World Bulletin / News Desk

According to scientific research, Jerusalem as a city has has existed for approximately 4,000 years. During the first 1,000 years there was no connection with the Jewish people. Even in the Bible, the Book of Genesis tells about Melchizedek, the king of Salem, who came blessed Abraham, had no connection to Jerusalem. During the time of the patriarchs, Jerusalem did not play any role in this at all. In fact, even when the Israelites were in Egypt, Jerusalem was never mentioned, and when they wandered in the desert they spoke about the Land of Canaan – Jerusalem has never been mentioned.

The conquest of "the land" by Joshua, son of Nun, never included Jersualem as part of that land. In actual fact, it was the king of Jerusalem who organized the coalition of five monarchs against Joshua, and at the time the city was apparently the capital of another nation, never the Israelites.

The conquest of Jerusalem by the tribe of Judah, led to the burning of the city - a settlement there of any tribe never took place. Later on it was inhabited by the Jebusites, and only 1,000 years after its establishment did King David capture the city and turn it into his capital. His grandson Rehoboam, ruled the kingdom which then separated and became capital of the Judean kingdom thereby cutting off any Jewish connection during the First Temple period. 400 years after the destruction of the temple, Jerusalem became a capital but only for 100 years, until Herod was crowned king. It did not become a capital under any kingdrom until the Crusade conquest in 1099 which remained its capital for 88 years - It remained as a city until the British capture of 1917 of which it then turned into political entity. Up to this point it had remained firmly in the hands of the Palestinians.

Only after the establishment of the State of Israel did West Jerusalem become the country's capital - not of the Jewish population. Since 1967 the world has seen the development of that history, what is known as Greater Jerusalem has constituted the capital of Israel, but not the capital of the Jewry. Each Jewish population today in each country see their national capital as their own capital, with the French Jews seeing Paris as their capital, and the British Jews seeing London as their own capital.