# * JERUSALEM * ~ The Soul of Palestine ~



## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

* Holy Fire ceremony inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem marking Easter*










© JIM HOLLANDER/epa/Corbis


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

* Mosaics and Tilework Inside Dome of the Rock*










© Dean Conger/CORBIS


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

* Sacred Rock in Dome of the Rock*










© Dean Conger/CORBIS


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

* View Across Muslim Quarter at Dusk Towards the Churches of the Christian Quarter*










© Jon Hicks/Corbis


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## Teymani (Jul 31, 2009)

I believe that there already is another, pre-existing Jerusalem thread. There's really no need to bring politics into this (which is obviously what you are doing). You're free to add pictures to the Jerusalem thread that I already started:

 http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=926462


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

* Skyline of the Old City, UNESCO World Heritage Site, 










* © Eitan Simanor/Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

*Damascus Gate










* © YOSSI ZAMIR/epa/Corbis


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

*Damascus Gate*










© YOSSI ZAMIR/epa/Corbis


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

* View of Jerusalem Old city with Dome of the Rock at sunrise on Jerusalem Day*










© JIM HOLLANDER/epa/Corbis


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

* Holy Sepulcher*










© ATEF SAFADI/epa/Corbis


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

*A Nun walking at the square near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem,*










© ATEF SAFADI/epa/Corbis


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

*Nuns walking at the square near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem,*










© ATEF SAFADI/epa/Corbis


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

*Christian worshippers waiting to visit what believed to be the tomb of Jesus at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher*










© ATEF SAFADI/epa/Corbis


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

* Russian Pilgrims at Mary's Tomb* 

* 








* 
© Philippe Lissac / GODONG/Godong/Corbis


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

* Street Market at Damascus Gate at Dusk During Ramadam* 

* 









* © Jon Hicks/Corbis


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## Skysultan (Mar 28, 2007)

* Damascus Gate in the Afternoon During Ramadam* 

* 









* © Jon Hicks/Corbis


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## Mojojojo. (Nov 22, 2006)

nice pics


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## purenyork123 (May 22, 2009)

gorgeous...


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## Redalinho (May 15, 2006)

Splendid !


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## 3nd4r3 (Aug 8, 2009)

great pics..
i love it..
:rock:


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## Redalinho (May 15, 2006)

*









**simone.brunozzi*


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## Redalinho (May 15, 2006)

*









**simone.brunozzi*


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## Redalinho (May 15, 2006)

Holy Sepulchre

*









**simone.brunozzi*


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## Redalinho (May 15, 2006)

Holy Sepulchre

*









**simone.brunozzi*


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## Redalinho (May 15, 2006)




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## Redalinho (May 15, 2006)




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## D K (May 8, 2009)

Elkhanan1 said:


> That's your definition. Most Jews would say that to be a Jew means to belong to the Jewish people, aka the _Nation_ of Israel, though not necessarily the _State_ of Israel. In fact, that's the definition of a Jew according to Judaism too. In Judaism, technically it actually doesn't matter what religion you follow since once a Jew, by birth or conversion, always a Jew.
> 
> 
> But most Israelis are Jews and Israel is the national expression of the Jewish people, hence the identification with it by Jews outside of Israel too.
> ...


I warmly invite you to get rid of the propaganda and the official mythology directly inspired from the Bible -which is not as far as I know a scientific or a reliable source when it comes to historical facts. You know that there is no jewish people, but a community sharing a faith and the same religious culture. This argument of a "jewish people" has been created in the 19th century by german nationalist (and haters) historians and since then has been the main argument of "antisemits" (another terme created in the mid-1850's). This theory was stating that jews weren't part of the european-aryan "race". This way of thinking led to the Holocaust, in the middle of the territory of the most advanced civilization. What is scary now is to see, that ultras like you and many other on this forum use that very argument that has been once created and hold by jew haters. Judaism like other religions has expanded via conversions and proselytism, throughout populations mainly all over the mediteranean, the arabic peninsula and eastern part of Europe, as well as already existing jewish strongholds in Mesopotamia. I won't respond you anymore on that topic, you have access to the internet, you are probably a smart guy, so I let you check out real history and the works of famous historians like Ernest Renan, or, more recently, Shlomo Sand, among others.


