All language subtitles for BBC.Jerusalem.The.Making.of.a.Holy.City.3of3.Judgement.Day.DVDRip.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

-(HELICOPTER WHIRRING)
-(GUNS FIRING)

-(MISSILES WHIZZING)
-(EXPLOSIONS)

SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE:
Jerusalem, the Holy City.

(SHOUTING)

Coveted, prized and disputed
by three of the world's great faiths,

Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Jerusalem has been conquered
and occupied

more than any other city in history.

In Jerusalem,
the history is drenched in blood.

It's been destroyed and rebuilt
many times.

The more it's destroyed,
the more revered it's become.

These stones have been fought over
for centuries.

The holiness of the city dates back
long before the arrival of Islam,

long before the advent of Christianity,
long even before Judaism.

Each borrowed the sanctity
of those who came before,

making Jerusalem
the centre of the world.

Today, it's a divided city,
the capital of two peoples.

Its sacred sites have never been
more intensely contested,

nor with such universal implications.

So why did this Holy City become
the object of such violent competition?

And how did the nationalist struggle
for Jerusalem

become so infected
with apocalyptic religious fervour?

I'm a historian, but I also have
a personal connection to the city.

I've been coming here with my family
since I was a boy.

Some 4,000 years ago,

Jerusalem was
a minor Canaanite stronghold,

with a vital spring and a pagan shrine.

With the arrival of the Hebrews,

Jerusalem became the Holy City
of the Jews.

In the Hebrew Bible, it's described
as the City of the Temple,

existing in heaven and on earth,

the setting for the final day
of judgement.

(PEOPLE SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

With the spread of Christianity,

the fame of Jerusalem's holiness
became truly global.

When the new faith of Islam
was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad,

he, too, revered Jerusalem.

At first, Muhammad directed his prayer
not to Mecca, but to here.

And it was here that Muslims built
the Dome of the Rock

on the very place sanctified
by the Jews before them.

This is the place where some believe
Adam's skull was buried,

where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac,

where the Jewish holy of holies
supposedly stood.

This is the place whence
Muhammad the Prophet ascended to heaven.

In the Middle Ages, this became the
epicentre of a clash of civilisations.

Christian Crusaders
competed for control of the Holy City

with its Islamic rulers.

The conflict that followed
left the city in ruins.

By the late 1 3th century,

the prospect of Jerusalem becoming
once again a city of world renown

must have seemed highly unlikely.

After the bloody trauma of the Crusades,

Jerusalem had been devastated
by the Tartars

and laid waste by the Mongol hordes.

Not for the first time in its history,

most of the population
had either been slaughtered or had fled.

Even the walls
had been reduced to rubble.

And now, scarcely 2,000 ragged souls
struggled to survive amongst the ruins.

Indeed,Jerusalem's very survival
as a city was in doubt.

Jerusalem was in need of a saviour.

When he emerged, it was in the form
of a brutal Islamic soldier

who'd risen to power
from the slave markets of Central Asia.

Baibars was a pagan orphan sold as a boy

into an Egyptian army of slaves
known as the Mamluks.

As he climbed the ranks,

he was freed by his master
and rose to become a general.

By the time he was 30,

Baibars was the most formidable
officer in this new empire.

And he was ready to take on the might
of the Mongol hordes.

Baibars' Mamluk army defeated
the Mongols in the hills of Galilee.

Baibars then declared himself ruler
from Egypt to Syria.

Jerusalem lay at the centre
of his new domain.

Baibars was
a spectacularly cruel warlord.

He liked to build towers of the skulls
of his fallen enemies

and his favourite punishment
was public bisection, slicing in half.

No wonder he adopted
the prowling panther

as his personal symbol.

The Mamluk capital was in Cairo,

but Jerusalem was the religious heart
of their world.

Although they were born pagans,

these former slaves had been forced
to convert to Islam.

The Mamluks possessed
all the fanaticism of a convert

and they revered Jerusalem
as the jewel of their faith.

Baibars embarked on a mission

to re-embellish
and re-sanctify the Holy City.

The Mamluks' religious enthusiasm
for Jerusalem

gave rise to some of
the city's finest buildings.

Baibars also helped to restore
its sacred status in Islam.

The most important legacy
the Baibars left Jerusalem

was not a building, it was a festival.

Baibars borrowed from
Christian and Jewish traditions

to create a new religious celebration.

Every Easter, Jerusalem was still
dominated by Christian pilgrims.

And so, at the time of Christian Easter
and Jewish Passover,

Baibars gave Jerusalem its own festival.

(EXCITED CHATTER)

After Baibars, every year,
thousands of Jerusalemites

and Palestinian Arabs
from the rest of Palestine

would gather here on the Temple Mount.

