ארץ/فلسطين

Before any people claimed this land, the land itself shaped what would happen.

The geography explains everything: a narrow coastal plain, a spine of hills running north-south, a deep rift valley, and desert to the east. The only fertile corridor between Egypt and Mesopotamia—anyone wanting to move armies or trade goods between the great civilizations had to pass through here.

This made the land strategically vital for empires and exposed to constant conquest. For four thousand years, armies have marched through this corridor: Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Arab, Crusader, Ottoman, British. The same 60 miles, again and again.

Water scarcity meant settlements clustered around springs and seasonal streams. The limestone hills collected rainwater in cisterns. Olive trees, grapevines, wheat, and barley could grow here—but barely. Pastoralism and agriculture coexisted, sometimes uneasily.

Jerusalem's location makes no geographic sense—no river, no major trade route. But it sits on a defensible ridge, with water access (the Gihon Spring), between the northern tribes and the southern. It became holy not despite its marginality but because of it: a place for pilgrimage, not commerce.

Human habitation here stretches back 10,000+ years. By the Bronze Age (3300-1200 BCE), the land was home to Canaanite city-states that traded with Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Megiddo, Hazor, Jericho, Jerusalem, Gaza—these were thriving cities with temples and palaces. The Canaanites were not one people but many: city-dwellers, farmers, pastoralists, speaking related Semitic languages, worshipping El and Baal.

Egypt dominated during much of this period. The Amarna Letters (14th century BCE) show local kings writing to Pharaoh, pleading for help against rivals. One letter from Abdi-Heba, king of Jerusalem, reads: “Neither my father nor my mother set me in this place—the arm of the mighty king installed me.”

The Bronze Age collapsed around 1200 BCE. Invasion, drought, trade disruption—scholars debate the causes. But the old Canaanite city-states fell. Into this vacuum came new peoples: Israelites from the hill country, Philistines from the sea.

The Iron Age saw the emergence of peoples whose names still echo today. But ancient peoples do NOT map neatly onto modern national identities.

The Canaanites did not disappear. Genetic studies show substantial continuity between Bronze Age Canaanites and modern Levantine populations—Lebanese, Jews, and Palestinians all share significant Canaanite ancestry.

Israelite identity emerged gradually from within this Canaanite context, not through sudden conquest. Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein's research demonstrates: the settlers were likely “indigenous to Canaan... pastoralists who lived on the fringes of settled areas.”

The Philistines—Sea Peoples who arrived around 1175 BCE—settled the southern coast. Despite distinct origins, they quickly intermarried with local populations. The name “Palestine” derives from “Philistines” via Greek.

The kingdoms of Israel (north) and Judah (south) rose and fell. Assyria destroyed Israel in 722 BCE. Babylon conquered Judah in 586 BCE, destroying the First Temple and deporting elites.

Rome arrived in 63 BCE, when Pompey conquered Jerusalem. For the next seven centuries, this land would be part of the Roman (later Byzantine) Empire.

The Jewish population revolted repeatedly. The Great Revolt (66-73 CE) ended with Jerusalem's destruction and the Temple's burning, depicted on the Arch of Titus in Rome.

The Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 CE) was crushed even more brutally. After this, Emperor Hadrian renamed Jerusalem “Aelia Capitolina” and the province “Syria Palaestina”—after the Philistines, Israel's ancient enemies. The renaming was deliberate humiliation.

The Jewish population diminished but did not disappear. Communities remained, especially in Galilee. The Mishnah and Palestinian Talmud were compiled here. But Jews were now a minority in a land renamed to erase them.

Christianity changed everything. After Constantine's conversion (312 CE), Palestine became the Holy Land—a Christian pilgrimage destination. Churches rose over sites of Jesus's life.

Arab armies conquered Palestine in 636-640 CE. The transformation that followed was gradual but profound.

Over centuries, the population—previously Greek-speaking Christian and Aramaic-speaking Jewish—became predominantly Arabic-speaking Muslim. This happened through conversion, intermarriage, immigration, and cultural absorption—not mass population replacement.

