The historical continuum of Jerusalem: the inseparability of time and space, past and present, history and politics

Over the long centuries and nowadays the historical concept and political status of Jerusalem remain the most acute problem of relations between the peoples and states of the Middle East, Arabs and Jews, Israel and the Arab Palestinian state. The poignancy of the problem, the arguments of the opposing sides, are mainly rooted in conflicting interpretations of the history of Jerusalem and its holy places. The article presents a view of the history of Jerusalem as a process that began before the formation of the historical consciousness of the Arabs and Jews but used to continuously influence its shaping during the struggle for the city between powerful political forces standing behind the claims of various congregations. The article examines the written evidence of the shrines of Jerusalem that existed before the construction of the First Temple; selected archaeological data are used for additional verification of written sources. Recent proposals for a solution to the political status of Jerusalem are placed in the context of ideas about its cultural and historical significance.  Particular attention is paid to the importance of Jerusalem in the history of the formation of religious doctrine and ritualism in Islam; a distinctive opinion is substantiated by the author concerning the reasons of the initial orientation of the Muslim prayer ritual towards Jerusalem; the existence of perceptions of the shrines of Jerusalem as sacred objects, recognized in the religious and ritual traditions of the Semitic peoples – the ancestors of Jews and Arabs – is established. On the ground of research findings the inseparability of history, culture, spatial limits and political status of the city of Jerusalem as an organic whole and a system is argued, the breach of the balance of which is claimed to inevitably destroy the integrity of the characteristics of Jerusalem in the history of the region, various peoples and all of humanity. The search for a solution to the Jerusalem problem is seen as interaction and the development of a model that recognizes and balances three factors of influence: 1) ideas about the importance of Jerusalem in the national historical narrative of Arabs and Jews; 2) the concept that asserted the consideration of the beginning of the cultural history of Jerusalem as a common Middle Eastern religious centre; and 3) the range of various political solutions proposed for the settlement of the problems of disputed territories in international relations with the assumption of the feasibility of fundamentally new models of solution.

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