Bing also gained a lifetime membership award<\/a> from the Teachers Education Union, for his leading role in establishing equity-oriented programmes at the university \u2013 including M\u0101ori Studies, Women\u2019s Studies, Labour Studies, and the School of Law.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Prof. Bing\u2019s paper, anchored with reference to classical texts, is a poignant reminder of the special\u00a0connection of Jews to their ancient city and the importance of historical method in the battle against contemporary assaults on history.<\/p>\n
1\u00a0<\/span>Babylon Talmud, Tractate Keddushin 49\u00a0<\/span><\/sub><\/p>\n2\u00a0Elsmore, Bronwyn. Like Them That Dream: The Maori and the Old Testament.\u00a0<\/span><\/sub><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Read the full speech:<\/p>\n
Jerusalem\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\nThree Thousand Years of History: The Political, Religious and Historical\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\nMeaning of a Holy City\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\nProfessor Dov Bing,\u00a0<\/em>Chairperson of Department\u00a0<\/span><\/em>of Political Science and Public Policy.\u00a0<\/em>Address prepared for the Jerusalem 3000 Celebrations\u00a0<\/span><\/em>in the presence of\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu\u00a0<\/span><\/em>and His Excellency, Mr Nissan Koren-Krupsky, Ambassador of Israel to New Zealand,\u00a0<\/em>Kimi Ora,\u00a0<\/em>Turangawaewae,\u00a0<\/em>New Zealand,\u00a0<\/em>Sunday, 4 August 1996.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n- Introduction\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
To set the tone of this address I have related selected passages from the Bible, the\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBabylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u2018Ten measures of beauty were bestowed upon the world; nine were\u00a0<\/span>taken by Jerusalem, and one by the rest of the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBabylon Talmud, Tractate Keddushin 49\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n‘By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yes we wept, when we\u00a0<\/span>remembered Zion. How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange\u00a0<\/span>land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy… –\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPsalms 137\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n…for the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord\u00a0<\/span>from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and\u00a0<\/span>decide between strong nations far off; and they shall beat their\u00a0<\/span>swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks;\u00a0<\/span>nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they\u00a0<\/span>learn war any more.’\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMicah 4:2-3\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\nJerusalem is of course a symbol and a dream. However, besides the heavenly Jerusalem, there are many more Jerusalems. There is the historical Jerusalem. The\u00a0<\/span>city of conquerors and kings, prophets, wise men and story-tellers. There is also a\u00a0<\/span>sacred, religious Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of faith – the faith of Israel, of Christianity and of Islam.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJerusalem’s sanctity is unique, not only by reason of its Holy Places and history, but also by reason of the city’s infinite symbolic significance. All of these, identical but divergent, are Jerusalem: terrestial Jerusalem and the Celestial City; Jerusalem of the End of Days and Jerusalem of the World to come; Jerusalem of the Prophets Ezekiel and Zechariah, of the writings of the Dead Sea Sect and of the Revelation of St. John. The selfsame city of twelve pearly gates, the sites of Judgement Day and the Resurrection of the Dead, Jerusalem where the pious made their home. Jerusalem, therefore, is a manifold concept, ingrained in scores of cultures, embodying in itself myriad meanings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAlthough Jerusalem evolved into a religious symbol, particularly for Jews and Christians, the Eternal City never lost its importance. \u2018And God said, I shall not set foot in heavenly Jerusalem until I have trod in earthly Jerusalem’. Tractate. Yearning for celestial Jerusalem motivated pilgrimage to its earthly counterpart. Some pilgrims to Jerusalem made their way to the Holy City in the face of adversity, others elaborated and restored the Holy Places, and some attempted to achieve dominion over the City as a first measure in the consummation of the prophecies. The Temple Mount with its sanctuaries and the Holy Sepulchre, each in turn, assumed a place in the tradition of sanctity. One of the most striking manifestations of the continuity is the attribution of Jewish folk-tale traditions relating to the Temple Mount, by Christians to the Hill of Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre and restored in turn by Islam to the Temple Mount.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n2.