>
<p>The upcoming conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is therefore likely not a return of the Star of Bethlehem, but Matthew would likely be pleased with the awe it inspires in those who anticipate it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Vanden Eykel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is giving rise to speculations that it is the same astronomical event as the biblical Star of Bethlehem. An expert explains why it is not.Eric Vanden Eykel, Associate Professor of Religion, Ferrum CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1483022020-10-23T12:23:33Z2020-10-23T12:23:33ZCOVID-19 has shone a light on the millennia-old balance between public and private worship<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364803/original/file-20201021-23-chzcse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=126%2C55%2C5154%2C3412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Religious services through Zoom: A pastor conducts online services from the basement of her home in Falls Church, Virginia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/reverend-sarah-scherschligt-pastor-at-the-peace-lutheran-news-photo/1213405399?adppopup=true">Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As religious services went online to protect congregants from the coronavirus, a paradox emerged: Worshipers were connected via the internet to a potentially wide community, but it felt like a more private affair.</p>
<p>Yes, such Zoom services are viewable by audiences worldwide. But this diverted attention, if not attendance, away from many small, local congregations struggling to survive. While <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/arts/quaker-meeting-zoom.html">many have liked this new format</a>, there has also been <a href="https://religionnews.com/2020/10/14/covid-synagogues-high-holy-days/">criticism</a>.</p>
<p>This is not the first time tensions between private worship and public expressions of religion have been felt. As a <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/jewishstudies/people/faculty/samuel-boyd">scholar</a> of the Bible, Judaism and Christianity, I am aware that even thousands of years ago <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/497586">private piety and public expressions</a> of religion existed in a delicate balance – one that is not a simple either/or proposition.</p>
<h2>Biblical roots</h2>
<p>Many cultures in antiquity incorporated elements of both private and public aspects of religion.</p>
<p>For example, in ancient <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/a-short-history-of-babylon-9781838601706/">Babylon</a>, approximately 3,800 years ago, private religious practices were conducted <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/248">in the household</a>. These religious practices were largely distinct from the publicly supported rituals that occurred in temples.</p>
<p>The Hebrew Bible also contains a mix of both public and private practices of religion. The texts have a number of examples of public expressions of faith alongside passages that have become foundational for personal prayers and expressions of individual religious devotion.</p>
<p>In the book of Leviticus, for example, the rituals of <a href="https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/book/the-story-of-sacrifice-9783161596360?no_cache=1">sacrifice</a> that took place in the temple are devoid of any personal prayers. </p>
<p>The high priest of ancient Israel makes a confession of sin for all of Israel at one point during one sacrifice, but this hardly counts as a personal prayer. Some rituals conducted at one of the temple altars, where a particular type of sacrifice called a burnt offering took place, were done in public view. </p>
<p>Yet moving expressions of personal piety also exist in the Psalms, a collection of poems in the Hebrew Bible. Many of these may have been <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Ancient_Israel/A42yVk8kj8kC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=psalms+as+ancient+liturgy&pg=PA458&printsec=frontcover">liturgical recitations</a> sung or recited at certain occasions and times of the year, such as at feasts and festivals in the religious calendar.</p>
<p>When Babylonians in 586 B.C. destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, the place where public sacrifices occurred, it sparked a <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/religious-responses-to-political-crises-in-jewish-and-christian-tradition-9780567028129/">crisis</a> that changed the way people worshiped. </p>
<p>According to religion scholar <a href="https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/sniditch">Susan Niditch</a>, the destruction of the temple, as the center of institutional religion, resulted in much more personal, private expressions of faith. </p>
<p>This shift toward personal religion happened as the population in Jerusalem, the capital of a land believed to have been given to Israel by God, was exiled to Babylon. </p>
<p>With the loss of the temple and the land, the former inhabitants of Jerusalem had to find new ways to worship. It had to take place without the public support of the temple. Additionally, this community no longer had their traditional family networks in the homeland. </p>
<h2>Practices in antiquity</h2>
<p>The shift to a more personal expression of religion continued with books like <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300162349/job">Job</a> and <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/jps/9780827607422/">Ecclesiastes</a> in the Hebrew Bible, which were written after these tragedies. These books are about the manner in which suffering happens to good people and about the difficulties of divine justice in the world.</p>
<p>Both Job and Ecclesiastes portray the agony of the sufferer in a first-person sort of narrative, infused with individual expressions. More than in previous writings from the Bible, these books highlight how an individual character in the book – Job or Qohelet in Ecclesiastes – struggles to understand why bad things happen in the world.</p>
<p>At the same time, being a part of the Hebrew Bible, Job and Ecclesiastes have shaped how religious groups have understood the relationship between individual suffering in the context of a community. When Jewish and Christian groups read these books, the interpretation of these texts shaped the communities as well. </p>
<p>When read in religious groups, these books are not simple stories of individuals but rather become narratives of virtue that inform religious congregations of what righteous suffering and profound questions can look like.</p>
<p>This tension between public and private expressions of religion continued into the first centuries B.C. and A.D. In these centuries, the Latin term “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo3644201.html">religio</a>,” from which came the English term “religion,” often referred to civic, public expressions of <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300216783/religion">ritual</a> in service to traditional Roman gods and goddesses. </p>
<p>During this same time, Jesus of Nazareth encouraged his followers to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206:5-6&version=NIV">pray in private</a> and not to make a public show of prayer. The latter might, according to Jesus, promote hypocrisy and lavish displays of religion meant to promote oneself instead of care for others. </p>
<h2>Prayers said in private rarely stay private</h2>
<p>However, personal reflection and concerns for communal identity were never far from each other. </p>
<p>The history of religions is replete with examples of individual, personal piety, offering alternative access to God from priestly, temple-based or church-based hierarchies. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A monk tends to a rose garden at Probota Monastery, Bukovina, Romania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/monk-tending-a-rose-garden-in-the-probota-monastery-news-photo/1131152567?adppopup=true">DEA / ALBERT CEOLAN / Contributor/De Agostini Collections via Getty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An example is <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-christian-monasticism-9780199689736?cc=us&lang=en&">monasticism in Christianity</a>, which often cultivates private prayer practices and meditation.</p>
<p>In each instance, however, private piety is typically connected in some fashion to community, such as <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/6588/the-lord-as-their-portion.aspx">orders</a> in monasticism. </p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1387834?seq=1">scholars of religion</a> as well as <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Religion-in-Public-and-Private-Life-Routledge-Revivals/Cochran/p/book/9781138791084">political scientists</a> have questioned any absolute divide between notions of a private, personalized religion and public expressions of faith.</p>
<p>The idea of a retreat of religion from public view into privatized experiences is never fully accomplished, nor, as some would argue, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/secularization-and-its-discontents-9781441127853/">possible</a>. </p>
<h2>Private practice and public sphere</h2>
<p>This history of how communities adapt to tragedy could help explain the tension today between public and private practice of religion. </p>
