His Kingdom occupies land that was included in the "original" Israely territorry, the East Bank*
"Original," According to what? Isn't it 'according to," a few people who set out to create a 'foundation myth' about their origins?
And in our times, this 'foundation myth' is trotted out to provide a so-called legal foundation, to the illegal seizure of land from people who once lived in what is now the Israeli state, and who are now dispossessed by modern Jews. Isn't that one of the crunch points in this conflict?
Let's go back to some irrefutable facts. The year 70 CE, saw the Roman state smash the Jewish theocracy and destroy the temple of Jehovah.
Painter David Roberts imagines that event (Source-Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_%28AD_70%29
And, these stones are supposed to be part of Stones from the Western Wall of the Temple Mount t hrown onto the street by Roman soldiers on the Ninth of Av, 70 CE as they razed the city. (Wikipedia)
Josephus describes the destruction and the slaying of some million people:
"Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury (for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be done), [Titus] Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and Temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as they were of the greatest eminence; that is, Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and Mariamne; and so much of the wall enclosed the city on the west side.
... And truly, the very view itself was a melancholy thing; for those places which were adorned with trees and pleasant gardens, were now become desolate country every way."
This happened again in
The city was still a ruin in 130 CE, when the Emperor Hadrian wanted to have the city re-built. However, the Jews were still rebellious and revolted for a second time in the war known as the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-136).
Hadrian was incensed at this second revolt, but went ahead with his re-building plan, with provisions that were intended to erase Judaism from the province. No Jews were allowed to live in the city, by a simple regulation that said that only males with intact prepuces could enter the city. Removal of the prepuce became illegal throughout the former Jewish territories, and the province was re-named Syria Palaestina.
The NEW JERUSALEM was renamed COLONIA ÆLIA CAPITOLINA (Colonia- a colony of - Aelia, from Hadrian's own name, and Capitolina - meaning that the city was now dedicated to the Roman God, Jupiter Capitolinus, whose temple was built on the site of the former temple of Yahweh).
So if you prefer the new name was, The Roman Colony of Jupiter Capitolinus as dedicated by Hadrian's family.
It's important to note this important fact. That the Jewish province of Judea, conquered by the Romans in 63BCE (when Pompey beseiged Jerusalem -again haha) was now completely Roman. Jews (circumcised males) were expelled from the province, and no circumcised male could enter. If they did, they were executed.
We have some idea of what it looked like, as a mosaic floor has been found as part of a floor mosaic in the early Byzantine church of Saint George at Madaba, Jordan. The Madaba Map is a map of the Middle East. Part of it contains the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land and especially Jerusalem. The church was dedicated in 542 CE, so the mosaic was likely constructed at that time.
and a closer view of the city of COLONIA ÆLIA CAPITOLINA, shows typical Roman style town planning.
Why is all this important to contemporary problems?
We shall try to understand.
But note that for around 700 years Jerusalem and Judea were Roman.
