Arabs founded Jerusalem, says Jordan-based institute
By Daoud Kuttab
Arab News
June 28, 2020
AMMAN: Arabs were the first inhabitants of Jerusalem and have lived
there for at least 5,000 years, according to a white paper published by
an Amman-based think tank.
“They founded and built it in the first place — and have been there ever since,” the paper says.
Using unpublished documents, the paper, from the Royal Aal Al-Bayt
Institute for Islamic Thought, seeks to correct the misperception “that
Arabs are newcomers to Jerusalem.”
The institute, an Islamic non-governmental entity, is headed by Prince
Ghazi bin Muhammad, personal envoy and special adviser to King Abdullah
II of Jordan, since 2000.
Among the many references the document uses to make its point is the
Amarna Correspondence, a series of diplomatic letters between Canaanite
city-state kings and their Egyptian overlords during the 14th century
B.C., which mention Jerusalem. The paper presents pictures of the
cuneiform tablets uncovered in Egypt in the late 19th century to
validate its argument.
Along with archaeological discoveries, the Biblical record is also used
as a source to establish original Arab presence in Jerusalem. The Bible,
the paper says, shows that “the Arabs, Hamites, Canaanites, and
Jebusites were the original inhabitants of the land of Palestine,
including the area of Jerusalem.” Canaanites and Jebusites were there
long before the Jews, even before Judaism was revealed.
The 108-page document quotes passages from the Old Testament to
establish that “Jerusalem was always an Arab city” and notes that, “the
Palestinian Arabs of today are largely the direct descendants of the
indigenous Canaanite Arabs who were there over 5,000 years ago.
Modern-day Arab Muslim and Christian Palestinian families (such as the
“Kanaan” tribe, direct descendants of the Canaanites) are the oldest
inhabitants of the land.”
The paper mentions Salah Eddine Ayyoubi — the Muslim historical figure
who fought the Crusaders and reclaimed Jerusalem in the 12th century,
allowing the Christians to remain and inviting Jews expelled from
Jerusalem by the Crusaders to resettle in the city — to validate its
point.
According to Prof. Sari Nusseibeh, former president of Al-Quds
University in Jerusalem, the white paper is a “well-referenced and
clearly argued document.”
Nusseibeh’s family has been, since the seventh century, entrusted with
the keys to the historic Church of the Holy Sepulcher (situated in the
Christian quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem). The paper, he says,
“debunks the Israeli and extremist Jewish narrative in more than one
way, replacing it with a clear historic overview of continued Arab
presence in the city and benevolent Islamic rule.”
On the Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalem’s holy sites, which is a
pivotal theme of the white paper, Nusseibeh, one of the leaders of the
first Palestinian intifada, says the document “recognizes the
Palestinian role in the Hashemite custodianship, thereby emphasizing the
special political relationship between the Palestinian people and the
Hashemite Kingdom. In more than one way, it shows that a Hashemite
custodianship of the holy sites, especially in the context of peace,
promises a more secure place for all three religions than does the
present policy of the Israelization of Jerusalem.”
The white paper also reiterates that “whenever Muslims controlled
Jerusalem (in 638, 1187 and 1948), they did not expel Christians and
Jews.”
Rather, it says, they guaranteed their rights and religious rights and
even welcomed Jews into the city. This, it points out, is in contrast to
the Christian expulsion of Jews in 630 and their slaughter of Jews and
Muslims (and even Orthodox Christians) in 1099, and unlike “the Jewish
slaughter of Jerusalem’s original inhabitants in 1,000 B.C.; the
Sasanian-Jewish expulsion of Christians in 614, and even the expulsion
of Palestinians in 1948.”
In other words, contrary to the misperception that Islam has no moral
right to Jerusalem, Islam has historically been more peaceful and
tolerant of other religions than either Judaism or Christianity, it
notes.
Vera Baboun, a member of the Palestinian National Council and former
mayor of Bethlehem, said that the Jerusalem white paper articulates the
“diverse historical realities away from the exclusive narrative that
Israel is adopting to deny the cultural, human, historical and religious
rights of the Arab Palestinians whether we’re Christians or Muslims.”
It “puts the readers face to face with their own misconceptions and lack
of knowledge, thus debunking the exclusive Israeli political or
Biblical narrative which is used to negate the right and the existence
of the Palestinian rights in Jerusalem or the Palestinian land at
large,” she said.
The paper notes that Islam has been dominant in Jerusalem for 1,210 out
of the last 1,388 years. “This is more than the period of Jewish
domination over the last 3,020 years (953 years) or Christian domination
over the last 2,000 years (417 years).”
To counter the prevailing notion that Jerusalem finds no mention in the
Holy Qur’an, the paper states that for over 1,300 years, it was
customary for Muslim pilgrims to visit Jerusalem after they had
completed the Hajj to Makkah and Madinah.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem is one of Islam’s
three holy sites. According to the classical commentaries on the
Qur’an, “the city,” “the land,” “the Holy Land,” “the Mount,” “the
Temple” and “the Olive” all refer to Jerusalem or places in Jerusalem.
