Updated
18 June 2005
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Whose Land?
The Bible Answer to
the Palestinian Question
Palestine and Israel
Conflicting Claims
Jews and Arabs in the Land
Zionism and the Jewish 'Return'
The Palestinian Claim to the Land
Bible Background
The Arab Heritage
A Divided Family
Has God forsaken His People?
Witnesses to God's Will
Events to Come
What about Ishmael and the Arabs?
Our Appeal to You
A tiny strip of land, sandwiched between
the sea and the desert at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, is
probably the most disputed piece of territory on earth. For thousands of
years it has been fought over; in the last fifty years or so, it has
been the focus of international attention as rival peoples have claimed
their rights to the area. Not long ago there were promising moves
towards reconciliation, and bitter enemies signed treaties of peace and
security - yet the tension has continued to surface.
The parties which are directly at odds with each other in this dispute
are the Israelis and the Palestinians. This booklet is being printed at
a time of renewed conflict: Palestinian suicide bombings have provoked
heavy Israeli reprisals, and serious-minded people are concerned about
the worsening situation. What is really behind the so-called
'Palestinian Question'? And how can the Bible have an answer?
We shall first attempt to define the Palestinian Question and then look
at what the Bible has to say which bears on the conflict. We hope to
show that the answer depends not on human claims but on promises and
prophecies given by God Himself.
Palestine
and Israel
On the cover of this booklet is a map of the Middle East with a
wedge-shaped area coloured in red: this area is the one under dispute.
From the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948, up to
1967, Israel represented about three-quarters of the area; the remaining
one-quarter being made up of the West Bank-occupied by the Kingdom of
Jordan - and the Gaza Strip, under Egyptian jurisdiction (see map on
next page). In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip
and the West Bank, including Old Jerusalem. Ever since, the
Palestinians, many of whom lived in these areas, have been pressing for
Israel to relinquish control and agree to the setting up of a separate
Palestinian state.
International negotiations - in recent years referred to as "the peace
process" - led Israel in 1994/5 to grant self-rule over certain areas
which now make up the Palestinian Authority: Jericho and other West Bank
towns and villages, and most of the Gaza Strip. The newly founded PA is
not autonomous, but in 'land for peace' deals Israel agreed to a gradual
handover of control to the Palestinians. The Palestinians, backed by the
wider Arab world, are however not content with this gradual process and
have become ever more insistent on their rights to the land - in fact,
it is no secret that they want the whole area, and Jerusalem as their
capital. Internationally agreed proposals for Arab-Palestinian
independence have, however, more than once been refused: it happened in
1947 prior to the setting up of the state of Israel, and it happened as
recently as 1999 when Yasser Arafat, PA Chairman, rejected an offer made
at Camp David (in the USA) that would have paved the way for a fully
fledged Palestinian State. The situation, as we write, is at an impasse.
If we are to understand the current situation, we need to know more
about the identity of the parties in this dispute, and the historical
background.
Conflicting Claims
Israel, although it has citizens from other ethnic and religious groups,
is a largely Jewish state: of a total population of 6.5 million, just
over 5 million are Jews. Jews all over the world claim that their rights
to the area - in fact an area extending well beyond the present
boundaries - date back at least 4,000 years to the time when their
forebears, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, first lived
there. We shall have more to say about this, on the basis of what is
recorded in the Bible.
The Palestinians also claim a longstanding connection with the area.
They point out that the Arabs are also descended from Abraham but
through Ishmael, Esau and others: they are, in origin, cousins to the
Jews. Those who live today in the disputed areas of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip claim an equal right to the land on the basis of descent from
Abraham; but they also base their claim on centuries of occupation of
the land, and argue that the Jews for whom the Israeli state was
established are more recent immigrants - with less claim to live there.
These are claims which need closer investigation.
Jews and Arabs in the Land
But let us first review briefly the events which have led up to the
present situation. We need to go back a lot further than 1967 or 1948:
later in this booklet we shall go back several thousand years to the
times of the forefathers of the Jews and Arabs, but for the moment let
us look at just the past 2,000 years.
