Sadly, it is easy to understand why Jews and Arabs each want the land of Israel/Palestine for themselves. Called the Levant or "rising sun" in French, it is a beautiful poetic place on the eastern Mediterranean coast steeped in history. It is the homeland for both Arab and Jew. The hostility that exists today is a result of both groups being repeatedly cheated. It is crucial to understand the history of both sides to fully grasp the deep conflict. The unique and tragic histories of the Israeli people and the Palestinian people have made conflict inevitable and peace difficult to achieve.
The identity of the Jewish people evolved about 2,000 years ago in the land now called Israel. The Hebrews had come west from Mesopotamia, believing that their God, Yahweh, had promised them this new land. "Habiru" was an ancient Mesopotamian word meaning "nomad". Stories of the wanderings of ancient Hebrew tribes and the Israelite kingdoms happened right there and became an important part of the Jewish religion. The events were recorded in the Bible, a book written by Jews that is sacred to people all over the world. Whether these biblical events happened exactly as written or not, the fact remains that from these stories, the Jews created a sense of identity which included worship of one God, and an eternal connection to the land of Israel. In the story of the covenant, Yahweh promises all the lands between the Nile and the Euphrates rivers to Abraham, patriarch of the tribe, as an "everlasting possession". In the Bible the Lord said to Abraham, "To thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt, to the great river, Euphrates..." (Genesis 15:18-19). The story of Exodus reinforces this connection. After receiving the Ten Commandments from God, Moses and the Jews wander in the desert for forty years, changing from slaves to a united people believing in one God. Only then could they return to the Promised Land.
The Hebrew tribes were unified into an Israelite kingdom around the eleventh century BCE, and this rule of a Jewish state lasted for 1000 years. In 587 BCE, the kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Babylonians who destroyed the first Hebrew temple. The Israelites were ruled by the Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, Seleucids, and finally the Romans when they invaded Judea in sixty-three BCE which brought an end to Jewish life in Israel. From this time, a majority of Jews would always live outside the Promised Land. Jews would not have a homeland for 1800 years.
The Jewish population was dispersed all over the Roman Empire after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, although a small amount of Jews have continuously lived in the four holiest towns, Hebron, Tiberias, Safed, and Jerusalem, for centuries.
In exile, Jewish people worshipped a religion that connected them to the land of Israel, Jerusalem and the Temple. This was only possible with the Torah, the Five Books of Moses comprising the first part of the Bible. The Torah enabled Jews to follow a religious way of life no matter where they lived. With prayers, blessings and holidays, Jews have always been linked to Israel and have prayed to return to their ancestral homeland. Each Passover seder includes the vow, "Next year in Jerusalem." Over the centuries, Israel became the focus of Jewish religious practices, prayers, customs, and traditions. Holidays commemorated significant events that happened in Eretz Yisroel, land of Israel, such as the destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem. The Jewish people have never forgotten their ancient claim to the land of Israel. Today one can walk in Israel and see many of the actual places where biblical events happened so long ago.
Ancient Arabs were a nomadic desert tribe called Bedouin who originated in the
northwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. They migrated north to Palestine in search
of pastures for livestock around the fifth century BCE. Arabs adopted Islam during the
Seventh century when Palestine was conquered by Islamic armies from Arabia, six years
after the death of the Prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam. Even though much of the
Islamic religion was taken from Judaism and Christianity, the other monotheistic
religions, Mohammed felt that his religion was superior to the "people of the
book," both Jews and Christians. During the rise of Islam, Jews and Christians living
in Muslim Palestine were granted freedom of religion in exchange for loyalty to the
Islamic rulers. They were accepted as second class citizens after they refused to convert
to Islam.
When the Arabs conquered Palestine, they inter-married with the existing population and
spread the Arabic language and customs. Palestinians today cite this inter-marriage as
their main claim to the region. Palestine became holy to all Muslims because Mohammed
designated Jerusalem as the first "qibla" or direction Muslims face during
prayer. Mohammed was believed to have risen to heaven from the site of King Solomon's
temple in Jerusalem. At that exact location, early Islamic rulers built the Dome of the
Rock, a shrine to commemorate this event. The Dome of the Rock also connects Islam with
Jerusalem and the places holy to Jews and Christians.
