WHO OWNS PALESTINE?

 

The expression “from Dan to Beersheba” was used in the Old Testament to describe the Promised Land. The 150-mile-long strip described lands between Syria and Egypt. For millennia the area was seen as a bridge to three continents. Hence, many empires sought to control the land. For Jews, the land was significant because it was promised to Abraham, when he lived 1,000 miles away in Mesopotamia.

When Abraham entered the land, it was known as the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:1-5). Under the leadership of King David (about 3,000 years ago), the native Canaanites were vanquished, the region was designated as the Land of Israel and Jerusalem was identified as the capital. Israel’s control continued until the Northern Kingdom surrendered to the Assyrians in 722 B.C. The region assumed the name of its capital, Samaria, and the occupants were known as the Samaritans.

The Southern Kingdom, known as Judah, succumbed to the Babylonians. They destroyed the Temple (586 B.C.) and controlled both North and South of the land. The Babylonians were conquered by the Medes and Persians who allowed the Jews to return to the land. Then, the land was called Judah, Israel and at times Jerusalem. The Jews returned and were allowed to rebuild the Temple, but were subject to the Persians as a superpower.

Having conquered the Persians, Alexander the Great automatically controlled Jewish lands. The area that was known as the Kingdom of Judah, was then called Judea – the Hellenized or Greek term for Judah. Because of the spread of Greek language and culture, the name Judea was maintained throughout the reigns of the Ptolemies, Seleucids and Romans.  

The Romans dominated the Mediterranean region from 63 B.C. and remained in power for about 500 years. The entire New Testament period was under Roman authority. At times they were very brutal to the Jewish people. In 70 A.D., they destroyed the Temple, as predicted by Jesus (Mark 13:1-2). In 135 A.D., in response to the Bar Kochba rebellion, The Romans destroyed the entire city of Jerusalem, and renamed it Aeolia Capitolina, after the family of the emperor of Rome. The Romans also renamed the province of Judea to “Syria-Palestina”. This was an attempt to wipe out the memory and history of the area and the people of Judea.

Prior to this, there was no region or people officially associated with the term “Palestina”. The word Palestine derives from Philistia, a term used to describe the Philistines – the people, against who Samson fought. The Romans used the term to describe a region where Jews and non-Jews lived. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire (476 A.D.), the Byzantines assumed responsibility for the region of Palestine. The Crusaders had a short presence, before being expelled by Muslims in 1291. Since the Romans, the name Palestine had no official status until after World War I and the end of rule by the Ottoman Turks Empire in 1918.

Up until 1948, ‘Palestine’ was a term, used to describe a province, which was controlled by some occupying foreign power. There was no independent local rule. No ethnic or religious group claimed control of the territory. Following World War I, the League of Nations mandated Great Britain and France responsibility of the territories of Palestine and Transjordan. The region included Arab Christians, Muslims, Jews and anyone else who happened to live in that territory. The entire territory was called Palestine.

A key component of Jewish life from the Old Testament, was the reality of migration. One can begin with the forced migration of men from the Northern Kingdom to the capture of the elite and intellectuals to Babylon. Many of these were left in Babylon and neighbouring non-Jewish communities. It was the presence of thousands of Jews living in northern Egypt (Alexandria), that warranted the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek (Septuagint). Other expulsions from the land, as with the Romans in 135 A.D., and the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem around 636 A.D.,  contributed to more Jews living away from Palestine.

However, not all Jews migrated throughout the Mediterranean and Europe. Some migrated across the Muslim world, including Spain, flourished there and retained their identity as Spanish Jews. Many of those Spanish or Sephardi Jews, lived in Turkey, Greece and the Balkans. By the end of the 19^th century, an influx of Sephardi Jews contributed to Palestine’s population. Many of these immigrating Jews began to purchase land and engage in agriculture.

The birthing of Zionism in different parts of Europe facilitated much dialog about growing antisemitism, immigration and statehood. Much of this dialog coincided with growing economic challenges in Palestine. Because of those challenges, the Ottoman Empire passed a series of reforms. Some of those reforms gave rights to European Jews to migrate and to set up economic religious institutions in Palestine. Because of the Ottoman Empire’s demise, the British Empire began to make deals with interested parties. That was the context in which the Balfour Declaration was implemented in November 1917. That declaration expressed support for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. The slaughter of more that six million Jews in the Holocaust (1933-45) also exposed a major need for the Jews to establish their own homeland, and to protect themselves.

Before the expiration of the Balfour Declaration in May 1948, the United Nations, which succeeded the League of Nations, after it ceased to exist in April 1946, adopted Resolution 181 on November 29, 1947. That resolution known as the “Partition Resolution”, affirmed the establishment of the State of Israel, as proposed by the Balfour Declaration. The State of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948.

However, many events preceded the formation of the State of Israel. As mentioned earlier, under the Romans, the Jews lost legislative control of the region in 135 A.D. However, the Jewish presence never died. Between 135 and 1948, many significant events took place. These included:

■ The canonizing of the Hebrew Bible, between 100-150,

■ Completion of the Jewish Mishna, about 210,

■ Jerusalem Talmud completed, about 390,

■ Muslim siege of Jerusalem, 636-37,

■ Jews also suffered through Crusader domination, 1099-1291

■ Mamluk Sultanate (Muslim control), 1291-1516

■ Ottoman Empire (Muslim), 1516-1917

■ First Jewish neighbourhood built outside Jerusalem, 1860

■ Large-scale immigration from Russia, 1882-1903

■ First Zionist Congress (Switzerland), 1897

■ Tel Aviv (modern city) founded, 1909

■ Balfour Declaration promised “Jewish national home in Palestine”, 1917

■ League of Nations designated land for Israel, 1922 (Mandate for Palestine)

Honestly, the evolution of the State of Israel is unique in human history. All the empires that have crushed the Jewish people for almost 3,000 years have died. And, the Jewish people have survived and regathered from around the world to establish the State of Israel. One wonders if we are not witnessing what the prophet Zechariah wrote about some 2,500 years ago:

Though I scatter them among the peoples,
    yet in distant lands they will remember me.
They and their children will survive,
    and they will return.
¹⁰ I will bring them back from Egypt
    and gather them from Assyria.
I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon,
    and there will not be room enough for them. (Zechariah 10:9-10).