Tonight, Jews around the world begin a day of mourning and fasting to commemorate Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av in the Jewish calendar, which marks the destruction of the first and second temples in the beloved city of Jerusalem, both of which were destroyed by invading armies (the first by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E.; the second by the Romans in 70 C.E.).
Tisha b’Av is an opportune time to focus on the true history of Jerusalem and its eternal connection to the Jewish people. This was the very focus of B’nai Brith Canada’s recent ad in the National Post.
President Obama, in his now infamous speech in Cairo, gave voice to the critics of Israel that would choose to rewrite the truth. In his speech, he negated 4,000 years of an integral connection to the land of Israel and the capital of Jerusalem by focusing on the creation of the modern Jewish state of Israel in 1948 from the ashes of the Holocaust, without the context of history. By severing this bond, it becomes easier for Obama to suggest that the capital of the Jewish state could be divided up as a sacrifice to peace negotiations. At a time when even the notion of Jews building homes in their country’s capital draws the world’s scorn, it is imperative that we look to history to understand the truth surrounding Jerusalem.
Since King David proclaimed Jerusalem as his capital 3,000 years ago (1004 BCE), Jerusalem has been the nucleus of Jewish national life. Since ancient times, Jerusalem has been the national, historic, and political capital of the Jewish people.
In terms of religion, Jerusalem is the holiest city in Judaism. Jews across the world turn to the direction of the holy city when they pray, and Jerusalem is mentioned throughout the Torah. During the Jewish exile from Jerusalem and throughout a history marred by oppression and despair, the Jewish people have always yearned to return to their capital. In daily prayers, Jews across the world call for the rebuilding of Jerusalem as a symbol of the renewal of Jewish life in their national homeland. The city is the location of the ancient Jewish Temples, the last Temple destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans. The sole remnant of the holy temple, commonly known as the Western Wall and located in the heart of the Old City in Jerusalem, to this day serves as the quintessential symbol of Jewish faith. Today, Jews from across the globe gather to pray at and place folded prayers into the crevices of the Western Wall, a location where Jewish scriptures say the Divine Presence rests.
Legally speaking, among the legitimate claims under international law is the fact that legal title to Jerusalem rests firmly with the world Jewish community. This context is also part of the history many wrongly choose to ignore. On April 25, 1920, in San Remo, Italy, the supreme allied powers ratified the Treaty of Sevres, which to this day serves as the essential document in the establishment of the map and boundaries of the modern Middle East. In the deliberations leading up the ratification of the treaty, the Zionist World Movement was represented by Chaim Weizmann, while the Arabs were represented by Hashemite Prince Faisal. In the end, the agreed upon solution resulted in the promise of a Jewish homeland on what is currently the territories of Israel and Jordan, including all of Jerusalem, and the Arabs would essentially get the rest of the region – currently, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc. In 1921, Prince Feisal’s expulsion from Lebanon resulted in him requesting control over the territory on the east side of the Jordan River (present-day Jordan). Weizmann agreed to this handover of land initially appropriated for the Jewish state in return for the promise that all the territory west of the Jordan River, including Jerusalem, would fall to the Jewish homeland – a promise agreed to by both the Arab leadership at the time and the British.
In the realm of international law, the 1921 agreement to this day serves as the binding legal accord regarding the status of Jerusalem. All of the other treaties resulting from the same deliberations that led to the Treaty of Sevres have been judicially upheld. However, when it comes to the legal right to the historical capital of Jerusalem, public opinion and Obama’s new policy positions appear to give more weight to the illegal Arab occupation of the Old City and the eastern part of Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967, following the failed Arab attempt to destroy the nascent Jewish state, than on the legally binding agreements and international law precedents which clearly state that Jerusalem belongs to the Jewish State. Detractors of Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem point to the UN Partition Plan of 1947 which proposed “internationalizing” Jerusalem and dividing the rest of the land between an Arab and a Jewish state. While the Jews, in their ever-lasting hope for peace in the Holy Land, accepted the plan, the Arabs did not, and in turn declared war. The Arab failure to accept the UN Partition Plan therefore declared it null and void in international law since it was never implemented by the parties. As a result, the agreements of the 1920s acknowledging Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem hold to this day.
It was only in 1948 that the Jewish people were able to re-found their national state. In the War of Independence which saw modern-day Israel’s birth, Jordan illegally occupied Jerusalem. During the roughly 20 years from 1948 to 1967, until Israel liberated its capital city, the illegal occupation resulted in one of the darkest chapters in the history of the City of Gold. In violation of the armistice agreement which ended the war in 1948, Jews were denied the right to worship at their holy sites. Out of the 59 synagogues that stood in the Old City for hundreds of years, 58 were demolished or desecrated. The historic Jewish cemetery in the Mount of Olives was methodically desecrated and Jewish gravestones were even used for paving paths to and flooring for Arab Legion latrines. Jews were forced to continue to yearn for a united capital city through barbed wires and ongoing suffering.
Today, in the rightful hands of the Jewish State of Israel, Jerusalem has grown to be a bustling urban metropolis. Renowned across the world as a progressive modern city, the city is home to countless institutions and pilgrimage sights of the other great faiths as well. Only Israel has maintained these religious locations with honour, dignity and respect, affording worshippers from all walks of life the freedom to freely worship, irrespective of their faith. It is another inconvenient truth to recall that the Palestinian Authority has allowed the ongoing desecration of Jewish and Christian holy sites (recall the firebombing of Joseph’s Tomb as one striking example) under their control. State endorsed propaganda continues to deny the historical and legal connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem and the land of Israel.
It is crucial to remember this context when the issue of Israeli “building” in Jerusalem comes up in the news and the Obama administration criticizes Israel. No other faith or ethnicity has the historic, religious, and political ties to Jerusalem that the Jewish people do. Just as the Americans have the right to build up their capital, Washington DC, unimpeded, so does the Jewish State of Israel have the authority to build in their undivided capital city. Want some more inconvenient truths? Consider that poll after poll of Palestinians living in Jerusalem indicate that the overwhelming majority wish to remain in the Jewish state of Israel should peace negotiations succeed. Consider also that Jews, who have had a continual presence throughout history in the city’s make up, live today in all parts of Jerusalem, east, west, north and south.
It was widely reported that Obama hosted a Passover seder meal service for some of his staffers and friends this year. Someone at the table should have taken the opportunity to remind the President of the United States of the concluding words of the Hagaddah: This year we [the Jews] are here. Next year in Jerusalem.