Six-Days war

Six-Days war  5-10 June 1967

After the Suez-Sinai war Arab nationalism increased dramatically, as did demands for revenge led by Egypt's president Nasser. The formation of a united Arab military command that massed troops along the borders, together with Egypt's closing of the Straits of Tiran and Nasser's insistence in 1967 that the UNEF leave Egypt, led Israel to attack Egypt, Jordan, and Syria simultaneously on June 5 of that year. The war ended six days later with an Israeli victory. Israel's French-equipped air force wiped out the air power of its antagonists and was the chief instrument in the destruction of the Arab armies.

The Six-Day War left Israel in possession of Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, which it took from Egypt; Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which it took from Jordan; and the Golan Heights, taken from Syria. Land under Israel's jurisdiction after the 1967 war was about four times the size of the area within its 1949 armistice frontiers. The occupied territories included an Arab population of about 1.5 million.

The war ended six days later with an Israeli victory. Israel's French-equipped air force wiped out the air power of its antagonists and was the chief instrument in the destruction of the Arab armies.

The occupied territories became a major political issue in Israel after 1967. The right and leaders of the country's orthodox religious parties opposed withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, which they considered part of Israel. In the Labor Alignment, opinion was divided; some Laborites favored outright annexation of the occupied territories, others favored withdrawal, and some advocated retaining only those areas vital to Israel's military security. Several smaller parties, including the Communists, also opposed annexation. The majority of Israelis, however, supported the annexation of East Jerusalem and its unification with the Jewish sectors of the city, and the Labor-led government formally united both parts of Jerusalem a few days after the 1967 war ended. In 1980 the Knesset passed another law, declaring Jerusalem “complete and united,” Israel's eternal capital.

The 1967 war was followed by an upsurge of Palestinian Arab nationalism. Several guerrilla organizations within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) carried out guerrillas attacks on Israeli targets, with the stated objective of “redeeming Palestine.” guerrillas attacks on Israelis targets at home and abroad unified public opinion against recognition of and negotiation with PLO, but the group nevertheless succeeded in gaining widespread international support, including UN recognition as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians.”.

Continue lendo

Suez campaign

Suez campaign , 29 Oct - 4 Nov 1956

During the 1950s there was considerable tension between Israel and Egypt, which, under President Nasser, had become a leader in the Arab world. His nationalization of the Suez Canal 1956 provided an opportunity for Israel with Britain and France, to attack Egypt and occupy a part of Palestine that Egypt had controlled since 1949, the Gaza Strip , from which Israel was forced by UN and US pressure to withdraw 1957 .



Great Britain and France ostensibly joined the attack because of their dispute with Egypt's president Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had just nationalized the Suez Canal. Nasser took over the canal after Great Britain and France withdrew offers to finance the construction of the Aswân High Dam. Israel scored a quick victory, seizing the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula within a few days. As Israeli forces reached the banks of the Suez Canal, the British and French started their attack.

The fighting was halted by the UN after a few days, and a UN Emergency Force (UNEF) was sent to supervise the cease-fire in the Canal zone. In a rare instance of cooperation, the United States and the Soviet Union supported the UN resolution forcing the three invading countries to leave Egypt and Gaza. By the end of the year their forces withdrew from Egypt, but Israel refused to leave Gaza until early 1957, and only after the United States had promised to help resolve the conflict and keep the Straits of Tiran open.

Continue lendo

First Arab-Israeli War

First Arab-Israeli War , 15 May 1948

Arab opposition to an Israeli state began after the Balfour Declaration 1917, which supported the idea of a Jewish national homeland. In the 1920s there were anti-Zionist riots in Palestine, after the British mandate government allowed thousands of Jews to immigrate to Palestine from all over the world.

In 1936 an Arab revolt led to a British royal commission that recommended partition (approved by United Nations 1947), but rejected by the Arabs.