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## Gzdvtz (Oct 25, 2009)

Skysultan said:


>


What and where is that?



Redalinho said:


> http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2782/4159171177_6327bcf064_b.jpg


What's the white thing they're selling?


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## Elkhanan1 (Oct 21, 2007)

D K said:


> there is no jewish people


Well, there you have it, in black and white. Thanks for clarifying your agenda for all to see. Again, Palestinianism defined by opposition to the Jews. It simply can't stand on its own, in its own right. Without the Jews it all just falls apart because there's nothing there.


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## Nasdaq (Feb 3, 2005)

D K said:


> I warmly invite you to get rid of the propaganda and the official mythology directly inspired from the Bible -which is not as far as I know a scientific or a reliable source when it comes to historical facts. You know that there is no jewish people, but a community sharing a faith and the same religious culture. This argument of a "jewish people" has been created in the 19th century by german nationalist (and haters) historians and since then has been the main argument of "antisemits" (another terme created in the mid-1850's). This theory was stating that jews weren't part of the european-aryan "race".


Once again, the only propaganda is that of the local Islamofascists. Back in the real world:

"A study of haplotypes of the Y chromosome, published in 2000, addressed the paternal origins of Ashkenazi Jews. *Hammer et al.[17] found that the Y chromosome of some Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews contained mutations that are also common among Middle Eastern peoples, but uncommon in the general European population. This suggested that the male ancestors of the Ashkenazi Jews could be traced mostly to the Middle East."*

*Ashkenazi and Sephardic Cohanim and Israelites were found to share the same genetic signature, originating in the Middle East 2000 years earlier.*

"..Both the extent and location of the maternal ancestral deme from which the Ashkenazi Jewry arose remain obscure. Here, using complete sequences of the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), we show that close to one-half of Ashkenazi Jews, estimated at 8,000,000 people, can be traced back to only four women carrying distinct mtDNAs that are virtually absent in other populations, with the important exception of low frequencies among non-Ashkenazi Jews. We conclude that four founding mtDNAs, likely of Near Eastern ancestry, underwent major expansion(s) in Europe within the past millennium.."[1][21]

In addition, Behar et al. have suggested that the rest of Ashkenazi mtDNA is originated from ~150 women, most of those likely of Middle Eastern origin.[1]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1274378/


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## Elkhanan1 (Oct 21, 2007)

^^ Forget it, Nasdaq. They're living an a dreamworld of their own making. Facts and truth make no difference whatsoever. You can't apply rational arguments to irrational people.


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## Deanb (Jun 7, 2006)

then why carry on the conversation? just ignore them


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## qompass (May 26, 2009)

Deanb said:


> then why carry on the conversation? just ignore them


Good point. Why are you Zionuts even here trolling this thread? Don't you have your own Disneyland Jerusalem thread? lolz


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## Deanb (Jun 7, 2006)

qompass said:


> Good point. Why are you Zionuts even here trolling this thread? Don't you have your own Disneyland Jerusalem thread? lolz


LOL u wish the "palestinian" side of Jerusalem would b as advanced, clean and touristy as west & central israeli jerusalem...


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Very nice photos of Jerusalem, Redalinho


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## Redalinho (May 15, 2006)

http://pewforum.org/


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## sikal (Jun 8, 2009)

Elkhanan1 said:


> Well, there you have it, in black and white. Thanks for clarifying your agenda for all to see. Again, Palestinianism defined by opposition to the Jews. It simply can't stand on its own, in its own right. Without the Jews it all just falls apart because there's nothing there.


Good point!

