Word: israel
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...morning after its swift and stunning victory in the "Six Day War," Israel awoke to vastly wider horizons and vastly expanded responsibilities. Suddenly the writ of Jerusalem had been extended over lands three times Is rael's prewar size, and over hostile Arab populations amounting to 1,330,000 people-nearly half Israel's own. How long would Israel want to hang onto such problems...
Home for the Ark. Jerusalem's religious importance actually begins with David. When the twelve tribes of Israel sought to consolidate their conquest of the Promised Land around 1000 B.C., David decided to capture the citadel from the Jebusites, a tribal ally of the Philistines. He did so after a prolonged siege, and made it his capital. There he brought the ark of the covenant, a gold-lined chest that Moses had built to contain the tablets of the law. David's son Solomon, who reigned from circa 970 to 930 B.C., built a magnificent Temple to contain...
...that control of the major shrines should be divided among Christian sects-an arrangement that was adopted by the British when they captured Jerusalem from the Turks in 1917, and was maintained throughout Britain's 31-year occupation. The trouble-ridden British mandate lasted until the creation of Israel in 1948. One year later, ending the Arab-Israeli war, the U.N. ordered Jerusalem's division. Jordan won the less populous but more venerable Old City, containing most of the shrines...
Since capturing and annexing the Old City, Israel has gone out of its way to preserve the sanctity of the Christian, Jewish and Moslem shrines alike. The Knesset has passed laws reaffirming the existing custodial agreements on the shrines and decreeing stiff prison terms for anyone caught desecrating sacred sites. The government has even posted guards at them...
Islam, their reasons may be as much emotional and fiscal as religious: last year Jordan's tourist income amounted to more than $35 million-most of it coming from Christians visiting the Old City. Israel's position is equally tough. "Jerusalem is not negotiable," says an aide to Premier Levi Eshkol. At most, the Israelis might agree to internationalization of non-Jewish shrines in the Old City-a solution favored by many Christian leaders...