Nationalism and the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Erik Freas

   Pages 1-11

3. Some Background

   • Erik Freas

   Pages 13-33

4. Jerusalem is Ground Zero

   • Erik Freas

   Pages 35-48

5. Early Contestations

   • Erik Freas

   Pages 49-73

6. The Wailing Wall Disturbances

   • Erik Freas

   Pages 75-87

7. A Divided City: 1949–1967

   • Erik Freas

   Pages 89-96

8. The Six Day War and Its Aftermath

   • Erik Freas

   Pages 97-112

9. Archaeology and Creating Facts on the Ground

   • Erik Freas

   Pages 113-138

10. Jewish Fundamentalism

    • Erik Freas

    Pages 139-159

11. In Defense of the Haram al-Sharif

    • Erik Freas

    Pages 161-172

12. Christian and Muslim Millennialism

    • Erik Freas

    Pages 173-180

13. Erratum to: Nationalism and the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount

    • Erik Freas

    Pages E1-E1

14. Back Matter

    Pages 181-193

    PDF

This book examines the manner in which the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount has been appropriated by both Palestinians and Israelis as a nationalist symbol legitimizing respective claims to the land. From the late-nineteenth century onward, the site's significance became reconfigured within the context of modern nationalist discourses, yet, despite the originally secular nature of Palestinian and Israeli nationalisms, the holy site’s importance to Islam and Judaism respectively has gradually altered the character of both in a manner blurring the line between religious and national identities.

• Jerusalem
• Eretz Israel
• Palestine
• Palestinian nationalism
• Zionism
• Israeli nationalism
• Islam
• Judaism
• Orthodoxy
• Hamas
• Protestant millenialism
• British mandatory period
• Wailing Wall Disturbances
• religion and society

“In this fascinating and well researched study of 150 years Erik Freas shows how each of Zionism and the Palestinian national movement, established as secular in-principal, changed the status of al- Haram al-Sharif / Temple Mount from pure national symbol to religious - national identity center. Essential reading to understand the formative role religion has in shaping the Israeli – Palestinian conflict.” (Menachem Klein, Professor, Bar Ilan University, Israel, and author of Lives in Common – Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Hebron)

• Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, New York, USA

  Erik Freas

Erik Freas is Assistant Professor of Modern Middle East History at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, USA. Freas’s research focuses on Muslim-Christian Arab relations in Palestine during the Mandate and late-Ottoman periods. He is the author of Muslim-Christian Relations in Late Ottoman Palestine: Where Nationalism and Religion Intersect. 

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