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Sacred Sites in the Holy Land: Historical and Religious Perspectives

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Sacred Sites in the Holy Land: Historical and Religious Perspectives This project is funded by the European Union Sacred Sites in the Holy Land: Historical and Religious Perspectives ©Copyright IHJR 2011 This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. Published by The Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation (IHJR) Laan van Meerdervoort 70 2517 AN, The Hague, The Netherlands © IHJR 2011 All rights reserved ISBN 978-94-91145-02-5 Copy-editing: Hilmara Requena Book design: Linda Germanis Copyright© 2011 Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. The IHJR has made all reasonable efforts to trace all rights holders to any copyrighted material used in this work. In cases where these efforts have not been successful the publisher welcomes communications from copyright holders, so that the appropriate acknowledgements can be made in future editions, and to settle other permission matters. P r e fa c e As Executive Director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation, I am pleased to present the following case studies of three sacred sites in the Middle East. The work contained in this report represents an overview of historical and religious perspectives on these specific sites. The Sacred Sites project represents a multi‐year joint effort initiated and conducted by two leading scholars, an Israeli, Yitzhak Reiter and a Palestinian expert* who produced substantial work. I wish to express my gratitude and thanks to them. Unfortunately the circumstances in the region obstructed their continued joint cooperation and the project was therefore adjusted to reflect this reality. The resulting narratives are built on their thorough research, and supplemented with other scholarly work from Palestinians, Israelis and others. The IHJR is, however, solely responsible for the content of the report. The studies presented should be seen as an attempt to trace the deep history of the current divide in particular over two major sacred sites in Jerusalem, and one lesser known one, with the hope that they will contribute to fostering a better understanding of the conflicting narratives over these holy sites. I would like to express my gratitude in particular to Shoshana Iten for her major contribution in synthesizing this material and to Dr. Menachem Klein and Dr. Mahmoud Yazbak for their guidance and review of the text. We are also grateful for the important contributions of Professor Mustafa Abu Sway and Rabbi David Rosen. Thanks are due also to the public and private funders that include the Partnership for Peace Program of the Commission of the European Union, the Ford Foundation, the Arcadia Trust, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, and the family foundations of Dr. and Mrs. Richard M. Hunt, and Drs. Robert and Marina Whitman. Without their commitment and support this project would not have been possible. Catherine Cissé-van den Muijsenbergh *The Palestinian scholar requested to remain anonymous Table of Contents Introduction 7 Historical/Religious Context of Selected Sites 17 Al Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount 25 Religious Narratives 28 Historical Narratives 43 Cave of the Patriarchs/Cave of Machpelah: Sanctuary of Ibrahim/ Ibrahimi Mosque 65 Religious Narratives 68 Historical Narratives 72 Kever Shmuel/Nabi Samu‘il 81 Religious Narratives 83 Historical Narratives 85 Conclusion 95 Bibliography 97 Acknowledgements of Photographs and Pictures Cover Courtesy of Yu Yu Arch of Titus, Courtesy of Gunnar Bach Pedersen (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fra- Figure 1 p.20 titusbuen.jpg). Map of The Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount Figure 2 p.25 location. Figure 3 p.27 Al-Haram al-Sharif, picture taken by Ms. Iten. Close-up of Dome of the Rock, picture taken by Ms. Figure 4 p.32 Koevoets. Western Wall with Dome of the Rock in the back, pic‐ Figure 5 p.39 ture taken by Ms. Iten. Eastern view of the Dome of the Rock, picture taken by Figure 6 p.50 Ms. Koevoets. Map of Cave of the Patriarchs/Machpelah : Sanctuary of Figure 7 p.65 Ibrahim/ Ibrahimi Mosque location. View of Cave of Machpelah/Ibrahimi Mosque, http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ File:Machpella_hebron_1906.jpg, Breen, A. E., A diary of my life in the Holy Land. J. P. Smith printing company Figure 8 p.67 Rochester, N.Y., (1906). Figure 9 p.81 Map of Nabi Samu‘il / Kever Shmuel location. Façade of Kever Shmuel/Nabi Samu ‘il, http:// www.panoramio.com/photo/5965431 Courtesy of Figure 10 p.83 ycornfeld. | 7 Introduction The Sacred Sites project is part of a are often used by the opposing broader initiative, intended to parties to solicit domestic and provide “building blocks” from international popular support which current or future peace (including from