Our Holy City

 It took less than a century for Zionism to take hold in Israel. "Jerusalem had been an important Islamic city for nearly thirteen hundred years" when the Ottoman empire was conquered by the British, separating its various Islamic communities into different kingdoms (Armstrong p.371). Islam's fracture accelerated Zionists' ability to gain political control in Israel. And Zionists learned how to obtain more political power under British mandates—they always accepted offers from the British government "even though it often fell short of their needs or requirements" (Armstrong p.372). Meanwhile, Arab nationalists rarely accepted because the British government's offers didn't meet their demands, s0 they weren't able to gather as much influence as the Zionists. The British launched policy that attempted to satisfy both Palestinian and Jewish national sovereignty, but in their attempt to be fair, they exacerbated both sides' frustrations. Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote that "the four great powers are committed to Zionism" in a document called the Balfour Declaration which greatly roused the Palestinians' suspicions towards the British government (Armstrong p.374). Henry McMahon, high commissioner of Egypt, assured the muslims that their holy places "would remain under the control of an "independent Sovereign Muslim State"" in a treaty called the McMahon Pledge which the Zionists accused of inspiring several Arab nationalist revolts against Jews (Armstrong p.373). Sir Herbert Samuel, high commissioner of Palestine and self-proclaimed supporter of the Balfour Declaration, appointed the Arab nationalist Hajj Amin al-Husaini to mufti position! However, since the Zionists had a better understanding of Western diplomacy, they were able to gain more British political support. 

During the early Zionist movement, most of the Zionist leaders "had no interest whatever in the Temple and were not much moved by the Western Wall" (p. 377). Zionism was a mostly secular endeavor. Although the Zionists cited the time of King David and King Solomon to explain why Jerusalem is a Jewish homeland, many of them weren't interested in the house of Yahweh which was the sacred space that reoriented the Jews with the world. Zionists needed to create a new mythology around Jerusalem to attach themselves to the land, so they invested in religious Jews who thought a Jewish conquest of Jerusalem would bring balance back to the world. Meanwhile, Palestinians didn't need to create a mythology around Jerusalem because they had already been living there for centuries. It is unfortunate that Zionists thought their security and prosperity meant that Palestinians had to abandon the homeland and sacred space they had created. 

Arthur Balfour