If I forget you

This week is Yom Yerushalayim- the 59^th anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem.

Despite exile and being scattered to all corners of the globe, Jews never forgot their historical Capital. Wherever they found themselves, in good times and more often than not in times of persecution, the yearning to return to the Holy Land and the Holy City never ceased.

Psalm 137, written during the Babylonian exile, reflects the Jewish People’s determination to one day return and rebuild the city.

“If I forget you, Oh Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning/skill. If I do not remember you, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.”

 Incorporated into each wedding ceremony under the chuppah, this vow sustained countless generations of Jews who never lost their yearning for an ultimate redemption.

Every year on Tisha B’Av – the Fast of the 9^th Av – Jewish communities mourn the destruction of the Temples as well as the destruction of Jerusalem and pray for restored sovereignty.

In 1948, it seemed that these prayers had finally been answered when the Jewish State was miraculously proclaimed and two thousand years of exile were banished like a bad dream. No sooner had independence been achieved than the surrounding Arab armies invaded and attempted to extinguish the newly reborn State.

At the end of several “ceasefires” an armistice was achieved which left the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in illegal control of Judea and Samaria as well as half of Jerusalem.

It should be noted that the United Kingdom had trained and commanded the Jordanian forces. This would not be the last time that  “perfidious Albion” attempted to thwart Jewish sovereignty.

As I have noted on numerous previous occasions, the totally illegal occupation by Jordan of territory originally allocated by the League of Nations and San Remo for Jewish settlement attracted no censure, condemnation or penalty.

The Jordanian ethnic cleansing of Jews and their institutions from the Old City of Jerusalem, the desecration of the oldest Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives and the ban on Jewish worship at the Kotel caused no ripples at the UN.

The Vatican’s policy of a “corpus separatum” for Jerusalem, whereby there would be international guarantees of freedom for all religions, obviously never applied to Judaism or Jews. Between 1948 and 1967, not only did they not recognise the Jewish State, they also did not condemn the Jordanian destruction of synagogues, cemeteries and the ban on worship for Jews.

Choruses of denunciations against Israel became a regular event only when Israel liberated Jerusalem in 1967 and restored freedom of worship for all faiths. Hypocrisy reached new heights when the UN demanded that Israel’s Capital be internationalised.

In 2026, even countries like New Zealand and Australia refuse to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, preferring instead to trot out the usual blatant fiction that it awaits a “final peace agreement.” Presumably, this illusory peace would be a worthless piece of paper signed with a fake “Palestine” which is on record as denying that there is any Jewish connection to Jerusalem.

This brings us back to Yom Yerushalayim.

It is vitally important to know the historical facts because current ignorance and double standards have become endemic.

For most born since 1967 and even a good number of older people, the events surrounding the Six-Day War have been supplanted by revisionist rhetoric and false assertions.

Those of us who were teenagers or in our twenties in 1967 well remember the feeling of imminent doom as Nasser of Egypt and his willing allies prepared to launch a war of annihilation against a surrounded and perceived weak Israel. We also remember all too well the disgraceful spectacle of so-called friendly nations as they reneged on previous guarantees and scuttled away as fast as they could from any meaningful support.

In scenes not much changed between then and today, the calls for restraint and de-escalation, accompanied by warnings to Israel not to react in the face of impending genocide, rang out. Mass graves were being prepared in Israel for what was thought to be an inevitable battle.

Young Jewish men and women from countless countries began to arrive in Israel as volunteers. They took the place of called-up reservists in kibbutzim, moshavim and other communities.

Once hostilities commenced, Israeli leaders appealed to King Hussein of Jordan to refrain from joining the war. He, however, was seduced by the false claims of Egypt into believing that the Arab countries were on their way to a glorious victory. Not wanting to be left out of the inevitable spoils, Jordanian forces started to bombard western Jerusalem from their positions in the Old City and the surrounding areas of Judea and Samaria.

 

The end result, of course, was the liberation of all those areas illegally occupied by the Jordanians and the historic restoration of Jerusalem to Jewish sovereignty. It is important to note, by the way, that the fake Palestinians had not yet been invented and therefore the areas liberated from Jordanian control were not in any sense part of any “Palestinian entity.”

Muslims were guaranteed freedom of worship on the Mount, and unbelievably, Jews were forbidden to pray there, a disgraceful situation still in force today.

The international community, hitherto silent in the face of Islamic bans on a Jewish presence at Judaism’s holiest site, erupted into resolutions of condemnation which continue until this present day.

Every year on the anniversary of Jerusalem’s liberation and reunification, the barrage of denunciations bursts forth. All those who remained mute prior to 1967 now join the jihadist litany of lies. The campaign to delegitimise any legal Jewish presence in Jerusalem, as well as Judea and Samaria, is embraced and endorsed.

Celebrations by Israelis as they proudly march with national flags are denounced as provocative displays of nationalistic hate. Years of rhetoric and denials of any Jewish claim to Jerusalem are met with silence by the media.

The day when Jewish sovereignty was belatedly restored to Israel’s undivided Capital is a time of true celebration. The city has never ever been the capital of any other country. None of its conquerors ever crowned it as such. Even when the Jordanians had an opportunity to do so, they refused because, basically, Jerusalem was merely unimportant.

Only when the Jews returned did the fake narrative of illegal occupation and mythical Arab Palestine nationhood start to be peddled.

Jerusalem’s liberation day should be a time of major remembrance and celebration.

It should be a national holiday rather than a local commemoration. Israelis come from all over the country to participate in the festivities, but for the remainder, it is basically a minor event.

Many Diaspora Jewish communities ignore this day as though the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in the City of David after two thousand years is of little importance.

If we don’t remember Jerusalem and Zion and continue to make our tongues cleave to the roof of our mouths, we shouldn’t be surprised when our adversaries rejoice and foment further fantasies.

Chag Yom Yerushalayim Sameach.

Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various community organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.