Nationalism and the Haram Al-sharif/Temple Mount ─ The Exclusivity of Holiness

This book examines the manner in which the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount has been appropriated by both Palestinian Arab nationalism and Zionism (Jewish/Israeli nationalism) as a nationalist symbol that legitimizes the respective movements’ claims to Palestine/Eretz Israel. Whereas historically, the site’s significance had always been understood in religious terms, from the late-nineteenth century onward, its significance became reconfigured within the context of modern, nationalist discourses—a Palestinian one and a Zionist one. In neither case, however, did the site become secularized, even if, in their original incarnations, Palestinian nationalism and Zionism were essentially secular movements. Influence has rather run in the other direction, with the site’s religious significance vis-à-vis Islam and Judaism gradually altering the character of both Palestinian nationalism and Zionism, in a manner that has served to blur the line between both movements and their respective majority faiths. 

Erik Freas is Assistant Professor of Modern Middle East History at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, USA. Freas’s research focuses on Muslim-Christian Arab relations in Palestine during the Mandate and late-Ottoman periods. He is the author of Muslim-Christian Relations in Late Ottoman Palestine: Where Nationalism and Religion Intersect.