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Mount Moriah also known as the Temple Mount could be the most contentious site, in one of the most contentious cities on earth, Jerusalem. Though the historic and religious significance varies, the Temple Mount is central to belief and worship of Jews and Muslims and to a lesser extent nonProtestant denominations of Christianity. The Temple Mount is situated in the south east quadrant of the old city. East of the Temple Mount lies the Kindron Valley, or Valley of Josaphat, which divides the Mount of Olives from the Old City of Jerusalem. On it western side, the Tyropoeon Valley separates Mount Moriah from the western side where Christ (outside the Ancient cities gates) was crucified and Mount Zion, site of the last supper. To give you an idea, it’s about 1,500 feet from the Dome of the Rock to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There’s lots of historical and spiritually significant sites in a very small area. Overtime, ethno-religious communities including Muslims, Christians, Armenians, and Jews settled in around holy places and communities. For example, the Christian quarter’s main attraction is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been crucified, entombed, and resurrected. To really understand the importance of Mount Moriah to the Jewish people let’s turn to one of the most renowned Jewish philosophers and exegetes, Moses Maimonides. On Mt. Moriah, Maimonides writes, “Isaac was prepared as a sacrifice on the Temple's [future] site, as it is said (Genesis 22:2): ‘Go to the land of Moriah,’ and in Chronicles (II 3:1), it is said: ‘Then, Solomon began to build the House of the Lord in Jerusalem, on Mt. Moriah, where [the Lord] appeared to David, his father, in the place that David had prepared, in the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite. It is universally accepted that the place on which David and Solomon built the Altar, the threshing floor of Ornan, is the location where Abraham built the Altar on which he prepared Isaac for sacrifice.Noah built [an altar] on that location when he left the ark. It was also [the place] of the Altar on which Cain and Abel brought sacrifices. [Similarly,] Adam, the first man, offered a sacrifice there and was created at that very spot, as our Sages said: ‘Man was created from the place where he [would find] atonement.” In other words, God formed man from the clay of the earth on Mt. Moriah. Abraham, the father of the Hebrews and Arabs, was prepared to sacrifice his Son Isaac upon an altar on this very spot. Later, the first and Second Temple stood again, at this very location. Get it? For pious Jews, this is the most holy place on earth. But Mount Moriah holds a special place in Islam too. In Quran, Surah 17:1 God took “[Muḥammad]” by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose surroundings We have blessed.” During the Night Journey, According to Muslims, God transported the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem, to the Farthest Mosque, where he prayed with other prophets before ascending to the heavens. The Masjid al-Aqsa named in Surah 17:1 came to refer to the entire Temple complex known as the Haram al-Sharif or 'Noble Sanctuary.' This includes the dome of the Rock, the Al Aqsa Mosque, and the madrasas that surround them. The Haram al-Sharif as it stands today, originated shortly after the Arab army’s conquests of Jerusalem. In his book A History of The Arab Peoples, Albert Hourani gives a masterful summary of what occurred on Mt. Moriah under new rulers. “The holy places of the Jews and Christians still had a hold over the imagination of the new rulers: ‘Umar had visited Jerusalem after it was captured, and Mu‘awiya was proclaimed caliph there. Then in the 690s there was erected the first great building which clearly asserted that Islam was distinct and would endure. This was the Dome of the Rock, built on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, now turned into a Muslim haram; it was to be an ambulatory for pilgrims around the rock where, according to Rabbinic tradition, God had called upon Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. The building of the Dome in this place has been convincingly interpreted as a symbolic act placing Islam in the lineage of Abraham and dissociating it from Judaism and Christianity. The inscriptions around the interior, the earliest known physical embodiment of texts from the Qur’an, proclaim the greatness of God, ‘the Mighty, the Wise’, declare that ‘God and His angels bless the Prophet’, and call upon Christians to recognize Jesus as an apostle of God, His word and spirit, but not His son.” For traditional Christians, the importance of Mt. Moriah subsided with the coming of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament and Christ’s historic connection with the Temple remains; however, the