Palestine (disambiguation)

The Palestinians dispute most of the contents of this article, as it represents mainly the view of a single side, that is one of Israeli Zionists.

Palestine is a region in the Middle East, also called Levant and today either part of the the State of Jordan, the State of Israel, or the Palestinian Authority. The term Palestine is frequently used in the Arab world as a country to be coterminous with the land Israel occupies, as a part of their tendency to deny the right of the state of Israel to exist; some maps show it that way already.

Palestine is a name that was given to the Holy Land by the Romans during the period of the Roman occupation of the region. The Romans did this in order to destroy the culture of the Land. This was after the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, and thus the city was also renamed 'Aleia Capitolina'. The name Palestine, derives from the biblical Philistines, who occupied the region of the southern coast of the land of Israel. The Phillistines of biblical times have no relation to today's Palestinian population, as the former were a people of Greek origin, and the latter are mostly Syrian Arabs.

Historically the boundaries of the region are not clearly defined, but for purposes of recent history can be defined as the territories that made up the British League of Nations mandate of Palestine, after 1923.

The history of this part of the world, being the subject of a conflict that continues to this day, is heavily disputed; there are indeed few statements concerning its history which would be agreed with by both Israelis and Palestinians. This article attempts, however imperfectly, to present both sides equally and fairly.

Definition of Palestine

Prior to 1923, the British mandate of Palestine included modern-day Jordan, but in that year the British government separated all the territories to the east of Jordan river to form the separate mandate of Trans-Jordan, which became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan today.

Most Jews, many Christians, and some Palestinians argue that despite the British action in separating the territories, the term "Palestine" should include modern Jordan also. From the 1960s to the 1980s internal and public PLO documents stated that the goal of the PLO was to create a Palestinian state in all of Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, all of which they termed "Palestine". This led to attempts by Palestinians to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy, which led to the expulsion of the PLO from Jordan in September 1970. In the recent years, "Palestine" has come to mean only territory west of the Jordan river.

Palestine originally denoted only the sea-coast of the land of Canaan inhabited by the Philistines (Ex. 15:14, Isa. 14:29,31, Joel 4:4). It is exclusively in this sense that Pleshet ("Philistia" in many English translations) occurs in the Hebrew Bible. The Philistines were subjugated by David (1 Sam. 23:1-5, 2 Sam. 5:22-25, etc.) and later ceased to exist.

The Jewish homeland is called "land of the Hebrews" (Gen. 40:15), "land of Canaan" (Gen. 11:31, Ex. 6:4, etc.), "land flowing with milk and honey" (Ex. 3:8, Lev. 20:24, etc.), "land that [God] swore to your fathers to assign to you" (Deut. 7:12, Josh. 1:6), "land of Israel" (1 Sam. 13:19, 2 Kings 5:2, etc.), "land of Judah" (1 Sam. 30:16, 2 Kings 23:24, etc.), "holy land" (Zech. 2:16), and "land of the LORD" (Hos. 9:3).

In AD 132, bar Kochba led Jews in a rebellion against Roman occupation. When this rebellion was put down in 136, Roman authorities renamed the land of Israel to "Palestine", after a people that no longer existed for centuries. This renaming of the land was done in order to thwart Jewish nationalism.

Status of territories captured in the Six-Day War

The territories captured by Israel in the Six-Day War are three:

the area between Jerusalem and the Jordan River, called by pro-Arab people (and most of the international community and international media) the West Bank and by pro-Israel people, on historic grounds, Judea and Samaria
the Gaza Strip
the Golan Heights (which however form part of Syria, not Palestine).

Israel captured these territories at the end of the Six Day War. Israel has annexed the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. However, Israeli claims of annexation are not recognized by the United Nations nor by most states, which regard them as territories under Israeli military occupation. Thus far, Israel has not formally annexed the West Bank and the Gaza Strip because doing so would have extremely adverse effect on the demographic balance of Israel.

It should be noted that neither the Gaza Strip, nor the West Bank are formally claimed by any generally recognized state but Israel -- both Egypt and Jordan revoked their demands to them at the signing of peace treaties with Israel. The "State of Palestine", whose independence was declared by the PLO in the 1980s claims these territories, but most countries do not recognize the "State of Palestine" as a state. According to the 1993 Oslo Accords, the final status of West Bank and Gaza is subject to a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, temporary agreements now being in place. The status of the Golan Heights is subject to an agreement with Syria.

