A historical approach of the Holy city of Jerusalem

Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world. It is considered Holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It was destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. Given the city's central position in both Israeli nationalism and Palestinian nationalism, the selectivity required to summarise more than 5,000 years of inhabited history is often influenced by ideological bias or background

According to the Biblical tradition, King David conquered the city from the Jebusites and established it as the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel, and his son, King Solomon, commissioned the building of the First Temple. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, assumed central symbolic importance for the Jewish people

The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesus's crucifixion and it is believed it was here that he died and was reincarnated.

In Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. In Islamic tradition in 610 CE it became the first Qibla, the focal point for Muslim prayer and Muhammad made his Night Journey there ten years later, ascending to heaven where he spoke to God.

 

Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the core issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, as religion and faith dominate the nationalism and rationalism of the two people.