The process was not forced en masse. Christians and Jews were dhimmis—protected peoples who paid special taxes but could practice their faiths. But over centuries, conversion offered social and economic advantages.

Jerusalem was sacred to Muslims as well—the site of Muhammad's Night Journey. The Dome of the Rock (691 CE) and Al-Aqsa Mosque were built on the Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif. The layering of holiness on holiness would become one of history's most explosive inheritances.

The Crusades (1099-1291) brought European Christian rule for two centuries—brutal conquest followed by complex coexistence. The 1099 massacre saw Jews and Muslims slaughtered in the city. Saladin's reconquest (1187) was notably less violent—ransomed rather than massacred.

The Ottoman Empire conquered Palestine in 1516 and held it until 1917—four centuries of relative stability.

For most of this period, Palestine was a provincial backwater. The Ottomans divided it into administrative districts under the province of Syria. There was no single “Palestine” administrative unit.

The population was predominantly Arab Muslim, with Christian Arab minorities and small Jewish communities in the “Four Holy Cities”—Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias. These Jewish communities were mostly religious scholars supported by diaspora charity.

Life was agricultural, traditional, and local. Villages were organized around clan loyalties. Landlords owned large estates; peasants worked the land. Major changes were rare.

Everything changed in the late 19th century. Ottoman reform, European penetration, new land laws, and the arrival of the first Zionist immigrants began transforming the land.

By 1914, the population was approximately 700,000-800,000, with about 60,000-85,000 Jews (roughly 8-10%).

In the late 19th century, as nationalism swept the world, Jews and Arabs both developed modern national movements. Both focused on the same territory.

Political Zionism emerged primarily from European Jewish communities facing antisemitism. The Dreyfus Affair (1894) convinced Theodor Herzl that Jews would never be safe as minorities in Europe. The solution: a Jewish state in the ancestral homeland.

The First Zionist Congress (1897) established the movement. Immigration began—first from Russia (escaping pogroms), then from across Europe. By 1914, about 85,000 Jews lived in Palestine.

Arab nationalism was awakening throughout the Ottoman Empire. In Palestine specifically, Arabs began noticing that these Jewish immigrants were not traditional religious pilgrims—they were settlers with national aspirations.

The first clashes occurred before World War I. Arab newspapers warned about land purchases. In 1891, Jerusalem notables petitioned Istanbul against Jewish immigration—one of the first documented Palestinian political acts regarding Zionism.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 promised Jews a “national home” while pledging that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities.” This was contradiction, not compromise.

Jewish immigration transformed demographics. From 11% Jewish in 1922 to 32% in 1947. Arab resistance grew—riots in 1920, 1921, 1929 (including the Hebron massacre of 67 Jews), and the full-scale Arab Revolt (1936-1939).

Britain's 1939 White Paper severely limited Jewish immigration just as European Jews desperately needed refuge—a decision that would cost hundreds of thousands of lives during the Holocaust.

After WWII, with Holocaust survivors demanding entry, Jewish underground groups attacked British forces. The King David Hotel bombing (1946) killed 91. Britain, exhausted, handed the problem to the UN.

UN Resolution 181 (November 29, 1947) proposed partition: 56% to Jews (32% of population), 43% to Arabs, Jerusalem international. Jews accepted; Arabs rejected. Violence began immediately.

Both peoples experienced 1948 as existential. For Jews, it was survival after the Holocaust and the creation of a state. For Palestinians, it was catastrophe—the destruction of their society.

The civil war phase (November 1947-May 1948) saw Jewish forces gain the upper hand. The Deir Yassin massacre (April 9, 1948)—100+ villagers killed—spread terror. Haifa and Jaffa fell. Populations fled or were expelled.

On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared Israeli independence. Arab armies invaded the next day. The war continued until 1949.

The Nakba: Scale and Mechanisms

700,000-750,000 Palestinians were displaced. 400-500 villages depopulated. ~80% of the Arab population in Israeli-controlled territory fled or was expelled.

Historian Benny Morris's research shows: ~55% fled due to Jewish military operations, ~25% from fear and panic, ~15% from explicit expulsion orders. The claim that Arab leaders ordered the flight has been largely debunked.