They would party, they would celebrate

and then they would gallop out
on horses and camels

all the way to the shrine near Jericho
of Nebi Musa, the Prophet Moses.

And this festival remained Jerusalem's
own special festival for 700 years.

The festival celebrated Moses,
originally a Jewish patriarch,

now revered as a prophet in Islam.

Eventually, Baibars himself became
a victim of his own murderous instincts.

Baibars, that most talented
but also most cruel of generals,

died after absent-mindedly drinking
a glass of poisoned kumis,

fermented mare's milk,

that he'd meant to give
to one of his dinner companions.

I guess that's bound to happen
sooner or later

if you're in the habit of poisoning
too many of your dinner guests.

Baibars' successors may have lacked
his manic style,

but they were his equal in piety

and surpassed him
in their love of architecture.

They built many of the finest buildings
in the Old City.

Some of them were rediscovered
in the 1 9 70s

by the architectural historian
Michael Burgoyne.

This is, I think,
one of the most interesting

Mamluk buildings in Jerusalem.

It has fabulous architecture,

architecture that's as good
as any in the world, in my view.

It's beautifully built with joints that
you can hardly get a razor blade into.

For instance,
this stalactite canopy here

is something that a stonemason today

couldn't even begin
to think about building

and yet this is now 700 years old
and still standing.

How important was Jerusalem
for the Mamluks?

Well, judging by the architecture
they built here, very important.

The Mamluks really re-ignited

the idea of pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

It had kind of fizzled out
during the period of the Crusades

and it was re-introduced
right at the start of the Mamluk period.

(MUEZZIN CALLING)

MONTEFIORE: Throughout history,
Jerusalem has been most prosperous

when it's been most holy.

Pilgrimage has always been
its greatest industry.

With this religious renaissance,

Jerusalem, under the Mamluks,
once again became splendid and affluent.

But their affluence was not to last.

By the early 1 6th century,

the Mamluk Empire was exhausted
by war, corruption and plague.

Its hold on the Middle East
was starting to look tenuous.

The Mamluks were now threatened
by a dynamic new Islamic empire

that had already conquered
the Balkans and Turkey.

The battle that followed
would decide Jerusalem's destiny

for the next 400 years,
right up into the 20th century.

North of Jerusalem,
in what is now Syria,

a sophisticated, modern army from Turkey
confronted the Mamluks

with their old-fashioned
swords and lances.

The Mamluks were routed
by what would become

the world's greatest Islamic empire.

The ruler of this great empire
exulted in the name Selim the Grim.

Selim was given the keys
to the Haram-al-Sharif,

the Islamic Noble Sanctuary.

When Selim the Grim
arrived in Jerusalem,

he came here to the Al-Aqsa Mosque,
he prostrated himself and declared that,

''I am now the possessor of the
first qibla,'' the direction of prayer,

because Muhammad had originally decreed

that Muslims should pray
towards Jerusalem,

only later changing it to Mecca.

Like all the Muslim rulers before him,

Selim agreed to tolerate
the Jews and the Christians

as long as they paid a tax of submission

and recognised the supremacy
of Islamic rule.

(MUEZZIN CALLING)

He had earned his macabre sobriquet

by killing all his brothers
and probably some of his sons.

When he died, he was survived
by just one son, Suleiman.

At the age of 25,
shrewd, lean and inscrutable,

Suleiman became
the most powerful man in the world.

His empire stretched from the Balkans
to the borders of Persia,

and from Egypt to the Black Sea.

Ottoman expansion seemed unstoppable,

challenged only by a coalition
of Christian monarchs in the west.

In a dream,
the Prophet came to see Suleiman

and told him that if he wished
to defeat the Christians

and be a great emperor,

he must first rebuild
the walls of Jerusalem

and restore the Haram-al-Sharif,
the Temple Mount.

The Haram-al-Sharif had become
Jerusalem's most important shrine,

an Islamic site of global renown.

Surrounded by high retaining walls,

it housed the Aqsa Mosque
and the Dome of the Rock.

The Dome was built on a rock

that had already been revered
for 2,000 years,

the site of the first Jewish temple
during the reign of King Solomon.

Suleiman regarded himself
as a world emperor

and a monarch of Islam.

His name Suleiman
actually means ''Solomon, ''

and therefore, he took
his responsibilities in Jerusalem

especially seriously.

He immediately set about restoring this,
the Dome of the Rock.

He began by replacing
its fading mosaics with tiles.

So many tiles were needed,
450,000, in fact,

that Suleiman ordered that a factory
be created up here on the Temple Mount.

And this is a beautiful tribute
to the glory of Suleiman,

the majesty of his new Ottoman dynasty
and, of course, the splendours of Islam.

