66-70 | Romans suppress a major Jewish revolt and the Temple is destroyed. The conquering Roman general, Vespasian, became emperor. |
132-135 | The Bar Kokba revolt. Jews barred from entering Jerusalem. The Romans name the province Syria Palaestina. Jews move North into Galilee, being banned from Jerusalem |
312 | Edict of Milan. Constantine begins the process of Christianising the Roman Empire. |
ca. 325 | Empress Helena starts pilgrimages to Palestine. Major building projects – churches in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and elsewhere, |
ca. 570 | The Prophet Muhammad is born in Mecca, establishes the Islamic faith, unites the Arabian Peninsula, and dies in 632. Arabic rule and faith spread rapidly throughout Syria Palaestina, Persia, and Egypt. |
637 | Jerusalem conquered by caliph Umar 1 |
711 | Muslims take control in Spain. The Umayyad Caliphate peaks around 1000CE. Regarded as the Golden Age of Jewish Culture in Spain. |
1099 | The first Crusaders capture Jerusalem and establish Christian rule over Palestine. Massacres perpetrated by some Crusaders. This is also the beginning of Jews being expelled from many countries in Western Europe. |
1187 | Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, conquers Jerusalem and invites the Jews to return. Except for a fifteen-year interval Muslims control Palestine until the end of World War I. |
1264 | In Poland the Prince of Cracow grants the General Charter of Jewish liberties which mandated unprecedented rights and privileges to Jewish citizens. |
1290 | Jews expelled from England not Scotland |
1492 | Remaining Jews and Muslims expelled from Spain by Christians in the Spanish Inquisition. |
1516 | The Ottoman Turks take Syria, Palestine, and then Egypt. |
1656 | Start of the readmission of Jews to Britain. under Cromwell. Christian Zionist biblical interpretation originated in Puritan circles. By the mid 1600s, some three-quarters of all the world’s Jews lived on Polish territory, their forebears having enjoyed 700 years of relative peace and security in the heart of Catholic Europe. |
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Recent Articles
- First Encounter: The King-Crane Commission and Palestine, 1919
- An Eye Witness account of my time as an Ecumenical Accompanier in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
- The 2030 roadmap for UK-Israel bilateral relations
- Screening of the documentary film Britain in Palestine 1917 – 1948
- Israel/UK Roadmap – the text and the reactions
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