The historical hardships of Jerusalem as a holy city Ecaterina MAȚOI Abstract In the context of the 2021 Israeli-Palestine crisis during which civilians were killed or severely wounded on both sides, that reminds the world of past attrocities, Jerusalem remains a central point of contention in scholar, political and public discourse. The dispute related to who and how should own, rule or inhabit the city represents probably one of the oldest unanswered set of questions and the odds to obtain definitive answers in the near future are not at the horizon yet. This article does not aim to provide such answers, but it will reassess the historical trajectory of this place and hardships it had to overcome despite being considered a holy city in the three major monoteistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). The preliminary assesment of major historical accounts and specialist literature on this topic, which is immense, indicates fundamentally different perspectives on this city, its history and particularly the meaning of various historical events. Furthermore, the invocation of religious texts – not accepted in nowadays scientific proceedings as historical accounts – with the purpose of asserting various rights or justifying grave, large-scale, armed agressions that the world considers a problem of the past, becomes an ambiguous paradigm in the broadly accepted framework of modern international relations. The preliminary assesment has also indicated that the dichotomy between Jerusalem as a geographical location, a concept obviously variable in time, and the religious concepts associated to Jerusalem that have been pursued by certain followers of one of the three monotheistic religions mentioned above has given birth to many conflicts among various groups throughout history. Introduc.on and terminology There are many definitions in dictionaries for the term “Jerusalem” (in English) and many explanations related to its religious significance in various contexts. For the purpose of this article, Jerusalem is a city on territory of Historical Palestine (parts of which became the Occupied Palestinian Territories) and nowadays State of Israel. The boundaries of this city shifted throughout history, and the city itself has been ruled by various political or administrative entities. Furthermore, the presence of religious groups (Jewish, Christian, Islamic and other) has had a direct or indirect relation with the ethnicity of political rulers throughout history. This determines clear distinctions between presence in Jerusalem and ruling or developing this city. As a matter of fact, it cannot be claimed that any single ethnical or religious group has exclusively developed the city of Jerusalem. The holy characteristic of Jerusalem has a religious background, but it does not necessarily mean that it is recognized as such only by religious persons: the story, the myth, the aim to worship and visit/live in Jerusalem are clear concepts recognised as part of religious thought and practice in more religions by researchers or non-religious persons as well. From a modern state perspective, this is reflected in freedom of each religion and all other religions, but given the history of different Judaic, Christian and Islamic groups, the holy characterisitc of Jerusalem has consistently inspired the idea of carrying out wars and conquering the city. This was the case from the very