By 1949: Israel controlled 78% of Mandate Palestine. Jordan held the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Egypt held Gaza. No peace treaties were signed—only armistices.

The Green Line created a temporary boundary that became permanent in fact but was never accepted as final by any party.

Israel absorbed mass immigration—700,000 Jews arrived 1948-1951, including Holocaust survivors from Europe and Mizrahi Jews expelled from Arab countries. Population doubled in three years.

150,000 Palestinians remained in Israel as citizens but under military administration until 1966. Land confiscation continued under the Absentee Property Law.

Palestinian refugees remained in camps in Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. UNRWA was established in 1949 to administer them. Israel refused return. Resolution 194 was ignored. The refugee issue remains unresolved.

The 1956 Suez Crisis saw Israel conquer Sinai, only to withdraw under US/USSR pressure. The 1964 PLO founding marked Palestinian nationalism taking organizational form.

By 1967, tensions escalated: water disputes, border incidents, fedayeen raids. Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran. War was coming.

The 1967 Six-Day War transformed the conflict. Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai, and Golan Heights—tripling its controlled territory and placing millions of Palestinians under military occupation.

UN Resolution 242 called for “withdrawal from territories” (ambiguously: “the” territories vs. some territories) in exchange for peace. It remains the basis for all subsequent negotiations.

What was intended as “bargaining chips” became permanent. The first settlements appeared in 1967. By 1993, over 100,000 settlers lived in the West Bank and Gaza.

Life Under Occupation

Military administration. Permits required for movement, building, work. Land confiscation for settlements. Detention without trial. Economic restrictions. Collective punishment.

The 1973 Yom Kippur War led to the Camp David Accords (1978)—full peace with Egypt; Israel returned Sinai. But the Palestinian dimension was never resolved.

The First Intifada (1987-1993)—a popular uprising of strikes, boycotts, and stone-throwing—changed everything. ~1,100 Palestinians and ~160 Israelis died. It created the conditions for Oslo.

The Oslo Accords (1993) raised hopes for a two-state solution. The Palestinian Authority was established; Israel and PLO recognized each other. But Oslo was a framework, not a final agreement.

The West Bank was divided: Area A (PA control), B (joint), C (Israeli control). Final status issues—Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders—were deferred. And settlements doubled during the “peace process.”

Rabin's assassination by an Israeli extremist (November 1995) removed the Israeli leader most committed to territorial compromise. Camp David II (2000) failed—blame contested by both sides.

The Second Intifada (2000-2005) was far deadlier than the first. Suicide bombings killed ~1,000 Israeli civilians. Israeli military operations killed ~3,000 Palestinians. Trust was destroyed.

Sharon's 2005 Gaza disengagement removed all Israeli settlements but left Gaza isolated—Israel retained control of borders, airspace, and coast. In 2006, Hamas won Palestinian elections. In 2007, Hamas and Fatah split: Hamas controlled Gaza; PA/Fatah controlled parts of the West Bank.

Since 2007, the conflict has been characterized by Gaza's isolation, periodic devastating wars, West Bank settlement expansion, and diplomatic stalemate.

Gaza under blockade became what the UN called “unlivable”—96% of water unfit to drink, 4-8 hours of electricity daily, 45% unemployment. Periodic wars (2008-09, 2012, 2014, 2021) caused massive destruction.

West Bank settlements expanded continuously—from 280,000 settlers in 2007 to 500,000+ by 2023 (plus 230,000 in East Jerusalem).

October 7, 2023 and Aftermath

On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led forces attacked southern Israel. ~1,200 people were killed—mostly civilians. ~240 hostages taken. It was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

Israel's military response has caused unprecedented destruction in Gaza. As of December 2024: 40,000+ killed according to Gaza Health Ministry, 1.9 million displaced, 60%+ of buildings damaged or destroyed. The conflict continues.

International responses have included UN ceasefire calls (US vetoed multiple), an ICJ genocide case filed by South Africa (ongoing), and ICC arrest warrant applications for Israeli and Hamas leaders.