When it became clear that the British intended to leave by May 15, leaders of the Yishuv decided (as they claim) to implement that part of the partition plan calling for establishment of a Jewish state. In Tel Aviv on May 14 the Provisional State Council, formerly the National Council, "representing the Jewish people in Palestine and the World Zionist Movement," proclaimed the "establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine, to be called Medinat Israel (the State of Israel) … open to the immigration of Jews from all the countries of their dispersion."

On May 15 the armies of Egypt, Transjordan (now Jordan), Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq joined Palestinian and other Arab guerrillas who had been fighting Jewish forces since November 1947. The war now became an international conflict, the first Arab-Israeli War.

The Arabs failed to prevent establishment of a Jewish state, and the war ended with four UN-arranged armistice agreements between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. The frontiers defined in the armistice agreements remained until they were altered by Israel's conquests during the Six-Day War in 1967.

"Battle of the Roads". The Arab League sponsored Arab Liberation Army, composed of Palestinian Arabs and Arabs from other Middle Eastern countries, attacked Jewish communities in Palestine, and Jewish traffic on major roads. The Arab forces mainly concentrated on major roadways in an attempt to cut off Jewish communities from each other. Arab forces at that time had engaged in sporadic and unorganized ambushes since the riots of December 1947, and began to make organized attempts to cut off the highway linking Tel Aviv with Jerusalem, the city's only supply route. The Arab Army cut off supplies and controlled several strategic vantage points overlooking the sole highway linking Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, enabling them to fire at convoys going to the city. By late March 1948, the vital road that connected Tel Aviv to western Jerusalem, where about 16% of all Jews in the Palestinian region lived, was cut off and under siege.

April 6-12, 1948 : Operation Nachshon. The Haganah decided to launch a major military counteroffensive to break the siege of Jerusalem. On 6 April the Haganah and its strike force, the Palmach, in an offensive to secure strategic points, took al-Qastal, an important roadside town 2 kilometers west of Deir Yassin. But intense fighting lasted for days more as control of that key village remained contested.

April 9, 1948 : Throughout the siege on Jerusalem, Jewish convoys tried to reach the city to alleviate the food shortage, which, by April, had become critical. On 9 April 1948, IZL-Lehi forces attacked Deir Yassin, as part of Operation Nachshon to break the siege of western Jerusalem. On Deir Yassin massacre, Irgun and Lehi members attack the Arab village of Deir Yassin, killing between 100 and 120 Arabs civilians.

May 15, 1948 : Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Transjordan, Holy War Army, Arab Liberation Army, and local Arabs attack the new Jewish state with the intent of destroying it. The resulting 1948 Arab-Israeli War lasts for 13 months. By the end of the war, about 700,000 Palestinian Arabs leave as refugees for a variety of reasons among them, including: avoidance of crossfire, anticipation of war, expulsion, and the Jews massacre against number of Arab villages.

June 1948 : Violent confrontation between the Israel Defense Forces under the command of David Ben-Gurion, and the paramilitary Jewish group Irgun known as The Altalena Affair results in the dismantlement of the Irgun, Lehi, and all Israeli paramilitary organizations operating outside the IDF.

April 1949 : Israel concludes Armistice Agreements with neighbouring countries. The territory of the British Mandate of Palestine is divided between the State of Israel, the Kingdom of the Jordan (changed from Transjordan) and Egypt.

Continue lendo

The state of Palestine

The state of Palestine

Declaration of the State of Palestine

A declaration of a "State of Palestine" was approved on November 15, 1988, by the Palestinian National Council, the legislative body of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). The proclaimed "State of Palestine" is not an independent state, as it has never had sovereignty over any territory. Moreover, the declaration was ignored, and eventually rejected, by the State of Israel. Israel controls the territories since 1967 Six-Day War when it captured them from Egypt and Jordan.

Currently, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) envision the establishment of a State of Palestine to include all the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, living in peace with Israel under a democratically elected and transparent government. The PNA, however, does not claim sovereignty over any territory and therefore is not the government of the "State of Palestine" proclaimed in 1988.

