Transcript the palestinian problem

THE PALESTINIAN PROBLEM
An Eternal Imbroglio?
VS
THE PALESTINIAN PROBLEM
An Eternal Imbroglio?
The Nettlesome Issue of
Palestine
In his videotaped
broadcast of Oct. 8th,
2001 Osama bin
Laden warned, “As
to America, I say to it
and its people a few
words: I swear to
God that America
will not live in peace
before peace reigns
in Palestine.”
The Middle East
No Solution in
Sight?
Defining the Problem
The collision of two nationalisms
Zionism —the need for
an active pursuit of the
establishment of a
sovereign Israeli nationstate in the Middle East
as a homeland for the
Jews. It sprang from the
writings of JewishAustrian journalist
Theodor Herzl who
began to articulate
Palestinian Nationalism
In the 20th
century,
immigrant Jews
displace the
Palestinians.
They are
competing for
the same land
Unfolding of Historical Events
World War I (1914-1918) As a
Starting Point
Archduke FranzFerdinand & Sophie
Austrian Heir
Archduke’s bloodstained jacket
Arrest of Gavrilo
Princip
Gavrilo Princip
The Dominoes Fall
Kaiser
Wilhelm II
British Poster
Encouraging
Volunteers
Schlieffen Plan
Trench
Warfare &
Machine
Guns
The Background
Pan-Arabism
The Arab-Islamic
World Today
• “Nationalism”—the
belief/conviction that
people of a common
culture, ethnicity,
religious and/or
historical
background have the
right to nationhood
• This was a powerful
19th century force
Pan-Arabism
More a political movement than a
religious one; desire was for political
unity stretching from Egypt to Iraq
(i.e., the “Fertile Crescent”—see right)
in the form of a union of Arab states
Arab Divisions
A major obstacle
to Pan-Arab
unity was a deep
division that has
marked Arab
society from
earliest times
Arabs under Ottoman
Rule
Turkish Sultan
Osman I (12811326 C.E.)
founded the
Ottoman Empire
in 1301 C. E. on
the Anatolian
Peninsula
Osman I
Osman ruled until his
death in 1326. The
empire he established
endured until 1918
and the end of World
War I. Islamic
domination of the
region has endured for
some 1,300 years
World War I as a Window of
Opportunity to Achieve Arab
Goals
Pan-Arabists saw the war
as a period of flux that
might bring down the
Ottoman Turks. It
promised to open a
door allowing the
formation of an Arab
political union
Ottoman Empire at its Peak—by the
late-19th century the empire was
struggling, prompting Russian Tsar
Nicholas I to place upon it the
epithet, “Sick Man of Europe.”
Britain, France, and Russia were
particularly involved in Ottoman
affairs.
Triple Entente vs. Central
Powers
The Triple Entente, shown as the
darkly shaded areas to the
left, began as an alliance of
mutual defense contracted
between England by in the
20th century and France in
1904 (the Entente Cordiale).
Russia joined this alliance in
1907 creating the so-called
Triple Entente. In September
1914 all three mutually
agreed not to conclude a
separate peace
A Nationalist
Revolt
The alliance structure
demonstrates the politicalnationalist (rather than religious)
nature of the war—Islamic
Arabs side with the Christian
British, French, and Russians to
fight against the Islamic Turks.
The “RevolT in The
DeseRT” oR The “ARAb
AwAkening”
Flag of the
Arab Revolt
The Arab revolt against the
Turks began June 10, 1916,
and centered in western
Arabia
The Arab Revolt—the
Leadership
On June 10, 1916, Hussein
ibn Ali (1852-1931), the
Hashemite Sharif of
Mecca 1916-1924) and a
lineal descendant of
Mohammed the
Prophet, proclaimed the
Arab Revolt against
the Ottoman Empire.
He delegated much of the
hands-on responsibility for
military action against the
Turks to his 3rd born son,
Faisal.
Sharif
Hussein
British Involvement
• Britain, Largely
Inspired by SelfInterest, Backed the
Arab Revolt Against
the Turks
• T. E. Lawrence,
a.k.a., “Lawrence of
Arabia” was the
central architect of
the union
T. E. Lawrence, the Man
• Jesuit College Oxford
scholar-archaeologistlinguist-soldier—a
typical “imperial man”
• Lawrence the author
After outbreak of war, the
General Staff recruited
• From Cairo, Lawrence
went to the Hejaz (right)
as a British officer on
loan to Sharif Hussein.
His job was to stiffen the
Arab Revolt
• The Hejaz (left)—a
viceroyalty of western
Saudi Arabia covering
150,000 square miles
along the Red Sea
Field Marshal Edmund
Allenby
• Lawrence persuaded British
field commander, Edmund
Allenby of the potential
importance of the Arab
Revolt to the British war
effort.
