Palestine: Some History-Why Palestinians Deserve A State Of Their Own

This began again as a reply to a comment on ablog I frequent. The discussion has been long and sometimes bloody. Because of the question of Statehood for Palestine, I thought I would post this just in case you might be confused about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and their claims to the land.

As to
your statement that, and I quote, “The
Jewish/Christian faith has been the roots of Israel for thousands, not 1000,
but many thousands of years. It has never been Arab. The Arabs have tried many
times to kill, relocate and deprive the Jewish community, but that land has NO Arab
history, only Jewish and Christian. There is NO Palestinian history. NONE. Look
it up! Palestine is a mix of many different countries influences. “

–The
indigenous people of Palestine are descended from the people of the southern
part of what used to be called the “Levant” This ancient area covers all of the
land between the Mediterranean and the Syrian Desert and from the Taurus
Mountains in the North to the edge of the Sinai in the South. If you look at a
current map of the area, you can see that it covered what are now the nations
of, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and because
the boundaries varied over time sometimes Turkey and Iraq.

These
people were predominantly Christians and Jews but when the Moslems invaded in
the 7^th century A.D. these people became over time a completely Arab
culture speaking Arabic. Of course there has always been a significant Bedouin
population as well and these Bedouins are direct descendants of the people of
the Arabian Peninsula.

So,
these Palestinian people are descended from the same people who inhabited
Palestine or Canaan since the days of the Ancient Kingdom of Israel. These were
Jews, Hittites, Philistines, and others whose names escape me. That kingdom
ended in 63 BC when Rome conquered Jerusalem. The people of the area continued
to live right next to the Jews on all sides other than the East where lies the Mediterranean.
The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple finally in 70 AD at the time of
The Great Jewish Revolt. Although Jews had been leaving Palestine since the
first destruction of the temple , the second destruction and the persecution by
the Romans after along with the Bar Kokhba’s revolt in 135
AD and the resultant persecutions which included the wholesale trading of Jews
as slaves further contributed to the Diaspora (The spreading of the Jews throughout
the known world.) and what would become an almost total abandonment of
Palestine by the Jews

From
that time in about 140 AD until the late 1880’s there remained several small
communities of Orthodox Jews in Palestine; mostly in Jerusalem and the other
cities but they were small in number and neither having nor desiring control of
any part of Palestine being satisfied to live in the Holy Land and at peace
with their neighbors, the descendants of the people who had lived there since
the beginning of history.

In
the early 7^th Century AD, the prophet Mohammed died and by the late
7^th century Islam was spreading across the world. When it conquered
Palestine, the population, with the exception of those small Jewish communities
embraced Islam and developed an entirely Arabic culture and spoke the Arabic
language and continued to live in Palestine and constituted the vast majority
of the population.

Although
Palestine has been occupied by several empires including the Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Fatimid, Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman, the predominant
native population has remained the same Palestinian Arabs.

So, let’s
recap. The Jews were almost all gone from Palestine by say, 150AD and it wasn’t
until circa 1880AD that they began to trickle back in. 1700 years of
Palestinian Arab inhabitance with no more than a token Jewish presence.

In
the late 1800’s Jews began to slowly migrate down from Europe and Asia back to Palestine.

During
this period the small Jewish population who were mostly welcomed by the Arabs started
the Kibbutz system and again mostly lived in peace right beside their Arab
neighbors. There were incidents of Jews and Arabs clashing but the overall mood
was peaceful with some cases of Arabs and Jews co-operating to improve the land
and living conditions.

At
the end of WWII the Jewish population was only 33% of the total population of
Palestine.

The
other 67% consisted of Bedouin Arabs and the culturally Arab Palestinians.

When
the idea of Palestinian Nationalism was first conceived is a matter of some
debate. Some scholars think 1834 was the beginning of it. But definitely before
the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1923.

So,
1700 years the Palestinian Arabs lived in Palestine without so much as a
whisper from the Jews.

So
let’s take a look again at your claims:

The Jewish/Christian faith has been the roots of
Israel for thousands, not 1000, but many thousands of years. Not so bad.
The Jews were there for approximately 1400-1700 years prior to abandoning it
and being driven out, both.

It has
never been Arab. OOOOH not so good. It has been an Arab culture for
approximately1700 years

The Arabs have tried many times to kill, relocate
and deprive the Jewish community. Not until after the creation of the State of
Israel in 1948 which took large areas of the land they had held for 1700 years.

That land has NO Arab history, only Jewish and
Christian. Again wrong

There is NO Palestinian history. NONE. Look it
up! Now this is a truly ridiculous claim as can be seen from my brief
history. Just so you know, I have studied the area of Palestine and the history
of it for over 35 years and have kept up fairly well with developments. I have
also spent some time studying the Hebrew and Christian bible. I don’t claim to
be an in depth expert but you’re not going to fool me with simple lies. I
suspect you have read by profile etc. so you should be aware that although I
possess no college degree I am relatively well read. So, you look it up.

Palestine is a mix of many different countries
influences. This is true but not in the way you want to suggest. The Palestinians
are descended from all of the ancient peoples of Palestine but that blending
was long over by the time of the Roman occupation and for who knows how long
before. It began shortly after the Jews first came to Canaan so between say
1600 BC and 63BC the various people had already blended into the people that we
know as the Palestinian People or Arabs.

This
is what I know about the Palestinian people and if you need more I am sure that
with some research to aid my memory I can supply more.

So
please don’t try coming here with your false history.

 

Oh Yeh. Just so you know what’s really up with the people of
Israel:

In February 2008 a Haaretz
poll indicated that 64% of Israelis favor their government holding direct talks
with Hamas in Gaza about a cease-fire and the release of captives.^[349]

Just
in case you have decided that I am anti-Israel. I’m not. I’m pro-Israel. But
I’m pro-Palestinian too.

It’s
not about the security of Israel.

It’s
about the legitimate claim and the right to self determination of a people in
their own land.

Sorry
but those are the facts. Israel has every right to defend itself, but not by
denying Statehood to the Palestinian people.