The Ottomans ruled Palestine from the sixteenth century until the First World War. Britain defeated the Ottoman army in Palestine in 1917 and ruled the area as a mandate. The British were interested in ruling Palestine for their own self interest. They wanted to hold the Suez canal, and were interested in newly discovered oil fields in the Middle East. Britain also wanted the Arabs to help them fight against Turkey and Germany.
Zionism is a political movement to reclaim Palestine for the Jews. Theodore Herzl was the father of the idea of a Jewish state. In 1897, he set in motion the events that would culminate in the establishment of the State of Israel fifty years later. Herzl's goal was to have all the Jews in the Diaspora return to the Jewish homeland. It would be a place for Jews to start over, put their past behind them and flourish.
The Zionist movement was founded in 1882 in Russia in reaction to pogroms or anti - Jewish violence. Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Pale had more Jews at that time than any other part of the world. The Pale of Settlement was a segregated area in the western region of the Russian Empire where Jews were forced to live. It was created in 1791 to protect the Russian people from Jewish influence. There had been much prejudice against the Jews in Europe. They were blamed for the death of Jesus, and alienated because by rigorously maintaining their religion and traditions, they led a separate way of life from the culture surrounding them. It was easy to blame the Jews for the decaying conditions in the Russian Empire. Thousands of Jews were massacred in anti-Semitic pogroms. Many Jews felt that they would always be treated as second class citizens everywhere except in their own homeland. Hatred against the Jews spurred the Zionists into action.
Theodore Herzl called for a Jewish state in Palestine at the first Zionist Congress in 1897. When the first wave of Jews got to Palestine in 1897, they came to a land full of Arab farmers. They knew little about the native inhabitants. Many Zionists thought that Palestine was empty and the few natives were barbaric. As immigrating Jews colonized the land, they ignored their impact on the Arabs. Zionists settled on land bought from absentee landlords who lived far away. This triggered conflict between the fellahin or Arab peasants and the Jews.
Palestine went through an upheaval in the mid-nineteenth century that had a huge impact on the fellahin. Palestine started to produce crops for a world market. Instead of raising crops for the local village, large estates were established with Arab peasants becoming tenant farmers. Laws establishing written deed ownership of the land cheated the farmers who had worked the land for generations, but suddenly had no legal claim to it. A class of absentee landowners was created who eventually were willing to sell to the Zionist settlers. This is the way the Zionists acquired much of their land in Palestine. After the Jews bought the land they employed Arab peasants to work the fields. The Fellahin population expanded and there was not enough land available anymore for them to live on. They feared they would be pushed off land they had used for grazing for generations. They were afraid that the Jews were taking every sliver of the scarce cultivable land in Palestine. After months of escalating anger towards the Jews, the Arabs attacked Jewish settlements. Defense organizations like Hashomer "The Guard", came into effect to protect their valid land claims. The fellahin were incensed because even though property changed owners now and then, Arab tenant workers had always been allowed to remain on the land. But now, the Jews displaced Arabs for safety precautions.