The 1988 declaration was approved at a meeting in Algiers, by a vote of 253-46, with 10 abstentions. The declaration invoked the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) and UN General Assembly Resolution 181 in support of its claim to a "State of Palestine on our Palestinian territory with its capital Jerusalem". The proclaimed "State of Palestine" was recognized immediately by the Arab League, and about half the world's governments recognize it today. It maintains embassies in these countries (which are generally PLO delegations). The State of Palestine is not recognized by the United Nations, although the European Union, as well as most member states, maintain diplomatic ties with the Palestinian Authority, established under the Oslo Accords.

The declaration is generally interpreted to have recognized Israel within its pre-1967 boundaries, or was at least a major step on the path to recognition. Just as in Israel's declaration of establishment, it partly bases its claims on UN GA 181. By reference to "resolutions of Arab Summits" and "UN resolutions since 1947" (like SC 242) it implicitly and perhaps ambiguously restricted its immediate claims to the Palestinian territories and Jerusalem. It was accompanied by a political statement that explicitly mentioned SC 242 and other UN resolutions and called only for withdrawal from "Arab Jerusalem" and the other "Arab territories occupied." Yasser Arafat's statements in Geneva a month later were accepted by the United States as sufficient to remove the ambiguities it saw in the declaration and to fulfill the longheld conditions for open dialogue with the United States.

The Palestinian National Charter of 1964 stated "This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area."

Capital Jerusalem (proclaimed) ,Ramallah (currently)

Official languages : Arabic

Declaration of Independence : November 15, 1988

President : Mahmoud Abbas (2005-)

Prime Minister : Ismail Haniya (2006)

Continue lendo

Palestine Maps

Palestine - Gaza Strip and the West Bank

Proposed Palestine state

Continue lendo

AL aqsa tour 3

AL aqsa tour 3

Site 31 - Al-Bosari Water Fountain

Build Year : 839 Higri 
Build by : Sultan Bersbay

Site 32 - Dome of Al-Ashaq

Continue lendo

AL aqsa tour 2

AL aqsa tour 2

Site 16 - Cotton Merchant Gate

Build  Year: 733 Higri
Build by: Sultan Al-Nasser Mohammed Bin Qalawoun

Continue lendo

AL aqsa tour 1

AL aqsa tour 

Site 01 - AL-Aqsa Mosque

Build Year : 19 Higri
Build by : Khalefa Omar Bin Al-Katab
Reparation 

year : 90 - 96 Higri
Repaired by : Khalefa Abdul Malik Bin Marwan

Site 02 - Dome of the Rock Mosque

Continue lendo

The western wall

The western wall

This is the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque , Jewish and Israel assumed that this is all that is left of the ancient Jewish Temple destroyed by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago.

Continue lendo

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre

he Christian Quarter is dominated by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is where, according to ancient Christian tradition, Jesus was crucified and buried. For centuries, millions of Christian pilgrims have come here from all over the world. The church was originally built in the 4th century by the Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire.

Continue lendo

Christian quarter

Christian quarter

The many churches of the Christian Quarter reflect the complexity of Jerusalem's Christian community, numbering 4,700 people.

Continue lendo

Armenian quarter

Armenian quarter

The Armenians were the first nation to embrace Christianity, in the year 301 C.E.

The Armenian community in Jerusalem flourished during Crusader times, which is when they built the magnificent Church of St. James.

Continue lendo

The Arab souk

The Arab souk

No trip to Jerusalem is complete without a visit to the Arab market, or souk.

The souk runs through both the Christian and Muslim Quarters in a maze of crowded streets, some of them hidden from the sun by buildings that date back to Crusader days.

Continue lendo

General View

General View

This is a General view and sites inside the Islamic part of Jerusalem

Continue lendo

Dome of the Rock

Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock is one of the oldest shrine of the Islamic world, built by the Caliph Abd al-Malik at the end of the 7th century C.E.