United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) state that the status of the territories needs to be resolved by negotiations, and requires Israel to withdraw from at least some of these territories. Critics say that the wording of these resolutions is extremely abiguous and no longer relevant due to the changing political situation in the region.

Terminology

Today "Palestine" is most often used to refer to the captured territories, and "Palestinians" to refer to the non-Israeli population of these areas. Palestine is recognized as a state by many Arab and Islamic states, and as such Palestine is a member of the League of Arab States.

The area of West Bank has been divided to thee zones:

Zone A - area under full control of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority. Currently about 20% of the total territories of West Bank and Gaza.
Zone B - Palestinian administrative control, Israeli security control
Zone C - full Israeli control.

In the Camp David Accords of 2000, that would provide a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak proposed the expansion of Zones A and B to almost 95% of the area of West Bank, including areas in East Jerusalem; however Yasser Arafat did not agree to these proposals. Critics claim that Barak's offer was not fully adequate as it did not thoroughly answer all questions such as the water division issue.

History of Palestine

The disputes of the last half century in Israel and Palestine have their immediate origins in the Zionist movement of the 19th century in Europe, and the rise of Arab nationalism in the second half of the 20th century, but the roots of the conflict go back millennia because of the religious beliefs related to this land.

Early Political History of Palestine, and Decline of Jewish Population

Palestine was in ancient times occupied by Jews, along with other (now mostly extinct) peoples, such as the Samaritans and the Phoenicians. However the Jewish population over the centuries declined, due to several reasons. The Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar conquered ancient Israel in 597 B.C., and deported the middle and upper classes of the Jews to Babylonia, replacing them with settlers from other parts of the Babylonian Empire. Some of the lower classes and the settlers intermarried and merged into one community. The deported Jews flourished in Babylonia, and decades later, the upper and middle class Jews in Babylonia were permitted to return to Israel. However, a large proportion decided to stay in Babylon for economic reasons. This was the beginning of the Jewish diaspora.

The Jews who had returned to Israel refused to recognize the descendants of the lower class Jews who had remained as Jews, due to their intermarriage and merger with pagan settlers. Thereafter, as some believe, these descendants became the Samaritans. Jews claimed (and many still do today) that their religious practices had changed substantially due to religious syncretism; however the religion of modern-day Samaritans seems very close to that of Judaism, leading many to question this claim.

An alternative explanation states that the Samaritans were an unrelated people settled in the area by Assyrian empire following the demise of the Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. Be their origin whatever it may be, they were rejected by the returning Babylonian captives.

In 539 B.C. the Babylonians were annexed by the Persian Empire, which held Palestine until the time of Alexander the Great, who conquered Gaza and the surrounding areas in the early 330s B.C. After Alexander's death in 323, his empire was partitioned, and the competing Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires occupied various portions of the eastern Mediterranean, including different parts of Palestine, until the Roman Empire swept through in 63 B.C. Under the Romans the territory of Palestine was in nearly constant revolt, and a number of events with far-reaching consequences took place, including the founding of Christianity, the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem by the Roman army and mass suicide of Zealots in A.D. 66-70, and the sacking of the entire city of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 132. (Some sources mark the failed Jewish revolts as the beginning of the Diaspora.)

Over several centuries, the diaspora grew even further. In addition to the large Jewish community in Babylon, large numbers of Jews settled in Egypt, and in other parts of the Hellenistic world and in the Roman Empire. This migration was primarily driven by economic opportunities, though the situation in Israel also contributed. Israel experienced a large amount of conflict, principally over Hellenistic and then Roman rule.

The Jews were divided between those who were Hellenists, and supported the adoption of Greek culture, and those who believed in keeping to the traditions of the past. This conflict caused frequent disputes, which resulted in political and military upheveal -- such as the Maccabean revolt of the 2nd century B.C., the war of the 70s A.D. and the revolt led by Bar Kokhba in the 130s. The frequent conflict contributed to Jewish emigration, both as refugees, through deportation, and by reducing economic opportunities in the region compared to elsewhere. It also led to many deaths among the Jewish population of Palestine, both deaths in battles with the Romans and others, deaths due to massacres, and deaths due to the famine and disease that so often accompanies armed conflict.

