Essay by Keith Rankin.
The occupation of the ‘Holy Lands’ by the Zionist state of Israel has an important precursor; Outremer. In particular the 1099 to 1187 version of the western outer kingdom, otherwise known as the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
In the millennium year 1000 CE, the territory of Palestine was the home for various coexisting identity groups and sub-groups. From a sectarian point of view, most of these groups identified as: Christian (mainly ‘orthodox’ affiliated to the Greek eastern church with its headquarters in Constantinople, now Istanbul); Muslim; or Jewish.
The eleventh century was a period of increasing Islamic influence in West Asia; and also a period of increased presence of the Roman Catholic church in addition to the eastern Christian denominations. A particular matter of concern to western Christianity was the capture of Jerusalem in 1071 by the Seljuk Turks; these Sunni Muslims were seen much more as the ‘infidel’ than their Fatimid predecessors. In 1074 a movement was formed – mainly in France, led by Pope Gregory VII – to ‘liberate’ the ‘Holy Land’ from the Seljuks.
This was a story of Palestine in which the Jewish minority were essentially bystanders. The Jewish religion has no special claim over these lands. The Holy Land became a contested space between a coalition of mainly Christian groups (but also the Shi’a Muslim Fatimids) against the Sunni Muslim Seljuk dynasty.
The opposition to the occupation of Jerusalem by the Seljuk ‘infidel’ came together as the First Crusade, proclaimed by Pope Urban II in 1095. The Crusaders departed from France in 1096, and fought their first major battle in 1098 at Antioch, in modern Syria. Also in 1098, the Fatimids took Jerusalem from the Seljuks.
In 1099, the Crusade proceeded to Jerusalem – now under the control of the Crusaders’ former ally. While the Fatimid leader was ‘out-of-town’, the Crusaders captured Jerusalem and murdered the entire civilian population, as one of the greatest atrocities in western history.
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The result of this conquest was the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the first and most significant of the Outremer polities. This was a Western European settler-colonial Catholic enterprise which lasted until 1187. The events of the kingdom’s last decade were portrayed in the movie The Kingdom of Heaven (2005, dir. Ridley Scott), which included New Zealand actor Marton Csokas as the final king (Guy de Lusignan) of that sorry state.
In 1187, Saladin – the unquestioned (and politically moderate) leader of what became a broad coalition of Arabic forces standing in opposition to the Catholic Kingdom – reconquered Jerusalem, the culmination of a patient political and military campaign. The civilian population of Jerusalem feared revenge for what happened 88 years earlier. Fortunately, younger pragmatic leaders in Jerusalem prevailed; and, much as the last leader (de Klerk) of Apartheid South Africa did, they negotiated a deal with Saladin to spare the lives of the civilians.
Modern Israel
If we fully pursue the analogy, the Knights Templar were the analogues of the far-right-wing neozionists in present day Israel. Guy de Lusignan, a Templar, could be taken as an analogue for Benjamin Netanyahu.
The 1099 to 1187 Kingdom of Jerusalem failed because it set itself up as an extreme Catholic state that refused to govern on anything other than its own extreme terms, making itself a very prickly political neighbour to the polities outside its borders. The analogy with today’s Israel is very strong.
If we give Israel 88 years, then the present ‘Kingdom’ of Israel, as an Apartheid state, will fall in 2036, just 12 years from now. The state of Israel does have political choices, however. Just as the Kingdom of Jerusalem could have survived much longer if it had operated as a secular state maintaining good relations with its neighbours, so Israel today can make the choice to avoid the fate of its Catholic predecessor.
Postscript
We should understand today that the Christian Crusades were not simply a medieval phenomenon. The 2000s’ western invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were very much imperialist adventures in the crusading genre; and certainly labelled as such by the invaded. That’s the real reason why it remains so insensitive that a Christchurch-based rugby team continues to insist on the use of the ‘Crusader’ name.
And, if we see Israel as a settler-colonial proxy for its Christian patron, the United States of America, then the current events in the Holy Land can very much be understood as a post-medieval Crusade.
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Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
