According to the Jewish tradition, Jerusalem symbolizes religious unity after the rise of the kingdom of David and the construction of the first temple^[1] at the hands of his son Solomon and the second temple at the hands of Herod.^[2]

The City of Prophets and Kings

Abraham, the first prophet of the Jewish people, came to bind his son Isaac on mount Moriah in Jerusalem, and where the Jews believe God’s word was fully revealed.^[3][4] the binding of Isaac, known also as the Akedah, is crucial to Jewish faith, according to the Bible, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah to test his obedience and honesty, to which Abraham agrees and prepares to slaughter Isaac but stops minutes before when God sends an angle to inform him to spare Isaac and sacrifice a ram instead.^[5]

Rise and Fall of the Jewish Kingdom

Jerusalem witnessed the rise of the Jewish kingdom when the Prophet and King David conquered Jerusalem and made it the capital of his kingdom. According to the Jewish tradition, this move helped to preserve unity of the Israelites who, for decades prior, had been wandering the desert, punished by God for their continuous disobedience, and prevented from entering the promised land. ^[6].

But the kingdoms of David and Solomon ended. The First Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylonian, who also expelled the Jews from the holy land,, according to the Jewish narratives, the kingdom split into two warring kingdoms: Israel in the south and Judah in the north. Jerusalem became the capital of Judah alone.^[7]

Another low point in the history of Jerusalem for the Jews was when the second temple, built by Herod, was destroyed by Titus the Roman general^[8] around 70 AD.The Jews were expelled, once again,from Jerusalem and were prohibited from entering the city many years. They faced expulsion for many years until 638 AD, when Jerusalem was under Muslim rule, when they were allowed to live peacefully in the city.

Jerusalem in Jewish Scripture

Jerusalem is mentioned many times in the Torah under different names including the land of Yabus–the original Arab inhabitants of city and the city of David.^[9]Jerusalem is noted also for being the land of the Jewish prophets and kings– where they lived, preached and died.^[10] Jews also pray facing the direction of Jerusalem and some perform pilgrimage there each year to celebrate the festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkoth.^[11]

Jewish Holy Sites

Jews argue that the western wall of Al-Aqsa which they call Wailing Wallis the only remaining part of the first temple of Solomon. The wall is located in the Moroccan Quarter of the Old City. he Since the Israeli occupation, the original neighborhood has been completely destroyed and replaced with a Jewish neighborhood and an emptied space in front of the wailing wall for Jews to pray in.^[12]

According to various Jewish traditions the temple of Solomon was home to the founding stone from which the whole universe was created and the site where Abraham bound Isaac for sacrifice.^[13] They also argue that the Tomb of David exists on mount Zion ,which is located, and that the Olive Mountain is home to an ancient Jewish cemetery in which Jews have been buried for centuries.^[14]

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The City of Prophets and Messengers y beginning of humankind on earth, God has sent prophets and messengers to convey his According to traditions of the prophet Muhammad, a house of worship was first established at the site of present-day Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem only forty years after an early version of the Ka‘ba was established in Mecca by the prophet Abraham. Since the three monotheistic religions (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) share the same prophets until the crucifixion of Jesus and then the arrival of Muhammad–for centuries, their holy places and their places of worship were the same. .^[1] As the city of the jewish prophets and kings and the place where jesus preached and was, according to muslims, saved from crucifixion, Jerusalem maintained a unique position in the Islamic tradition. In fact, its significance was made clear to the early followers of Muhammad when they were still being prosecuted in Makkah and, before the Ka‘ba, was the direction towards which they prayed.^{[2] [3]}

Jerusalem in Quran: the Blessed City

In the chapter titled Al-Isra, the Quran recalls the night journey of Prophet Muhammad , to Jerusalem from Makkah and his ascension to heaven. ^[4] Muslim scholars argue that the trip to Jerusalem was important for multiple reasons–but no doubt the divine decision to send Muhammad there before allowing him to ascend to the heavens, and Muhammad’s leadership of the resurrected prophets and messengers in prayer^[5] made clear the centrality of the city and its historical religious value.^[6] The Quran mentions Jerusalem at various other points as well–particularly when recounting the story of Mary and Jesus.

When the qibla was redirected to Makkah, and Muslims no longer faced Jerusalem to pray, Al-Aqsa gained status as the the third holiest site in Islam, and Muslims believe that praying there is not only encouraged, but makes their prayers more blessed and loved by God^[7]

Jerusalem in the Sayings and Traditions of Prophet Muhammad

Prophet Muhammad spoke about Jerusalem’s importance as well the duty of Muslims to protect it, but he also told his followers that Jerusalem was going to be the site that marks the end of the war between truth and falsehood.^[8]

According to Muhammad, Jerusalem will be the last place on earth where humans are gathered for reckoning and from where they will be raised to the sky for the Day of Judgement. ^[9]

Jerusalem in Muslims’ Lives

After the death of Muhammad, the first Caliph, Abu Bakr began preparing for the conquest of Jerusalem. Omar bin Al-Khattab, who became the Caliph shortly after, conquered the city and accepted the surrender of the Patriarch Sophronius along with the keys to the city. ^[10] The caliphs who came after Omar took care to spend wealth on the construction of landmarks and restoration within the city.^[11].