British Presence in the
Middle East
A Legacy of
Mistrust
Levant Company began
Operations in Syria in 1581
• During the 16th-19th
centuries, British trade
expanded from the Near
East to India and China
• The British began
governing the strategic
region of Aden in 1839.
It is a “sea gate”
controlling ingress and
egress at the southern
end of the Red Sea
England in Egypt
• The construction of the Suez
Canal (1869) and lavish
government spending put the
government of Egypt deeply
into debt
• From 1882, the British were
de facto suzerains of the
Persian Gulf
• . In 1879, the Khedive
defaulted on loan repayments.
A joint Anglo-French
Commission took control of
Egyptian finances
Arab Nationalist Revolt of
1881
• Ahmad Arabi Pasha,
leader of the
nationalist Egyptian
revolt of 1881
The Decisive Battle in the
Egyptian Campaign of 1882
Direct British Control of
Egypt
• Evelyn Baring (Lord
Cromer) British Agent,
1883-1907
• When Arabi revolted
against foreign presence
in his homeland, the
British responded
unilaterally with military
force to restore control
• Cromer ran Egypt from
1883-1907
Britain’s Pro-Turkish Ottoman
posture through 1913
British poet laureate of empire,
Rudyard Kipling (below left),
described the military and
political competition between
19th century Russia and Britain
in Central Asia as the “Great
Game.”
It served British imperial interests to prop
up the declining Ottoman
government. Such a policy defended
and secured the Empire’s most important
overseas possession, India, the “crown jewel
in the imperial diadem.”
The MacMahon-Hussein
Correspondence
July 14, 1915-March 30,
1916
Sir Henry
MacMahon (left),
British High
Commissioner in
Egypt
Grand Sharif
Ali ibn Hussein
of Mecca
(1856-1931)
Head of the
Hashemite
clan and a
direct
descendent of
Mohammed
the Prophet
Nature of MacMahon’s
“promises”
• His commitments to the Arabs were
deliberately vague and non-committal
• His inferences were taken by the Arabs
as an indication of British support for a
united Arab state under Hashemite rule
after World War I
• He encouraged Hussein to rebel against
the Turks
Authority of
MacMahon’s letters
They neither constituted a
treaty nor had legal
force—they left British
options open
“Diplomatic
Ambivalence”
MacMahon’s letters have
become synonymous diplomatic
ambivalence; indeed, the
British were simultaneously
working on plans that
contradicted the implications of
MacMahon’s correspondence.
Arab participation in the
Allied war effort
Hashemite army under
Emir Faisal (left), 3rd
son of the Grand Sharif
served as the right flank of
Allenby’s army campaigning
in Syria
Allenby
Lawrence (right)
directed its movements
Surrender of Jerusalem—
December 19, 1917
Allenby accepted surrender
from the Arabs (right)
rather than the
Ottoman Turks who,
by December 19th, had
fled the city. The
surrender came 2,520
years after the Jews had
surrendered Jerusalem
to Nebuchadnezzar’s
Babylon
Allenby and his staff atop
the Mount of Olives
Allenby and his
staff atop the
Mount of
Olives
Fall of Damascus—
October 1918
Damascus was the headquarters
of the Turkish-German forces.
The fall of Damascus ended
Ottoman rule over Arab lands.
The Secret Sykes-Picot
Agreement, May 16,
1916—British duplicity
Sir Mark
Sykes—veteran
of the Arab
Bureau
Charles François
Georges-Picot—
French diplomat
who dealt with
Sykes
The Diplomacy
and Treaty
• Details of the agreement formalized
October 10-23, 1916
• This secret diplomacy disregarded Arab
interests
• Proposed splitting up the Middle East
between British and French, dividing the
“spoils of war” into imperial spheres of
influence and exploitation
Boundaries of the
proposed Sykes-Picot
agreement
The Agreement was
supposed to be secret
• Britain to receive
Palestine, Jordan,
and Iraq
• France to receive
Lebanon & Syria
• The only
independent Arab
province was
Arabian peninsula
Violation of
Secrecy
The Sykes-Picot
agreement became
public information
after Tsarist Russia,
that had agreed to its
provisions, fell to the
Bolshevik
revolutionaries in
1917
The Balfour
Declaration—
November 2, 1917
Central Theme
“His Majesty’s Government view with favor
the establishment in Palestine of a national
home for the Jewish people, and will use their
best endeavors 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 other nonJewish communities in Palestine.”
Long-Term Historical
Background
Palestine was the
ancestral home of
the Israelites—
modern Jews had
ties of both
religion and
sentiment to that
specific area of the
world.
