that is not all you said.

Submitted by Abdul Rahman Reijerink (Australia), Jun 17, 2006 at 05:39

obviously as Jews built the city (right? maybe not but I believe so) they were the first there. What you did say from memory is that because Jews were the first there, everyone else should get a different city. I have several problems with that.

i) in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures it clearly states that the Jews dispossesed the Philistines of their territory, does this mean that according to your argument of prior tenure that the Jews do not have a right to the city and surrounding territory? If not then why do people who have succeeded the Jews not have some right as well?

ii) The Emperor Titus Flavius while Caeser and working for his father dispersed the Jews quite violently, many of the people now resident in Jerusalem (quite ironically considering the history translates I believe as the city of Peace... beautiful name) have not had continued tenure there over the past 1800 odd years, but elsewhere.

my postion then is that whoever is there now should just learn to share the place, especially since it is a trust from God. Maybe the true possesers (in a spiritual sense) of Jerusalem will never set foot in the place.

this 'I was here first ' stuff just does not wash with me, which is why the Jews have a right to return, but so also do those displaced by the modern state of Israel (whichever version of events you believe ie: "anakba" they were chased out violently , or the Israeli version that they fled under orders). Both peoples in my view have to create a new state that includes everyone.

As an aside, I believe that any Jews or Christians (or others) who faithfully worship God and follow their prophets are Muslims, in the sense that muslim means one who is in a state of submission to God. So in a sense yes Muslims were there first! We have to start looking to what we have in common and not just what sets us apart. No single group has a monoply on God's pleasure or the path to God's truth.

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