The city gained further importance for Muslims as generations of companions of the Prophet and their descendents, scholars, saints, and righteous caliphs spent time in the city, died and were buried there..^[12] In fact, many Caliphs chose Jerusalem as the site where they would be inaugurated, and some, like the Umayyad Caliph Sulayman bin Abd Al-Malik considered transferring the capital of the Islamic dynasty from Damascus to Jerusalem.^[13]

Until the Israeli occupation of the city, many muslim caravans on their way to Hajj, encouraged by a statement of the prophet Muhammad, would visit Jerusalem and pray in the Al-Aqsa mosque on their way to Makkah.

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Jerusalem holds a central place as a holy city for Christians of different sects. . Not only did Jerusalem witness the most important events of Jesus’ life, but it also is home of the most sacred places and landmarks in the history of Christianity.

Jesus in Jerusalem

Jesus first visited Jerusalem as a child with his mother: they walked through the markets and attended festivals in the city.. As an adult, Jesus went to Jerusalem to preach his message^[1]and it was in Jerusalem where Muslims and Christians believe he cured the blind and brought the dead back to life.^[2] Jerusalem is also the site where, according to the christian tradition, Jesus was tried and crucified.J.^[3]

Since the time Jesus visited and preached in Jerusalem, Christians have’ lived there leaving only once for 60 years around 70 AD following the Jewish rebellion against the Roman state in Jerusalem, when they had to leave the city with Bishop Simon. Shortly after this, Titus, the Roman general, attacked Jerusalem and destroyed it completely. For about 60 years, the city remained uninhabited until Emperor Hadrian built a new city and called it Aelia. Only then did the Christians return and begin choosing local bishops to lead their churches and congregations. .^[4]

Jerusalem as a Christian City

Christianity in Jerusalem remained a minority religion until the fourth century when Constantine, the Emperor of Byzantium, adopted Christianity as the formal religion of the empire. Shortly after, Constantine’s mother, Empress Helena, ordered the construction of the most sacred church in the history of Christianity: the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, on the Golgotha where Jesus is believed to have been tried, sentenced to death, and buried.^[5]

Christian and Muslim Relations in the City

The Christians of Jerusalem lived peacefully under the early rule of Muslims. The first interaction between Christians and Muslims in the city happened in 638 AD, after the Muslims captured Jerusalem, when the second caliph Omar bin Al-Khattab was received by Jerusalem’s patriarch Sophornius, who refused to surrender the city’s keys until Omar came to retrieve them and signed a written pledge that guarantee the safety and religious freedom of the Christians in the city. t.^[6] During his stay in Jerusalem, Omar visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher but refused to pray inside, despite an invitation from the patriarch, because he feared this would provide a precedent for later zealous Muslims to change the church into a mosque and endanger the Christian character of the place.^[7]

here were periods of tension and tremendous violence in the later history of both religions. During the reign of the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim Bi Amr-Allah the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was totally destroyed and many Christians were killed-^[8] Fatal clashes and riots broke out after this. The Church was rebuilt shortly after, during the era of Al-Zaher, the son of Al-Hakim-and this was symptomatic of a golden era in which the relations between the followers of the two religions in the city was marked by mutual tolerance and respect.. Such relations were ruined again during the rule of the Seljuk Turks in Jerusalem, and were completely destroyed when the Crusaders took over Jerusalem, brutally killed hundreds of thousands of its Muslim inhabitants, and turned their mosques into churches or stables.^[9] However, Christians of different sects suffered too–when Jerusalem was turned into a Latin Kingdom ruled by Catholics, Orthodox Christians were obliged to turn into Catholic Christians.^[10]

Christian landmarks in Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the only city in the world that has 158 churches, and is a city to which Christians of every denomination from around the world come to perform pilgrimage at. , Pilgrims come to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher from where Christians believe that Jesus walked to his crucifixion on Resurrection Sunday. Christians celebrate Palm Sunday where Jesus is believed to have ridden on his donkey from Ezzaria to Jerusalem while people brushed his way with carpets and cloths.^[11]

In addition to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem boasts a number of religiously significant sites like The Via Dolorosa, The Church of Mary Magdalene, St. George’s Cathedral, The Church of All Nations, The Shrine of Mary and The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, as well as The Lutheran School and The St. Pierre School, hospitals affiliated with Christian missionaries, The Museum of the Orthodox Patriarchate, and hotels like The Roman Catholic Hotel which provides spaces for pilgrims and other visitors to the Holy City.^[12]

Jerusalem is considered one of the Great Five patriarchate centers which include Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople and Antioch, and holds a central importance in the Christian Church on a global scale.^[13] alf of the old city of Jerusalem is inhabited by Christians distributed between the Christian Quarter and the Armenian Quarter.^[14]

In contemporary Jerusalem, what unites many Christians and Muslims is in fact the Israeli threat. Christians and Muslims are often at the forefront of defending each other’s holy places and struggle against the Israeli policies and violence together.

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