<p>The effects on smaller congregations is evident when individuals prefer a pick-and-choose menu of services worldwide, such as <a href="https://hhd.centralsynagogue.org/live-streaming">Central Synagogue’s</a> livestream service in New York, instead of engagement in local communities. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Even beyond religious communities, Zoom has made the expression of religion increasingly a private affair at the same moment that <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/13/white-christians-continue-to-favor-trump-over-biden-but-support-has-slipped/">the election</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/11/us/politics/amy-coney-barrett-life-career-family.html">the Supreme Court</a> hearings have thrust religion in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/04/opinion/letters/religion-politics.html">public sphere</a>. </p>
<p>It is worth remembering that whether historically or in the current era, one’s personal piety is never too far from the public sphere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148302/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel L. Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>During the pandemic, the practice of faith has moved to being a more personal one for many. A scholar of the Judeo-Christian tradition explains how tragedy often resulted in private piety.Samuel L. Boyd, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1443942020-08-27T12:26:01Z2020-08-27T12:26:01ZReligious tourism has been hit hard in the pandemic as sites close and pilgrimages are put on hold<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354447/original/file-20200824-16-4wt75l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5690%2C3787&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Only a handful of tourists at the usually busy St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tourists-walk-on-a-deserted-st-peters-square-at-the-vatican-news-photo/1205429335?adppopup=true">Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Religious tourism is among the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/016073839290106Y">oldest forms of planned travel</a> and to this day remains a huge industry.</p>
<p>About <a href="https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1219&context=ijrtp">300 to 330 million tourists</a> visit the world’s key religious sites every year, according to a 2017 estimate. Some 600 million national and international religious trips are made around the world, generating around <a href="https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1219&context=ijrtp">US$18 billion in global revenues</a>. It makes up a sizeable chunk of an overall tourism sector that has been significantly affected by the spread of the coroanvirus, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/global-tourism-industry-may-shrink-by-more-than-50-due-to-the-pandemic-134306">63.8% of travelers reducing their travel plans</a> as a result. </p>
<h2>A concern of all faiths</h2>
<p>As COVID-19 evolved to become a global pandemic, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20200316-virus-hit-iran-closes-four-key-religious-sites">governments across the globe closed sacred sites</a> and <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/coronavirus-thousands-of-muslims-in-limbo-as-saudi-arabia-bans-religious-pilgrimages">temporarily banned religious travel</a>.</p>
<p>It has affected popular destinations of all faiths. <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/jerusalem-deputy-mayor-tourism-not-enough-to-survive-coronavirus-crisis-637695">Jerusalem</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vatican-finances/coronavirus-drains-vatican-coffers-as-income-falls-deficits-loom-idUSKBN22P1OR">Vatican City</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/03/08/813384403/saudi-arabia-halts-international-travel-into-country-over-coronavirus-concerns">Mecca</a> – which attract millions of Jewish, Christian and Muslim visitors annually – are among the worst affected. </p>
<p>Likewise, Buddhist sites such as Nepal’s <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/mahabodhi-temple-shut/articleshow/74751494.cms">Lumbini Temple and India’s Mahabodhi Temple</a>, as well as the Hindu temple of <a href="http://www.newsonair.com/News?title=Number-of-devotees-visiting-Kashi-Vishwanath-temple-in-Varanasi-reduces-amid-Coronavirus-pandemic&id=391406">Kashi Vishwanath</a>, have seen a slump in visitors.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354467/original/file-20200824-16-1s1r9wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Mahabodhi temple in India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mahabodhi-temple-bodh-gaya-bihar-india-3rd-century-bc-news-photo/1095389794?adppopup=true">De Agostini Editorial/ Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This has had huge financial implications for the host countries.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/world/middleeast/pilgrims-hajj-mecca-coronavirus-pandemic.html">last year approximately 2.5 million Muslims</a> from around the world <a href="https://theconversation.com/explaining-the-muslim-pilgrimage-of-hajj-83284">performed the hajj</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738320300591">one of the five pillars of Islam</a>, with nearly 2 million coming from outside of Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/muslims-downsized-hajj-pilgrimage-coronavirus-pandemic-200729055254952.html">this year only around 10,000 people</a> were expected to do the pilgrimage while <a href="https://theconversation.com/hajj-cancellation-due-to-coronavirus-is-not-the-first-time-plague-has-disrupted-this-muslim-pilgrimage-135900">observing social distancing measures</a>.</p>
<p>The Saudi Kingdom usually earns $12 billion per year from the hajj and the Umrah – <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-fears-put-a-halt-to-the-muslim-pilgrimage-of-umrah-but-not-yet-the-hajj-132943">a minor pilgrimage</a> that can be done anytime during the year. </p>
<p>The pilgrimages are seen as a way to diversify the economy from being reliant on the oil sector. Year-round religious visits contributes to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabia-hajj-cancellation-spells-frustration-and-empty-pockets/a-54064035">20% of the kingdom’s nonoil GDP</a> and around 7% of the total GDP. </p>
<p>The Saudi Kingdom’s economy is already <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-hajj-mecca-pilgrims.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article">reeling from the impact of low oil prices</a>, which have led to a budget deficit. It is <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabia-hajj-cancellation-spells-frustration-and-empty-pockets/a-54064035">expected to shrink by 6.8%</a> in 2020.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Religion and revenues</h2>
<p>Saudi Arabia is far from alone. Jordan, which hosts <a href="https://www.jordanprivatetours.net/jordan-tours/jordan-news/number-of-overnight-religious-tourists-increases.html">35 Islamic sites and shrines and 34 Christian holy sites</a>, has closed its borders because of COVID-19. Tourism accounts for about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/15/ghosts-replace-crowds-as-covid-19-rattles-jordans-ancient-city-of-petra">15% of the country’s GDP</a> and sustains an estimated 55,000 jobs. </p>
<p>Last year more than 1 million travelers visited Wadi Musa, the Jordanian Valley of Moses – an important site where Moses is said to have produced water from a rock. Up to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/15/ghosts-replace-crowds-as-covid-19-rattles-jordans-ancient-city-of-petra">80% of people’s income in the area relies on tourism</a>.</p>
<p>Tourism revenues in Jordan dropped by <a href="https://insidearabia.com/life-relaunched-in-jordan-after-costly-lockdown/">10.7% to $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2020</a> as the pandemic spread.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354448/original/file-20200824-14-ni4u33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social distancing around the Kaaba in Mecca during this year’s hajj.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/muslim-pilgrims-circumambulate-around-the-kaaba-islams-news-photo/1227881216?adppopup=true">STR/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is a similar story across the Middle East. </p>
<p>In Iran, only <a href="https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/450692/Coronavirus-cuts-tourists-visiting-Yazd-by-99">20,000 domestic tourists and 66 foreign tourists visited Yazd</a> – a UNESCO world heritage site that dates back to A.D. 224 – between March and June 2020. The site is a holy place for followers of Islam, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. The number of tourists this year represents <a href="https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/450692/Coronavirus-cuts-tourists-visiting-Yazd-by-99">just 1% of the figure for the previous year</a>.</p>
<p>In June, just 5,800 people visited Israel, a religiously important destination for Christians, Muslims and Jews alike, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/.premium-how-to-rescue-israeli-tourism-from-a-fatal-virus-1.8994193">compared to 365,000 for the same month in 2019</a>. It is expected that the pandemic will result in a <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/coronavirus-israels-tourism-industry-faces-its-fiercest-battle-620798">$1.16 billion damage to the country’s tourism industry</a>, according to the Israel Hotel Association.</p>
