Within These Walls Page #2

of the Assyrians.

But in 586 B.C., Babylonian forces

burned Jerusalem,

massacred thousands, and exiled

the enslaved survivors.

Archeologists have uncovered poignant

reminders of those

who once lived here,

including clay seals bearing names

of people mentioned in the Bible.

The lament of the exiles echoes

through history:

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,

let my right hand forget her cunning...

let my tongue cleave to the roof

of my mouth,

if I prefer not Jerusalem above

my chief joy!"

A half century later,

the Persians defeated the Babylonians

and allowed the Jews to return.

The Second Temple rose on the site

of the first.

This model depicts Jerusalem as it was

when Jesus came here to celebrate

the festival of Passover.

Although He knew the repressive

Roman rulers

had labeled Him a rebel,

He continued to preach brotherhood

kindness, and charity.

In the last days before

His Crucifixion,

Jesus left the temple by these steps.

They are on of the few remnants

that remain for in 70 A.D.,

on the anniversary of the day

the Babylonians

had sacked the First Temple,

the Romans burned the city

butchered the people,

and took the rest as slaves.

Thus was Jerusalem destroyed

for a second time.

Six hundred years later

according to Muslim belief,

Muhammad departed for the

throne of God

from the sacred rock of Jerusalem

where the temple had stood.

Aware of the Holy Books of the Jews

and Christians,

Muhammad had converted the

idolatrous tribes of Arabia

to the concept of one God.

Only six years after his death,

an army of his followers stood at

Jerusalem's gates,

claiming the city as their own.

Muslims were to rule Jerusalem

for the next 1,300 years.

Except for two interruptions

when the Crusaders wrested

the city from them.

In the 20th century,

the flame of war again flared

in the Holy Land.

World War I:
The British march

into Palestine

to fight the Ottoman Turks.

As it has some 20 times in

its recorded history,

in 1917 Jerusalem falls.

The Holy City is surrendered

to the British.

Mindful that Jesus had walked

into Jerusalem,

General Sir Edmund Allenby humbly

enters Jaffa Gate on foot.

There are renewed stirrings

of Zionism,

the concept of a modern Jewish nation

In 1947,

the United Nations votes to end

the British Mandate

and partition Palestine into Jewish

and Arab states.

May 14, 1948:
David Ben-Gurion

citing"...

the fulfillment of the dream

of generations,"

makes a proclamation Jews everywhere

have long awaited:

"The State of Israel has arisen."

The next day, six neighboring Arab

countries invade,

determined to crush the infant nation

before it is born.

With Jerusalem under siege and the

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