Reviews for The illustrated atlas of Jerusalem

The average rating for The illustrated atlas of Jerusalem based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-10-25 00:00:00 Bonny Schwank Through a series of 66 maps, prolific historian Martin Gilbert traces the history of Jerusalem from ancient through to modern times. The first map is of Jerusalem from ancient times to the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. Gilbert describes how Jerusalem was conquered by King David in 1000 BCE, and became the religious and political capital of the Jews. Gilbert follows with a timeline to the 70 CE destruction of the Temple by the Romans and the and the expulsion of Jews from the city. Maps detailing the dispersion of the Jews from Israel follow,and the Jewish revolt in the Jerusalem area (66-73 CE) follow. Gilbert includes maps showing Byzantine ruled Jerusalem from 324 to 629 CE, the conquests by Islam and the Crusader march to Jerusalem. Map 10 shows the Jewish search for a secure haven and how "throughout 600 years of European persecution, small numbers of Jews always sought to settle in Jerusalem, despite the great distances involved, the hardships of the journey and the uncertainty of a friendly welcome by the ruling power". By 1700 there were an estimated 300 Jewish families in Jerusalem totalling about 1200 people, but no century was free from persecution. Hence in 1586 the Ottoman Kadi (ruler) deprived the community of the use of one of it's synagogues and in 1786, local Muslims seized another synagogue and burned the scrolls of the law. Map 12 shows the return of the Jews to Jerusalem from 1200 to 1841. By 1841 a plurality of Jerusalem's population were Jews (7 120 out of 16 410)-Map 20. Dr John Kitto in his 1847 book 'Modern Jerusalem' wrote 'Although we are much in the habit of referring to Jerusalem as a Muslim city, the Muslims do not actually constitute one third of the entire population. Following his visit to Jerusalem Karl Marx wrote in the 'New York Daily Tribune' , 15 April 1854, that 'Nothing equals the misery and suffering of the Jews of Jerusalem, inhabiting the most filthy quarter of the town, called hareth-el-yahoud, in the quarter of dirt, between the Zion and the Moriah, where their synagogues are situated -the constant object of Musulman oppression and intolerance, insulted by the Greeks, persecuted by the Latins, and living only on the scanty lams transmitted by their European brethren". By 1868 Jews constituted a clear majority in Jerusalem, more than half of Jerusalem's population. Jews have had a majority in the city for more than 141 years and yet the United Nations and Barack Obama want to prevent Jews building in Jerusalem. The Jews were horribly persecuted in the city by both Christians and Muslims. The Arabs even then held the opinion that to injure a Jew is a 'work well pleasing to G-D. In 1864 Emete Pierotti described the attacks he witnessed on Jews by Arabs in "Customs and Traditions of Palestine". With the coming of the Zionist movement Arabs were enraged by the prospect of having to live with the Jews as equals after centuries of being masters of the Jews. This is one of the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict which continues to this day. By 1912 45 000 of Jerusalem's total population of 70 000 were Jews. Maps follow on Jerusalem and it's environs during the First World War and the British Mandate. Map 27 records some of the attacks on Jews in the Mount Scopus area by Arabs from 1925 to 1948 following the opening of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1925.While Map 42 focuses on the many bloody pogroms by Arabs against Jews from 1920 to 1940. In 1929 Arabs attacked Jews praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and then rampaged through the city killing six Jews including a Rabbi and two children in the suburb of Motsa. In Hebron 59 Jews were killed, in Safed 20, in Tel Aviv 6 and elsewhere in the Holy Land, 42. Map 43 outlines Jewish and Arab immigration into Jerusalem from 1922 to 1939. It is clearly recorded that alongside the Jewish immigration into pre-state Israel from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, there was much Arab immigration from the Middle East and North Africa into the Holy Land. Records and writings of this time show this clearly, long before they were put together in Joan Peter's thoroughly researched work From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine. In his esponse to the White Paper preventing Jews from entering their ancient homeland, Winston Churchill speaking on the 23 May 1939, in the House of Commons opposed the new policy of allowing the Arabs to exercise a veto on all Jewish immigration after five years. 'He knew that since the publication of his own White Paper in 1922, more Arabs had emigrated to Palestine than Jews, despite that White Paper's declaration that Jews could enter Palestine virtually without restriction. Emphasising the point Churchill declared " So far from being persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country and multiplied till their population has increased even more than all world Jewry could lift up the Jewish population. Now we are asked to decree that all this is to stop and all this is to come to an end. We are now asked to submit, and this is what rankles most with me, to an agitation which is fed with foreign money and ceaselessly inflamed by Nazi and by Fascist propaganda". Several maps cover the 1948 War of Independence and documents the destruction of Jewish homes, suburbs and villages, in areas taken by the Arabs is airbrushed out of history. For example how many people know of the destruction of Jewish synagogues in East Jerusalem, including the Hurva, after it was captured by the Arabs in 1948, and the desecration by the Jordanians of the Jewish cemetery on the Mount Of Olives which was sued as stepping stones to lavatories in Jordanian military camps. Jews were expelled from Jerusalem's Old City in 1948, and for the first time in 800 years no Jews lived there. Jews were cut off from mount Scopus. The later maps in the book show the reconstruction of the city after it was liberated and united by Israeli forces in the Six Day War, and opened to people of all faiths. Informative, instructive and highly recommended.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-11-02 00:00:00 Albert Frazier Propaganda