The settlers of the first and second wave of immigration laid the agricultural, economic, and political foundations of present day Israel. Each new village that was established was a foothold of the future state. New waves of immigration brought people who developed agriculture, cities, school systems, and hospitals. The Jewish community of Palestine organized itself for democratic self government. The Jewish National Fund bought land for the new immigrants. In 1929, Arab riots broke out in Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed. Jews fleeing Nazi Germany came to Palestine between 1933-1939. Jews from the Arab world also started to immigrate to Palestine. The security of the Middle Eastern, or Sephardic Jews in their Arab countries declined in the late 1940's, because the establishment of the State of Israel aggravated the Muslim Jewish relationships. Israel, taking advantage of this opportunity, collected Jews very aggressively from Iraq, Morocco, and Yemen, and brought them to Israel. By the end of World War II, the Jewish population of Palestine had grown to 500,000. Palestinian Arabs numbered one million. In November 1947, the UN voted to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. The Jews made up thirty-one percent of the population and they would get fifty-five percent of the territory. The Palestinians refused the partition, with a violent uprising, terrorizing Jewish settlements, and ambushing roads. On May 14, 1948 the State of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv. The five surrounding Arab states attacked Israel from land, sea, and air. Most of the Arabs fled the country after being told by their leaders they could go back when the Jews were thrown out. Most Palestinians never returned and they call this "Nakhba" or disaster. The Absentee Property Law legalized seizure of property from the 1948 war. Abandoned Arab properties became into Jewish moshavim, kibbutzim, and cities.
After numerous defeats over the years, the Palestinians still do not accept Israel as a Jewish nation. Both sides perceive the other as the enemy. Jews argue that there was never a Palestinian Arab nation, only people who lived there, and Arabs argue that the Jew's spiritual and historical link to Palestine is invalid. Both groups have always belittled the other's claim to the land. It is ironic that Palestinian nationalism was born out of Zionism.
Today the Israeli government puts restrictions on the Palestinian Arabs for security precautions. Many Palestinians say that there is never enough food, clothing, medicine, and basic necessities because of the Israeli occupation.
Palestinians want Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. They wanted their own PLO governed Arab state. They want Israel to grant refugees the right to return back to their pre-1948 homes, and the guaranteed right of worship in Jerusalem. Although this might sound like much to ask for, the Palestinian minority does face discrimination everyday. Before 1966, Palestinians lived under specific Israeli military rule which applied only to them. This included restrictions on farming, and the need of a permit to travel from one village to another. Failure to comply meant exile or deportation. Some Arab villages had a curfew placed on them because of their refusal to pay Israeli taxes. The Palestinians argued that there should be no "taxation without representation". Many people argue that the Arabs are not equal citizens under Israeli law, but in fact this past year, 1998, the first Palestinians joined Israel's Supreme Court and the first Arabs sat on the Knesset's security and foreign affairs committee >
Today Palestinians blame Israeli authority for confiscating Arab land for military purposes, and then turning the land into Jewish settlements. Israel controls the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to maintain security and public order. There are low standards of living in those areas, and the Palestinians depend on Israel for employment and income. The reason Jews come to live in the West Bank is because they think resettling the ancient land of Judaea and Samaria is their mission as Jews. From a security standpoint, Judaea, Samaria, and the Golan Heights provide underground missile locations for Israel. Israel is surrounded by 20 Arab nations, so it needs all the security it can devise. The main issue is Israel's existence. It does not matter how much land Israel gives back, size is not the issue. The Arab goal is to push Israel back to indefensible borders. The State of Israel makes up only one hundredth of the land in the Middle East.
The Israelis and the Arabs will be wandering through a maze searching for peace for a long time. For peace to become a reality, co-existence must be embraced by both sides. The country must be shared. How is this possible when there is so much mistrust and hatred? Also, the track record of two ethnic groups sharing one country is dismal. One only has to look at Bosnia to understand how awful it can be. As difficult it would be for both groups to coexist, the alternative is much worse. Both sides must work together and discuss realistic plans towards peace. The Arabs and the Israelis cannot work this conflict out alone. Mediators, government officials and everyone on both sides devoted to peace must help break the cycle to transform enemies into neighbors. In America, many people celebrate differences, but in the Middle East the mindset is that everything is mine, which evolved from thousands of years of hatred. A "them and us" mentality keeps us from seeing that a Palestinian or Israeli is a real person. It is important to understand that the Israelis and Palestinians may never be totally comfortable with each other, but they must learn to live together. The advantages in doing so eventually will outweigh the difficulties. Israel has a booming economy that the Palestinians very much want to share. Peace could bring good fortune to many people. The Israeli / Palestinian homeland will have to be a duplex, offering shelter to both its peoples.
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