Two Cities, One Jerusalem: Israel vs. Palestine and the thousand-year-old conflict explained by a theologian | Theology | Modern Conflict | Hamas | Judaism | Islam | Jews | Muslims | Lights

The adjective fratricide is not useless: Israelis and Arabs, peoples who are again in conflict today, descend from the same father, Abraham, according to the Bible and the Koran. His sons Ishmael (meaning God listens to me) and Isaac (son of the promise) were the Ishmaelites and the forefathers of the people of Israel respectively. The first is the patriarch’s son with his Egyptian servant Hagar. The second, his wife Sarah, gave birth 13 years later. The ancient dispute about which is the legitimate firstborn falls on both, and for those who try to draw factual conclusions from the scriptures, there is one of several justifications for defining the ownership of those territories.

Véronique Legaros, a theologian and professor at the Catholic University, warned that both the Bible and the Koran cannot be read as historical texts, but as myths that seek to express the ancestral ideas of both peoples. Anyone who reads the two books will be able to notice how they share a good part of their characters, even though they act in different stories and are told with different focus.

For example, in the Qur’an, Abraham is seen as a link in a chain of prophets beginning with Adam and ending with Muhammad. Islam’s holy book shows the patriarch leaning in favor of Ishmael, while Judeo-Christian tradition prefers Isaac. In the Bible, it was Isaac who was chosen for Abraham’s sacrifice, while Muslims believe that Ishmael was the one in such dire straits.

In the biblical narrative, the question of precedence between the two brothers had already been resolved with an expulsion: Ishmael was expelled from Abraham’s house with his mother for allegedly disdaining Isaac. In Genesis 21:9-10 it is written: “But Sarah saw Hagar the Egyptian mocking Abraham’s son Isaac. Then he went to Abraham and said, ‘Let that slave and her son go! My son Isaac did not have to share his inheritance with the slave’s son..

Mother and son wandered in the Beersheba desert, where they were on the brink of death, until an angel showed them the way to a water-saving source. ““As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a great nation out of him.”, says Genesis 21:13. According to the Qur’an, Ishmael grew up and became strong in the desert of Baran, south of Canaan. He married an Egyptian, founded Ismalia and was the father of 12 princes whose descendants settled between Egypt and the Persian Gulf.

How to interpret a myth based on a dispute between two half-brothers over its legitimacy? For Legaros, it is important to understand that the figure of Isaac in the biblical narrative begins to develop in the 7th century BC, while the character of Ishmael was only recovered by Muhammad in the 6th century, when he wrote the Qur’an in the Millennium. Later on. Mythological events. Therefore, the expert is clear in emphasizing that we cannot say that the two myths developed in parallel, or that controversies arose from them in ancient times.

Holy places

For Franco-Peruvian theologians, understanding the importance of Jerusalem awareness among Jews and Muslims can be complicated for Christians because, unlike these two major religions, Christianity does not stick to specific places as the center of its faith. “Christian pilgrimages are not a duty. We can go anywhere, Jerusalem, Rome, Camino de Santiago or Lord Ayabaca. However, for Muslims and Jews, it is a pillar of their faith.Yes,” he explains.

A spatial connection reflected in the way of prayer: Muslims head towards Mecca, Jews look to Jerusalem and Christians draw on internal reflection without a defined orientation. This aspect of the Christian faith is based on the testimony gathered in the Gospel of John 2:19. “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and within three days I will raise it up.”He refers to his own body as a sacred place.

Read the sacrament

For the Jews, no turning point in their history is associated with the diaspora after the Bar Kochba Revolt in the second century after Christ. It was a popular revolt sparked by the Roman Emperor Hadrian’s intention to build a temple to Jupiter in Jerusalem. As Legaros explains, though the diaspora that the Jewish people knew in their history was different, such as earlier ones in Egypt or Babylon; However, this marked a turning point: Hadrian forbade Jews to live in his territory, an edict that would last for centuries.

““How the Jewish people could keep their faith and their attachment to Jerusalem alive over the centuries is exceptional.” Theology comes to mind. There are various texts in the Bible that confirm this commitment to memory, among which we can highlight Psalm 137:5-6. “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, my right hand will forget its skill. If I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem as the first object of my joy, my tongue will stick to my palate.”.

Precisely to destroy the land of the Jewish people and the memory of their holy city, after suppressing the rebellion, the Roman emperor changed the names of Judea and the city of Jerusalem. He renamed this Roman administrative unit Palestine, meaning “Land of the Philistines”, as a way to win over a people more hostile to the Israelites, and the Jewish capital was renamed Aelia Capitolina. “The majority of the people of that time were assimilated; However, Jews have known how to be united for centuries.Says the analyst.

Centuries after the exodus, it was the Christians who persecuted the Jews with accusations of murder. “We said they killed God, which is absurd. When the Catholic Monarchs ordered the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, they went to parts of North Africa, Turkey, and Istanbul. “Jews and Muslims lived together without problems.”Legaros recalled.

For theologians, if there are tensions between Muslims and Jews, it is a relatively recent conflict compared to centuries of coexistence. Thus, it is not a perpetual struggle for these territories, as versions that contextualize biblical texts point out, in their eagerness to present the region as an unlikely place for peace.

Within this rhetoric of war, a recurring argument among the most conservative sectors views the Palestinians as the direct descendants of Israel’s fiercest enemies, the ancient Philistines. “There is a tool of myths that seems to me very dangerous, and one of them is to pass off the Palestinians as Philistines. They were a people three thousand years ago, and that is something absurd!Legaros says.

For the researcher, although scenes of violence abound in both the Bible and the Qur’an, these must be read from their symbolic meaning. “Using the Bible to justify violence is very dangerous, and that is fundamentalism. Peace can be built only by giving up direct reading of scriptures. “We must interpret them in a different way by assessing their background of wisdom and spirituality.”Recommends.