<p>For some prominent individual sites of pilgrimage, the loss of revenue has been devastating – and it is an experience shared across the globe.</p>
<p>Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in France usually welcomes up to 5 million visitors every year. But in order to curtail the spread in France, the shrine closed, <a href="https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2020/07/july-16-virtual-pilgrimage-to-lourdes-to-affirm-prayer-against-covid-19/">offering only virtual pilgrimages</a>. It has reportedly resulted in a deficit of <a href="https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2020/07/july-16-virtual-pilgrimage-to-lourdes-to-affirm-prayer-against-covid-19/">$9.06 million</a> for the sanctuary. </p>
<p>Many places of pilgrimage support a whole industry in travel, transport and accommodation, and all that has taken a hit.</p>
<p>For the entire travel industry, this unprecedented crisis has resulted in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/06/coronavirus-pandemics-impact-on-travel-tourism-in-5-charts.html">a $2.7 trillion drop in revenue and job losses in excess of 100 million</a> in 2020. The United Nations World Tourism Organization estimates that for the year, international arrivals will be <a href="https://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ditcinf2020d3_en.pdf">down by between 850 million to 1.1 billion</a>, depending on when borders fully reopen.</p>
<h2>Spiritual well-being</h2>
<p>And it isn’t just about the financial hit. Uncertainty and anxiety related to COVID-19 also affects people’s <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30347-3/fulltext">psychological and mental health</a>. Many people indulge in religious tourism for reasons of spiritual comfort or to pray for forgiveness or salvation.</p>
<p>For others it is a way to <a href="https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1219&context=ijrtp">demonstrate their devotion to a faith</a>. In some religions, there is a belief that all individuals who are healthy and financially able to should undertake a journey to their respective holy sites at least once in their lifetime. This is true, for example, for Muslims and participation in the hajj.</p>
<p>As such, people may have put away savings their entire life and planned for years for such a trip. Having to abandon these plans due to travel restrictions or the closure of religious sites can be particularly distressing.</p>
<p>Government <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2020/07/27/why-governments-are-paying-people-to-go-on-holiday">subsidies and relief packages</a>, along with the implementation of comprehensive safety and recovery measures, can help <a href="https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/consumer-markets/library/how-to-restore-confidence-in-travel-during-covid-19.html">revive customer trust</a> and lead to increased travel.</p>
<p>But as scholars of the travel industry, we do believe that due to the ongoing travel restrictions and a slump in confidence in travel amid the pandemic, countries with a heavy reliance on tourism will likely continue to face challenges. And the uncertainty and possibility of newer waves of virus may further dent the tourism industry, including religious travel.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144394/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As religious sites put pilgrimages on hold, a whole industry in travel, transport and accommodation takes a hit.Faizan Ali, Assistant Professor of Hospitality and Tourism, University of South FloridaCihan Cobanoglu, Professor of Hospitality and Tourism, University of South FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1435182020-08-10T12:08:09Z2020-08-10T12:08:09ZAs coronavirus curtails travel, backyard pilgrimages become the way to a spiritual journey<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351378/original/file-20200805-16-r85hkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C22%2C2073%2C1387&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">COVID-19 is changing how people go on pilgrimages.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-wearing-mask-and-gloves-praying-to-god-due-to-royalty-free-image/1241966464?adppopup=true">conceptual,fashion,advertising/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many major religious pilgrimages have been canceled or curtailed in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. These have included the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/world/middleeast/hajj-pilgrimage-canceled.html">Hajj</a>, a religious milestone for Muslims the world over; the Hindu pilgrimage, known as the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-india/india-cancels-historic-hindu-pilgrimage-as-coronavirus-cases-mount-idUSKCN24N14P">Amarnath Yatra</a> high in the mountains of Kashmir; and <a href="https://www.orderofmalta.int/2020/03/12/coronavirus-cancelled-the-62nd-pilgrimage-to-lourdes-and-all-international-conferences/">pilgrimages to Lourdes</a> in France. </p>
<p>Pilgrims have faced travel delays and cancellations for centuries. Reasons ranged from financial hardship and agricultural responsibilities to what is now all too familiar to modern-day pilgrims – plague or ill health. </p>
<p>Then, as now, one strategy has been to bring the pilgrimage home or into the religious community. </p>
<h2>Journey of a thousand miles</h2>
<p>Pilgrimage can be an interior or outward journey and while <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003043429">individual motivations may vary</a>, it can be an act of religious devotion or a way to seek closeness with the divine. </p>
<p>Through the centuries and across cultures, those who longed to go on a sacred journey would find <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1594960?seq=1">alternative ways to do so</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351380/original/file-20200805-493-hbblof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map of Jerusalem. Tracing a map could be a way to a pilgrimage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/Brussels_map_of_Jerusalem.jpg/1024px-Brussels_map_of_Jerusalem.jpg">Maps of Jerusalem</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reading travel narratives, tracing a map with the finger or eye, or <a href="https://www.britishmuseumshoponline.org/matter-of-faith-an-interdisciplinary-study-of-relics-and-relic-veneration-in-the-medieval-period.html">holding a souvenir</a> brought back from a sacred site helped facilitate a real sense of travel for the homebound pilgrim. Through these visual or material aids, people felt as though they, too, were having a pilgrimage experience, and even connecting with others. </p>
<p>One such example is the story of the Dominican friar Felix Fabri, who was known for recording his own pilgrimages in various formats, some geared toward the laity and some for his brothers. </p>
<p>Fabri was approached in the 1490s by a group of cloistered nuns, meaning that they had professed vows to lead a contemplative life in the quietude of their community. They desired a <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/261870/pdf">devotional exercise</a> so they could receive the spiritual benefits of pilgrimage without having to break their promise of a life that was sheltered from the outside world.</p>
<p>He produced “Die Sionpilger,” a virtual pilgrimage in the form of a day-to-day guidebook to Santiago de Compostela, Jerusalem and Rome. In these cities, pilgrims would encounter sites and scenes associated with many facets of their religion: shrines to honor Jesus and the saints, relics, great cathedrals and sacred landscapes associated with miraculous events and stories. </p>
<p>Fabri’s guidebook sent the pilgrim on an imaginative journey of a thousand miles, without having to take a single step. </p>
<h2>DIY pilgrimages</h2>
<p>My current <a href="https://carepackagegtu.wordpress.com/2020/07/01/spotlight-barush/">book project</a> shows that from Lourdes to South Africa, from Jerusalem to England, from Ecuador to California, DIY pilgrimages are not just a medieval phenomenon. One such example is Phil Volker’s backyard Camino.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351376/original/file-20200805-22-1896ij2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Phil’s Camino.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kathryn Barush</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Volker is a 72-year-old father and now grandfather, woodworker and veteran who mapped the Camino de Santiago onto his backyard in Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest. Volker prays the rosary as he walks: for those who have been impacted by the pandemic, his family, his neighbors, the world. </p>
<p>After a cancer diagnosis in 2013, a few things came together to inspire Volker to build a backyard Camino, including the film “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/movies/the-way-directed-by-emilio-estevez-review.html">The Way</a>,” a pocket-sized book of meditations, “<a href="https://annieoneil.com/">Everyday Camino With Annie</a>” by Annie O'Neil and <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo5974687.html">the story of Eratosthenes</a>, the Greek polymath from the second century B.C. who figured out a way to measure the circumference of the Earth using the Sun, a stick and a well.</p>
<p>“For me, this guy was the grand godfather of do-it-yourselfers. How can someone pull off this kind of a caper with things at hand in his own backyard? It got me thinking, what else can come out of one’s backyard?,” he told me.</p>