Majority of the Kingdom of Judah
deported in three waves (605-585 B.C.E.)
by Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Empire
Babylonian armies
take Jerusalem
Deportation
to Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar’s Account
of the Siege
Restoration of a Jewish
population to Jerusalem
The Cyrus Cylinder (at
lower right) offers
archaeological
documentation that
Cyrus authorized, at
government expense, the
return of captive peoples
to their native
homelands. Some Jews,
among many others,
took advantage.
Cyrus the Great,
King of Persia (r.
559-529 B.C.E.)
The Cyrus
Cylinder
Return of the Jews to Palestine
Emperor
Artaxerxes sent
his Jewish
cupbearer
Nehemiah to
Jerusalem to
supervise a
rebuilding
program
Rebuilding of the Wall &
Restoration of Religious Ritual
Nehemiah rebuilt
Jerusalem’s walls
Ezra the Scribe restored Temple
service and traditional worship
enter rome
Roman General Pompey
(left) conquered Palestine
in 63 B. C. E., setting the
stage for a protracted
period of conflict between
Jew and Roman. Judea
became the most fractious
and difficult province
within the Empire.
Expulsion of the
jews from Palestine
• The 2nd century C.E.
Romans tired of
suppressing revolts and
independence
movements by their
recalcitrant Jewish
subjects. In 135, they
expelled the Jews from
Palestine
• The Romans gave the
name “Palestine” to the
area from which the
Jews were expelled.
Philistine soldier on bas relief
Philistia—Israel’s Traditional Foe
Young David
ben-Jesse’s
“public event:”
the slaying of
Goliath, the
Philistine giant
from Gath
Samson slays
Philistine enemies and
destroys the Temple of
Dagon (above)
Coming Full Circle
And so, the 10th century B. C. E. Israelites overcame
their enemy, the Philistines. For the better part of the
next millennium, they were the dominant presence in
the region. When the Romans expelled them from the
area, they rubbed salt in the wound, naming the
province after Israel’s traditional foe.
Against this backdrop, the British became
the sponsor of a “homeland for the Jews.”
Arthur J. Balfour—Foreign Secretary in
David Lloyd George’s Coalition War
Cabinet
•
•
•
•
Political Career
Chief Secretary of
Ireland, 1887
1st Lord of Treasury,
1892
Prime Minister,
1902-1905
Foreign Secretary,
1916-1919
The Balfour
Declaration
• Although the decision
to sponsor a homeland
for the Jews was made
by the British Cabinet,
it appeared first in the
form of a letter from
Balfour to Jewish
banker Lord
Rothschild (right).
The Author: Alfred Lord
Milner
The actual author of the
Balfour Declaration was
Alfred Lord Milner,
former British High
Commissioner over
South Africa. During
World War I, Milner
became a member of
David Lloyd George’s
War Cabinet (Secretary
of War, 1916-1918 ).
Arab perception of the
Balfour Declaration
• It appeared to be a second
double-cross (the first being
the Sykes-Picot agreement)
• In 1916, the Arab population
of Palestine comprised 93% of
the people living there
The American Perspective
• Woodrow Wilson, American
President (1912-1920) asks
Congress to declare war in
April 1917
• the Balfour Declaration,
grossly violated the principle
of “self-determination,” a
fundamental tenet of U.S.
President Woodrow Wilson’s
Fourteen Points (the agreed
upon basis for a just peace to
end the war).
Historical Precedent in
Britain for Providing
Jews a National Home
• Lord Shaftesbury
(Anthony Ashley
Cooper—1801-1885)
Shaftesbury believed that
restoration of the Jews to
Palestine would fulfill a
prophetic precondition
demanded in advance of
the Second Coming.
Lord Palmerston, (Henry John
Temple) Foreign Secretary (18301834, 1835-1841, 1846-1851)
• Prime Minister,
1855-1858, 1859-1865
• As early as the 1850s,
“Pam” was
encouraging Jews of
Europe to relocate in
Palestine
Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial
Secretary (1985-1903)
• Chamberlain proposed
the use of generous
tracts of land in Kenya’s
“White Highlands” for
the creation of an
autonomous Jewish state
The Jews of central
Europe rejected
Chamberlain’s offer
because their hearts were
set on Palestine
David Lloyd George, Prime
Minister (1916-1922)
• Lloyd George was concerned
with strategic considerations:
the protection of India and
the creation of a “buffer
state” in the Middle East
• He sought to block French
initiatives in the region
• He was motivated by
nostalgic, sentimental
fascination with the Hebrew
Scriptures (a.k.a., “Old
Testament”)
Sir Herbert Samuel, 1st Jewish
Cabinet Member in England
Samuel played a
critical role in
persuading the
British
Cabinet to
accept the
Balfour
Declaration
Arthur Balfour
• Balfour was motivated
by a strong sense of
biblical history
• He had a keen
admiration for the
Jewish people
• He wished to atone for
Europe’s mistreatment
of the Jews
• The “Return” of the
Jews to their ancestral
homeland was a great
ideal
Chaim Weizmann, Chemistry Professor
and leader of Zionist movement
• He embodied the desires
of unassimilated Jews of
Europe
• He would settle for
nothing less than
Palestine
He contributed to the
British war effort with his
knowledge of chemistry
and the development of
acetone and ammunition
Zionist Movement in
Europe
Theodore Herzl
established the
movement in 1897
The Dreyfus Affair was a decisive
event for Herzl, helping to inspire
his volume, The Jewish State
Captain Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935)
The French Army wrongfully
convicted Dreyfus for treason
in 1894. His Jewish ethnicity
and religion predisposed his
judges against him. Many
Jews of the European
Diaspora concluded that their
only hope for future freedom
and security was the
establishment of a free and
independent Jewish homeland
in Palestine.
