Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world , Jerusalem was named as “Urusalimau”  on ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets, probably meaning “City of Shalem” after a  Canaanite deity, during the early Canaanite period (approximately 2400 BCE). During the Israelite period, significant construction activity in Jerusalem began in the 9th century BCE (Iron Age II), and in the 8th century the city developed into the religious and administrative center of the Kingdom of Judah. It is considered a holy city in the three major  Abrahamic  religions of  Judaism,  

Christianity and Islam .

Its original inhabitants are the Canaanites who inhabited it 5000 years ago. Its first name is Yebos, as it is the Ibusian builders of the first saints, who are the first Arabs who arose in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula.

The Walls of Jerusalem

 The walls of Jerusalem surround the old of Jerusalem (approx. 1 km²). In 1535, when Jerusalem was part of the Ottomam Empire, Sultan Suliman I ordered the ruined city walls to be rebuilt.

The work took some four years, between 1537 and 1541.

The length of the walls is 4,018 meters (2.4966 mi), their average height is 12 meters (39.37 feet) and the average thickness is 2.5 meters (8.2 feet). The walls contain 34 watchtowers and seven main gates open for traffic, with two minor gates reopened by archaeologists.

The Old City

The old city is a 0.9 square kilometers (0.35 sq mi) walled area within the modern city of Jerusalem.

Until 1860, when the Jewish neighborhood was established, this area constituted the entire city of Jerusalem.

The Old City is home to several sites of key religious importance: the Temple Mount and Wersten Wall for Jews, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims. It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage site List in 1981 .

 Traditionally, the Old City has been divided into four uneven quarters, although the current designations were introduced only in the 19th century.

 Today, the Old City is roughly divided (going counterclockwise from the northeastern corner) into the  Muslim Quarter,  Christian Quarter,   Armenian Quarter and  Jewish Quarter. The Old City’s monumental defensive walls and city gates were built in the years 1535–1542 by the Turkish sultan  Suleiman the Magnificen

The current population of the Old City resides mostly in the Muslim and Christian quarters. As of 2007 the total population was 36,965; the breakdown of religious groups in 2006 was 27,500 Muslims (up from ca. 17,000 in 1967, with over 30,000 by 2013, tendency: growing); 5,681 Christians (ca. 6,000 in 1967), not including the 790 Armenians

(down to ca. 500 by 2011, tendency: decreasing); and 3,089 Jews (starting with none in 1967, as they were evicted after the Old City was captured by Jordan following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, with almost 3,000 plus some 1,500  students by 2013, tendency: growing).

Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War,the Old City was captured by  Jordan and all its Jewish residents were evicted. During the Six-Day War in 1967, which saw hand-to-hand fighting on the Temple Mount, Israeli forces captured the Old City along with the rest of East Jerusalem, subsequently annexing them as Israeli territory and reuniting them with the western part of the city.

Today, the Israeli government controls the entire area, which it considers part of its national capital. However,  Jerusalem Law  of 1980, which effectively annexed East Jerusalem to Israel, was declared null and void byUnited nations Security Councel Resolution 478 .

History

Muslims occupied Byzantine Jerusalem in the 7th century (637 CE) under the second caliph, `Omar Ibn al-Khattab who annexed it to the Islamic Arab Empire. He granted its inhabitants an assurance treaty.

After the siege of Jerusalem,  Sophronius welcomed `Omar, allegedly because, according to biblical prophecies known to the  Church in Jerusalem, “a poor, but just and powerful man” would rise to be a protector and ally to the Christains of Jerusalem.

In 1099, Jerusalem was captured by the Western Christain army of the First Crusade  and it remained in their hands until recaptured by the Arab Muslims , led by Salah al-deen, on October 2, 1187. He summoned the Jews and permitted them to resettle in the city.

In 1219, the walls of the city were razed by Mu’azzim Sultan of Damascus ; in 1229, by treaty with Egypt, Jerusalem came into the hands of Frederick II of Germany.

In 1239 he began to rebuild the walls, but they were demolished again by Da’ud (David) , the emir of Kerak . In 1243, Jerusalem came again under the control of the Christians, and the walls were repaired.

The Kharezmain Tatars  took the city in 1244 and Sultan Malik al-Muazzam razed the walls, rendering it again defenseless and dealing a heavy blow to the city’s status.

In 1980, Jordan proposed that the Old City be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was added to the List in 1981.

In 1982, Jordan requested that it be added to the  List of World Heritage in Danger. The  United States government opposed the request, noting that the Jordanian government had no standing to make such a nomination and that the consent of the Israeli government would be required since it effectively controlled Jerusalem.