There is no dispute about the fact that at the beginning of the 1st
century AD, in the time of Jesus Christ, Palestine was populated by
Jews. The Land was under Roman rule. Eventually, however, the Jews
rebelled to such an extent that the Romans besieged Jerusalem; in AD 70
the temple was destroyed; thousands of Jews perished and most of the
rest were banished - migrating to all points of the compass.
Yet, in spite of the Roman expulsions, some Jews remained in the Land,
particularly in Galilee, and continued their Jewish way of life; and as
the centuries passed, so more and more migrated back. In 'the four holy
cities of Judaism' - Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias and Safed - there has
been continuous Jewish settlement since Biblical times. As successive
conquerors came and went - Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Mamelukes,
Ottomans, British - Jews, sometimes tolerated, often persecuted,
survived. Throughout most of this period, from the 1st to the 19th
centuries AD, the Land was largely desolate. Palestine was, in fact, not
a country as such; and there was no such thing as a Palestinian people.
Arabs and Jews simply lived alongside each other, generally at peace.
In view of the current situation, which involves so much antagonism
between Moslems and Jews, we are bound to ask what effect the rise of
Islam (the Moslem religion) had in the 7th century AD. Initially, Jews
continued to have reasonably good relations with Arabs - many Jews in
fact lived and prospered in Moslem lands, including Arabia. At some
stage, the prophet Muhammad had said, "Two religions may not dwell
together on the Arabian Peninsula"; and there are passages in the Koran
which incite Moslems to rise up against Jews. Nevertheless, for nearly
1300 years, Jews and Arabs in the Middle East tolerated one another.
During the same period, it has to be said that Jews suffered more at the
hands of so-called "Christians", particularly during the Crusades.
Zionism and the Jewish 'Return'
In the 19th century, there was a fresh wave of Jewish immigration to the
Holy Land, and the end of that century saw the significant rise of
Zionism. In the early 20th century, Britain took an interest in the idea
of a homeland for Jews and the Balfour Declaration was issued:
"His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in
Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people, and will use their
best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being
clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the
civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in
Palestine..."
After the First World War, the League of Nations appointed Britain as
the Mandatory Power for Palestine - and by the term "Palestine" they
meant, not just the area west of the Jordan but a much more extensive
region, from the Mediterranean to Arabia and present-day Iraq, and from
Egypt to Lebanon and Syria. In 1921, however, Britain - in a gesture
designed to win Arab favour - gave the territory east of the Jordan
(initially called Transjordan) to Sheikh Abdullah. Subsequently this was
to become the Kingdom of Jordan. Jordan also gained the West Bank, so
that the territory which, in 1948, finally became the State of Israel
was a small fraction of the originally intended Jewish homeland.
These developments led to a highly significant change in the use of the
terms "Palestine" and "Palestinians". Up to then, "Palestinians", in the
eyes of most people, would have been Jews, or perhaps Jews and Arabs,
living in the Land. From now on, and especially when a Jewish state was
established called Israel, "Palestine" came to be used exclusively in
connection with non-Jews. Moreover, at least up to 1948 when the state
of Israel was proclaimed, Jordanian rulers (and others) were content to
see the territory east of the Jordan as the obvious homeland for Arab
Palestinians. That solution, however, has since been rejected - with the
consequences we see today.
Continuing with the history of the Land after World War I, the migration
of Jews to the mandated area gathered pace; so did the influx of
non-Jewish peoples, including Arabs, from other countries. To begin
with, the various groups worked together, cooperating in the development
of agriculture and industry and sharing in the prosperity. Sadly, and
not unexpectedly, tension did eventually surface; and by the time
proposals were being made for the formal establishment of a Jewish
state, serious conflict began. When the British left in 1948, there was
all-out war between Jews and Arabs, and the half century which has
followed has seen successive outbreaks of hostility. The first
Arab-Israeli wars were between the surrounding Arab states and Israel;
lately, the conflict has arisen largely within Israel's borders.