<p>Volker began walking a circuitous route around his 10-acre property on Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest. It was a chance to exercise, which his doctors had encouraged, but also created a space to think and pray. </p>
<p>Each lap around the property is just over a half-mile. Realizing that he was covering quite a distance, he found a map of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route to track his progress, calculating that 909 laps would get him from St. Jean Pied-de-Port to the Cathedral of St. James. </p>
<p>To date, Volker has completed three 500-mile Caminos without leaving his backyard. </p>
<p>Thanks to a <a href="http://philscamino.com">documentary film</a>, Volker’s <a href="http://caminoheads.com">daily blog</a> and an <a href="https://www.nwcatholic.org/features/nw-stories/vashon-camino-pilgrimage">article</a> in the magazine “Northwest Catholic,” the backyard Camino has attracted many visitors, some simply curious but many who are seeking healing and solace.</p>
<h2>Pilgrimage and remembrance</h2>
<p>The story of Volker’s backyard Camino inspired Sara Postlethwaite, a sister of the Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity, to map <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/travel/ireland/go-walk-st-kevin-s-way-co-wicklow-1.553577">St. Kevin’s Way</a>, a 19-mile pilgrimage route in County Wicklow, Ireland onto a series of daily 1.5-mile circuits in Daly City, California.</p>
<p>The route rambles along roads and countryside from Hollywood to the ruins of the monastery that St. Kevin, a sixth-century abbot, had founded in Glendalough. Postlethwaite had intended to travel back to her native Ireland in the spring of 2020 to walk the route in person, but due to pandemic-related travel restrictions, she brought the pilgrimage to her home in Daly City. </p>
<p>Every so often, Postlethwaite would check in on Google Maps to see where she was along the Irish route, pivoting the camera to see surrounding trees or, at one point, finding herself in the center of an old stone circle.</p>
<p>Several joined Postlethwaite’s walk in solidarity, both in the U.S. and overseas. </p>
<p>After each day’s walk, she paused at the shed at her community house, where she had drawn a to-scale version of the Market Cross at Glendalough.</p>
<p>As Postlethwaite traced the intersecting knots, circles and image of the crucified Christ with her chalk, she reflected not just on the suffering caused by the pandemic but also about issues of racism, justice and privilege. In particular, she remembered <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-georgia.html">Ahmaud Arbery</a>, a Black jogger shot by two white men in a fatal confrontation in February 2020. She inscribed his name on the chalk cross. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351379/original/file-20200805-18-xa59ft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maggie Preston’s chalk labyrinth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maggie Preston</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For Berkeley-based artist <a href="https://www.maggiepreston.com">Maggie Preston</a>, a DIY chalk labyrinth on the street outside her house became a way to connect with her neighbors and her three-year-old son. There is a link here with the medieval strategies for bringing longer pilgrimages into the church or community. <a href="https://www.luc.edu/medieval/labyrinths/imaginary_pilgrimage.shtml">Scholars have suggested</a> that labyrinths may have been based on maps of Jerusalem, providing a scaled-down version of a much longer pilgrimage route. </p>
<p>They started out by chalking in the places they could no longer go – the aquarium, the zoo, a train journey – and then created a simple labyrinth formed by a continuous path in seven half-circles.</p>
<p>“A labyrinth gave us a greater destination, not just somewhere to imagine going, but a circuitous path to literally travel with our feet,” she told me.</p>
<p>As neighbors discovered the labyrinth, it began to create a genuine sense of community akin to that which many seek to find when they embark on a much longer pilgrimage.</p>
<h2>‘Relearn to pretend’</h2>
<p>Volker’s cancer has progressed to stage IV and he celebrated his 100th chemo treatment back in 2017, but he is still walking and praying on a regular basis. He offers the following advice: </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350032/original/file-20200728-17-4ihi80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An aerial view of Volker’s backyard and map by Volker, from the film ‘Phil’s Camino,’ directed by Annie O'Neil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Annie O'Neil's documentary</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“For folks starting their own backyard Camino I think that creating the myth is the most important consideration. Study maps, learn to pronounce the names of the towns, walk in the dust and the mud, be out there in the rain, drink their wine and eat their food, relearn to pretend.” </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Barush is affiliated with British Pilgrimage Trust. </span></em></p>The pandemic has inspired new forms of pilgrimages – some do-it-yourself, in which people are walking in their backyards or nearby spaces and finding meaning.Kathryn Barush, Chair and Associate Professor of Art History and Religion, Graduate Theological UnionLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1358882020-04-07T17:29:17Z2020-04-07T17:29:17ZA virtual Passover may be the first for many, but Judaism has a long history of ritual innovation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326157/original/file-20200407-151930-1l1iyyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C71%2C3928%2C2580&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As workers make matzo for Passover, many families will not be able to get together this year.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/workers-making-matzah-for-passover-at-matzot-aviv-factory-news-photo/1217341643?adppopup=true">Guy Prives/Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the globe, it is affecting how families celebrate important religious events such as <a href="https://kjzz.org/content/1501181/how-coronavirus-affecting-ramadan-passover-and-easter-valley">Easter, Passover and Ramadan</a>, which would normally involve the gathering of families.</p>
<p>For example, in Judaism, Passover, which commemorates the <a href="http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/3747/1/Assmann_Exodus_and_Memory_2015.pdf">exodus</a> of the Israelites from Egypt, involves younger and older generations dramatizing the events of slavery in Egypt and the recitation of a liturgy called the “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691144986/the-passover-haggadah">Passover Haggadah</a>.”</p>
<p>The recitation of certain <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/coronavirus-religious-holidays-april_n_5e85f2a4c5b60bbd73507479?ri18n=true&guccounter=1">communal prayers</a> at Passover, like many other ritual celebrations in some orthodox Jewish communities, involves a <a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10865-minyan">minyan</a>, or a quorum of 10, traditionally male, participants. Highly interactive Passover meals, or Seders, include games for children, such as finding the <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-where-does-the-afikoman-come-from-1.5342866">afikomen</a>, part of an unleavened wafer that is hidden, the discovery of which is often rewarded with a prize.</p>
<p>Since many families cannot gather in person, leaders of congregations have said that being in the same “<a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/orthodox-tel-aviv-synagogue-begins-virtual-online-prayer-services-621427">place</a>” according to the traditional understanding can accommodate virtual presence. Some of the Passover Seder traditions are occurring through videoconferencing tools such as <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alywalansky/2020/04/02/this-night-is-different-from-other-nights-planning-a-virtual-passover-seder/#478b88fa76c2">Zoom</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/rlst/samuel-boyd">historian of the Bible</a>, I know <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/post-holocaustamericanjudaismcollections/embodied-judaism/freedom-seder">Passover</a> has long been a platform for <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/04/04/397323302/in-freedom-seder-jews-and-african-americans-built-a-tradition-together">ritual innovation</a>. A particularly important example of a similar sort of ritual innovation occurred when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, twice. </p>
<p>Following the destruction, the way that Jewish communities worshiped God changed forever.</p>
<h2>Temple worship</h2>
<p>The temple in Jerusalem occupies an important place in both <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300197884/temple-early-christianity">Jewish and Christian</a> thought. David, the king of Israel who ruled from around 1010 to 970 B.C., is said to have first envisioned the temple. It was, however, built by his son <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/David-and-Solomon/Israel-Finkelstein/9780743243636">Solomon</a>. </p>
