ABSTRACT
The Jerusalem festival was tantamount to a declaration that the city, which was described by K. A. Creswell as one of the most perfectly preserved examples of medieval Islamic cities, belongs to the Jews. During the mandate period, tensions rose between Arabs and Jews after the Zionist movement embarked upon making Palestine a national home for the Jewish people and stepped up a campaign of mass immigration. Stories about Muslim persecution of Christians in Jerusalem and alarms sounded about danger to the holy places were used to rally support for the Crusades. Partition and internationalization were proposed again by the United Nations after Britain declared its inability to resolve the Palestine conflict in 1947. The enlargement of the city and the new land seizure were guided by a strategy of colonizing the land while minimizing the number of Palestinians in the expanded boundaries. The colonization and Judaization of the area would preclude any return to the status quo ante.