I am puzzled by all the Palestinian propaganda - if they are a people separate and unique from the Arabs and other Muslims - then why do their so-called national liberation groups like the PLO emphasize their "Arab" identity or Hamas make such a fuss about their "Islamic" identity. If the Palestinians are just Arabs and Muslims - then it seems that they don't have any special right to a separate nation of their own - their oil-rich Arab and Muslim brethren should be able to absorb them in their resource-rich nations and allow the Jews to have just one tiny nation of their own.

Seems like the Palestinians (and the Arabs/Muslims) want to eat their cake and have it too. 

As for all the Zionist baiting - I find it odd that when it comes to the rights of women and biological minorities (such as LGBT) - and scientific and technological research - Israel is one of the most advanced nations in the world - which Islamic majority country even comes close?????

People can bait the "Zionists" all they want - but they are a heck of a lot more civilized than all their enemies combined.


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## Gzdvtz (Oct 25, 2009)

When (if?) you stop bickering for a moment could you please go back to #148 and perhaps answer me questions? Thanks


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## wonkcerbon (Sep 1, 2004)

al quds always and will be Palestines land, 
the israelis can go back to europe where they belong except for some few native jews

great pics btw


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## sxydrkhair (Dec 21, 2009)

Wow! wonderful pictures...


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## Elkhanan1 (Oct 21, 2007)

Deanb said:


> have u checked out any Palestinian comments or ideas yet to say that?! hno:


Dean, you know that the only glue that holds Palestinian identity together is hatred of/opposition to Israel and Jews. Without it, it just falls apart because there's nothing else there. No language called 'Palestinian'; no religion called 'Palestinian'; no historical figures called 'Palestinian'; etc; etc. In fact, there's nothing distinctly 'Palestinian' at all prior to the 20th century. (However, apparently the Canaanites, Jebusites, Phillistines, Israelites, Moses, Jesus, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Abonimable Snowman are all Palestinians now. And, of course, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Magna Carta, and The Lord of the Rings were all written by Palestinians!)


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Those alleys are really great...


>


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## Koobideh (Jun 27, 2009)

YouKnowWho said:


> You're not suprised because you are a degenerate. Until / unless you stop perverting facts and spewing lies and hate, you will forever be 'surprised'. For instance, truth be told - it is palestinians who have a monopoly on initiated attacks / murder - but who do you blame?? Surprised... Stealing land - well, what do you call a palestinian effort to establish a 'state' that has never existed before in the history of mankind, on the land that has never belonged to palestinian state / people in a sovereign capacity - and for a 'nation' that has no distinguishing features such as separate culture, language, religion or ethnic identity (ALL of these being arab, not palestinian) - but who do you accuse of stealing??? Surprised.


Keep up the hate. It makes you Jews look so tolerant doesn't it?

You know my perception of your people has really started to change recently. You don't deserve any respect whatsoever.

You only just prove your ignorance on Palestinians with what you say. I'll get back to the shit you wrote some time later, but really, educate yourself first. 

Silly rat.


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## Imperfect Ending (Apr 7, 2003)

M-120 said:


> Lock this thread.
> 
> 
> "Palestine" doesnt even exist yet and maybe never? So why have a thread about a country that doesnt even exist yet???


How bold


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## alangm13 (Dec 24, 2009)

palestinians should be in jordan. There is no sense in create a second arab country after jordan. That's the country where all the palestinians should stay. But let them create their own reality. 

Long live Israel...


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## YouKnowWho (Dec 25, 2009)

Koobideh said:


> Keep up the hate. It makes you Jews look so tolerant doesn't it?
> 
> You know my perception of your people has really started to change recently. You don't deserve any respect whatsoever.
> 
> ...


Listen, your respect - or respect of dimwits like you and other palestinian asslickers does not interest me. Keep it. 

But you're right in one aspect: I do exhibit total ignorance on palestinians - BUT ONLY because there is NOTHING to know about them: after all, what are they? what is the palestinian national history? what is their DISTINCT culture?? what are their UNIQUE defining characteristics as a national entity, other than murderous terrorism / jihadism???

'Educate yourself first' - yeah, well said, dickhead.. If only you people practiced what you preach.