In 2011, UNESCO issued a statement reiterating its view that East Jerusalem  is “part of the occupied Palestinian territory , and that the status of  Jerusalem must be resolved in permanent status negotiations.”

  David’s Castle *citadel*

The Tower of David , also known as the Jerusalem Citadel, is an ancient citadel located near the Jaffa Gate entrance to western edge of the Old City of Jerusalem.

The citadel that stands today dates to the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. It was built on the site of an earlier ancient fortification of the Hasmonean ,Herodian-era , Byzantine and Early Muslim periods, after being destroyed repeatedly during the last decades of Crusader presence in the Holy Land by Ayyubid and Mamluk rulers.

 It contains important archaeological finds dating back over 2,000 years including a quarry dated to the First Temple period, and is a popular venue for benefit events, craft shows, concerts, and sound-and-light performances.

Quarters in Jerusalem

The city of Jerusalem is composed of many neighborhoods called the residents of Jerusalem each of these neighborhoods “Hara”The most important of these neighborhoods:

The Muslims Quarter

 The Muslims Quarter is the largest and most populous of the four quarters and is situated in the northeastern corner of the Old City, extending from the Lions’ Gate in the east, along the northern wall of the Temple mount  in the south, to the Wersten Wall –Damascus Gate route in the west.

Its population was 22,000 in 2005.

Like the other three quarters of the Old City, until the riots of 1929 the Muslim quarter had a mixed population of Muslims, Christians, and also Jews. Today, there are “many Israeli settler homes,  in the Muslim Quarter.

The Christian Quarter

 The Christian Quarter is situated in the northwestern corner of the Old City, extending from the New Gate in the north, along the western wall of the Old City as far as the Jaffa Gate, along the Jaffa Gate – Werstern Wall route in the south, bordering the Jewish and Armenian Quarters, as far as the Damascus Gate in the east, where it borders the Muslim Quarter.

The quarter contains the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, viewed by many as Christianity’s holiest place.

The Armenian Quarter

 The Armenian Quarter is the smallest of the four quarters of the Old City. Although the Armenians are Christain, the Armenian Quarter is distinct from the Christian Quarter.

Despite the small size and population of this quarter, the Armenians and their Patriachate remain staunchly independent and form a vigorous presence in the Old City.

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the four quarters of the city came under Jordanian control.

Jordanian law required Armenians and other Christians to “give equal time to the Bible and Qur’an” in private Christian schools, and restricted the expansion of church assets.

The 1967 war is remembered by residents of the quarter as a miracle, after two unexploded bombs were found inside the Armenian monastery.

 Today, more than 3,000 Armenians live in Jerusalem, 500 of them in the Armenian Quarter.Some are temporary residents studying at the seminary or working as church functionaries. The Patriarchate owns the land in this quarter as well as valuable property in West Jerusalem and elsewhere.

In 1975, a theological seminary was established in the Armenian Quarter. After the 1967 war, the Israeli government gave compensation for repairing any churches or holy sites damaged in the fighting, regardless of who caused the damage

Moroccan Quarter

There was previously a small Moroccan quarter in the Old City. Within a week of the Six-day War’s end, the Moroccan quarter was largely destroyed in order to give visitors better access to the Western Wall by creating the Western Wall plaza.

The parts of the Moroccan Quarter that were not destroyed are now part of the Jewish Quarter. Simultaneously with the demolition, a new regulation was set into place by which the only access point for non-Muslims to the Temple Mount is through the Gate of the Moors, which is reached via the so-called Mughrabi Bridge

Jewish Quarter

 Jewish Quarter lies in the southeastern sector of the walled city, and stretches from the Zion Gate in the south, bordering the Armenian Quarter on the west, along the Cardo to Chain Street in the north and extends east to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.

 The quarter has a rich history, with several long periods of Jewish presence covering much of the time since the eighth century BCE.

In 1948, its population of about 2,000 Jews was besieged, and forced to leave enmasse. The quarter was completely sacked by Arab forces during the Battle for Jerusalem and ancient synagogues were destroyed.

The Jewish quarter remained under Joranian control until its recapture by Israeli paratroopers  in the Six-Day War  of 1967. A few days later, Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of the adjacent Moroccan Quarter, forcibly relocating all of its inhabitants, in order to facilitate public access to the Western Wall.

The section of the Jewish quarter destroyed prior to 1967 has since been rebuilt and settled and has a population of 2,348 (as of 2005). Many large educational institutions have taken up residence.

Closing sentence

This is Jerusalem, our Holy City, the eternal capital of Palestine