Jerusalem had been without walls
for 300 years.

Now Suleiman embarked
on the enormous task

of building new defences for the city.

Today's walls and gates,

including the magnificent Damascus Gate,
are all the work of Suleiman.

Suleiman's achievements in Jerusalem
were so colossal

that it's true to say
that the Old City today

belongs as much to him
as it does to anyone else.

Under Suleiman,
Jerusalem, though still small,

began to thrive again.

The population more than tripled
to 1 6,000.

But among the Muslim population,

there was also a growing minority
of Jews.

The Jews had been stateless

since they were expelled from Jerusalem
by the Romans.

Most Jews now lived scattered
across Europe and the Middle East,

but they'd never lost their longing
for a return to Jerusalem

which they called Zion

after the Biblical name
for David's original stronghold.

During the Spanish Inquisition,

the Christian king
expelled tens of thousands

of Arabic-speaking Jews.

And they sought refuge
in the more tolerant Ottoman Empire.

By the time of Suleiman,
many of these Jews,

known as Sephardis,
from the Hebrew word for Spain,

had come to the Promised Land.

The Sephardic Jews now felt safe enough
to build four new synagogues

in what was becoming the Jewish Quarter.

(SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

This is one of the four synagogues
that they built,

the Ben Zakkai Synagogue,

and it would have been
the centre of all Jewish life

in Suleiman's Jerusalem.

There was also a new influx of Jews
fleeing persecution in eastern Europe.

They were known as the Ashkenazis,
after the son of Noah,

said to be the original ancestor
of the northern tribes.

Since the construction
of the Islamic Haram-al-Sharif,

the Jews had been banned
from visiting their holiest site.

But the Temple Mount was so holy

that Jews continued to pray
as close to it as they could get.

For generations, Jews had prayed

at all the gates and walls
of the Temple Mount.

But Suleiman the Magnificent
saw himself as the Islamic emperor

and the custodian
of the Dome of the Rock sanctuary.

So he restricted the Jews
to one small section of wall

with a narrow passageway
just nine feet wide.

From now on, this narrow section of
the western wall of Herod's Temple

became the focal point
for the prayers of the Jewish faithful.

They were subject to bouts of repression

and with no outside champions,
they were ultimately powerless.

But according to Islamic tradition,

the Jews were tolerated
as People of the Book.

(PRAYING)

The Ottomans also tolerated
the city's other religious minority,

the Christians.

Some of the Christians
were indigenous to Palestine,

some lived here as monks,
and thousands more came annually

as pilgrims to the Sepulchre
where Jesus had been buried.

Since its foundation,

Christianity had spread across Europe,
the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.

Many competing denominations had arisen

and all of them wanted a piece
of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The competition between the three faiths
for Jerusalem's holy places

was mirrored by
an equally intense competition

between the Christian churches
themselves.

Since most of the Christian sects were
backed by different Christian kings,

disputes fought out in Jerusalem
had reverberations around the world.

Yeah, this especially, I've never been
at the night service here.

-But this is yours, isn't it?
-Yeah, this is ours, but this is...

MONTEFIORE: George Hintlian
has studied how the Ottoman rulers

manipulated and exploited
the Christians' interminable squabbles.

By the 1 6th century,
when the Ottomans came,

there were about nine communities
on the spot

and the Ottomans had the simple rule,
whoever pays stays.

So the minor ones like the Georgians,
Maronites, Serbians

couldn't afford and they dropped out

while the stronger ones could
consolidate their hold on the Church.

MONTEFIORE: The Ottomans' simple system

meant that only the wealthiest churches
could remain.

The denominations
who controlled the Church,

by the end of the 1 6th century,

were the Catholics, backed by Europe,
the Orthodox, backed by Russia,

and Armenians
who had strong representation

at the court of the Sultan.

So, by the end of the 1 6th century,

these were the three communities
who could stay.

(CHIMING)

MONTEFIORE: Even these
three churches seldom agreed

on who should be allowed
to pray at the tomb itself.

The communities
were struggling for dominance.

Sometimes the tomb of Christ
changed hands.

Sometimes the Latins would care it
and sometimes the Orthodox would get it.

MONTEFIORE: The Catholics, or Latins,

were supported and encouraged
by the French government,

while Russia promoted
the Orthodox Church.

Both attached great importance

to the prestige
of controlling the holy places

and they lobbied, bribed
and threatened the Ottoman sultans

to give more space in the Church
to their own priests.

As a result, even the most
mundane tasks in the Church

were laden with international
and sacred significance.

In this church,
there are no fences and hedges.

It's open spaces.

Though the other churches
have their own private areas,

but there are many shared
and common areas.