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## Koobideh (Jun 27, 2009)

YouKnowWho said:


> Listen, your respect - or respect of dimwits like you and other palestinian asslickers does not interest me. Keep it.
> 
> But you're right in one aspect: I do exhibit total ignorance on palestinians - BUT ONLY because there is NOTHING to know about them: after all, what are they? what is the palestinian national history? what is their DISTINCT culture?? what are their UNIQUE defining characteristics as a national entity, other than murderous terrorism / jihadism???
> 
> 'Educate yourself first' - yeah, well said, dickhead.. If only you people practiced what you preach.


Trust me, what the world thinks should definitely interest you. 

Palestinians have a great culture that is unfortunately being denied to them by people such as yourself. It seems as though MANY Jews have not learnt the lessons from the Holocaust, which is to NEVER try and ostracize or eliminate another group of people. 

Seeing as you are ignorant and admit to it, I will just let you in on a few things.

Firstly, just because existence of the word 'Palestine' does not have a long history, does not mean that the actual Palestinian people today do not have a long history. Your disgusting tactics in trying to deny Palestinian history can also be applied to many other nations, including Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Nigeria, and even India. The whole existence of modern-day nation-states is a relatively new thing. Before the word 'Palestinian' started being used for the Palestinians, they would generally identity with the city, town or village that they came from, e.g. from Jerusalem (Al-Quds), Bethlehem, Jaffa, Jericho, Nablus, etc. They would also to a lesser extent identity with their religion (Islam, Christianity, Druze, Judaism, etc). This was the case for most of the world back then, especially in the Middle East. In those days you're not going to have had people running around waving the flag of any country and talking about how proud they are, because there was no national unity in those days. People did not care for these things and it did not exist. There is a Palestinian culture, and like I said, people would often identify along the lines of which city, town or village they came from, and each of these areas have developed their own individual cultures. Every town in Palestine has its own distinct way of dressing and its own cuisine. If you want to read a bit about Palestinian dress then read this. Palestinians even have their own way of speaking Arabic. Nowadays, the Palestinian dialect of Arabic, although standardized, is still distinct from other Arab countries. 

I want to also add that being Arab does not mean you are from the Arabian peninsular or anywhere near Saudi Arabia or Yemen. Arab identity is formed for the most part along linguistic lines, and NOT racial, cultural or religious. All Arab countries across the world have their own past histories, cultures and traditions. Palestinians are for the most part descended from people that have lived in what we call Palestine/Israel today since pre-historic times, which is also backed up by genetic studies such as this study called _The Origin of Palestinians and Their Genetic Relatedness With Other Mediterranean Populations_. Therefore this whole pathetic theory of "Palestine never existed so all Palestinians should go away and die" means nothing. This is just baseless Zionist propaganda with the sole purpose of spreading racism and hate. 

Palestinians have a rich culture. No offense to you, but they also have a richer culture than Jews, seeing as there is no such thing as "Jewish culture". You are a religious group, nothing more. It's as silly as a Muslim in Bosnia trying to argue that he is of the same culture as a Muslim in Malaysia. You have disgusting misconceptions about Palestinians, where you don't even realize what you are hating. Culturally, they are related more to the ancient inhabitants of the land than Jews, seeing as their culture is known to have been descended from it, and even most historians and anthropologists have noted the similarity between modern Palestinian traditions and clothing to the ancient traditions and clothing of the ancients who lived in the country. 

Read what I wrote and take it in. I hope that other dude "Elkhanan1" will also learn a thing or two. You guys need it. 

Ignorance and hate is one of the most vile things a person can hold, so stop it.

I want to finish this off with a quote by Rashid Khalidi that explains how the establishment of the state of Israel resulted in "the uprooting of the world's oldest and most secure Jewish communities, which had found in the Arab lands a tolerance that, albeit imperfect, was nonexistent in the often genocidal, Jew-hating Christian West."


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## Chevre (Oct 1, 2009)

baaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this thread is lame

@ Koobideh

This thread was fine before you had to re-politicize it. Please, let's keep politics out of this.


