"During the centuries the term ‘Zion’ grew and expanded to mean the whole of Israel. The Israelites in exile could not forget Zion. The Hebrew psalmist sat by the waters of Babylon and swore ‘If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.’ This oath has been repeated for thousands of years by Jews throughout the world. It is an oath which was made over 700 years before the advent of Christianity and over 1,200 years before the advent of Islam. In view of all these connotations, Zion came to mean the Jewish homeland, symbolic of Judaism, of Jewish national aspirations. Every Jew, while praying to his God, wherever he is in the world, faces towards Jerusalem. These prayers have expressed for over 2,000 years of exile the yearning of the Jewish people to return to its ancient homeland, Israel. In fact, a continuous Jewish presence, in larger or smaller numbers, has been maintained in the country over the centuries."