Cleaning in Holy Sepulchre
means possessing the area.

You would only be able to clean
what you possess.

And slowly some of these sacristans

were trying to clean
several inches of the property

and the territory of the other person.

So, this is where the other sacristan
would be very vigilant,

that his broom doesn't progress
into his own area.

And even an imagined conception

that his broom moved a little further

could ignite a fight.

(MAN PRAYING)

MONTEFIORE:
The Ottomans kept the church locked

so they could charge a fee
to anyone going in or out.

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

The key was held
by an Arab Muslim family,

the Nusseibehs.

And to this day,
each morning before dawn,

they still climb up to unlock
the ancient church door.

The Ottomans let the Nusseibehs
keep a share of the income

from the entry fees to the church.

They were one of a select group
of aristocratic Arab families

allowed by the Ottomans
to run the city's affairs.

One family controlled the Temple Mount,

another family controlled access
to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

And I'm standing in the library
of the Khalidi family

that controlled the Islamic law courts

and they were great connoisseurs
and collectors

and over many centuries they amassed
this extraordinary collection

of early Islamic manuscripts and books.

As Muslims, these elite Arab families

had far more power in Ottoman Jerusalem
than any Christian or Jew.

But even the Arabs were often harassed
by their Turkish Ottoman masters.

In 1 702, the Ottoman governor
demanded a massive rise in taxes

throughout Palestine.

He had to raise money to help fund wars
in distant Europe and Russia.

According to the historian Adel Manna,

these tax rises were the last straw
for the ruling Arab families.

Notable families of Jerusalem,
they were angry on this new policy.

What they did after the Friday prayer

on the mosque in Al-Aqsa,

they had a gathering of all the elite
and they decided together

that we will rebel against
the policy and the governor.

The local people of Jerusalem
took control of the city

and then they closed the gates.

The rebels succeeded
to have the control of the city

for about two years and a half.

The Ottomans came with a stronger army
and put siege again on the city.

And they were besieging the city
from all sides,

from the north, from the south,
from east, from west.

MONTEFIORE: Inside,
life under the siege was harsh.

The rebels split.
Those who wanted to hold out for victory

and those in favour of a compromise.

Some of the people against the rebellion

opened the gate for the Ottoman soldiers
who were able to get into the city.

And thousands
of Ottoman soldiers went in.

It was a matter of time

until the Ottomans
were able to crush the rebellion.

MONTEFIORE: The Ottomans
may have crushed the rebellion,

but the great powers of Europe sensed

that their hold on Jerusalem
was weakened.

The British, the French and the Russians

all began to compete for influence
in the city's holy places.

(BELL TOLLING)

Jerusalem's status
as the Holy City of Christianity

made it a great prize
for the Christian rulers of Europe.

They promoted their interests
through their clients in the city.

The French backed the Catholics,
the Russians backed the Orthodox.

The British, as Protestants,

had a particular reverence
for Jerusalem.

Ever since the time
of Cromwell and the Puritans,

Protestants had prayed
for the return of the Jews

to the Biblical Holy Land.

British Foreign Secretary
Lord Palmerston

built a consulate in Jerusalem
to promote British interests

and a church to convert Jews
to Christianity.

Imperial ambition dovetailed perfectly
with evangelical zeal.

Evangelical Christians,

who were hugely influential
in Victorian Britain,

believed that the longed for
second coming of Jesus Christ

would only happen once the Jews
had returned to Jerusalem

and been converted to Christianity.

This belief was based
on Biblical prophecies

of the events that would bring about
the final day of judgement.

All the kings of Europe,
motivated by the same combination

of religious faith
and imperial ambition,

began to build churches in Jerusalem.

But of all the European governments
vying for power in the city,

it was the Russians
who were the most aggressive,

and their aggression
was about to spark a war.

(BELLS TOLLING)

On Good Friday, 1 846, the never-ending
competition for territory

in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
erupted in a fight.

(SHOUTING)

The French-backed Catholics
and the Russian-backed Orthodox churches

both wanted to pray in the tomb
at the same time.

It's a continuing dispute that sometimes
erupts in violence even now.

Back then, the priests came armed
with guns and daggers

hidden under their vestments.

Forty were killed.

The Ottoman Sultan divided the church
between the Christian sects

in a power-sharing deal
that still stands.

But it wasn't enough to prevent
the Russians going to war

with the French and the British.

All the great powers were vying
for influence in Jerusalem.

But Tsar Nicholas I of Russia
had greater ambitions.

He saw himself not just as the heir
to the Ottoman empire

but as the actual ruler of Jerusalem.

And when he invaded Ottoman territories
to force the Sultan's hand,

Britain and France went to war
against him to stop him.

They fought the war in the Crimea,

but even though the battles
were far away,

it was also a war for Jerusalem.

(BELLS TOLLING)

(BELLS CHIMING)

(CHOIR SINGING)

The Russians lost the Crimean War,

but then set about
conquering Jerusalem culturally,

building their own Russian compound.

Over 1 0,000 Russian Christian pilgrims
visited the city every year.

Meanwhile, most of the Jews of Jerusalem
were living in abject poverty.

Appalled by their conditions,
a British Jew named Moses Montefiore,

a financier, philanthropist
and friend of Queen Victoria,

built the first suburb
outside Jerusalem's city walls,

complete with a Kentish windmill

to encourage the Jews
to bake their own bread.

Montefiore was my great-great-uncle

and it was thanks to him
that I started coming here.

The Old City was so filthy
and poverty-stricken

that Montefiore decided
to build his new village out here

in the clean countryside
outside the city walls.

It became the first Jewish suburb
of Jerusalem.

At the same time,
the elite Arab families

were building mansions
in their own new suburbs

east of the Old City.

But as the century wore on,

Jerusalem was set to become
increasingly Jewish.

The millions of Jews
in the Russian Empire

had faced persecution
throughout the 1 9th century.

But in the 1 880s, anti-Semitic violence
became official Tsarist policy.

Now they faced waves of attacks
and massacres known as the pogroms.

Thousands of Russian Jews started
to plan their escape to Jerusalem.

The idea of returning to Jerusalem
had inspired Jews for centuries,

ever since they'd been expelled
by the Romans in 70 AD.

It wasn't just about finding refuge
from persecution,

but also about a spiritual idea,

returning to the Promised Land
and living closer to God.

In 1 895,
an Austrian journalist published a book

that would change the history
not only of Jerusalem,

but of the entire Middle East.

The journalist's name was Theodor Herzl

and the book was called
The Jewish State.

Herzl observed the new racial
anti-Semitism spreading across Europe

and he predicted that persecution
was about to get worse.

He argued the only way
Jews could be safe

was to have their own country.

His project became known as Zionism.

(TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYING)

Many of Jerusalem's Jews
had been here for centuries,

speaking Arabic and living alongside
their Christian and Muslim neighbours.

The diaries of a Palestinian musician,
Wasif Jawhariyyeh,

give a surprising insight
into the decadence of life

in this cosmopolitan city.

''It was the period of total anarchy
in my life,

''sleeping all day
and partying all night.

''I only went home to change my clothes,

''sleeping in a different house
every day,

''my body totally exhausted
from drinking and merrymaking.

''One moment I'm picnicking with members
of Jerusalem's noble families,

''the next day I'm holding an orgy
with thugs and gangsters

''in the back alleys of the Old City. ''

The most fascinating thing about this
is how all these different worlds,

Jewish, Muslim, Christian,
Arab and Turk,

continued to mix and coexist.

But this cultural coexistence
was about to come to an end

with consequences
no one could have foreseen.

The growing number of European Jews
arriving to settle in Palestine

had started to alarm
the Arabs of Jerusalem

as well as the Ottoman authorities.

When World War I broke out in 1 9 1 4,

the Ottomans sided with Germany
against Britain and her allies.

(EXPLOSIONS)

By 1 91 6-1 7,
things were going badly for the British.

And in order to secure their support,

they made promises
to the Arabs and the Jews

that they never would have made
in any other circumstances.

To get Arab support for the war,
the British promised to hand over

virtually the entire Middle East
to Arab rule,

if the Arabs would rise up
against the Ottomans.

But Prime Minister David Lloyd George

was also keen to get Jewish support
for the British campaign.

Lloyd George was steeped
in the stories of the Bible.

He longed to see the Jews
return to the Holy Land

after centuries of exile and repression.

He also believed
that backing the Jewish cause

might win the support
of the millions of Jews

in America and Russia,
Britain's most important allies.

So he declared his approval

for the establishment
of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

(INAUDIBLE)

When General Allenby,
the British commander in Egypt,

invaded Ottoman Palestine,

Lloyd George demanded
that he capture Jerusalem

as a ''Christmas present''
to the British nation.

When Allenby arrived
to take possession of the city,

he received a telegram
from the foreign office.

''Strongly advise dismounting,'' it said.

The government were keen that he should
avoid any Christ-like pretension.

He duly got off his horse
at the Jaffa Gate

in a reverence
of the city's holy status.

In a speech on the steps of the Citadel,

Allenby promised protection
and tolerance to all religions.

(MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

Soon afterwards,
the defeated Ottoman Empire collapsed.

The map of the Middle East was redrawn.

The territory lost by the Ottomans
was divided between the victors.

Syria and Lebanon went to the French,

while the British
took Jordan and Palestine.

They agreed to rule
their new territories not as colonies,

but under international mandates
from the newly formed League of Nations.

They built a palatial
new governor's residence

on a hill above the city,
Government House.

For the first time
since the Crusader kingdom,

Jerusalem, under the British mandate,
was once again a capital city.

And the British set about creating

a modern, elegant
and cosmopolitan Jerusalem.

The economy flourished
and the standard of living rose.

(PEOPLE LAUGHING)

Honouring their promise to the Zionists,

Britain welcomed tens of thousands
of Jewish immigrants.

Many were idealistic Europeans

who wanted to build
a secular, socialist country

for Jews from around the world.

But as they bought more and more land
from the Arabs,

tension with their new neighbours grew.

As so often in her history,
it was Jerusalem's holiest site

that would become
the focal point of conflict.

The Palestinian Muslim leader,
the Mufti of Jerusalem,

was from one of the elite Arab families,
the Husseinis.

He gave voice to a widespread
Arab fear of Jewish immigration.

He feared the Jews were planning
to destroy the Haram-al-Sharif

to build a Jewish temple in its place.

He launched a campaign against Jews
praying at the Western Wall.

The Mufti ordered
that the Jewish worshippers at the Wall

would be harassed from above and below.

He knocked through a doorway

that turned the narrow space
in front of the wall into a thoroughfare

through which donkeys were driven
to interrupt the Jewish prayers.

The Mufti was trying to make life
for the Jewish worshippers here

impossible and unbearable.

In response, 300 Jewish nationalists
staged an angry protest.

The next day after Friday prayers,

2,000 Arabs descended
from Al-Aqsa Mosque

and attacked the Jewish worshippers.

The tension between Arabs and Jews
turned the city into a tinderbox.

In a totally unrelated
but tragic incident,

some Jewish schoolboys
were playing football in the street

when they kicked the ball
into an Arab garden.

When one of them went
to get the ball back,

he was stabbed to death.

At his funeral,
Jewish youths attacked Arab passers-by

and at Friday prayers,

thousands of armed Arabs
screaming for revenge

descended on Jewish neighbourhoods
with the cry, ''Death to the Jews.''

(GLASS SHATTERING)

1 3 1 Jews were killed by Arabs.

1 1 6 Arabs were also killed,
mostly by the British security forces.

A decade of surprisingly calm
British rule was brought to an end.

When Hitler came to power in 1 933,

the flow of Jews fleeing Europe
reached a new high.

Never since the fall of Jerusalem
to the Romans

had so many Jews lived in the city.

But while it may have felt like
a return to Zion for these refugees,

their presence convinced
many Palestinians

they'd have to fight
to keep hold of their land.

The British were caught
completely unawares

when the first shots were fired.

Here in Jerusalem, the Mufti assumed
leadership of the revolt,

and soon it was a full-scale uprising
throughout Palestine.

The rebels attacked the British
and the Jews.

And at one point,
they even managed to capture this,

the Citadel of Jerusalem.

(PEOPLE SHOUTING)

(GUNSHOTS)

Jerusalem descended into chaos.

Palestinians attacked the British
and the Jews.

The Jews responded in kind.

Both committed atrocities
against civilians.

(GUNSHOTS)

(SIRENS BLARING)

The British suppressed
the revolt brutally,

punishing whole Palestinian villages
for the crimes of individual rebels.

One in 1 0 Palestinians was killed,
arrested or exiled.

Britain had defeated the Arabs,

but as they faced the prospect
of a second World War,

they regretted their promises
to the Jews.

Jerusalem's fate
would once again be determined

by events beyond her borders.

As war with Nazi Germany
became inevitable,

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain

decided the British
needed the backing of the Arabs.

''If we have to offend one side
or the other,'' he said,

''let it be the Jews and not the Arabs.''

He believed the Jews
would want to fight Hitler regardless,

but the Arabs would need encouragement.

He offered to put a cap
on Jewish immigration

and give the Palestinians
total independence within 1 0 years,

with no Jewish state at all.

It was the best offer
the Palestinians were to receive

throughout the 20th century.

But for the Mufti, it wasn't enough.
He rejected it out of hand.

When war broke out,

many Arab Jerusalemites
supported the Germans,

not out of anti-Semitism
but out of nationalism.

They hoped that if Britain was defeated,
they would get their own state.

The Mufti himself went further.

He moved to Berlin
where he publicly supported Hitler

and Nazi policies.

After the end of World War II,
the British forces found themselves

completely out of their depth
in the Holy Land.

To appease the Arabs,

they continued to enforce a limit
on Jewish immigration.

Even after the scale of Hitler's
slaughter of European Jews was known,

they intercepted shiploads of survivors
from the Nazi death camps.

The Jews turned firmly against them,

and it wasn't enough to secure
Palestinian support anyway.

Now it was the Jews' turn to rebel.

ANNOUNCER: Tight security measures
are imposed by the British.

Scores of Jewish leaders are jailed

and rigid searches are conducted
for terrorist weapons.

Palestine becomes an armed camp.

MONTEFIORE: In retaliation,

fighters from the underground
Jewish militia, the Irgun,

planted a massive car bomb

at the unofficial headquarters
of the British Mandate,

the King David Hotel.

The bomb destroyed
an entire wing of the King David Hotel.

92 people were killed,
including British,Jews and Arabs.

The British called it
an act of terror aimed at civilians

and certainly it remains
the bloodiest bombing of the entire war.

(DIGGING)

The British were now caught
between the Jews of Palestine

determined to found
their own Jewish state,

and the larger Arab population

equally determined to stop them
and to win their own independence.

Both wanted Jerusalem.

The British lost their will
to rule Palestine

and turned to the newly formed
United Nations for an exit strategy.

(PEOPLE SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

The United Nations voted to partition
Palestine into two states,

one Jewish and one Palestinian.

Jerusalem was to have a unique status
under UN protection.

(CHEERING)

For Jews,
it was a cause for celebration.

After 2,000 years,

the Zionist dream of a Jewish state
in the Holy Land was finally possible.

(CHEERING)

(GUNSHOT)

But the Palestinians rejected
the resolution and civil war broke out.

(FIRING CONTINUES)

The partition was never enforced.

As the British made
their ignominious exit,

the Zionists declared the existence
of the State of Israel.

(SHOUTING)

Immediately, the surrounding countries
of the Arab League

invaded to destroy
the fledgling Jewish state.

The Jordanians had the best trained and
most effective of the invading armies.

They made straight for Jerusalem.

Both sides committed
appalling atrocities.

Civilians were massacred,

neighbourhoods were lost,
captured and destroyed.

Both Israelis and Arabs feared
desperately they were losing Jerusalem.

The Israeli forces in the Old City
were soon surrounded and cut off.

(GUNSHOTS)

The battle for the Jewish quarter
was especially intense and desperate.

The crack troops
of the Jordanian Arab legion

fought their way in, house by house,
alleyway by alleyway,

until for the Jews of the Jewish quarter
there was no way out.

Two thousand Jews
were expelled from their homes.

The Jordanians looted the empty houses

and then blew up
22 of the 2 7 synagogues.

Jews were banned totally
from the Western Wall.

Once again, the Jews had lost access
to their holiest shrine.

They in turn expelled
thousands of Palestinians

from the Jewish suburbs they now held.

Jews, Christians and Muslims,

many of whom had lived
side by side for centuries,

were driven apart.

Jerusalem became a divided city
according to historian Salim Tamari.

By the end of May,
most of the Arabs had fled

and then the Jewish forces came

and cleared all the Arabs
from West Jerusalem.

So Jerusalem became ethnically pure,
if you like.

Of course, the Jewish population
in the Old City

were also cleared
from the Jewish quarter.

But the people cleared
in the Jewish side were much more

than the people cleared
from the Arab side.

The city was sealed.

You have barbed wire

and then a wall was built

to separate the Arab city,
which was the Eastern part,

from the Jewish city,
which was the Western part.

And it was absolutely
hermetically sealed.

There was nobody allowed
to move in and out.

MONTEFIORE:
Israel was engaged in a desperate

but ultimately victorious struggle
for survival.

The real losers were the Palestinians.

Over three quarters of a million
lost their homes.

Some were expelled by force,

some left to avoid the fighting
hoping to return.

Many of them ended up in camps of tents

around the west bank
of the Jordan river.

And about half
became citizens of Israel.

The tragedy of the Palestinians became
known as the Naqba, the catastrophe.

In 1 949, Israel and Jordan
signed an armistice treaty

that divided the city
along a mile and a half of frontier.

The Jordanians controlled East Jerusalem
and the whole of the Old City.

The Israelis kept the western suburbs.

The Armistice Line was not meant
to be a permanent border.

It just happened to be where the armies
stood when the fighting stopped.

But for 20 years, it formed
an impenetrable, impassable barrier

between the Israelis on one side
and the Arabs on the other.

It's futile to divide any city,

but it's especially tragic
to divide Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was to remain divided
until June of 1 967,

when another conflict broke out
between Israel and her Arab neighbours.

(BOMB EXPLODING)

Threatened with war on three fronts,

Israel struck first
and soon got the upper hand.

(GUNS FIRING)

ANNOUNCER: And that victory
is a swift, smashing and total one

as crack air force, infantry,
artillery and tank corps combine.

