These areas have been the hotbeds of conflict since around 500 CE. The Crusades were started on the pretext of recovering the Holy Land. More recently, the region is at the centre of the religious arguments of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
For Muslims the term Holy Land (Arabic Ard ul-Quds) refers to the Hejaz, site of the Holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump