Nations & States
Jerusalem and the Six-Day War
Al-Aqsa under occupation, 1967
1387 AH / 1967 CE
Educational historical reconstructionWhere
The Haram al-Sharif, Jerusalem
31.7780, 35.2354 · View on OpenStreetMap
Background
In June 1967, in six days of war, Israel defeated the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria and seized the Sinai peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and, on the third day, the eastern half of Jerusalem with its walled Old City and the Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary. The Haram, the broad stone platform that holds the golden-domed Dome of the Rock over the rock from which the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is traditionally said to have ascended on the Night Journey, and the great congregational mosque of al-Aqsa, is the third holiest sanctuary in Islam after the mosques of Makkah and Madinah, and Jerusalem had been in Muslim hands almost continuously since the caliph Umar (radiyallahu anhu) received it in 637 and Salah al-Din (rahimahu Allah) recovered it in 1187. For the Arab world the defeat of 1967, known in Arabic as al-Naksa, the setback, was a shattering blow that broke the spell of Nasser's Arab nationalism; for Muslims everywhere the passing of the sanctuary of Jerusalem under occupation was, and remains, a profound grief, even as the day-to-day administration of the mosques was left to an Islamic endowment. This scene depicts the Haram al-Sharif in 1967, the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa on their esplanade within the Old City, at the moment the sanctuary came under occupation.
What you see
A broad raised stone esplanade in a walled old city holds a great octagonal shrine crowned with a golden dome and, at its southern end, a separate large mosque with a dark lead dome. This is the Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, of Jerusalem.
The octagonal building with the gilded dome stands over the rock at the centre of the platform, faced with tilework, while the silver-grey-domed mosque to the south is the congregational al-Aqsa; together they are the third holiest sanctuary of Islam.
Around the sanctuary press the close stone lanes, domes and church towers of an ancient walled hill-city, sacred at once to Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Soldiers of an occupying army stand on the esplanade where worshippers should be; the sanctuary has just passed, by conquest, out of Muslim control.
The Noble Sanctuary, the site of the Prophet's Night Journey, falling under military occupation marks the shattering Arab defeat of 1967 and the loss of Muslim Jerusalem, a wound at the centre of the conflict ever since.
Further reading & cross-references
Arabic accounts of 1967 (al-Naksa) and the loss of Jerusalem: Contemporary Arab and Muslim accounts of the defeat and the occupation of the sanctuary; used for the framing as al-Naksa and the grief at the loss of Jerusalem. Confidence high for that perspective.
Standard histories of the 1967 war (e.g. Michael Oren, Six Days of War): Used for the course of the war and the capture of East Jerusalem and the Haram. Confidence high for the military events.
Histories of Jerusalem and the Haram al-Sharif: Used for the standing and history of the sanctuary, the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa, and the long Muslim guardianship of the city. Confidence high.
The standing Haram al-Sharif (extant, material): The surviving esplanade, the gilded Dome of the Rock and the lead-domed al-Aqsa constrain the architecture; reviewers should keep the 1967 state.
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