Continue lendo

Al-Aqsa Mosque

Al-Aqsa Mosque

Five times a day you can hear the voice of the Muezzin calling the faithful to prayer. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is The oldest extant Islamic monument and one of the largest in the world and is located adjacent to the Muslim quarter on the al-Haram al-Sharif

Continue lendo

Muslim Quarter

Muslim Quarter

The Muslim Quarter, the largest and most densely populated of the Old City's four quarters, is home to 20,000 Muslim residents of Jerusalem.

Continue lendo

Old City Map

Old City Map

The Old City of Jerusalem has been divided into four residential quarters: Muslim, Armenian, Jewish, and Christian. This division originated with the desire of four religious groups to live close to their holiest sites : the Church of St. James for Armenians, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which contains the tomb of Jesus, for the Christians

Continue lendo

Jerusalem OLD City Walls and Gates

Jerusalem OLD City Walls and Gates

Jerusalem has been a walled city forever, with various conquerors tearing down the walls and rebuilding them, always out of stone. To this very day, in fact, all new buildings in Jerusalem must be built from Jerusalem stone.

The walls of Jerusalem have eight gates: Zion Gate, Jaffa Gate, New Gate, Damascus Gate, Herod's Gate, Lions Gate, Golden Gate, and Dung Gate, where in ancient times they used to take out the garbage. The Golden Gate, in the eastern wall of the city, was sealed up in the Crusader Period

Continue lendo

Holy Sites in Palestine

The history of Jerusalem

Al-Aqsa Mosque - Dome of the Rock Mosque

For more than thirteen hundred years Al Aqsa has been venerated throughout the Muslim world as the third holiest site of Islam. It was to this that the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, made his Night Journey from the Masjid al-Haram in Makkah. It was from this site that he, peace and blessings be upon him, ascended on the Mi'raj, his journey through the heavens to his Lord.

For thirteen hundred years Al-Aqsa has dominated the skyline and the life of the Holy City. For more than thirteen centuries it was a centre of pilgrimage for Muslims from all over the world. For the past twenty years, its very existence has been threatened.

In 638 Jerusalem's thousand years of recurrent religious persecution, intolerance and oppression, were brought to an abrupt halt: Omar ibn al-Khattab, the Second Khalif of Islam, entered al-Quds.

Eager to be rid of their Byzantine overlords and aware of their shared heritage with the Arabs, the descendants of Ishmael, as well as the Muslims' reputation for mercy and compassion in victory - the people of Jerusalem handed over the city after a brief siege.

They made only one condition: That the terms of their surrender be negotiated directly with the Khalif Omar in person.

Omar entered Jerusalem on foot . There was no bloodshed. There were no massacres.

Those who wanted to leave were allowed to, with all their goods. Those who wanted to stay were guarantee protection for their lives, their property and places of worship.

It is related that Omar asked Sophronius, the city patriarch, to take him to the sanctuary of David, as soon as he was through writing the terms of surrender. They were joined by four thousand of the Companions of the Prophet.

Al-Aqsa And The Dome Of The Rock

When they reached the area of the Noble Sanctuary they found it covered in rubbish . Omar proceeded to the west of the sanctuary and unfurled his cloak. He filled it with debris. Those with him did likewise. They disposed of it and returned, again and again, until the whole area where Al-Aqsa Mosque now stands was cleared.

The entire area of the al-Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, included more than 35 acres. The great rock, site of the Prophet's ascension to heaven on the Night Journey, peace and blessings be upon him, and direction of the first qibla, lay in the centre.

The rock was uncovered and the ground purified. It was suggested that the Muslims pray to the north of the rock, to include it in the Qibla when facing south toward Makkah. But Omar rejected this idea, and possible future confusion, by praying to the south of the rock, at the southernmost wall of the Noble Sanctuary.

A huge timber mosque which held three thousand worshipers was erected on this site, the site of the present Aqsa Mosque.

Fifty years later, near the end of the 7th century, it was given to the Umayyad Khalif, Abdul Malik ibn Marwan, to construct one of the world's most beautiful and enduring shrines over the rock itself. Highlighting the skyline of Jerusalem, and the memories of all that visit, the Dome of the Rock is a tribute to the Muslims love and respect for this site.