\u00a0 <\/span>The City of David\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\nLet us now turn to the history of Jerusalem. The city had its beginning on the hilltop known as the City of David. Later it expanded northward to embrace also the Temple Mount. The hill on which the City of David was built appears to have been inhabited since the early Canaanite period. The existence of the city in the late Canaanite period is attested to by the Bible as well as by a number of tombs from this era that were uncovered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe precise circumstances of the capture of Jerusalem by David are shrouded in\u00a0<\/span>mystery. The Bible tells the story in two versions, in the First Book of Samuel (5: 4-9)\u00a0 <\/span>and in the First Book of Chronicles (11: 4-8). At first it was assumed that David captured Jerusalem by means of a ruse. Jerusalem, like Jericho, may have been captured, however, with the aid of a musical instrument. To counter this act of magic, Araunate , the Jebusite ruler of Jerusalem, also ventured into the metaphysical realm. Thus it came to pass that in the year 1005 B.C.E David took the stronghold and named it The City of David.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFrom the time of King David, when as his capital Jerusalem first entered history as a national entity, the main entrance to the mount on which his son Solomon was to\u00a0<\/span>erect the First Temple was from the south. The First Temple was a rectangular building of large squared stones and cedar beams. It consisted of two apartments, separated by a wall in which was a door made of olive wood. The inner room was a perfect cube. It was the most holy part of the sacred edifice, the Holy of Holies, containing the Ark surmounted by two cherubim of olive wood – plated with gold. Throughout the paneling was of cedar, richly adorned with carvings, while the floor was of cyprus wood. The whole complex of buildings, from the Forest House to the Temple, presented an imposing spectacle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn 587 B.C.E. the Babylonian army laid siege to the city and captured it. Most of the inhabitants were exiled: \u201cAnd he burnt the house of the Lord, and the King’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire\u201d (II Kings 25:9) This disaster, of which the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel had given ample warning, left Jerusalem desolate for over 50 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn 536 B.C.E, after the fall of Babylon, Cyrus, King of Persia allowed those desiring to return to Zion to do so and to rebuild the Temple. In 515 B.C.E. the rebuilding of the Second Temple was competed. But it was not until 445 B.C.E that Nehemiah was appointed governor of Judah. He became responsible for the rebuilding of the city. It was Ezra the scribe who was responsible for the restoration of the authority of the Mosaic Law and for making Jerusalem the undisputed religious center of Judaism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n3. The Hellenistic Period\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\nJerusalem submitted peacefully with the rest of Judah, to Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.E. After the death of Alexander in 323 B.C.E., Prolemy I, King of Egypt captured Jerusalem. Judah had broad autonomy in domestic affairs and Jerusalem continued to be its administrative center.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Seleucid conquest in 198 B.C.E. was welcomed by the Jews. When in 175 B.C.E. Antiochus IV Epiphanes ascended to the Seleucid throne, the change of Jerusalem into a Hellenistic polis took place. Jerusalem was renamed Antioch. This was a grievous blow to the traditionalists. In 167 B.C.E. Antiochus issued decrees against the Jewish religion that were carried out with special severity in Jerusalem. The Temple was desecrated; its treasures were confiscated. Antiochus converted it into a shrine dedicated to the god Dionysus and ordered the erection of a huge temple of his favourite god, Zeus Olympius.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe revolt against Hellenism which followed was led by Judah Macabee. In December 164 B.C.E. Judah’s forces recaptured Jerusalem and removed the pagan\u00a0<\/span>objects from the Temple. Since that time Jews observed the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah, in memory of this occasion. Jerusalem became the capital city of the Jewish Hasmonean Kingdom, which included the major part of evergrowing economic and religious activity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n4. The Herodian Period\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\nIn 63 B.C.E. the Temple wall was breached and the Romans broke into the Temple\u00a0<\/span>itself. In 37 B.C.E. the Romans installed King Herod as the new ruler of Judea. He reigned for 33 years until 4 B.C.E. Even though Herod was hated by the people, he initiated a large building programme in Jerusalem. The Temple Mount was surrounded by a wall of huge blocks, of which the Western (Wailing) Wall is but a\u00a0<\/span>section. Herod also entirely rebuilt the Temple, doubling its height and richly\u00a0<\/span>adorning its exterior. After Herod’s death Judea was made a province of the Roman\u00a0<\/span>Empire in 6 C.E. Jerusalem was ruled by Roman procurators who resided in\u00a0<\/span>Caesarea. One of the procurators, Pontius Pilate (26-36), under whose rule the execution of Jesus of Nazareth took place, contributed the first acqueduct which brought water to Jerusalem from the vicinity of Hebron. The small Christian community remained in Jerusalem until 66, when it retired to Pella.