<p>The temple played a central role in ancient Israelite worship. According to the Bible, the temple in Jerusalem was where God <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300209228/where-gods-are">lived</a>. The belief was that as long as God remained in Jerusalem, the city would be indestructible. </p>
<p>In 701 B.C., a king named Sennacherib tried to invade Jerusalem but was unsuccessful. The military campaign devastated the surrounding villages, but Jerusalem survived. According to some biblical texts, God had chosen the temple as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3264697">special place to dwell</a>.</p>
<p>Sacrifices were performed in the temple to ensure that God stayed forever in Jerusalem. The belief was that the sacrifices provided <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/blood-ritual-hebrew-bible">food for God</a>. </p>
<p>The blood from the sacrifices was also <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44088340">intended as a purge</a>. It was believed that sinful actions of Israelites could travel through the air, generating a stain, called a “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3268524">miasma</a>.” </p>
<p>This stain was believed to stick to various parts of the temple. According to the Book of Leviticus, in the Old Testament, the more important the person in Israelite society committing the sin, the closer the stain would land to the place where God was believed to have lived, called the “Holy of Holies.” </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-101-6.html">blood of sacrifices</a> was applied to these places, making God’s dwelling clean and tidy.</p>
<p>As such, these sacrifices were designed to keep God happy and they were essential to maintaining order in the divine dwelling.</p>
<h2>Religious reordering</h2>
<p>Except that the biblical texts claim that God did not stay in the temple forever. According to the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible, God became unhappy with the state of affairs in Jerusalem and <a href="https://secure.aidcvt.com/sbl/ProdDetails.asp?ID=060709P&PG=1&Type=BL&PCS=SBL">abandoned</a> the temple.</p>
<p>Following the <a href="https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-041-5.html">divine abandonment</a> Jerusalem was no longer indestructible. In <a href="https://secure.aidcvt.com/sbl/ProdDetails.asp?ID=061718P">586 B.C.</a>, Nebuchadnezzar, a Babylonian king, conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.</p>
<p>The temple was rebuilt around 515 B.C. But this “<a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/jps/9780827612655/">Second Temple</a>” too was destroyed, this time by the Romans in A.D. 70. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Model of Jerusalem in the late Second Temple period.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/9508280@N07/5540487348/">Dan Lundberg/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This destruction left Jewish leaders with profound questions. Without a temple, they asked, how could people access God and <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520295926/blood-for-thought">offer sacrifices</a>? </p>
<p>Another vital question before them was: How were these Jewish communities to relate to God, particularly in view of the commands of sacrifice in the Bible, when the temple was gone? </p>
<h2>Ritual innovation</h2>
<p>Religious texts were believed to hold answers for <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674791510">why</a> these disasters occurred. </p>
<p>According to the scholar <a href="https://www.jameskugel.com/">James Kugel</a>, Jewish prophets and sages explained that these events were “God’s punishment” for the failure to “obey the divine laws.” </p>
<p>As a result, those who survived were “resolved to learn the lesson of history” by studying ancient texts and performing the laws as God intended. In this way, it was believed, they would find “favor with God” and “head off another disaster,” according to Kugel.</p>
<p>Other scholars, such as <a href="https://history.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/balberg.html">Mira Balberg</a> and <a href="https://nelc.uchicago.edu/simeon-chavel">Simeon Chavel</a>, have argued that the same biblical texts were also thought to contain the key for constructing <a href="https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/10.13109/jaju.2017.8.3.292">new religious ideas</a>. In fact, these texts gave license for ritual innovation in light of changing historical circumstances. </p>
<p>Such innovations were often, though not always, grounded in sacred texts and traditions. That way they had a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/deuteronomy-and-the-hermeneutics-of-legal-innovation-9780195112801?cc=us&lang=en&">continuity with the past</a>. </p>
<h2>Adapting to change</h2>
<p>It was through this process that prayer in the Jewish tradition came to be seen as a form of sacrifice. </p>
<p>Both the act of sacrifice and prayer <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/21948">connected</a> the divine and human realms. Some passages in the Bible made the connection explicit.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.wjkbooks.com/Products/0664239048/from-the-maccabees-to-the-mishnah-third-edition.aspx">Psalm 141:2</a>, which says, “Take my prayer as an offering of incense, my upraised hands as an evening sacrifice,” drew similarities between prayer and sacrifice. So did another book in the Bible – <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/627?lang=en">Hosea 14:3</a>, which says, “Instead of bulls we will pay the offering of our lips.” </p>
<p>The verses even put prayer and sacrifice in parallel poetic lines as a way to almost equate the actions. </p>
<p>In fact, the prayer in Judaism known as the “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300106282/ancient-synagogue">Amidah</a>” was conceived as a substitute for sacrifice very shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FyCL2UYYHTs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Reciting the Amidah.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The destruction of the temple created unimaginable crises in the religious sensibilities of ancient Jews, but also became a platform to reimagine how religious ritual worked. </p>
<p>The ability for modern religious communities to adapt and <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ritual-gone-wrong-9780199790920?cc=us&lang=en&">innovate</a> rituals in light of circumstances, then, has deep and very <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/how-repentance-became-biblical-9780190212247?cc=us&lang=en&">productive roots</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p><em>This is an <a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-communities-are-offering-baptism-by-zoom-such-innovation-has-deep-historical-roots-134183">updated version</a> of a piece first published on March 24, 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel L. Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some of the Passover Seder traditions are occurring through Zoom this year. A historian of the Bible explains how ancient Israelites changed the ways of their worship.Samuel L. Boyd, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1347302020-03-30T12:15:54Z2020-03-30T12:15:54ZWhat early Christian communities tell us about giving financial aid at a time of crises<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323663/original/file-20200327-146662-fsh230.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=37%2C13%2C1176%2C916&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Apostle Paul and his followers collected aid, likely for early Christians.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giovanni_Paolo_Pannini_-_Apostle_Paul_Preaching_on_the_Ruins_-_WGA16977.jpg">Giovanni Paolo Panini /Hermitage Museum via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sometime in the late second century A.D., Christians in the city of Rome <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.ix.xxiii.html">organized</a> a collection to send to the followers of Jesus in the city of Corinth. </p>
<p>Modern-day scholars don’t know what the crisis was that prompted the donation – it could have been a plague or a famine. What they do know from fragments of a letter sent by the Corinthian bishop, Dionysios, is that a large sum of money was shipped to Corinth.</p>
<p>As a scholar of early Christianity, I have <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/assembling-early-christianity/1DF721088E8AAC0B8CB76FD099DA891D">written</a> about this act of generosity. At a time when countries across the globe are struggling to fight the coronavirus and its economic impact, I argue modern society could learn from the actions of these early Christians. </p>
<h2>Sharing resources</h2>
<p>Some of the earliest Christian texts, written in the first and second centuries A.D., even before the time of Dionysios, show evidence for the pooling of economic resources. </p>
<p>The letters of the apostle Paul, written during the first century, are among the earliest sources for Christian life. These letters <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=452249498">frequently</a> <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=452249533">discuss</a> aid that Paul and his followers collected in Greece and Turkey. The aid was intended for the “saints” in Jerusalem – likely a group of early followers of Jesus. </p>
<p>Paul <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=452249570">says in his letters</a> that the purpose of the aid was to “remember the poor” in Jerusalem. </p>
<p>Scholars debate whether Paul hoped to help a community in financial need or to show Jewish followers of Jesus in Jerusalem that Paul’s gentile converts were real members of the Jesus movement. </p>
<p>Paul got contributions from multiple cities and regions. But this was the exception rather than the rule. The pooling of resources and their use among the early Christians were generally <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/9872/pdf">directed locally</a>. </p>
<p>Later literary evidence provides many examples of local charity.</p>
<p>The second-century “Acts of the Apostles,” which provides a history of the early church, contains legends about Jesus’ apostles shortly after his death. One such <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=452249815">story</a> describes how Jesus’ followers organized a commune in Jerusalem soon after his death. Members relinquished property rights and shared everything in common. </p>
<p>Similarly, the “Pastoral Epistles,” a collection of letters from the second century, <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=452250761">speak of a fund</a> that entitled widows, provided they were over 60 and had no other family to support them, to financial support from the community.</p>
<p>Two texts written by Roman Christians in the second century, the “<a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/shepherd-lightfoot.html">Shepherd of Hermas</a>” and the “<a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-firstapology.html">First Apology</a>” of Justin Martyr, a Christian philosopher, show that local groups in the city collected offerings from their members that could be used for the common good.</p>
<p><a href="http://philipharland.com/greco-roman-associations/">Literature</a> from this period shows that local, organized groups were common in ancient cities, ranging from burial societies, to guilds, to devotees of particular gods. Members of these groups paid dues that helped to fund burials, communal meals and other social activities. </p>
<p>These groups provided community, but also helped to manage risk.</p>
<h2>A collection for Corinth</h2>
<p>By the end of the second century, a network of Christian groups in Rome had begun directing some of their local capital toward non-local needs. This included helping Christians who had been sent to the mines, which may have been linked to persecution of Christian communities.</p>
<p>This network also <a href="https://www.fortresspress.com/store/product/9780800627027/From-Paul-to-Valentinus-Christians-at-Rome-in-the-First-Two-Centuries">provided</a> financial support for impoverished Christian groups in other cities. </p>
<p>Dionysios wrote a number of letters to Christian communities in the eastern Mediterranean regarding matters relating to theology, sexual practice and persecution of Christians. Fragments of these letters survive in the <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.ix.xxiii.html">accounts</a> of Eusebius, a fourth-century Christian historian. </p>
<p>Dionysios’ letter to the Romans mentions the financial aid that was collected in Rome and sent to Corinth.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ruins of Corinth show that there might have been a plague or another disaster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rmarksphotography/1633314880/in/photolist-3ukaBo-a84HcQ-3ufPFZ-3ukh2m-QdkaQy-YU3aJj-3ukjoQ-29pmw5J-DvbLxv-2caRbLg-LALFPt-5msJdk-2T3sfc-MqKg24-a81QPv-2T7ca1-2T7T4U-29pmrNY-qbWcHv-2T7SBQ-M77BsL-29pmqAs-Q2LM5E-My78aH-qBzNNw-2caR1XD-2caRdFZ-2pEHz9-2b4UcV1-29pmpPY-29pmrmW-NpF87P-M77XEu-Gp9g4x-M77ZaU-My7CxF-5xMQjq-Mv2KFY-NpFbMp-My7pDp-Q2LKjW-MqKuNH-2caR8jr-21hUxch-My7kF4-2caR9GB-2c6o7JN-29pmrb5-My7Jh6-2aM74Lp">bighornplateau1/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Archaeological <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/assembling-early-christianity/1DF721088E8AAC0B8CB76FD099DA891D">remains</a> from Corinth around this time speak to a heightened concern over health. During this period, healing deities appeared for the first time on local Corinthian coinage. It was during this time that the first inscriptions honoring doctors appeared.</p>
<p>There may have been fears of a plague, or an economic downturn in the city. The archaeological record indicates a marked drop in imports to the city at this time. Regardless of the cause, Corinth’s Christian community found itself in trouble. </p>
<p>When a network of Christians in Rome learned about the situation in Corinth, a local leader named Soter organized a collection to provide aid, according to Dionysios. Thanking the Romans for their gift, Dionysios <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.ix.xxiii.html">speaks</a> about how the gift was part of a longer tradition in this network of Roman Christians: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“For from the beginning this has been a custom for you, always acting as a benefactor to siblings in various ways and sending financial support to many assemblies in every city, thus relieving the need of those in want and supplying additional help to the siblings who are in the mines.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A network of support</h2>
<p>This story offers a window into an early shift occurring within some forms of early Christianity. </p>
<p>While early Christians had formed networks that provided for hospitality and the sharing of news, ideas, and texts, sharing money was definitely not the norm in the second century. </p>
<p>For example, news, ideas and texts moved through the network of <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/ignatius.html">Ignatius of Antioch</a>, the bishop of Antioch in the middle of the second century. However, despite the fact that the community in Antioch was experiencing distress, financial help was not offered.</p>
<p>Dionysios’ letter is an indication of how some early Christian networks had begun to grow extensive and stable enough to direct their resources both to local and non-local needs. </p>
<p>Further, this could happen because members of this network of Christian associations thought of themselves as “siblings,” as family. Sibling – or, in Greek, “adelphos” - was the name most frequently used by Christians for members of their associations.</p>
<h2>Christians and crises</h2>
<p>This impulse to channel care into the wider world during a crisis appears to stands in sharp contrast to how a few high-profile American Christians reacted early in the coronavirus pandemic, and as time considered.</p>
<p>Jerry Falwell Jr., a prominent evangelical leader and then-president of Liberty University, was <a href="https://www.ktvu.com/news/criticism-mounts-after-liberty-universitys-jerry-falwell-jr-welcomes-back-students-amid-coronavirus-outbreak">heavily criticized</a> after announcing that <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/briannasacks/coronavirus-liberty-university-jerry-falwell">students would be allowed to return to campus</a>. He’s said the concerns about the virus are <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/briannasacks/coronavirus-liberty-university-jerry-falwell">overblown</a>. </p>
<p>Conservative political commentator, Glenn Beck, who has <a href="https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/journeys-faith-paula-faris-glenn-beck-mormon-faith-63341070">spoken often of his faith</a>, urged the government not to sacrifice the economy for the sake of protecting the vulnerable, elderly, and immunocompromised. </p>
<p>[<em>Interested in science headlines but not politics? Or just politics or religion?</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-interested">The Conversation has newsletters to suit your interests</a>.]</p>
<p>On his March 24, 2020 radio show, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/03/25/coronavirus-glenn-beck-trump/">Beck said</a>, “I would rather have my children stay home and all of us who are over 50 go in and keep this economy going and working even if we all get sick. I’d rather die than kill the country. ’Cause it’s not the economy that’s dying, it’s the country.”</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/19/most-white-evangelicals-satisfied-with-trumps-initial-response-to-the-covid-19-outbreak/">polling</a> by the Pew Research Center released on March 19, 2020, a majority of white evangelicals believe “that the crisis has been blown out of proportion by the media.” </p>
<p>This stands in contrast to the impulse among some early Christians, and, no doubt, many modern Christians as well. In times of crisis, they sought to connect and share.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cavan W. Concannon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the late second century, some Christian groups in Rome began directing financial aid toward people living in another city, who were going through a crisis. That act of giving has lessons for today.Cavan W. Concannon, Associate Professor of Religion, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1341832020-03-24T12:12:51Z2020-03-24T12:12:51ZReligious communities are offering baptism by Zoom – such innovation has deep historical roots<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322413/original/file-20200323-112657-1al6vfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C16%2C1017%2C662&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the German town Winterbach, Catholic Church services are being streamed through YouTube. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/march-2020-baden-wuerttemberg-winterbach-monitors-stand-in-news-photo/1207944166?adppopup=true">Sebastian Gollnow/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The coronavirus pandemic is forcing entire countries to rethink deeply-held social norms. Faith leaders are coming up with new ways to reach their communities, with many turning to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/places-of-worship-try-to-keep-the-faith-during-the-covid-19-pandemic">online platforms</a> to perform rituals. </p>
