The Frankish Wars and their Influence on Palestine : selected papers presented at Birzeit University`s International Academic Conference, held in Jerusalem, March 13-15 1992

Abstract

The Academic Conference on "The Frankish Wars and their Influence on Palestine" was held in Jerusalem because of the military-imposed closure of the Birzeit University campus. It was organized in commemoration of the seven hundredth anniversary of the departure of the Crusaders from their final remaining stronghold in Palestine, Akka (St. John of Acre). It was made possible, as is the present publication The crusaders came under the banner of religion, but most of their numbers had other motives, although the call was issued by a pope and the armies were led by Latin Christian knights. The majority were coming to find better living conditions, which had been promised them by those who called for the crusade. Was Palestine not, as Pope Urban the Second had proclaimed, the 'land of milk and honey', where tensions, privations and want would disappear, and where the entrance to heaven would be guaranteed ? Nowadays, we are witnessing the same type of phenomenon, with the arrival of tens and hundreds of thousands of new immigrants from Russia and elsewhere. Their coming here for sole purpose of finding what they hope will be a better life, although those who have organized for their arrival have promised them an end to prosecution and proclaim higher goals for the enterprise. Meantime, the indigenous people are ignored, harmed, driven off their lands, or at the very least treated as less important.