After completion of the Dome of the Rock, construction began on the site of the original timber mosque at the south end of the Sanctuary. A vast congregational mosque, accommodating over 5,000 worshipers, rose up. It became known as Masjid al-Aqsa (al-Aqsa Mosque) , although, in reality, the entire al-Haram al-Sharif is considered Al-Aqsa Mosque, its entire precincts inviolable.

The next five centuries of Muslim rule were characterized by peace, justice and prosperity. The Noble Sanctuary became a great centre of learning, scholars came from all over the world to worship at Al-Aqsa and to study and teach within its precincts

Western Wall - Claimed Jews Site in Jerusalem

This is the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque , Jewish and Israel assumed that this is all that is left of the ancient Jewish Temple destroyed by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago.

All the archaeological researches shows that this wall are from the Islamic ages and have nothing to do with the assumed Jewish Temple.

There is a number of archaeological researches published in Jews Media and University shows this facts 

Holy Sepulchre - Christian Site in Jerusalem

The tomb in which Jesus was buried and the name of the church built on the traditional site of his Crucifixion and burial. According to the Bible, the tomb was close to the place of Crucifixion , and so the church was planned to enclose the site of both cross and tomb.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre lies in the northwest quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Constantine the Great first built a church on the site. It was dedicated about AD 336, burned by the Persians in 614, restored by Modestus . In the 12th century the crusaders carried out a general rebuilding of the church. Since that time, frequent repair, restoration, and remodelling have been necessary. The present church dates mainly from 1810.

This site has been continuously recognized since the 4th century as the place where Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the dead. Whether it is the actual place, however, has been hotly debated. It cannot be determined that Christians during the first three centuries could or did preserve an authentic tradition as to where these events occurred. Members of the Christian Church in Jerusalem fled to Pella about AD 66, and Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70. Wars, destruction, and confusion during the following centuries possibly prevented preservation of exact information. Another question involves the course of the second north wall of ancient Jerusalem. Some archaeological remains on the east and south sides of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre are widely interpreted to mark the course of the second wall. If so, the site of the church lay just outside the city wall in the time of Jesus, and this could be the actual place of his Crucifixion and burial. No rival site is supported by any real evidence.

Various Christian groups, including the Greek, Roman, Armenian, and Coptic churches, control parts of the present church and conduct services regularly

Cave of Mach-pelah - Jews Site in Hebron

At Hebron, Abraham purchased the cave of Mach-pelah as a burial place for his wife, Sarah, from Ephron the Hittite , this became a family sepulchre.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their wives Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah, were buried in the cave

Al-Haram al-Ibrahimi - Islamic Site in Hebron

The Cave of Mach-pelah is surmounted by a large mosque, al-Haram al-Ibrahimi . After the Six-Day War (1967), Israel partitioned the mosque by force in to a Mosque and a Jewish service area, since then Jewish services are held in the cave and Muslim pray in the upper mosque which remains the exclusive property of the Muslims

Church of Nativity - Christian Site in Bethlehem

The site of the Nativity of Jesus was identified by St. Justin Martyr, a 2nd century Christian apologist, as a manger in "a cave close to the village", the cave, now under the name of the Church of the Nativity in the heart of the town, has been continuously venerated by Christians since then. St. Helena (c. 248-c. 328), mother of the first Christian Roman emperor (Constantine I), had a church built over the cave; later destroyed, it was rebuilt in substantially its present form by Emperor Justinian (reigned 527-565). The Church of the Nativity is thus one of the oldest Christian churches extant. Frequent conflicts have arisen over the jurisdiction of various faiths at the sacred site, often incited by outside interests; thus, for example, the theft, in 1847, of the silver star marking the exact traditional locus of the Nativity was an ostensible factor in the international crisis over the Holy Places that ultimately led to the Crimean War (1854-56). The church is now divided between the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Orthodox faiths

Continue lendo