<p>Among the services being offered via new technology are some of the most fundamental customs, or rituals, such as baptism. <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199659067.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199659067">This ritual</a> in Christianity normally involves either sprinkling or immersion in water and signals a special connection between the baptized individual, God and the religious community.</p>
<p>Some churches are now offering <a href="https://patch.com/district-columbia/georgetown/church-online-service-communion-no-collection-yes">Zoom sessions</a> in which a priest or pastor virtually places water on an individual.</p>
<p>This might seem surprising to those who believe that religious rituals are unchanging or frozen reflections of past practice.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/rlst/samuel-boyd">historian of the Bible</a>, I know that religious rituals have always evolved <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/biblical-interpretation-in-ancient-israel-9780198266990?cc=us&lang=en&">in the face of changing circumstances</a>. A particularly important example of this change occurred when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, twice. </p>
<p>Following the destruction, the way that Jewish communities worshiped God changed forever.</p>
<h2>Temple worship</h2>
<p>The temple in Jerusalem occupies an important place in both <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300197884/temple-early-christianity">Jewish and Christian</a> thought. David, the King of Israel who ruled from around 1010 to 970 B.C., is said to have first envisioned the temple. It was, however, built by his son <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/David-and-Solomon/Israel-Finkelstein/9780743243636">Solomon</a>. </p>
<p>The temple played a central role in ancient Israelite worship. According to the Bible, the temple in Jerusalem was where God <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300209228/where-gods-are">lived</a>. The belief was that as long as God remained in Jerusalem, the city would be indestructible. </p>
<p>In 701 B.C., a king named Sennacherib tried to invade Jerusalem but was unsuccessful. The military campaign devastated the surrounding villages, but Jerusalem survived. According to some biblical texts, God had chosen the temple as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3264697">special place to dwell</a>.</p>
<p>Sacrifices were performed in the temple to ensure that God stayed forever in Jerusalem. The belief was that the sacrifices provided <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/blood-ritual-hebrew-bible">food for God</a>. </p>
<p>The blood from the sacrifices was also <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44088340">intended as a purge</a>. It was believed that sinful actions of Israelites could travel through the air, generating a stain, called a “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3268524">miasma</a>.” </p>
<p>This stain was believed to stick to various parts of the temple. According to the Book of Leviticus, in the Old Testament, the more important the person in Israelite society committing the sin, the closer the stain would land to the place where God was believed to have lived, called the “Holy of Holies.” </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-101-6.html">blood of sacrifices</a> was applied to these places, making God’s dwelling clean and tidy.</p>
<p>As such, these sacrifices were designed to keep God happy and they were essential to maintaining order in the divine dwelling.</p>
<h2>Religious reordering</h2>
<p>Except that the biblical texts claim that God did not stay in the temple forever. According to the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible, God became unhappy with the state of affairs in Jerusalem and <a href="https://secure.aidcvt.com/sbl/ProdDetails.asp?ID=060709P&PG=1&Type=BL&PCS=SBL">abandoned</a> the temple.</p>
<p>Following the <a href="https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-041-5.html">divine abandonment</a> Jerusalem was no longer indestructible. In <a href="https://secure.aidcvt.com/sbl/ProdDetails.asp?ID=061718P">586 B.C.</a>, Nebuchadnezzar, a Babylonian king, conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.</p>
<p>The temple was rebuilt around 515 B.C. But this “<a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/jps/9780827612655/">Second Temple</a>” too was destroyed, this time by the Romans in 70 A.D. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Model of Jerusalem in the late Second Temple period.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/9508280@N07/5540487348/">Dan Lundberg/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This destruction left Jewish leaders with profound questions. Without a temple, they asked, how could people access God and <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520295926/blood-for-thought">offer sacrifices</a>. </p>
<p>Another vital question before them was: How were these Jewish communities to relate to God, particularly in view of the commands of sacrifice in the Bible, when the temple was gone? </p>
<h2>Ritual innovation</h2>
<p>Religious texts were believed to hold answers for <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674791510">why</a> these disasters occurred. </p>
<p>According to the scholar <a href="https://www.jameskugel.com/">James Kugel</a>, Jewish prophets and sages explained that these events were “God’s punishment” for the failure to “obey the divine laws.” </p>
<p>As a result, those who survived were “resolved to learn the lesson of history” by studying ancient texts and performing the laws as God intended. In this way, it was believed, they would find “favor with God” and “head off another disaster,” according to Kugel.</p>
<p>Other scholars, such as <a href="https://history.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/balberg.html">Mira Balberg</a> and <a href="https://nelc.uchicago.edu/simeon-chavel">Simeon Chavel</a>, have argued that the same biblical texts were also thought to contain the key for constructing <a href="https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/10.13109/jaju.2017.8.3.292">new religious ideas</a>. In fact, these texts gave license for ritual innovation in light of changing historical circumstances. </p>
<p>Such innovations were often, though not always, grounded in sacred texts and traditions. That way they had a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/deuteronomy-and-the-hermeneutics-of-legal-innovation-9780195112801?cc=us&lang=en&">continuity with the past</a>. </p>
<h2>Adapting to change</h2>
<p>It was through this process that prayer in the Jewish tradition came to be seen as a form of sacrifice. </p>
<p>Both the act of sacrifice and prayer <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/21948">connected</a> the divine and human realms. Some passages in the Bible made the connection explicit.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.wjkbooks.com/Products/0664239048/from-the-maccabees-to-the-mishnah-third-edition.aspx">Psalm 141:2</a> that says, “Take my prayer as an offering of incense, my upraised hands as an evening sacrifice,” drew similarities between prayer and sacrifice. So did another book in the Bible – <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/627?lang=en">Hosea 14:3</a>, which says, “Instead of bulls we will pay the offering of our lips.” </p>
<p>The verses even put prayer and sacrifice in parallel poetic lines as a way to almost equate the actions. </p>
<p>In fact, the prayer in Judaism known as the “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300106282/ancient-synagogue">Amidah</a>” was conceived as a substitute for sacrifice very shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FyCL2UYYHTs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Reciting the Amidah.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The destruction of the temple created unimaginable crises in the religious sensibilities of ancient Jews, but also became a platform to reimagine how religious ritual worked. </p>
<p>The ability for modern religious communities to adapt and <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ritual-gone-wrong-9780199790920?cc=us&lang=en&">innovate</a> rituals in light of circumstances, then, has deep and very <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/how-repentance-became-biblical-9780190212247?cc=us&lang=en&">productive roots</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134183/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel L. Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Faith communities are changing many traditional practices to deal with coronavirus restrictions. A historian of the Bible argues how innovation has long been part of religious practice.Samuel L. Boyd, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1321822020-02-24T13:59:21Z2020-02-24T13:59:21ZTrump’s so-called Mideast ‘peace plan’ dispossesses Palestinians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316327/original/file-20200220-11040-kxgtak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C0%2C5760%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Palestinian reacts to tear gas fired by Israeli forces during protests against U.S. President Donald Trump's Mideast initiative in the West Bank city of Ramallah.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nothing is further from a peace effort <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/peacetoprosperity/">than the plan</a> that Israel and the Donald Trump administration have concocted for Palestine. </p>
