Page - 135 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/01

Jerusalem”. But why do the actors want to possess the “earthly Jerusalem” in the first place? I argue that Jerusalem is a variously loaded sacred space and that be- cause of its privileged position of power, it can grant a power and legitimacy that will prove an advantage in conflict. In sum, I suggest, religious concepts are used to gain control of the “heavenly Jerusalem” and thereby own the “earthly Jerusalem”. Israeli Politics between “Heavenly” and “Earthly” Jerusalem This morning, the Israel Defense Forces liberated Jerusalem. We have united Je- rusalem, the divided capital of Israel. We have returned to the holiest of our Holy Places, never to part from it again. –Moshe Dayan, 6 June 196723 The entanglement of the heavenly and earthly Jerusalems is evident in Jewish tra- dition: Jews yearn for the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the focus of their messian- ic hopes, and thus for centuries have turned to the earthly Jerusalem as a site of prayer or as a pilgrimage destination.24 Thus, the hope for the heavenly Jerusalem is projected onto the earthly Jerusalem. The restoration of Jewish sovereignty is, however, Bernard Wasserstein contends, a relatively new idea. The religious vener- ation of the city did not entail, he argues, concrete obligations regarding the earthly Jerusalem, and indeed, when the idea of a political restoration emerged in the 19th century, it was rejected by the majority of orthodox Jews, who were skeptical of Zi- onism, which they held to be a blasphemy that sought to anticipate God’s own plan for salvation. Consequently, Zionism long remained a decidedly secular movement, at least in terms of the (non-)participation of religious actors.25 The Zionists’ relationship with Jerusalem has been ambivalent. For a long time, Jerusalem was not a focus of their interests. Indeed for the early Zionists, Jerusalem represented the old world that they wanted to leave behind, for they associated Je- rusalem and its citizens with religious zealotry, dirt and parasitism, and consequent- ly they contemptuously neglected the city. At the beginning of the First World War, however, the Zionists revised their strategy for reaching their goal of sovereignty in Palestine and a homeland for the Jewish people, with Jerusalem now part of what was in effect a cultural struggle in which the city functioned as a national symbol of a glorious Jewish past.26 Here again, we see both the distinction between and inter- twining of the earthly and heavenly Jerusalems. 23 Speech of Moshe Dayan, 6 June 1967, cited in Kristianssen 2015, 23. 24 Wasserstein 2007, 22; Reiter 2013, 120–121. 25 Wasserstein 2007, 19–22; Baumgart-Ochse 2010, 32. 26 Katz 1995, 279–283; 287; Wasserstein 2007, 22–23; Mayer 2008, 224–225. 134 | Hannah Griese www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/1, 127–151