>> walled cities were not all that common. so, conquering a previously built walled city made a whole lot more sense than trying to establish one of his own. when the israelites had, first, settled the country a couple of centuries earlier, they had not taken jerusalem. jerusalem had remained in the hands of the native population, which the bible describes as jebusites. >> and they were holdouts. they were still hanging onto that last little bit of canaan. >> today, essentially, again, in a political discourse, whereby some modern palestinians argue that they are their ancestors. >> it's so important to understand jerusalem's history because many of the modern conflicts are rooted in the past.