Jerusalem Unit

The Birth Place of Jesus

Daily Verse

“The LORD [is] my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”

Psalms 28:7

During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed 2 times, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millenium BCE, making Jerusalem one of the oldest cities in the world. King David established Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel. King Solomon built the first Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple stood for 400 years until being destroyed by the Babylonians. Given the city’s central position in both Israeli nationalism and Palestinian nationalism, the selectivity required to summarize more than 5,000 years of inhabited history is often influenced by ideological bias or background (see Historiography and nationalism). For example, the Jewish periods of the city’s history are important to Israeli nationalists, whose discourse states that modern Jewsdescend from the Israelites and Maccabees, while the Islamic periods of the city’s history are important to Palestinian nationalists, whose discourse suggests that modern Palestinians descend from all the different peoples who have lived in the region. As a result, both sides claim the history of the city has been politicized by the other in order to strengthen their relative claims to the city, and that this is borne out by the different focuses the different writers place on the various events and eras in the city’s history.

Augustine

CONVENOR

Mary Solomon

JOINT CONVENOR

Jaison Lukose

SECRETARY

Binny MV

JOINT SECRETARY

Suresh George

TREASURER