Who Owns the Land of IsraelEssay Preview: Who Owns the Land of IsraelReport this essay“Oct. 5 Ж A bomber charged into a crowded seaside restaurant in this northern Israeli city on Saturday afternoon and detonated explosives that killed at least 19 people, besides herself. At least three of the dead were children” (NYTimes). This is just one of the few terrorist attacks that have come upon Israel in recent years. The land of Israel has been fought over more than any other land in history. Everybody who has been anybody in history has made their pass, or mark, in Israel. The question I will try to answer in this paper is; who are the rightful owners to the land known as Israel? To answer this controversial question I will present both sides of the argument with as much factual information that I can to justify why each side deems that they own the land. I will start my paper with a brief history on both Israel and the Palestine. Then I will get into the main purpose of my paper. I will start off with why the Palestinians believe the land known as Israel belongs to them. I will first start of with why the Palestinians believe the Bible justifies that the land of Israel (Palestine) belongs to them. The next claim to the land brought fourth by the Palestinians is that “their ancestors have lived in the land of Palestine from as far back as any of them can record” (jesusseminar). Lastly, I will present why the Palestinians believe the land belongs to them because before the Belfour Declaration was ever started the British had promised them independence after WWI. After I have discussed Palestines claim to the land I will discuss Israels claim. I will start their argument the same way I did with Palestine; the Israelis believe that the Bible also states that the land belongs to the Jews. After that, I will ask the question; why wont the other Arab states allow the Palestinians to take control and occupy some of their land? And for my last argument for the Israelis I will discuss that Israel deserves the land just through its war claims.
The history of Palestine begins before the 3rd millennium BC when during that time it was inhabited and urbanized by a group of people called Canaanites. These people lived in city states, one of which was Jericho. Because of its location, Palestine was “the center of routes linking three continents-made it a meeting place for religions and cultural influences from Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor” (Palestine). What these influential people started had a huge impact on the alphabet and most importantly their significant role in bringing their beliefs and practices into the Jewish religion, which then went on to influence both the Christian and Islamic religions. (Palestine)
Israels history is dated back to the Old Testament when God gave his people (Jews) the land of Israel. But the first Hebrew State was established in the 11th Century B.C. when King Saul founded the Kingdom of Israel. From then on, the question of who owns the land of Israel will come up to every ruler and conqueror who proclaims the land as their own. But the group of people who have fought and argued the most that the land of Israel belongs to them are the Palestinians. It was up until 1948, when Israel became a universally recognized state that the question of who owns the land was finally answered for all but those who believe that the land should belong to the Palestinians.
The land that is now known as Israel has two names depending on who you believe owns the land. It is either called Israel or Palestine. The history of the region of Palestine began when “Hebrew tribes entered Palestine (or Canaan) at the end of the late Bronze Age, and were established by the twelfth century BCE” (McDowall 3). The Old Testament is one of the most credible sources, especially when talking about the land now known as Israel. In Dr. Fayez Al Sayeghs article “Do Jews Have a Devine Right to Palestine” he quotes Professor Guillaume when he sums up the promises made up by God to the Jews. Professor Guillaume states:
The first explicit promise of Palestine to the descendants of Abraham was at Schechem (now Nablus) in Genesis ÐUnto thy Seed will I give this land.Ð When Abraham made a covenant with God through commission (xvii. 8) all the land of Canaan was promised as Ðan everlasting possession.(Sayegh)
In between the last two quotes the same was said to both Isaac and Jacob. And it is from this that those who believe the land of Israel does not belong to the Jews get most of their backing. When God stated that the land was promised to Abraham and his “seeds” he makes the same promise when He is speaking with Isaac and Jacob. Which means the only way that the land belongs to the Jews alone is if they were the only descendants from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and since they werent they have no right to be the only inheritors of the land. To put the nail in the coffin, Abraham wife, Sarah, wanted to have a child so very much, but unfortunately she was sterile. So she offered Abraham her servant Hajar in marriage. Soon after Hajar bared a child, his name was Ishmael. After Hajar and Ishmael were banished from Abrahams concubine, Ishmael went on to become the “father of twelve princes who settled vast territories and founded cities. He lived in defiance of his relatives, refusing to be put down, despite his inauspicious beginnings” (pbc). The history of Islam then tells us that “Muhammad taught the Arab people to regard themselves as the descendants of Abraham through his son Ishmael, just as Jews have long seen themselves as the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac” (jesusseminar). To summarize the last paragraph, the ideas behind the Zionist movement was that the Divine promise made in the Old Testament to all and only Jews for the land of “Palestine” is falsified by two very important facts. There are many non-Jews who are descendants of Abraham as well as many Jews who are not descendents of Abraham. So the question remains, how could the land really be strictly for the Jews?
The next claim that the Palestinians bring forth is that fact that throughout history, the only location they have ever lived was in Palestine. Lloyd Geering, a renowned author and lecturer states it best; “the Palestinians do not have a common ethnic origin or a common religion. What joins them together is simply the fact that they and their ancestors have lived in the land of Palestine from as far back as any of them can record” (jesusseminar). The Palestinians have never inhabited any other land besides Israel, but this does not mean that they were not taken over and had their land inhabited by outsiders. Palestine was first taken over by the Romans in 70 ce, when they destroyed the city
” in 66 ce; and when the city that we know as Jerusalem and the state of Palestine is destroyed. Palestine was part of Europe (especially the Balkans) of about 720 c?, when the Romans occupied the coast region of Africa and took over the rest of the coast of Europe and settled a portion of Asia Minor. The Romans then expanded their lands back into their homeland. Palestine is located within a very close strategic proximity to the Jewish population of the land. The Romans established a “caliphate” in Palestine, which is how they created it and then established a great concentration camp for the Jews of the land. There’s a lot of information about the location of the “caliphate” to come, but you will find out more about its location at the end of this post. The Muslims have had some sort of religious establishment for over 20 years as the “caliphate” or “Holy State.” The “Caliphate” is an Islamic “state”, which is what the Arabs are today.
In fact, we have two separate “holy armies” (one fighting Israel and the other fighting Jews). This is not due to any specific history, but rather the different histories of the two states. Arabs, the “Holy Warriors”, fought for about 400 years on the Israeli side of the border but were brutally defeated in 627 bc. They are still fighting today, with many Arabs and Jews claiming (correctly) that they are Arabs. Muslims, the “Caliphate”, waged for around 14 years but were defeated by Israel 1 bc. They fought for 12 more and finally lost the battle 2 bc. The rest of the history of the world is so different from what our history looks like when it comes to Islam. I think it gets more complicated as it gets closer and closer to the fact that the Jews fought for only a few years and fought for quite a while.
It is well known that we live in “historical history”: From the time of the Ottoman Empire until modern times, there are numerous claims that Jews were in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and Egypt (I think it will get more complicated to get the answer correct if I look closer at the “historical historical account”. There had been two big wars fought between Israel and the Muslims: the war against the Jews of Aqaba (ca. 1365 BCE and A.D. 722 CE), which lasted for over 5000 years, and the war against Judah on 2nd January of 750 BCE. The war was to start at Aqaba and last for 500 years, but in the end the Egyptians won (I’m not going to go into details, I know I’ll be having