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## diMonteiro (Oct 14, 2008)

It's a fantastic city!


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## Koobideh (Jun 27, 2009)

Chevre said:


> baaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this thread is lame
> 
> @ Koobideh
> 
> This thread was fine before you had to re-politicize it. Please, let's keep politics out of this.


Yeah blame me even though there were people talking about how Palestinian identity does not exist like a few hours before my first post.


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## D K (May 8, 2009)

Keep posting pics guys! Koobideh: you are wasting your time, these guys are completely ignorant, it is not worth reading their posts: don't pay attention to them and just enjoy the pics


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## Elkhanan1 (Oct 21, 2007)

Koobideh said:


> Before the word 'Palestinian' started being used for the Palestinians, they would generally identity with the city, town or village that they came from, e.g. from Jerusalem (Al-Quds), Bethlehem, Jaffa, Jericho, Nablus, etc. They would also to a lesser extent identity with their religion (Islam, Christianity, Druze, Judaism, etc). This was the case for most of the world back then, especially in the Middle East.


Every one of those 'Palestinian' locales are built on top of Jewish foundations. Jerusalem (Yerushalayim. Oh, right. Palestinians now are Jebusites too. Hey, do you speak Jebusite?); Bethlehem (Beit Lekhem, Hebrew for 'House of Bread'); Jaffa (Yaffo, derived from the Hebrew word for 'lovely'); Jericho (Yerikho, derived from the Hebrew word Re'akh, 'fragrant', or Yare'akh, 'moon'); Nablus (a corruption of the Latin 'Neopolis', or New City, a name imposed by the Roman occupiers of Israel to replace the original Hebrew name Shkhem. The list goes on and on. But I guess now the Palestinians are Jews too.



Koobideh said:


> I want to also add that being Arab does not mean you are from the Arabian peninsular or anywhere near Saudi Arabia or Yemen. Arab identity is formed for the most part along linguistic lines, and NOT racial, cultural or religious. All Arab countries across the world have their own past histories, cultures and traditions. Palestinians are for the most part descended from people that have lived in what we call Palestine/Israel today since pre-historic times, which is also backed up by genetic studies such as this study called _The Origin of Palestinians and Their Genetic Relatedness With Other Mediterranean Populations_. Therefore this whole pathetic theory of "Palestine never existed so all Palestinians should go away and die" means nothing. This is just baseless Zionist propaganda with the sole purpose of spreading racism and hate.


Okay. So, now the Palestinians are prehistoric. I suppose Australopithecus and Cro-Magnon man are Palestinian too. Actually, genetic studies of Palestinians show a huge Arabian admixture. But then Palestinian identity is not based or genetics but on individual villages, towns, and cities, right? Perhaps Detroit, Dusseldorf, and Dubrovnic should be independent countries as well. They even have their own distinctive accents and basket weaving!



Koobideh said:


> Palestinians have a rich culture. No offense to you, but they also have a richer culture than Jews, seeing as there is no such thing as "Jewish culture". You are a religious group, nothing more.


There's that oppositional identity again.



Koobideh said:


> I want to finish this off with a quote by Rashid Khalidi that explains how the establishment of the state of Israel resulted in "the uprooting of the world's oldest and most secure Jewish communities, which had found in the Arab lands a tolerance that, albeit imperfect, was nonexistent in the often genocidal, Jew-hating Christian West."


That is the most widespread, paternalistic, and self-serving myth in the Arab world today. How convenient to blame the atrocities of the Arabs against their (more ancient) Jewish neighbours on the Jews themselves, i.e. the establishment of the State of Israel. If Iraqis hang the Jews of Baghdad in a frenzied pogrom in 1941, those wielding the noose are not responsible. It's the Zionists. If Arabs massacre the Jews of Hebron in 1929, the most ancient Jewish community in the world, those wielding the knife are not responsible. It's the Zionists. Talk about racism.


