History of Jerusalem

HISTORY OF JERUSALEM

In light of the announcement by President Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Muslims should all know this basic outline of history:

1897: First World Zionist Congress held in Switzerland.
- Announces plans to establish a home for Jews in Palestine.
- Zionism was opposed by a MAJORITY of Jews around the world for the next 50 years (until the Holocaust)
- At the time, Jews lived peacefully with Muslims and Christians in Palestine, and were around 3 % of the population.

1917: Balfour Declaration.
- UK Foreign Minister Lord Balfour agrees to carve out a state for the Jews in Palestine.
- Around 11 % of the land is now occupied by Jews, a majority of whom emigrated from Europe based on Zionist ideology and monetary aid.

1922 onwards: The League of Nations grants the UK a 'Mandate for Palestine'
- Effectively, Britain is given political control of the land, without the consent of those living there.
- While the authorities attempted to limit Jewish emigration, terrorists attacks against them by Jewish groups (most famously, the bombing of the King David Hotel, which left almost a hundred people dead), caused Britain to realize that it had dug itself into a deep hole. In response, it decided to simply walk out of it.

1948 onwards: The nation-state of Israel is created.
- Almost immediately, around a million Palestinians are forced out of lands that are taken over by the state of Israel.
- Massive immigration of European Jews, post World War 2, into Israel. Demographics change, and a majority of the land is now non-Muslim for the first time since the Crusades.
- Jerusalem is controlled by both Jordan (East Jerusalem) and Israel (West Jerusalem), as per UN agreement.

1967: Israel invades East Jerusalem and occupies it. Parts of the al-Aqsa complex are bombed and destroyed. Now Jerusalem is under complete Israeli control.

1967-Dec 2017: No country in the world recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, understanding its history and appreciating the fact that the UN had declared it to be shared between Muslims and Jews.
- Trump becomes first world leader outside of Israel to consider Jerusalem the political capital of Israel.

Current statistics indicate that around 75 % of Israel is of Jewish background, and 17 % Muslim.

History shows that oppression shall never result in peace. And theology teaches all of us who believe in the Abrahamic message that those who wrong others will be called to account, in this world, and in the next. 

Injustice is the greatest sin that man does against man, and Allah does not allow injustice to go unreckoned.