Over time the Jewish population in Palestine declined, due to several causes: Jewish emigration, deaths due to the multiple rebellions against the Romans, the deportation of Jews and the settlement of pagans by the Romans in response to these revolts, and the conversion of Jews to Christianity (and later Islam). This conversion was driven both by the attractiveness of these religions to some Jews, and the taxation applied to Jews by Christian and then Muslim rulers. These special taxes on Jews especially affected agriculture, in which the majority of the Jewish population in Palestine was involved (the diaspora by contrast was primarily urban). As a result, the Jewish population in their original homeland dwindled over the centuries to a tiny percentage, both of the local population and of Jews as a whole.

Palestine changed hands several more times in the post-Biblical period, becoming at first part of the Byzantine Empire after the division of the Roman Empire into east and west (a fitful process that was not finalized until A.D. 395), then an early acqisition of the first Islamic Caliphate in A.D. 638. The Umayyad dynasty controlled the Caliphate until they were overthrown by the Abbasids in 661. Over time the monolithic Caliphate fragmented, and the Fatimid Caliphate assumed control of Palestine in the 900s.

In the next century, Seljuk Turks invaded large portions of West Asia, including Asia Minor and Palestine, which was the proximate cause of the Crusades by the Christian European powers. Jerusalem and the surrounding lands were the object of these military expeditions. Christian forces held Jerusalem from 1099 to 1187, when Saladin defeated them.

The Ayyubid Sultanate, founded by Saladin, controlled the region until 1250, when the Mamluks invaded. The Mamluk Sultanate ultimately became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, in the wake of campaigns waged by Selim I in the 16th century.

By the end of the first millennium A.D. almost all the Jewish population lived in the diaspora, in the Arab world and in Europe.

During this period Israel continued as a constant topic of Jewish thought and liturgy, though its Jewish population was by then minimal -- for many of the Jews of the period "Eretz Israel" was a mythical place of redemption, since few of them ever stepped foot in it, and those who did found it changed dramatically from what it once was.

Most Jews during this period believed that the Jewish people would would return to Israel with the coming of the Messiah (note that the Jewish concept of the messiah is significantly different than the Christian concept); some proposed that Jews attempt to return earlier, by their own devices, but until the rise of Zionism in the 19th century they were in a minority.

While up until the end of the 19th century, most of the Jewry did not have aspirations to come to the land of Israel, there were always Jews in it; they settled mainly in the "4 sacred cities" (Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Hebron). Jews of European origin lived mostly of donations from off-country, while many Sefardic Jews found themselves a trade. By the end of the 19th century, the Jewish population of Palestine numbered 60,000.

Rise of Zionism

Zionism, a political movement seeking to have Jews return to their ancient homeland in Palestine, arose in Europe in the 19th century. It arose as a result of the liberation of European Jews from the many legal restrictions placed upon them in Medieval times. This liberation resulted from the ideals of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. It led however to the marginalisation of many European Jews: due to anti-Semitism they were not accepted as part of the wider society, but by leaving the ghetto they were no longer accepted by the Jewish community either. Zionism was also heavily influenced by the rise of nationalism, a major trend in 19th-century European politics.

Zionism was not initially supported by all Jews. Many Jews would rather try to integrate into the society they lived, than try to return to Israel. This was the position taken by Reform Judaism at the time. Reform Judaism changed its opinion after the Holocaust, and now Reform Judaism tends to support Zionism rather enthusiastically.

Many Hasidim and other ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups believed that any attempt to return to Israel before the coming of the Messiah was sacriligeous. The Lubacitcher Rebbes, for instance, were anti-Zionist, though the more recent Rebbes have changed their position from one of anti-Zionism (i.e. active opposition to Zionism) to one of mere non-Zionism (i.e. neutrality towards it). Modern Orthodox Judaism was initially tepid towards Zionism, and then embraced it fully. Today most of the world's Jews support Zionism to at least some degree.

In general, it can be said that anti-Zionist Jews gave the greatest significance to the religious aspect of Jewry; Zionists, by contrast, were more enthusiastic about its national aspect: many of these Zionists had not carried out religious customs, but still saw themselves Jewish.

Zionists argue that an independent Jewish homeland was necessary to ensure Jewish survival as a nation and to protect Jews from anti-Semitism. They began to settle in Palestine, though intially the numbers were quite small. The British government, who after World War I administered Palestine under a League of Nations mandate, supported this aspiration of the Zionists by the Balfour Declaration in 1917.