The Palestinian Claim to the
Land
Christadelphians do not take sides in the Arab-Israeli dispute, nor do
we wish in this booklet to promote political views. We are, however,
bound to take notice of evidence that not all the arguments of the
Palestinians are well founded. Independent research shows that not all
of those at present in the towns and villages of the West Bank or in the
refugee camps of Gaza, Jenin or Lebanon, can legitimately claim a
centuries-old association with the soil of Palestine. There is clear
documentation that many are from families who came to Palestine during
the period of the British Mandate, between World Wars I and II, or even
more recently; they were mostly economic migrants - and not just Arabs,
but speaking (it is said) up to 50 different languages. There were
indeed a few hundred thousand people dispossessed from their properties
in what is now Israel - but certainly not the whole Palestinian
population, as is often implied.
Israelis would in any case point out that a great number of Jews were
dispossessed from Arab lands, in which their forebears had lived for
centuries. Sadly, tragically, war and calamity have displaced countless
groups of people all over the world: the joy of the Christian Gospel is
that all who will follow Christ - whether from the Middle East, or the
Balkans, or Afghanistan, or Africa, or wherever - are offered a kingdom
of permanence and peace.
More important, however, than arguments over politics or statistics are
the facts that we can find in God's Word, the Bible. By turning back the
pages of history, recorded in the Scriptures, we can find encouragement
for both Jews and Arabs - and the Bible is the only place where these
things are recorded. It should be mentioned that although Arabs have
their own Moslem holy book, the Koran, they acknowledge most of what is
recorded in the early books of the Jewish Scriptures, which are very
much older.
Bible
Background
Abraham has been mentioned in connection with both Israel and the
Palestinians: both Arabs and Jews share Abraham as their forefather.
They are Semitic peoples, that is to say, descended from Shem, the
eldest son of Noah. After the great Flood, Noah's descendants were
dispersed into all parts of the earth.
It was from moon-worshipping Chaldea that the LORD God called Abraham,
his wife Sarah and his orphaned nephew Lot to live in Canaan, a
territory south of the Euphrates river and stretching down to Egypt. It
was a territory then inhabited by Canaanites, Philistines and other
Godless tribes. Faithful Abraham was promised that the curse of Babel
would one day be reversed and,
"I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name
great... and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
(Genesis 12:2,3)
A remarkable promise indeed! But when Abraham reached Shechem
(present-day Nablus in the West Bank) - the first time he had set foot
in the disputed territory of Canaan - God added: "to your seed I will
give this land" (Genesis 12:7). Later, from the hills north of
Jerusalem, God commanded him:
"Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are - northward,
southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see, I
give to you and your seed for ever." (Genesis 13:14,15)
The extent of this promised possession was marked out in Genesis
15:18-21: "From the river of Egypt (in the south) to the great river,
the River Euphrates" (in the north-east).
But there was a problem. The land was promised to his "seed", yet
Abraham and Sarah were old and had no children. Aged 86, Abraham then
took Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian maid, as his wife. Hagar received an
angelic message that her son should be "Ishmael", an Egyptian name
meaning 'God hears'. A promise of a great family was made concerning
Ishmael:
"I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to
count... He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against
everyone and everyone's hand against him." (Genesis 16:10-12, NIV)
The Arab
Heritage
That was a very revealing forecast! Ishmael was to be the father of
Bedouin Arabs, desert dwellers in Arabia. The situation was later
confirmed to Abraham when, still having no son by Sarah, he pleaded with
God that Ishmael might be his heir:
"Then God said: No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall
call his name Isaac; I will establish my covenant with him... As for
Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him
fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve
princes, and I will make him a great nation." (Genesis 17:19,20)
History confirms the existence of the twelve branches of Ishmael's
family. Isaac in due time received confirmation of the promises through
him; and, in turn, they were repeated to his son Jacob:
"The land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants... I
am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back
to this land."(Genesis 28:13-15)
On the contrary, the future for Esau, Jacob's twin, was: "Behold, away
from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be ... by your sword
shall you live." (Genesis 27:39,40, RSV)
God gave Esau a possession in the dry, red deserts of Edom, down by the
Dead Sea (Deuteronomy 2:5). Abraham and Isaac had settled in the land of
promise and he had sent his other sons "eastward... to the country of
the east" (Genesis 25:6). Midian's children became desert caravanners,
and Sheba and Dedan occupied southern Arabia. From Abraham's nephew Lot
came the Ammonites and Moabites who inhabited the land east of the river
Jordan.
08:06 19/06/2005
A Divided
Family
Thus we get an overall picture
of a divided family: on the one hand, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve tribes
of Israel (the name which God later gave to Jacob) eventually being
established in the promised territory and, on the other, the Arab sons
and families moving eastward and southward away from the "promised
land". The Bible is very clear that the "children of Israel", the Jews,
were the divinely appointed inhabitants of the Land. After a period in
Egypt, the migration referred to as the Exodus, under the leadership of
Moses and Joshua, brought them back as an organised nation, with God's
law given to them at Sinai, to inhabit the Land.
Israel's inheritance of the Land was always (and still is) subject to
His people remaining obedient to Him. The Bible's Old Testament presents
the history of loyalty alternating with faithlessness. There were
further periods of harassment by their neighbours, and exile. Yet, even
then, and despite their faltering faith, God remembered His promises and
brought them back.
It was 500 years after the return from exile in Babylon that Jesus came
into the world - the long promised Jewish Messiah. The Jews of the time
flocked to listen to him and benefit from his miraculous powers; yet few
in the end accepted him, and once again their fate was to suffer
persecution and dispersion. The Romans besieged their holy city,
Jerusalem, and Jews were driven into almost every country of the world.
They were destined to wander - though not for ever.
Has God
forsaken His People?
Had God cast away the Jews? Was their rejection of the Messiah the end
of God's plan with His once-chosen people? Many maintain that this is
so, and that the God of Israel has no further purpose with the Jews -
that Christians and not Jews are now the focus for the outworking of
God's promises for the future. It is true that God's purpose is with
those who believe and obey Him, of whatever race; nevertheless, God has
not forsaken His chosen people, the Jews.
The centuries of bitter persecution have come and gone; the pogroms of
Europe brought indescribable terror upon Jewish communities in their
day; the unspeakable violence of the Second World War is something
mankind may never erase from its memory. But God has not forgotten. Did
He not say through His ancient prophets, for example, Ezekiel -
"I will... deliver you into the hands of strangers, and execute
judgements on you... (yet) although I have cast them far off among the
Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries... I
will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where
you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel."
(Ezekiel 11:9-17)
It is abundantly clear that the Jew, despite his terrible tribulations,
has survived. Why? So that Jews could continue to be God's witnesses
among the nations. Jews survive not through any merits of their own, but
as a testimony that God keeps His promises and will fulfil what He
covenanted to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Isaiah records why Israel
survived:
"But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and he who
formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called
you by your name; you are mine... You are my witnesses, says the LORD,
that I am God." (Isaiah 43:1,12)
Witnesses
to God's Will
The repatriation of Israel is a very notable sign to the world that God
is in control: He is in control of all world events, but in particular
He has controlled the destiny of the peoples of the Middle East - Jews
and Arabs - in accordance with His ancient promises. What is happening
in the Middle East is part of the outworking of God's determined
purpose, and the present terror and tragedy will culminate, finally, in
events which will usher in the kingdom of God and of Christ His Son.
For it is through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the particular "seed" of
Abraham, the promised Messiah, and through him alone, that there is
hope. This is not the place to go into detail about the work of Jesus
Christ, and the meaning of his death and resurrection, or the
expectation of his coming again soon, to rule as king over God's
universal kingdom - other pamphlets are available which deal with these
themes.
For the purposes of this present booklet, we must content ourselves with
simply stating what every true follower of Jesus believes: that God has
foretold, "in the latter days", "a time of trouble such as never was"
(Daniel 12:1). Before Christ returns to the earth, there will be
terrible trouble, particularly in the Middle East. Many of the Old
Testament prophets, and New Testament prophetic passages too, foretell
the catastrophic events that will precede Christ's coming, and that will
lead, finally, to the setting up of a kingdom of justice and peace.
Ezekiel, for example, writes of a coalition of nations that will
threaten Israel "in the last days". "Gog", their leader, will say:
"I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely... against a people
gathered from the nations... who dwell in the midst of the land (at the
centre of the earth, RSV)." (Ezekiel 38:11,12)
Zechariah speaks of a "day of the LORD", a time of war, when the LORD
God will finally intervene and send His Son:
"The day of the LORD is coming... For I will gather all nations to
battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken... Then the LORD will
go forth and fight against those nations... And in that day his feet
(the Lord Jesus, see Acts 1:11) will stand on the Mount of Olives... And
the LORD shall be King over all the earth." (Zechariah 14: 1-9)
Events to
Come
After 2,000 or more years of man's misrule, Jesus Christ will
re-establish God's kingdom, first of all on the territory promised to
Abraham and his descendants, and ultimately throughout the world. A
rebuilt Jerusalem will be its capital, the centre of worship for the
whole world, "a house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:7).
This is the true Christian hope: this is what the Bible teaches. Most
Jews today have no interest in these things; many no longer believe in
God, and very few acknowledge Christ; yet the Bible (again both Old and
New Testaments) foretells a conversion of at least some of the Jews, who
will look on him whom they pierced and mourn (Zechariah 12:10). "The
Deliverer will come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from
Jacob" (Isaiah 59:20; Romans 11:26). God is looking for those - whether
Jew or Gentile -who believe in Jesus Christ His Son; and in the end,
"there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there
is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if
you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
the promise" (Galatians 3:28,29).
What
about Ishmael and the Arabs?
Will God ignore Ishmael? We
have referred to the promises made to Ishmael's descendants: "I have
blessed him, and will make him fruitful... I will make of him a great
nation" (Genesis 17:20). Much of this has been fulfilled already: the
Arabs have been prosperous and become a great multitude, contributing
much to world culture. What hope is in store for them in the future?
If, like any other people, Arabs acknowledge the God of Israel and the
Lord Jesus Christ they will live alongside the descendants of Isaac and
Jacob, helping to rebuild the economy of the area, benefiting from the
blossoming of their deserts and sharing in the joys and blessings of the
kingdom. Isaiah, for example, pictures Arabs and others bringing service
and worship into Jerusalem:
"The multitude of camels shall cover your land, the dromedaries of
Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold
and incense, and they shall proclaim the praises of the LORD... And they
shall call you, The City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel."
(Isaiah 60:6-14)
"In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria... Israel
will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the
midst of the land, whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed
is Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my
inheritance." (Isaiah 19:23-25)
Harmony and peace will, at last, come to the family of Abraham. The
Middle East will be gloriously transformed.
But the promises extend more widely than to just the nations of the
Middle East. God's purpose is something personal and vital to every one
of us, of whatever nationality, if we wish to be part of the divine plan
for the future. Jesus is the Saviour of men and women from every race,
language and creed on earth - if they truly believe in him. "God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John
3:16).
No-one will be excluded, who changes his life to be a follower of Jesus
Christ. God's plan is a world-wide plan of salvation: remember the
promise that through Abraham "all families of the earth" will be
blessed. That includes Gentiles and Jews. The apostle Paul was a
converted and baptized Jew and he wrote to baptized Gentiles:
"As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ ... And
if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
the promise." (Galatians 3:27-29)
Our
Appeal to You
Whose Land? To those involved in the current dispute over Palestine,
this is a vexed question about which both sides feel very intensely.
There is anger and frustration among both Israelis and Palestinians
today - and little sign of a solution that both will accept.
By looking at what the Bible says, and seeing the enmity of Arabs and
Jews in the longer perspective of God's purpose, we have tried to show
that there is an answer to the Palestinian Question, an answer which
will be to the benefit of both Jews and Arabs - if they believe in Jesus
Christ. In the context of God's eternal purpose, the ownership of the
'Land' today is actually of less importance. What really matters is who
will inherit, not just this strip of land, but God's Kingdom to be set
up on earth. This is a Kingdom for those who "desire a better country"
(Hebrews 11: 14-16). For them, God has prepared His kingdom - and it may
not be very long before this is established. If you wish to be a part of
that Kingdom, think about these things now, and take the necessary steps
to associate yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ.
STANLEY
OWEN
Bible quotations are
from the New King James Version except where otherwise
indicated.
Second Edition - 2002
Reproduced
by courtesy of the Christadelphian Magazine and Publishing Association
by whom all rights are reserved.
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