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Temple, the Sanhedrin and the great houses of study of the Pharisees turned it\u00a0<\/span>into a symbol for Jews everywhere. It was renowned everywhere. The Roman Pliny\u00a0<\/span>the Elder wrote that Jerusalem was the most famous among the great cities of the\u00a0<\/span>East. A legendary halo surrounded the city. It was also the center of spiritual activity. Houses of learning attracted students from all over the country and from abroad. Its population was estimated at 120,000.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn 66 C.E. the misrule of the procurators finally provoked a revolt against the\u00a0<\/span>Romans. The Roman governor of Syria, Cestius Gallus, was defeated. For three years Jerusalem was free. In 70 C.E., the Roman Army, led by Titus, the son and heir of the Emperor Vespasian, attacked Jerusalem. After fierce and bitter fighting, the wall of the Antonia was finally stormed and after a few days the Temple was set aflame on the 9th of Av (August). Most of the people in the city had either been killed or had perished from hunger. The survivors were sold into slavery or executed and the city was destroyed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJerusalem remained in ruins for 61 years. The Romans established Aelia Capitolina in 130 C.E. This led to the second Jewish – Roman war. Jerusalem was reoccupied by the Jews, ably led by Bar Kokhba. This state of affairs lasted for almost three years (132 – 135). In 135 Jerusalem was recaptured by the Romans – Aelia became a quiet provincial Roman city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n5. Byzantine Jerusalem\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\nThe status of Aelia was completely revolutionised when the Christian Emperor Constantine became master of Palestine in 324. In 326 the Emperor’s mother Helena, visited Jerusalem. As a result of her visit, the Emperor decided to erect the Church of the holy Sepulchre on the spot where according to Christian tradition the True Cross was found.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn 438 the Empress Endoria visited Jerusalem. Due to her intervention, Jews were\u00a0<\/span>again allowed to live in the city. After the separation from the Emperor, she settled\u00a0<\/span>in Jerusalem (444-460) and built many churches. Byzantine Jerusalem under Justinian was preserved in the Mabada Mosaic Map.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n6. The First Moslem Period\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\nThe Arabs invaded Erez Israel in 634. They took Jerusalem in 638. It became a provincial town and never regained its previous splendour. The Caliph Omar Ibn Khattab inaugurated a period of 450 years of Moslem rule that ended with the First Crusade at the beginning of the eleventh century. Little is known from primary\u00a0<\/span>sources about this period.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nVarious accounts confirm that Omar had Jews in his retinue who were his advisers. Jewish traditions and beliefs influenced early Islam’s attitude toward the holiness of the Temple Mount. Jews lived in Jerusalem in the early Arab period. A document (in Judeo-Arabic) found in the Cairo ‘Genizah’ reveals that the Jews asked Omar for permission for 200 families to settle in the town. The patriarch opposed it. In the end 70 Jewish families were allowed in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOmar converted the Temple Mount into a Moslem place of worship. Thus the\u00a0<\/span>foundations were laid for the Al Aqsa Mosque. At first it was a large wooden\u00a0<\/span>structure, later a new building was constructed, most of which is still extant. Al Aqsa means ‘the distant place’ in Arabic, for this spot was held to be the destination of Mohammed’s Night Journey recorded in the Koran. Built over the remains of the\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSecond Temple Hulda Gates, the Al Aqsa Mosque’s foundations are consequently insecure and the building has frequently been the victim of natural disasters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Dome of the Rock (really a kind of monument, rather than a mosque) was erected on the Temple Mount in 691, during the reign of caliph Abd-al Malik.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn the course of time, there were several changes of dynasty among the Moslem rulers of the city. Thus the periods of rule by the Caliphs of Omayad (660-780) and Abbasid (780-969) dynasties were regarded as flourishing periods. The period of Egyptian Fatimid rule (969-1071), on the other hand, marked a decline; and the subsequent conquests of the Seljuks and the Mongols led to even greater disorder and chaos, until finally Jerusalem was captured in 1099 by the Crusaders.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn the year 1009 the Fatimid Caliph El Haqim, in a fit of religious zeal, ordered all the synagogues and the churches in the city demolished.