Temple Mount, like the Old Testament, was superseded by prominent sites associated with the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ namely: Bethlehem, Gethsemane, and the Holy Sepulchre. But, the Temple Mount plays a critical role for both Jews and Christians in the end-times, for different reasons. Jews believe that the coming Messiah will play a central role in the rebuilding of the Third Temple in Jerusalem. Christians believe that the Messiah has come and his ultimate sacrifice was the final atonement for human sin. ​​Differing perspectives between Christian Zionists and traditional Christians are beyond the scope of this video. But what can be said, is that many Christian Zionists and Jews share a similar enthusiasm for the restoration of the Third Temple which necessitates the destruction of the al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Jewish sources: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2022%3A1-19&version=NI https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Chronicles+3&version=KJV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezra%201-6&version=KJV https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1007195/jewish/Beit-Habechirah-Chapter-2.htm https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2261/jewish/Why-On-Earth-Do-We-Need-a-Third-Temple.htm https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-6.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides Christian Sources: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A21-39&version=KJV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%202%3A41-52&version=kjv https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2021%3A12-13%2CMark%2011%3A15-18&version=kjv https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2027%3A51&version=kjv Muslim Sources: https://quran.com/en/al-isra https://archive.org/details/AHISTORYOFTHEARABPEOPLESALBERTHOURANI/page/n29/mode/2up?q=moriah Christian Zionism in the news: https://www.newsweek.com/pro-trump-pastor-hopes-israel-war-sparks-jesus-return-1833972 https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-he-takes-on-trump-pence-brings-starkly-different-approach-to-jewish-concerns/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/08/25/pompeo-israel-christian-zionism-republican-national-convention/ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/16/mike-pompeo-israel-biblical-claim-palestine-not-occupying

The Modern State of Israel was founded in 1948. Since its founding, Israel has gained land and returned it, won it and lost it. The Israeli state today corresponds roughly to the United Kingdom of Israel from the time of Saul, David, and Solomon. It is situated in the Eastern Mediterranean and is slightly larger than the state of New Jersey, yet slightly smaller than Lake Michigan. Moving clockwise from the north, Israel borders Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. To the West, lies the Mediterranean Sea. The legal status of the Palestinian territories is a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To be brief, there’s no Palestinian State, it is comprised of territories. A territory is an area of land under the jurisdiction of a ruler or state. There are 2 Palestinian territories within the state of Israel: the West Bank, Gaza Strip. Both territories were occupied or gained after the 6-Day War. The West Bank and Gaza have governing bodies that work on behalf of the Palestinians, but they are limited in their prerogatives and authority. For example, Palestinians do not maintain control over their borders, airspace, or territorial waters; it is coordinated with Israelis. The Golan Heights and East Jerusalem were both annexed after the 6-Day War and remain under Israeli control. Palestinians residents of Golan and East Jerusalem hold Israeli residency permits, some are full citizens of Israel, others citizens of Jordan, and still others were issued West Bank ID cards by the Israeli military. The Palestinians in The West Bank and Gaza are citizens of a Palestinian State, but again Palestine is not sovereign. The majority of the residents in the Palestinian Territories are Arabs Muslims. Outside of the territories, Arabs who were incorporated into the state of Israel in 1948 are known as Israeli Arabs. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, There are roughly 9,727,000 inhabitants of Israel, not including the Palestinian territories. Of that, over 7 million, or 73.5 percent are Jewish, just over two million or 21% are Arabs, and 534,000 or 5.5% are of other minorities like non-Arab Christians, Baha’i Samaritans, and Karaite Jews. In 2022, the population by religion was roughly 18% Muslim (1,728,000), 2% (184,400) Christian, and 2% Druze (149,400). The rest were Jews. The Palestinian Territories are more homogenous. There are 5.35 million people living in the Palestinian Territories. 