The Affair Fueled Zionist
Sentiment
• Zionism had a strong
following in England
and other European
nations
• The British
government desired
the support of its
Jewish community in
the war effort against
the Central Powers
Dreyfus defends
himself
Versailles Peace Conference,
1919
The Versailles
diplomats
honored both
the Sykes-Picot
Agreement and
the Balfour
Declaration
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles, built by
Louis XIV, has been the site of
numerous important peace
settlements in modern European
history. It is where statesmen
brought closure to World War I.
THE BIG FOUR
David Lloyd George (UK),
Orlando (Italy), Georges
Clemenceau (France), and
Woodrow Wilson (US)
arab Representation at
Versailles
Above (row 2, fourth from
left), T. E. Lawrence stands
with the Arab delegation
• Lawrence’s efforts to
accommodate Arab
hopes were
disappointed
• But even Lawrence
Called the Hope for a
United Arab
Kingdom a
“Madman’s Notion”
Implementation of
Treaty Terms
The Mandate was
recognized a conquest by
the British arms that were
in possession of the field. . .
and “possession is 9/10th of
the law”
The French Ejected Faisal
from His Throne in Damascus
Confirmation of the
British Mandate
• The Conference at San Remo—April 25,
1920—made Palestine a Class A British
mandate (territory taken and held without
provision of future independence)
• Confirmation of Mandate by League of
Nations, 1922
British
Mandate of
Palestine
Subsequent
Events
Among others, Winston
Churchill, T. E. Lawrence,
and Gertrude Bell (left) pose
in front of the sphinx in 1921.
The Cairo Conference
decided the fate of the postWorld War I Arab world. As
at Versailles, there was no
serious consideration given to
Arab input. Churchill’s
solution was the creation of
two new (and British
dominated) kingdoms in the
Arab world: the Transjordan
and Iraq.
Lawrence and Churchill made
the significant decisions
relevant to the Cairo
Conference over dinner at the
Ship Restaurant in Whitehall.
The newly created kingdoms
were to be:
Emirate of Transjordan—
to Abdullah
• This region is
comprised of 95%
desert and has a rather
artificial boundary
separating it from
Palestine
Abdullah with
Allenby, 1920
Hashemite monarchs
since world war i
Sharif Hussein
Abdullah I
Talal
Hussein I
Abdullah II
1916-1924
1921-1951
1951-1952
1953-1999
1999-Present
Kingdom of Iraq—to
Faisal
Iraq is an oil rich state.
Since 1908, Britain
had been drawing from
its petroleum reserves.
King Faisal (center), 1923
Gertrude Bell
1868-1926
Bell was a celebrated figure in the Arab world. She
counted Winston Churchill and T.E. Lawrence
among her friends. An accomplished archaeologist
and adventurer, Bell traveled widely throughout the
Arab world, Iraq, and Persia. The Arabs knew her as
a “daughter of the desert.” During World War I, she
served as an intelligence agent in the Cairo Arab
Bureau. In 1921, Colonial Secretary Churchill drew
heavily on her advice for the Cairo Conference. Bell
was the only woman among the 39 whom Churchill
asked to contribute. She helped both to define the
borders of Iraq and to select Faisal as its king. For
several years thereafter, she acted as Faisal’s closest
personal and political adviser. Bell came to be known
as the “Uncrowned Queen of Iraq.”
Both newly created kingdoms were
to have Hashemite monarchs—Faisal
at Baghdad and Abdullah in Amman.
Both were British protégés.
That left one brother. . .
Arabian Hejaz—to Ali ibn
Hussein
Kingdom of
Hejaz Flag
1915-1922
Ali ibn Hussein
Britain in the
Middle East
During the
1920s
In practical terms, British control over the
Arab world was absolute. The kingdoms of
Jordan and Iraq were sovereign states in
name only. They were but semi-nations.
Hashemite Fortunes
Technically, Grand Sharif Hussein was recognized as
king over the Hejaz but in 1924, