Illuminating the True History of the Israel-Palestinian Conflict©

Dick Webber

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• Publié par: amugydyw
• Nombre de lectures: 110
• Langue: English

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Illuminating the True History of the Israel-Palestinian Conflict

©

Are the 54 years of modern Israel a triumph or tragedy? Everything depends on one’s point of view.

To religious Zionists the return to Israel in 1948 must have seemed like the fruition of God’s promises

from the Torah. To the Palestinians who had lived there for centuries, it brought about what they call the

Nakhba, The Catastrophe.

Jews trace their ancestry in the land to Abraham, the patriarch who migrated from Ur of Chaldea (modern

Iraq) to Hebron sometime during the second millennium B.C. His descendants became the tribes of Israel,

ancestors of modern Jews.

The Romans used the name, Palestine, since the second century B.C. Christian Palestinians identify their

ancestors among the first followers of Jesus. The Palestinian Melkite Christian Church, for example, is

recognized from the early centuries of the first Christian millennium. Muslim Palestinians trace their roots

in the land to the Muslim conquest in the 7th century. A Palestinian is defined as an Arab (one who speaks

Arabic) whose homeland is Palestine. Today Palestinians are diverse ethnically (Arab, Armenian, etc.) and

religiously (Muslim, Christian, Druze).

We who are neither survivors of the Holocaust nor natives of Palestine can never fully understand the

experiences and emotions of the two peoples who share so much, yet who are so different. We may

express opinions from our limited understanding, but we will not approach even an elementary notion of

what it is like to be an Israeli or Palestinian today.

Some understanding of the roots of today’s strife can be found in the events in Central and Eastern

Europe during the early 1900’s. During the period from about 1900 through the 1930’s, pogroms were

conducted against Jews living in Central and Eastern European countries, in which serious oppression of

Jews took place. Jews were discriminated against, their businesses and assets confiscated, and synagogues

burned. Some believe that these pogroms conditioned people’s attitudes toward Jews and led to the Nazi

Holocaust.

Some Jews in Europe reacted to the pogroms with underground paramilitary operations. Many Jews saw

socialism as a solution to their problems. The result was a growth of socialist-underground groups. As

Hitler’s brutality against Jews increased, some of these groups and their leaders moved to Palestine. There

they continued their paramilitary activities, now directed against the British forces in the Mid East and

Palestinians. Menachem Begin was one of these insurgent leaders who left Poland in 1938 and became

commander of the underground Irgun in Palestine.

The Jewish population of Ancient Israel was diminished following the Jewish War of 66-70 AD and the

Bar Kokhba Revolt of 132-135 AD, especially in Judea, and can be presumed to be a minority in the land

during the ensuing centuries. As late as 1900 about 5,000 Jews lived in Palestine.

As more European Jews saw Palestine as a place to escape, the influx of Jews into Palestine led to

increased tensions between Palestinians and immigrating Jews. In 1914 the Jewish population of Palestine

was 85,000 (12% of the total) - the rest being Christian and Muslim. In 1939 the Jewish population had

risen to 30% of the total. In 1947 those of Jewish ancestry were 34% of the population. Through the

promotions of the Israeli government the Jewish population had swelled to 5,443,134 (72% of the total

population) by 1995.