Establishment of British League of Nations mandate

Prior to the end of World War I, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. With the Allied defeat of the Central Powers, the United Kingdom was granted control of Palestine by the Peace Confrence of Versailles, which also established the League of Nations. The British had promised the local Arabs, through Lawrence of Arabia, independence for Palestine, in exchange for their supporting the British. The British have fulfilled their promise by cutting out 78% of the mandate of Palestine to the east of Jordan River and creating an independent Arab Kingdom of Jordan. However they did not hand out territories west of Jordan to either Jews or Arabs. This was the source of much of the Palestinian resentment against the British, and the Middle East conflict of today.

Palestinian opposition to Jewish emigration

Initially Jewish emigration to Palestine met little opposition from the local Arabs. However, as anti-Semitism grew in Europe during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Jewish emigration to Palestine began to markedly increase, to their resentment.

The British government put severe limitations on the Jewish immigration to Palestine. Immigration was allowed, but up to a certain quota. Both Arabs and Jews disliked this policy, each side for its own reasons. The Palestinians would frequently riot or massacre Jewish communities; two Jewish groups, the Irgun and the Stern Gang carried out several acts of terrorism against British targets.

The British placed restrictions on Jewish land purchases in the remaining land, allegedly contradicting the provision of the Mandate which said "the Administration of Palestine ... shall encourage, in cooperation with the Jewish Agency ... close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not acquired for public purposes." According to the Israeli side, the British had by 1949 allotted over 8500 acres to Arabs, and about 4000 acres to Jews.

The Holocaust

Many, but by no means all, Palestinians, supported the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Several of the Palestinian leaders of that time, particularly the influential mufti Haj Amin El-Husseini supported Hitler openly and convened with Nazi leaders several times. Despite being no great friend of any Arab cause, Hitler accepted Palestinian support in the hope that they would rebel against his enemies, the British, in the region, thereby advancing Hitler's military interests. Eventually the British were forced to imprison the Arabs who supported Hitler.

Arabs who opposed the persecution of the Jews by the hands of the Nazis included Habib Bourguiba in Tunisia, and Egyptian intellectuals such as Tawfiq al-Hakim and Abbas Mahmoud al-Arkad (Source: Yad Vashem)

The Holocaust, the destruction of approximately 6 million European Jews by the Nazis, had a major effect on the situation in Palestine. During the war and after it, the British forbade the entry of European Jews to Palestine thus sentencing them to death or starvation.

Opposing this policy, the Irgun responded by blowing up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquaters of the British administration, killing around 100 people. In a more tempered move, the accepted Jewish leadership decided to begin an illegal immigration (haa'pala) using small boats operating in conditions of secrecy. About 70,000 Jews were brought to Palestine in this way between 1946 and 1947, and a similar number was captured an imprisoned by the British while sailing.

Seeing that the situation was quickly spiraling out of hands, the British announced their desire to terminate their mandate and to withdraw by May 1948. This decision threw Palestine into the middle of civil and ethnic unrest.

Divison of Palestine by United Nations

The United Nations, the successor to the League of Nations, attempted to solve the dispute between the Jews and the Palestinians. The UN appointed a committee, the UNSCOP, composed of representatives from several states. None of the Great Powers were represented, in order to make the committee more neutral. UNSCOP considered two main proposals. The first called for the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states in Palestine, with Jerusalem to be placed under international administration. The second called for the creation of a single federal state containing both Jewish and Arab consitituent states. A majority of UNSCOP adopted the first option, although several members supported the second option instead and one member (Australia) said it was unable to decide between them. The UN General Assembly largely accepted UNSCOP's proposals, though they made some adjustments to the boundaries between the two states proposed by it. The division was to take effect on the date of British withdrawal.

The partition plan was rejected out of hand by the Palestinians. Most of the Jews accepted the proposal, in particular the Jewish Agency, which was the Jewish state-in-formation. Numerous records indicate the joy of Palestine's Jewish inhabitants as they attended to the U.N. session voting for the division proposal. Up to this day, Israeli history books mention November 29th (the date of this session) as the most important date in the Israel's aquisition of independence.

Several Jews, however, declined the proposal. Menachem Begin, Isrgun's leader, announced: 'The partition of the homeland is illegal. It will never be recognized. The signature by institutions and individuals of the partition agreement is invalid. It will not bind the Jewish people. Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. The Land of Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for ever.' His views were publicly rejected by the majority of the nascent Jewish state. Palestinians, on the other hand, claim that this publicly expressed accepting was mainly propaganda for the consumpition of Western nations, and that Begin's statement more accurately reflected the real intentions of the founders of the State of Israel.

