Humans interest me much as does this topic. What I want to emphasise by writing this is that as inconvenient as it may be to our programming, the facts, in most cases, are out there and they do or rather should matter!
The most common response one gets when trying to engage on this topic is it’s complicated. I have spent a good few months doing some research on this, treating it like a standard 7 history project, consulted as far and wide as I could in terms of sources. Emotive yes, complicated, is it?
What I will endeavour to do is share some facts and findings with you, ask some questions and leave the rest to you.
It is written in the holy books
This refers to the covenants God made with man. From a biblical perspective there was:
- the covenant where God says to Abram (Abraham) that he will protect him and lead his household to a land. Genesis 12: 1-3
Question, does his household not include both Isaac and Ishmael?
- The next is the covenant with David which many believe is a continuation of the one with Abraham. 2 Samuel (8-16)
- Many stand by these covenants, but there is another covenant in between these two, which is with Moses, that encompasses the 10 commandments. Some of these commandments are thou shalt not kill, not steal, not covet. Please do read verses Exodus 19 -24
Question, so, to those who reference the Bible as the reason for their stance what of this covenant then?
The Old Testament has some other laws with their associated punishment, read some of them here. What of these laws in the same book?
These are just a few examples... another question I have is how many people who refer to the Bible actually believe in God or the overall contents of the Bible or religion as has been described to us over time?
Let’s start off with some other facts:
- Israel is a land in the Middle East, born in 1948 which was once part of British Palestine. It is bordered by Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea
- Some say that there is no such thing as Palestine or Palestinians. The term "Palestine" has historically been used to refer to a region in the eastern Mediterranean, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, the Jordan River to the east, the Sinai Desert to the south, and the Euphrates River to the north. It encompasses modern-day Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
- The term "Palestinians" refers to the people who are native to or have ancestral roots in the region of Palestine, which includes modern-day Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Palestinians are predominantly Arab, and they have their own distinct culture, history, language (Arabic), and national identity.
- A Semite refers to people who speak or spoke Semitic language, largely Jews and Arabs
- Likud, formed in 1973 by Menachem Begin, is currently the ruling party in coalition with some other parties. Benjamin Nethanyahu has been in power, on and off, since 1996. I tried to read their constitution but it is in in Hebrew, but I found this site that summarised it here Question, seeing what has come to pass over the past few decades, does pt 1 and pt 7 align?
- Hamas – acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya which means the Islamic resistance movement. It was the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The cleric who started dedicated his early life to teaching Islam and the organisation has its roots in a charity started in 1973, linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. In 1987, Hamas was formed on the back of the first initifada(more about this later), which was sparked by an Israeli army truck ramming into a civilian car killing 4 Palestinians. The name Hamas was first used only in 1988 and here is a link to a summary of their charter article 7 states that “Judgement day will not come until Muslims fight and kill the Jews”. Article 31 states that it is "a humanistic movement", which "takes care of human rights and is guided by Islamic tolerance when dealing with the followers of other religions".Question, how do these 2 articles align?
- Israel has for decades implemented something called Administrative Detention. This is when they take people who haven’t committed any crime and hold them for periods ranging from days to years without legal process. They generally apprehend you based on some sort of intelligence that you are about to break the law. They don’t tell you what your crime is, you don’t have a lawyer to defend you, you are just basically helpless. People apprehended range from teens to adults.
- Palestine has no land army, nor navy. There is the Palestinian Security Services, but they aren’t heavily armed, they don’t have tanks anti-aircraft/missile artillery etc.
- Israeli Defence Force is well equipped with an intelligence network, an army, air-force and a navy of roughly 170k people and about 465k reservists. Tanks, armoured personnel carriers, missiles both defensive and offensive, nuclear arsenal etc.
The organization of Zionism
Park the Biblical context and some relevant facts, let’s get to the fascinating story shall we. I’m going to start this story from the late 1800s. An Austro-Hungarian journalist, called Theodor Herzl, thought that the Jewish people will continue to face persecution if they remained a minority and as such needed a land to call their own. He wrote a pamphlet in 1896, called Der Judenstaat, that gained international recognition and established him as a prominent Jewish figure. Even though the history of Zionism began earlier, this and Herzl are believed by many to be the beginning of Zionism as an organised nationalist movement which took the form of the Zionist organisation of which he was elected president in 1897. Central to this movement was the establishment of a Jewish state, defined as a secular state with a Jewish majority. But now where will this land be?
Not many are aware of it, but Palestine was not the only land the Zionists considered, British controlled parts of East Africa (Kenya) presented by Herzl himself to Joseph Chamberlain, called the Uganda Scheme, Egypt, Argentina and Cyprus were also considered. Herzl died of a heart ailment before he heard that the Uganda Scheme had been deemed unworkable. Palestine was agreed upon at a later stage. The only problem though, as per the earlier definition of Palestine, it was an established land with people residing there. The demographic at the time of the arrival of the Jewish settlers was 80% or so Muslim, 10% or so Christian and roughly less than 10% were Jewish. At this time Palestine was under Ottoman rule.
In 1907 Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann visited Palestine for the first time. Whilst there he helped organise the Palestine Land Company to assist in pursuing the Zionist dream, as well as setting up of the Hebrew University if Jerusalem.
In 1908, the Al-Karmil newspaper was published opposing Zionist colonisation. This action was seen to spark Palestinian consciousness.