3.19 million resided in the West Bank and 2.17 million in the Gaza strip. Islam is the majority religion in the territories, with the majority of Palestinians adhering to Sunni Islam. 92% of West Bank residents identify as muslim while in Gaza its 99%. The remaining inhabitants adhere to a Christian denomination. One way the West Bank differs from Gaza is that Israelis are permitted to live in the West Bank and form settlements. Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered part of Israeli territory by the Israeli government, and they are subject to Israeli civil law. The settlers are full Israeli citizens and not subject to the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. In 2005, Israel unilaterally disengaged from the Gaza Strip, which involved the evacuation of all Israeli civilians and the dismantling of Israeli settlements in the territory. Israeli demographer Arnon Soffer recently made headlines when he claimed that Jews make up only 47% of Israel if the territories are included. Maps: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-map-of-israeli-settlements-that-shocked-barack-obama https://embassies.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/Maps/Pages/Israel-Size-and-Dimension.aspx https://iris.org.il/size-comparison-maps/ Israel demographics: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/441219-ISRAEL-2022-INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT.pdf https://www.timesofisrael.com/jews-now-a-minority-in-israel-and-the-territories-demographer-says/ https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/latest-population-statistics-for-israel https://www.cbs.gov.il/en/Statistics/Pages/Generators/Time-Series-DataBank.aspx?r=ea3bd53b-b8ef-4c4a-8f6f-8eb5e8cdb84f&uptodate=1 Palestinian Demographics: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-know-about-arab-citizens-israel https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/Press_En_InterPopDay2022E.pdf https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2019/12/palestinians-jerusalem-jordan-israel-citizenship.html IDF Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_Israel_Defense_Forces_-_The_Evacuation_of_Neve_Dekalim_Hotel_(6).jpg

Mount Moriah also known as the Temple Mount could be the most contentious site, in one of the most contentious cities on earth, Jerusalem. Though the historic and religious significance varies, the Temple Mount is central to belief and worship of Jews and Muslims and to a lesser extent nonProtestant denominations of Christianity. The Temple Mount is situated in the south east quadrant of the old city. East of the Temple Mount lies the Kindron Valley, or Valley of Josaphat, which divides the Mount of Olives from the Old City of Jerusalem. On it western side, the Tyropoeon Valley separates Mount Moriah from the western side where Christ (outside the Ancient cities gates) was crucified and Mount Zion, site of the last supper. To give you an idea, it’s about 1,500 feet from the Dome of the Rock to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There’s lots of historical and spiritually significant sites in a very small area. Overtime, ethno-religious communities including Muslims, Christians, Armenians, and Jews settled in around holy places and communities. For example, the Christian quarter’s main attraction is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been crucified, entombed, and resurrected. To really understand the importance of Mount Moriah to the Jewish people let’s turn to one of the most renowned Jewish philosophers and exegetes, Moses Maimonides. On Mt. Moriah, Maimonides writes, “Isaac was prepared as a sacrifice on the Temple's [future] site, as it is said (Genesis 22:2): ‘Go to the land of Moriah,’ and in Chronicles (II 3:1), it is said: ‘Then, Solomon began to build the House of the Lord in Jerusalem, on Mt. Moriah, where [the Lord] appeared to David, his father, in the place that David had prepared, in the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite. It is universally accepted that the place on which David and Solomon built the Altar, the threshing floor of Ornan, is the location where Abraham built the Altar on which he prepared Isaac for sacrifice.Noah built [an altar] on that location when he left the ark. It was also [the place] of the Altar on which Cain and Abel brought sacrifices. [Similarly,] Adam, the first man, offered a sacrifice there and was created at that very spot, as our Sages said: ‘Man was created from the place where he [would find] atonement.” In other words, God formed man from the clay of the earth on Mt. Moriah. Abraham, the father of the Hebrews and Arabs, was prepared to sacrifice his Son Isaac upon an altar on this very spot. Later, the first and Second Temple stood again, at this very location. Get it? For pious Jews, this is the most holy place on earth. But Mount Moriah holds a special