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSince Islam’s religious association with Jerusalem was limited largely to the Temple Mount, this was the only part of the city that underwent significant changes during the First Moslem period. Gradually, Jerusalem came to be divided into residential zones according to religious affiliation. This division was not imposed on the inhabitants of the city, but came about of itself. Christians, Moslems and Armenians occupied roughly the same quarters they occupy today. The Jews lived in the quarter near the Dung gate; towards the end of the period the northern position of the Moslem Quarter came also to be called the Jewish Quarter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n7. The Crusaders (1099-1187)\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\nThe Crusaders ruled Jerusalem during most of the 12th century. They did in fact\u00a0<\/span>again hold part of the city from 1229 to 1244. The troops of Flanders and northern\u00a0<\/span>France, led by Godfrey de Bouillon, scaled the walls in the north-eastern sector, which was defended by both Muslims and Jews. A Provincial force, led by Raymond of St. Gilles, surmounted the wall adjoining Mount Zion, while the Normans from Sicily entered the northwest. The population, Muslims and Jews alike, was massacred. Jerusalem, became the capital of the crusaders’ kingdom. Christian Arabs from Transjordan and Syria were settled in the former Jewish quarter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe various quarters in the city were also organised along ethnic lines. In the present-day Jewish quarter were Germans, in the Armenian quarter of today were the French. There were also Hungarian, Spanish and English communities. The Dome of the Rock was renamed \u201cTemplum Domini’ – Temple of the Lord, and the Al Aqsa Mosque was called ‘Templum Salomonies’ – Temple of Solomon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe crusaders’ rule invigorated Christian religious life. Many Christian traditions\u00a0<\/span>associated with Jerusalem were established. Thus the tradition of Via Dolorosa was\u00a0<\/span>defined. Many Muslim shrines were turned into churches.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nCrusader Jerusalem fell to Saladin in 1187. Only in 1229, under the Emperor Frederick II did Christian rule return to Jerusalem and then only for a brief period of fifteen years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n8. The Mamelukes (1187-1517)\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\nAfter Jerusalem had fallen to Saladin in 1187, the city passed through many hands till its conquest by the Turks in 1517. The Mongols invaded Jerusalem in 1260. At the end of that year the Mamelukes defeated the Mongols at En-Harod.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Mamelukes did not care to fortify Jerusalem and repopulate it. Under their long rule Jerusalem became a town of theologians. It was administered by a low-ranking Mameluke appointed by the deputy of the Sultan of Damascus. During this period Jerusalem remained a very poor town. At the end of the 15th century Jerusalem probably had no more than 10,000 inhabitants. The Dominican Felix Fabri, who was in Jerusalem in 1483, says that there were 1,000 Christians, and the Jewish community number 100-150 families. The total population was no more than 10,000.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Mameluke rulers generously endowed religious establishments, such as mosques and colleges. Since the number of the madrasas had increased, Jerusalem became a center of Islamic studies in the later Middle ages. Fanaticism and persecution of non-Muslims were frequent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe role of the Jews in Jerusalem was modest. At the beginning of the 15th century\u00a0<\/span>immigration of Jews from Europe began. In the beginning of the 16th century there\u00a0<\/span>were a number of Jewish scholars in Jerusalem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n9. The Ottomans (1517-1917)\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\nIn December 1517 the Turkish Sultan Selim I conquered Jerusalem. Under his successor, Suleiman the Magnificent, the city was vastly improved and took on an aspect of splendour. The present-day wall around the Old City of Jerusalem was his work. The construction of the wall lasted from 1537 to 1541. Suleiman also introduced changes in the buildings on the Temple Mount. Two Jewish sources also indicate that he improved Jerusalem’s water supply, especially for the Temple Mount area. The conduits bringing from the vicinity of Solomon’s Pools were repaired and widened.