Israel/Jerusalem/Palestine
Discussion Questions
1) Think about Jerusalem. How would you distill your thoughts, experiences or observations about Jerusalem into one sentence that has only seven words?
(A variation of an NPR project on race in America, http://theracecardproject.com)
2) How central is Israel, Palestine, and/or Jerusalem in your life?
3) What are your feelings about Israel, Palestine, and/or Jerusalem?
Texts
Judaism
1) And I will give to you [Abraham], and to your seed after you, the land where you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
—Genesis 17:8
2) Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May those who love you be at peace. May there be peace within your ramparts, serenity in your citadels…. If I forget you Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you, if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour.
— Psalms 122:6-7 and 137:5
3) My heart’s in the east and I languish on the margins of the west. How taste or savor what I eat? How fulfill my vows and pledges while Zion is shackled to Edom and I am fettered to Arabia? I’d gladly give up all the luxuries of Spain if only to see the dust and rubble of the Shrine.
— Judah Halevi (c. 1075-1141, poet), My Heart’s in the East
4) THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. …
WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
WE EXTEND our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.
WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.
—Israel’s Declaration of Independence, May 5, 1948, excerpts
5) The use of force by powerful states—even when initially propelled by worthy objectives—naturally turns from a means to an end… Many conquerors… indeed provided the peoples they ruled with improved government and a higher culture…But history does not know of a single case where such “benign” conquest did not eventually turn to oppression and subjugation. Government by force—one which does not rest on the free will of the governed—assumes inevitably a logic of its own: maintaining government under such conditions is impossible without means of oppression, and the desire to maintain control eventually subordinates all other requirements.
—David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973, first prime minister of Israel), 1964, on the British occupation of Palestine during the years of the British Mandate, 1922 –1948.
6) Without a peace initiative … The fighting and violence will continue, the international pressure for the establishment of a bi-national state will grow and our isolation process will deepen.
—Danny Yatom former head of the Mossad (Israel’s intelligence agency), Ynet News, Feb. 11, 2015
Christianity
1. On "Israel": Justin Martyr, c. A.D. 150
For the true spiritual Israel and descendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham—who in uncircumcision was approved of and blessed by God on account of his faith and called the father of many nations—are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ. (Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew 11)
But you [Jews] were never shown to be possessed of friendship or love either towards God, or towards the prophets, or towards yourselves, but, as is evident, you are ever found to be idolaters and murderers of righteous men, so that you laid hands even on Christ Himself; and to this very day you abide in your wickedness, execrating those who prove that this man who was crucified by you is the Christ. Nay, more than this, you suppose that He was crucified as hostile to and cursed by God, which supposition is the product of your most irrational mind. For though you have the means of understanding that this man is Christ from the signs given by Moses, yet you will not; but, in addition, fancying that we can have no arguments, you put whatever question comes into your minds, while you yourselves are at a loss for arguments whenever you meet with some firmly established Christian. (Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew 93)
2. Crusades- Pope Urban (Pope during the first Crusade period) @1094 A.D.
"Christians, hasten to help your brothers in the East, for they are being attacked. Arm for the rescue of Jerusalem under your captain Christ. Wear his cross as your badge. If you are killed your sins will be pardoned... All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested...."
3. Modern Christian attitudes:
The 2 momentous events in 20th century Jewish history- the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel- have both had a profound impact on Christian theology. The Holocaust has forced Christianity to re-think its traditional anti-Judaism. The establishment of Israel confronts Christianity with the need for (at least the Catholic Church) to reconsider its conventional theory of "supersessionism" - that is that the "Church" has replaced "Israel" as God's chosen. This is still a work-in-progress. Many, in particular fundamentalists and evangelicals still ascribe to this "supersessionist" idea- seemingly first put forth in the final book of the Bible- Revelation:
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away; and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband." Book of Revelation 21:1-2
Catholic Church:
Catechism 63:
Israel is the priestly people of God, "called by the name of the LORD", and "the first to hear the word of God", the people of "elder brethren" in the faith of Abraham.
Catechism 877:
... In fact, from the beginning of his ministry, the Lord Jesus instituted the Twelve as "the seeds of the new Israel and the beginning of the sacred hierarchy." Chosen together, they were also sent out together, and their fraternal unity would be at the service of the fraternal communion of all the faithful: they would reflect and witness to the communion of the divine persons...
New Catechism: 674: (Note- this was released in 1994, the SAME year Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Church finally officially recognized Israel as a political state)
"The glorious Messiah’s coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by “all Israel”, for “a hardening has come upon part of Israel” in their “unbelief” toward Jesus. St. Peter says to the Jews of Jerusalem after Pentecost: “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.” St. Paul echoes him: “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?” The “full inclusion” of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation, in the wake of “the full number of the Gentiles”, will enable the People of God to achieve “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”, in which “God may be all in all”.
Islam
1) Surah Isra 17:1
Holy is He Who carried His servant by night from the Holy Mosque (Mecca) to the farther Mosque ( Jerusalem) whose surroundings We have Blessed, that We might show him some of Our Signs. Indeed He alone is All Hearing, All Seeing.
2) Surah Baqarah 2: 144
We see you oft turning your face towards the sky; now We are turning you to the direction that will satisfy you. Turn your face towards the Holy Mosque, and wherever you are, turn your faces towards it in prayer. Those who have been granted the Scripture certainly know that this (injunction to change to change the direction of prayer) is right and is from their Lord. God is not heedless of what they do.
3) Surah Baqarah 2:148
Everyone has a direction towards which he turns; so excel one another in good works. God will bring you all together wherever you might be, for there is nothing beyond His power.
4) Surah Baqarah 2: 177
Righteousness does not consist in turning your faces towards east or west; true righteousness consists in believing in God and the Last Day, the angels, the Book and the Prophets, and in giving away one's property in love of Him to kinsmen, the orphans, the poor and the wayfarer, and those who ask for help, and in freeing the necks of slaves, and in establishing prayer and dispensing the zakah. True Righteousness is attained by those who are faithful to their promise once they have made it and by those who remain steadfast in adversity and affliction and at the time of battle (between Truth and falsehood). Such are Truthful ones; such are the God -fearing.