On the date of British withdrawal the Jewish provisional government declared the formation of the State of Israel, and the provisional government said that it would grant full civil rights to all within its borders, whether Arab, Jew, Bedouin or Druze. The declaration stated:

We appeal ... to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.

Palestinians do not give way to this, and claim that despite the assurances of equal rights for all, the State of Israel continues to discriminates in numerous ways in favour of Jews against others up until this day. For example, they point to Israeli immigration laws, which give preference to Jews in immigration. Such a policy is uncommon among Western democracies, although both Western (Germany), and particularly Arab states (Algeria) behave in a similar way.

Palestinians consider a far more accurate statement of the intention of the founders of Israel to be that of Chaim Weizmann, who reportedly said:

[Our intention is to] finally establish such a society in Palestine that Palestine shall be as Jewish as England is English, or America is American.

Refugees

The topic of Palestinian refugees has been very controversial, and tends to be the subject of endless propaganda from both sides. Israelis have argued that the Palestinians left their homes because they were encouraged by the surrounding Arab states, through various media, such as radio broadcasts. Palestinians claim that many of them were forced from their homes by Zionist forces. Recent historical research [insert reference] indicates that both explanations are partly correct. About a third of Palestinian refugees were ejected from their homes by Jews; most of the rest left due to encouragement to do so from both their own and Jewish leaderships. There were also a large number of Jewish refugees from surrounding Arab states created by the 1948 war. Most of them, however, enjoyed peace and prosperity and were forced to leave only due to Arab antisemitism.

On the date of British withdrawal the Jews declared the formation of the State of Israel. The Arab leadership, in spite of its bellicose sayings has failed to construct a state. However separate Arab gangs continued to terrorize separate Jewish neighborhoods in all the areas, particularly closing upon Jerusalem and in effect creating the state of a siege. As a response, Jewish forces had occupied several chunks of territory designated for the proposed Arab state as well as parts of Jerusalem intended for international administration. As a result, on the day Israel proclaimed its independence there were already 300,000 Palestinian refugees.

Israelis allege that the Arab refugees left their homes because Arabs from surround nations ordered them to leave. Arab military commanders promised an immediate invasion of the nascent Jewish state that would kill all the Jews, and Arabs were ordered to leave to reduce casualties. Israelis claim that the Arabs were promised that victory would be quick, and that they would be able to return to their homes within a few weeks. Specific quotes and references are provided in the entry under Palestinian.

Example: Israelis point to statements made by the Iraqi Prime Minister at the time, Nuri Said, who said:

We will smash the country with our guns and obliterate every place the Jews seek shelter in. The Arabs should conduct their wives and children to safe areas until the fighting has died down.

Likewise, Israelis point to statements made by Haled al Azm, the Syrian Prime Minister in 1948-49, who said

Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the [Arab] refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave. Only a few months separated our call to them to leave and our appeal to the United Nations to resolve on their return.

Palestinians however argue that they were forcibly driven out of their homes by the Israeli forces.

By the end of this war, there were between 400,000 and 650,000 Arab refugees. (Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, Submitted to the Secretary-General for Transmission to the Members of the United Nations, General Assembly Official Records: Third Session, Supplement No.11 (A/648), Paris, 1948) A similar number of Jewish refugees were created as well, as Arab nations ejected their Jewish populations. Neither the Jewish nor the Palestinian refugees have been permitted to return home.

On midnight on May 14 1948, the last British soldiers departed and the new state of Israel was proclaimed. By then, West Jerusalem and parts of the Old City were under Jewish control, but the city was effectively under Arab siege. Jaffa has been captured as well, and a corridor between the coast and Jerusalem. The Arab inhabitants of that area had launched numerous attacks on the young Jewish state's vital route; because of that, several Arab villages have been destroyed, and their inhabitants expelled in order to remove Arab the siege from Jerusalem.

In response to the declaration of the State of Israel, and alleged Jewish atrocities against Palestinian civilians, armies from surrounding Arab states entered Palestine, thus beginning the 1948 war, which was lost by the Arabs.

External links

Some of the links below represent Palestinian point of view; others represent the Israeli point of view. Unfortunately much of the information on this issue, from both points of view, is closer to propaganda than unbiased factual reporting.

Palestinian links

U.N. links

Israeli links

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