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## Koobideh (Jun 27, 2009)

Elkhanan1 said:


> Every one of those 'Palestinian' locales are built on top of Jewish foundations. Jerusalem (Yerushalayim. Oh, right. Palestinians now are Jebusites too. Hey, do you speak Jebusite?); Bethlehem (Beit Lekhem, Hebrew for 'House of Bread'); Jaffa (Yaffo, derived from the Hebrew word for 'lovely'); Jericho (Yerikho, derived from the Hebrew word Re'akh, 'fragrant', or Yare'akh, 'moon'); Nablus (a corruption of the Latin 'Neopolis', or New City, a name imposed by the Roman occupiers of Israel to replace the original Hebrew name Shkhem. The list goes on and on. But I guess now the Palestinians are Jews too.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I suggest you actually TRY and take in what I just said. I have prevented to you facts. If you don't want to accept them then that's your problem. I will treat you in the same way as I treat somebody who thinks the Holocaust is a myth. 

Everything you just wrote me is things you just 'feel', like your emotions, and the result of upbringing and brainwashing to hate Arabs. Nothing you wrote to me is based on actual evidence, especially the bit where you again try to argue Palestinians come from Arabia, despite being given proof of genetic studies that state otherwise. You are so ignorant it is unbelievable. 

Anyway, this thread isn't the place for your mindless hatred and racism. Go somewhere else if you want to spread these sorts of things because they don't belong here.


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## Elkhanan1 (Oct 21, 2007)

So, the etymological and historical evidence I presented are not facts? Why? Because it undermines the sham of Palestinianism? Appropriating and presenting another people's history, culture, and identity as one's own, as the 'Palestinians' continue to do vis-à-vis the Jews, is what's racist here. Surely, identity theft is wrong for more than just credit cards.


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## Rubisco (Nov 17, 2006)

Dude from Toronto, the hell do you know about the Middle East? You should stick to things you know about, like taking pictures of the CN tower or something. Having learned some broken pseudo-Hebrew (they don't even pronounce some letters right!) at Bible school and being influenced by some colonialist ideology does not make one an expert on the Middle-East, not in the least compared to people who actually come from there.

There should be no tolerance for cultural denial like the Palestinians are victim of.


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## purenyork123 (May 22, 2009)

I respect Israel but I dislike her govt (read my last posts)--i even wanted to go to tel aviv one day-- but now in this site I am beginning to see why the govt is like this but then again these people are expats. Dont they realize how in every survey, whether its done in Europe or M.east, Israel and US are considered to be biggest world threats and MPS from european parliaments have even said "Israel will be the nation to lead world war III."

And sadly Only US supports Israel besides Germany of course. The French do support her but also support the palestinian cause.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skonyo/4212848526/









http://www.flickr.com/photos/itineranttightwad/3698095493/

post more photos please


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## YouKnowWho (Dec 25, 2009)

_... I didn't write this - someone else did, but it conveys relevant historical facts and the sad truth abt the issues being discussed in this forum. And to all the anti-semites out there, I suggest you read carefully the last line of this post – it is all-important and prophetic:_

"How many people know that there was a pogrom against the Jews of Safed, (Tzfat in Hebrew) in 1834? How many know that it was far worse then the famous massacre of the Jews of Hebron in 1929? It lasted for 33 horrific days. 

This pogrom is known in Jewish history as ‘The great plunder of Safed’ and it lasted from the 15 of June 1834 to the 17 of July of that year. This pogrom had been forgotten because this whole era of pre – Zionist Palestine, (or the Land of Israel prior to the emergence of the Zionist movement) has been cast aside by more powerful events that happened later, namely the beginning of the Zionist enterprise.

It needs to be remembered, first because it happened, second because it has direct relevance to the current situation between Israel and the Palestinians. *Slightly more then 172 years after this pogrom, the forces of hate and bigotry still run high in Palestinian society. Except for one important change, the added factor of denial, of playing the sole victim in this conflict and putting all the blame on the Israeli side. *
It is a mix where the suicide is the obsession with victimhood as the butcher portrays himself as the victim, while the deliberate murder of civilians is a continuous line from the past, from a time when words like ‘Zionism’ and ‘the state of Israel’ were unheard of and unknown. The killing of unarmed Jews existed and was practiced in many parts of the Muslim world including what is known now as Palestine/Israel. While it is true that there were times and places in the Muslim world where Jews were treated well, the 18th and 19th centuries were not that era. 