Thousands of prisoners are taken while
Jordan announces she lost 1 5,000 troops

in the sudden and devastating campaign.

MONTEFIORE:
In just six days of fighting,

Israel conquered the Gaza Strip,
the Golan Heights, the Sinai Peninsula

and the West Bank of the Jordan river.

(GUNSHOTS)

But the conquest
of the Old City of Jerusalem

was the climax of the war.

(EXPLOSIONS)

ANNOUNCER: Without doubt,
the most personally moving moment

for Israeli troops was the capture
of the Old City of Jerusalem,

the location of an ancient
Jewish holy place

revered by the Israelis.

MONTEFIORE: When Israeli soldiers
captured the Wall,

it was an event of absolute exultation.

They danced, they sang, they prayed,
they kissed the stones.

Even for secular Jews,
it was a moment of religious joy.

(PEOPLE CHEERING)

For the Jews, Israel was at last in Zion
and the cosmic order had been restored.

It was the end of exile,
the fulfilment of Biblical prophecy.

But for thousands of Palestinians,

it was the beginning of a long
and bitter military occupation.

Winning the war presented the Israelis

with the challenge faced by all
who have conquered Jerusalem,

how to share its holy sites.

They wanted to rule a Jerusalem
of the three great Abrahamic faiths,

and that meant leaving
the Haram-al-Sharif to the Muslims.

The eyes of the world were upon them
and they wanted to show that Israel

was a fit and suitable custodian
for the Holy City.

Israel prided itself on being
a young and open democracy.

And for that reason they wanted to show
that they would have tolerance

for all the other faiths in Jerusalem.

But the challenge
of giving all religions

equal access to their own holy sites
was not so easily achieved.

So many Jews were coming to pray
at the newly captured Western Wall,

there was a demand for more space.

The Israeli authorities
needed to clear a plaza.

But this meant destroying
a historic Palestinian neighbourhood.

Deputy Mayor Meron Benvenisti
has mixed feelings about this.

We destroyed the whole area
and removed the people,

which caused us great distress
on the one hand

and criticism in the world.

People said that it was similar
to ethnic cleansing

but I think it was inevitable.

This is the area
of the plaza of the wall today.

Suddenly the reality of Jerusalem,
the earthly Jerusalem,

suddenly tarnished
the heavenly Jerusalem

and Israelis began to understand

that still there's a problem,

because now

there cannot be peace

with exclusive possessions.

MONTEFIORE:
This fundamental contradiction

that has plagued the city for centuries

made the Haram-al-Sharif, yet again,
the focus of intense religious rivalry.

When the Aqsa Mosque
was set on fire in 1 969,

many of Jerusalem's Muslims rioted,

believing the fire bomb was a Jewish
attempt to destroy the mosque.

Actually, the attack turned out
to be the work

of an Australian Christian
fundamentalist, Dennis Rohan.

ANNOUNCER:
The trial of Dennis Michael Rohan

was a top security affair.

Rohan later admitted starting the blaze,
but pleaded insanity.

When Rohan was brought to court,
it became clear he was suffering

from a special form of religious madness
peculiar to Jerusalem.

The psychotic condition
is known as Jerusalem Syndrome,

an affliction that affects visitors
to the Holy City

when their hopes
of heavenly transcendence

collide with the reality
of earthly life.

The intensity of Jerusalem's holiness
has infected not only believers,

but also visitors and conquerors alike,
with obsession, if not madness,

how to reconcile the dream of sanctity

with the chaos, complexity
and violence of the real city.

The contradiction
has never been more acute.

The long struggle for possession
of the city continues,

aggravated on both sides

by intolerant nationalism
and religious fundamentalism.

It has placed Jerusalem, once again,
at the very centre of global politics.

(GUNS FIRING)

(CLAMORING)

(GUNSHOT)

(PEOPLE SHOUTING)

The conflict has given rise
to a vast concrete wall

between the Israelis and Palestinians,

the most visible symbol
of the curse of Jerusalem,

its division by nation and by religion.

Four thousand years
since it was founded,

Jerusalem today has never been larger
or more prosperous.

But it's also anxious,
angry and divided,

facing an uncertain future.

-(SIREN BLARING)
-I can imagine a future

where the insane acts
of a few outrageous fanatics

would destroy Jerusalem altogether,

a catastrophe that would break
the heart of the world,

but I can also foresee a future

when the Holy City would be shared
by its two peoples and its three faiths.

Jerusalem's holiness has been passed
down through generations of believers,

Jew, Christian and Muslim.

Each generation has distilled
and intensified the city's sanctity

and claimed it as their own.

Who will find it in their faith
to share this hallowed place

where God meets man?