place in Islam too. In Quran, Surah 17:1 God took “[Muḥammad]” by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose surroundings We have blessed.” During the Night Journey, According to Muslims, God transported the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem, to the Farthest Mosque, where he prayed with other prophets before ascending to the heavens. The Masjid al-Aqsa named in Surah 17:1 came to refer to the entire Temple complex known as the Haram al-Sharif or 'Noble Sanctuary.' This includes the dome of the Rock, the Al Aqsa Mosque, and the madrasas that surround them. The Haram al-Sharif as it stands today, originated shortly after the Arab army’s conquests of Jerusalem. In his book A History of The Arab Peoples, Albert Hourani gives a masterful summary of what occurred on Mt. Moriah under new rulers. “The holy places of the Jews and Christians still had a hold over the imagination of the new rulers: ‘Umar had visited Jerusalem after it was captured, and Mu‘awiya was proclaimed caliph there. Then in the 690s there was erected the first great building which clearly asserted that Islam was distinct and would endure. This was the Dome of the Rock, built on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, now turned into a Muslim haram; it was to be an ambulatory for pilgrims around the rock where, according to Rabbinic tradition, God had called upon Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. The building of the Dome in this place has been convincingly interpreted as a symbolic act placing Islam in the lineage of Abraham and dissociating it from Judaism and Christianity. The inscriptions around the interior, the earliest known physical embodiment of texts from the Qur’an, proclaim the greatness of God, ‘the Mighty, the Wise’, declare that ‘God and His angels bless the Prophet’, and call upon Christians to recognize Jesus as an apostle of God, His word and spirit, but not His son.” For traditional Christians, the importance of Mt. Moriah subsided with the coming of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament and Christ’s historic connection with the Temple remains; however, the Temple Mount, like the Old Testament, was superseded by prominent sites associated with the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ namely: Bethlehem, Gethsemane, and the Holy Sepulchre. But, the Temple Mount plays a critical role for both Jews and Christians in the end-times, for different reasons. Jews believe that the coming Messiah will play a central role in the rebuilding of the Third Temple in Jerusalem. Christians believe that the Messiah has come and his ultimate sacrifice was the final atonement for human sin. ​​Differing perspectives between Christian Zionists and traditional Christians are beyond the scope of this video. But what can be said, is that many Christian Zionists and Jews share a similar enthusiasm for the restoration of the Third Temple which necessitates the destruction of the al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Jewish sources: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2022%3A1-19&version=NI https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Chronicles+3&version=KJV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezra%201-6&version=KJV https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1007195/jewish/Beit-Habechirah-Chapter-2.htm https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2261/jewish/Why-On-Earth-Do-We-Need-a-Third-Temple.htm https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-6.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides Christian Sources: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A21-39&version=KJV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%202%3A41-52&version=kjv https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2021%3A12-13%2CMark%2011%3A15-18&version=kjv https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2027%3A51&version=kjv Muslim Sources: https://quran.com/en/al-isra https://archive.org/details/AHISTORYOFTHEARABPEOPLESALBERTHOURANI/page/n29/mode/2up?q=moriah Christian Zionism in the news: https://www.newsweek.com/pro-trump-pastor-hopes-israel-war-sparks-jesus-return-1833972 https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-he-takes-on-trump-pence-brings-starkly-different-approach-to-jewish-concerns/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/08/25/pompeo-israel-christian-zionism-republican-national-convention/ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/16/mike-pompeo-israel-biblical-claim-palestine-not-occupying

Geography is the study of the Earth and its various features, including its physical characteristics, climate, population, cultures, and much more. This introductory course will provide you with a foundation in the field of geography, helping you understand the world around you from a spatial perspective.