When faced with Zionist resilience, this brutality morphed but never ceased. From old fashioned pogroms in the 1920’s it turned into gang violence in the 30’s. In 1947 it was a part of a massive ethnic cleansing attempt to wipe out the entire Jewish population, but with devastating results to the Palestinian population, and that despite the armed support of neighbouring Arab states. In the 50’s and 60’s there were the fidayeen raids against Israeli citizens and property, and in the 70’s and 80’s it was the terrorism of planting bombs in public places, attacking Israelis and Jews abroad, and taking civilians as hostages. The 90’s added a new twist, the suicide bombing, now so strongly associated with this conflict. *But all these had the same dominant feature that has not changed since the 19 century, and even from earlier times: the deliberate attacks on unarmed civilians. *
This forgotten pogrom was a regular pogrom, a dreadful yet familiar experience to Jews in both the Islamic world and in Christian Europe. Like all pogroms it was an act of senseless brutality, where the victims were totally helpless. It had no political agenda or motive behind it. There was no ‘Zionist entity’ whose existence served as an excuse to murder civilians. It was unleashed out of pure greed and anti-Semitism. 

The Palestinian Arabs of the Eastern Galilee took advantage of a regional crisis, the war between Egypt and Turkey, to attack their Jewish neighbors and strip them of everything they had: clothes, properties, houses, and the like. In the process people were beaten in the streets, many times to death, synagogues destroyed and holy books desecrated. An entire community of 2,000 souls (Kinglake says 4,000) was forced into hiding for 33 days, in caves, ruins, inhospitable mountaintops, and basements. In that mayhem there were good Arabs who saved lives, like the people of the village of Ein Zeitim and a few individuals, Muslims and Christians from the city itself, but there were also the double crossers who promised to help for a large sum of money, only to hand over the Jews to the rioting mob outside the hideout. For 33 days the lives of the Jews of Safed had practically no value, and anyone of them who showed his or her face in public was at risk of been beaten to death, sometimes by people they knew as neighbors or business associates.

Like all other pogroms, it demonstrates the helplessness of the Jewish condition prior to the formation of the state of Israel. Without it, Jews could not defend themselves, and could not demand treatment as equals, thus the life of a Jew had no actual value. It may have been inevitable that the first Zionist settlers were not immigrants but natives of the land. 

This forgotten tragedy is an historical fact that proves three points cardinal to the understanding of the conflict: That the Palestinian claim that there were good relations between Jews and Arabs before the first Zionist settlers arrived, is unfounded and false; that the notion that Israel mistreatment of the Palestinians is the sole cause of the brutal Palestinian violence against unarmed civilians, is severely limited at best, and that the other part of the explanation, the forgotten one, is that long existing forces of hate and bigotry in Palestinian society also play a major role. Thirdly and most importantly, like all pogroms, it demonstrates painfully why the Jewish state of Israel is so important to so many Jews. *Its existence is a matter of life over death to us, literally.”*


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## M-120 (Sep 26, 2009)

Perhaps its better to lock this thread?


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## Qatar Son 333 (May 10, 2006)

^^ no body listen to M-120 please !!

I am a Middle eastern Arab Muslim, and if i had the chance to be a friend with a Jew, then i will be a friend to a Jew... because i dont care !! i have Muslim and Christian friends !! all of us are humans. i have been a friend to buddhists, hindus and athiests and all of us RESPECT each other and each others history, culture etc. Israel is a FACT, Palestinians living in and around Israel are a FACT. if you want to make a negative comment point at governments not at civilians or militants.

Please, more Jerusalem pictures ! Muslim, Christian and Jewish


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