Chapters 14-18

Although Jerusalem is known as the city of peace, learning about its history may prove that this statement is not true. Throughout its history, the city was not able to enjoy a long lasting peace period. People from different religions and different regions from around the world always wanted to take control of the city and always used religion as their reason for doing so. This always ended up in the suffering and oppression of the other groups living in the city even before the arrival of the conquerors of each period.

We see that the only time that the people of the city were actually able to live in peace and harmony was when the leaders or rulers of the city accepted and acknowledged the rights of the others to live in the city and practice their religions freely. History has always proven that no matter how strong a leader or country becomes, it will eventually fall apart if it is not built on justice and freedom.

I feel like I have no doubt today that the Palestinian- Israeli conflict in Palestine and Jerusalem is not a religious conflict and that all religions are innocent from those who use it to justify killing and oppressing and taking other people’s rights.

Throughout the last chapters, Armstrong stops at many very important periods since the creation of the Zionist movement through the 1900’s and the creation of Israel and the Catastrophe of the Palestinian people. Although she passes by many important dates and events without mentioning them or discussing them, I felt that she was able describe the roots of today’s conflict in a fair way.

An interesting point that she mentioned was that the founders of the Zionist were influenced by Marxism and socialism and were not religious people. She did not mention that in the initial stages of forming this movement, the founders were debating on choosing the location where they shall build the state of Israel and Palestine was one of the options they had. My point here is to argue that this movement was not based on religious beliefs and that religion was a cover they decided to use in later stages to justify the displacement, colonization and ethnic cleansing of an entire nation. Armstrong also points out that the movement even used the Holocaust and the suffering of the Jewish people from the Nazi’s to achieve their goals.

I think that this Holy city will not be able to enjoy peace again until it is able to find a just and brave leader who is willing to treat all people and religions in the city equally. History has witnessed many great leaders such as Salah Al-Din and Omar Ibn Al-khatab who accepted the rights of the other religions to exist in the city and were able to bring peace to it and maintain it. We have also seen many others who had so much greed and hatred to towards others and did not bring to the city anything other than destruction and hate.