<p>Previous American administrations have all been pro-Israel, and they’ve made every effort to <a href="http://www.ieim.uqam.ca/spip.php?page=article-oepd&id_article=852">circumvent international law</a>.</p>
<p>But previous U.S. administrations have never formally challenged international law, and they considered the West Bank and Gaza occupied territories.</p>
<p>Support for Israel previously consisted of pressuring the Palestinian Authority, by buying it off if necessary, to get the Palestinians themselves to sign away their rights, thereby allowing international law to be circumvented. </p>
<p>But the present American administration has gone a step further by transplanting its embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing the annexed city as the unified capital of Israel. </p>
<p>The U.S. Israel-Palestine deal openly violates the principles of international law and, if implemented, would set a dangerous precedent. Presented <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51263815">as the “deal of the century”</a> by its proponents, the plan consolidates the occupation of the West Bank, the dispossession of Palestinians and the establishment of an apartheid system under which different laws apply to subjects living in the same territory. </p>
<p>These laws are essentially based on religion: Israel defines itself as a “Jewish state” and it discriminates among the people living under its control accordingly. Christian and Muslim Palestinians, for example, experience the same type of political domination. </p>
<h2>Wye River agreements</h2>
<p>The U.S. plan aims to legalize the series of “<a href="http://www.alhaq.org/publications/8064.html">facts on the ground</a>” that the Oslo Accords had authorized.</p>
<p>It should be recalled that the 1995 Wye River Memorandum, known as <a href="https://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/the%20israeli-palestinian%20interim%20agreement.aspx">Oslo II</a>, divided the West Bank into three zones. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316443/original/file-20200220-92518-112akqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316443/original/file-20200220-92518-112akqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316443/original/file-20200220-92518-112akqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316443/original/file-20200220-92518-112akqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316443/original/file-20200220-92518-112akqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316443/original/file-20200220-92518-112akqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316443/original/file-20200220-92518-112akqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316443/original/file-20200220-92518-112akqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The areas of the West Bank according to the Oslo II Accord of 1995.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Creative Commons)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The borders of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/areas-occupied-west-bank-190911093801859.html">Areas A and B</a> closely encircled the Palestinian settlements; the internal and municipal affairs of these settlements were placed under partial Palestinian control for Area A and under mixed control for Area B. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Map-of-Areas-A-B-and-C-after-Oslo-II_fig1_276258691">Area C was exclusively under Israeli control</a> and included all the rest of the West Bank, including the settlements and the Jordan Valley. This division was presented as temporary. It was supposedly a gradual way of restoring control of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority, with a view to a final settlement to be reached within five years. </p>
<p>Area A was the first step, with others to follow as confidence was rebuilt between the two sides. </p>
<h2>Oslo Accords: A decoy</h2>
<p>However, the Oslo Accords proved to be a decoy. In the years following their signing, Israel intensified settlement activity and the dispossession of Palestinians from their land. </p>
<p>Israel expanded existing settlements, created new ones, destroyed thousands of Palestinian homes and completely snuffed out the Palestinian economy. These abuses have been rigorously documented by the Israeli organization <a href="https://www.btselem.org/">B'Tselem</a>.</p>
<p>All of this was considered illegal, including <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/international_relations-relations_internationales/mena-moan/israeli-palistinian_policy-politique_israelo-palestinien.aspx?lang=eng">by Canada</a> and various U.S. administrations, despite the fact that Israeli occupation policies were also strongly supported by Canada and the United States. </p>
<p>Palestinian protests were considered counterproductive since there <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/1999/19990209.ga9544.html">was supposedly a peace process</a> that should not be disrupted. On more than one occasion, Canada has thus shamefully <a href="https://www.tdg.ch/monde/grandmesse-geneve-protection-civils-palestiniens/story/29224130">manoeuvred</a>, in co-ordination with Israel and the United States, to prevent the signatories to the <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/Treaty.xsp?documentId=AE2D398352C5B028C12563CD002D6B5C&action=openDocument">Fourth Geneva Convention</a> of 1949 from meeting to consider Palestinian demands. In 1999, for instance, the meeting was <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-194091/">quickly adjourned</a> without allowing for a discussion of the situation on the ground. The excuse: It would undermine the “peace efforts” underway since the Oslo Accords.</p>
<h2>Legalizes stranglehold</h2>
<p>The plan developed by the Trump administration, in close co-operation with Israel, would legalize Israel’s stranglehold on large parts of the West Bank, thus consolidating the occupation and dispossessing Palestinians, once and for all, of an important part of their heritage. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316322/original/file-20200220-10980-1tbz8hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5372%2C3578&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316322/original/file-20200220-10980-1tbz8hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316322/original/file-20200220-10980-1tbz8hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316322/original/file-20200220-10980-1tbz8hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316322/original/file-20200220-10980-1tbz8hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316322/original/file-20200220-10980-1tbz8hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316322/original/file-20200220-10980-1tbz8hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. President Donald Trump signs a proclamation at the White House in March 2019 formally recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights as Jared Kushner and Benjamin Netanyahu, among others, look on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Susan Walsh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The plan would also allow Israel to legally occupy the whole of Jerusalem, whose municipal borders had been extended to include an additional 71 square kilometres taken from the West Bank. </p>
<p>It would also give Israel the Jordan Valley and the vast majority of settlements in the West Bank, where municipal borders are much wider than the occupied area. That means the occupation of these territories would become permanent, dispossessing Palestinians of a significant part of the 22 per cent of their remaining territory. </p>
<h2>‘Apartheid’ made permanent?</h2>
<p>In addition, the apartheid regime currently in effect would be consolidated and made permanent. </p>
<p>Under that regime, individuals living in the West Bank are subject to two different types of law, depending on whether they’re Jewish.</p>
<p>For Palestinians, for example, there are enormous restrictions on their movement, even between non-contested parts of the territory that would be allocated to them. Even a cursory examination of the map proposed by Israel and Trump shows the similarity with the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bantustan">Bantustan system</a> created in South Africa during the apartheid era.</p>
<p>Hopefully Canada, with a record towards Palestine that isn’t very honourable, will not fall even further by supporting Trump’s rogue plan.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132182/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachad Antonius does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Israel-Palestine “peace” plan concocted by Donald Trump’s administration openly violates the principles of international law and, if implemented, would set a dangerous precedent.Rachad Antonius, Full Professor, Department of Sociology., Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.