the international and initiatives can benefit. The general religious communities) and to objectives of all projects include delegitimize the Other, 2 or that sharing narratives with the “other” which is different. and engaging public figures, political A first expression of the moral and religious leaders, educators, and dimension of the conflict may arise public commentators, in bringing the through addressing the question: results to broad public attention which of the two conflicting parties within and outside the region. has established historical rights to the Holy Land? The answer is not easy. Is it those who represent the Since the 1920s, holy places, and first monotheist religion? Who, particularly those situated in Jerusalem, according to the Bible, established a have been symbolically employed by great kingdom some 3,000 years ago nationalist politicians when addressing the in the Land and centered their conflict.1 Since the conflict involves worship of God on the rituals at the pursuing claims of sovereignty over the Temple of Jerusalem, but, after Holy Land’s territory, and the more than a thousand years in the legitimization of establishing land, were driven away? Or those national entities, historical and who have inhabited the Land for religious attachments to holy places 1 See for example, Meron Benvenisti, Sacred Landscape: Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948 (2001); Doron Bar, “Wars and Sacred Space, the Influence of the 1948 War on Sacred Space in the State of Israel”, in Marshall J. Breger, Yitzhak Reiter and Leonard Hammer (eds.), Holy Places in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Confrontation and Co-Existence (2009), pp. 67-91; Mahmoud Yazbak, “Holy Shrines (Maqamat) in Modern Palestine/Israel”, in Breger, Reiter and Hammer (eds.), Holy Places in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, pp. 231-248; Glenn Bowman, “Nationalizing the Sacred: Shrines and Shifting Identities in the Israeli-Occupied Territories”, Man, Vol. 28, No. 3 (1993), pp. 431-460; H. Ben-Israel, “Hallowed Land in the Theory and Practice of Modern Nationalism”, in Benjamin Z. Kedar and R.J. Zvi Werblowsky (eds.), Sacred Space: Shrine, City and Land (1998), pp. 278-294. 2 The concept of the “Other” was coined by the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and was applied among others by Edward Said in his influential book Orientalism about false assumptions underpinning Western ideas regarding the Middle East. 8 | much of the last 13 centuries, and inspiration. who claim ancestry to ancient tribes The overall aim of this report is to and peoples who were nomads in the encourage tolerance and understanding Land some 5,000 years ago? by familiarizing both sides with the narrative of the Other, while also working The Jews maintained an identity as a towards a common narration of the separate nation during the roughly 2,000 histories and religious significance of holy years of dispersion in the Diaspora through places in an area and time of heated their religious identity and conviction, conflict in which some of these sites are including a yearning and fundamental major symbols of national strife. belief in the “return to Zion”. This is enumerated in the Bible and is accepted The concept of the Other may help explain by many observant (and even many an individual’s understanding of the non-observant) Christians, particularly constitution of a society. By distinguishing Protestants. On the other hand, Muslims between the “Self” and the “Other”, a who see themselves as the true followers cognitive map is drawn between which of Abraham, the first believer in one God, individuals, groups or societies are refer to the description in the Qur’an (17:1) included or excluded from one’s own of the divinely “blessed land”. Holiness society. “Othering” is arguably a key and holy spaces in this case are cognitive process in building national identities “assets” in the debate on historical rights involving the “construction” or the to the land. The best known example is “imagining” of history, to draw on the the al Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount in term put forward by Benedict Anderson in Jerusalem (Arabic: Al-Quds). For both Imagined Communities.3 Palestinian Muslims and Jews living in the Holy Land, this site and surrounding Jerusalem became a source for national 3 B. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (1983). Introduction | 9 All too often, in this process, the stories of solution, perhaps the past can be more the Other are excluded or denied, in whole easily shared. Perhaps the issue of or in part. In the case of the sovereignty and other aspects of a future Israeli-Palestinian conflict there is an solution could be more easily negotiated apparent gap in understanding or and resolved after historical and religious empathizing with the “Others’” narratives, narratives have been addressed.
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