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAfter the reign of Suleiman, Jerusalem entered a period of considerable decline. The governor of the district (sanjak) was usually of lower status than the other local\u00a0<\/span>regional rulers (Safed, Nablus, Gaza) since the central authorities regarded Jerusalem as no more than a town bordering on the land of Bedouin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDuring their 400 year reign only a few Turks settled in the country. Arabic remained the spoken language. According to the Ottoman records of land registration from the 16th century, the inhabitants of the district of Jerusalem were much fewer in number than those of Gaza, Nablus and Safed. Accordingly, the income of Jerusalem’s governor was smaller than that of other governors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAt the beginning of the 16th century, Jewish Jerusalem attracted kabbalists who were awaiting the imminent redemption. The communities of Egypt and Syria aided the Jerusalem community. According to official censuses in the 1530’s the number of Jews in Jerusalem ranged between 1,000 and 1,500. In the 17th century immigrants from Turkey, North Africa and Italy settled in Jerusalem. The city also supplanted Safed as the centre for the study of Kabbalah. A quarter of the Jewish population were scholars and rabbis. The remainder craftsmen and small businessmen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn the pilgrim literature Jerusalem is described as a ghost-town, underpopulated and\u00a0<\/span>with much of its area turned into deserted fields. Well into the 19th century,\u00a0<\/span>Jerusalem continued to present a dreary, cheerless aspect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPerhaps more than anything else, the opening of foreign consulates in Jerusalem paved the way to the city’s development. Under a system of granting concessions (‘capitulations’) to foreign powers, foreign companies were able to invest in the\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOttoman Empire, including Jerusalem. With the consulates extending their protection and services to Jews as well, there was a rapid growth in the Jewish population. At the start of the 19th century, the Jews contributed but one-fourth of the city’s population; by mid-century they were almost one-half, growing rapidly, in the years that followed, to 60-70% of the total. All these changes were also reflected in the appearance of the city. The streets were paved with stone (1864-5) and gas lighting installed (1868). In many of the streets water and sewage pipes were laid.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWith the rapid growth of the Jewish population, Jews began to establish residential neighbourhoods outside the Old City walls. Several Christian neighbourhoods followed as well as Moslem ones.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n10. The British Mandate (1917-1948)\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\nWhen the British took the city in December 1917 there were more than 30,000 Jews in Jerusalem out of a total population of 60,000. The military administration that operated in the area was replaced in 1922 by a civilian administration, under the terms of the Mandate bestowed upon Britain by the League of Nations. Jerusalem became the centre of British government in Palestine. The Municipal Council was composed of six Jews and six Arabs (four Moslems and two Christians).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe British era saw the establishment of institutions in both the Jewish and Arab\u00a0<\/span>sectors. The Hebrew University was finally opened by Lord Balfour in 1925. The 1931 census showed 51,222 Jews; 19,894 Muslims and 19,335 Christians.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn April 1920, the first Arab riots took place; major recurrences broke out in August 1929 and in the Arab insurrection of 1936-1939. In Jerusalem, hostility was particularly rife, the city represented a religious and political focus for both people. At the close of the British Mandatory Period, the population of Jerusalem numbered 165,000 of whom 100,000 were Jews, 40,000 Moslems and 25,000 Christians.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n11. Jerusalem Divided (1948-1967)\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\nOn 29 November 1947 the UN resolved to partition Palestine and internationalise\u00a0<\/span>Jerusalem. The resolution was accepted by the Jews, but rejected by the Arabs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFighting broke out the following day. Siege, destruction and hunger were once more Jerusalem’s lot. The Transjordanian Arab Legion invaded the Old City of Jerusalem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBefore the fighting stopped almost a year later, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City\u00a0<\/span>was destroyed and its people driven out by the Jordanian Army. Mt. Scopus, a vital\u00a0<\/span>medical and educational focus, became an isolated enclave severed from the city. Its hospital and university remained closed until 1967. A total cease-fire came into force on 3 April 1949.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn December 1949 Jerusalem for the third time in history became once again the capital of Israel. The city began to be rehabilitated and rebuilt. Suburbs were built to house refugees from quarters of Jerusalem which remained in Arab hands, new\u00a0<\/span>immigrants, survivors of the Nazi holocaust and Jewish refugees from Arab\u00a0<\/span>countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAt the close of the 1948 war, there remained 65,000 people in the Jordanian section of Jerusalem, more than half of them living within the Old City. Stagnation set in, and by 1967 these were still less than 66,000 people, about 25,000 in the Old City. The Christian community had shrunk to about 10,800.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n12. Jerusalem Reunited (since 1967)\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n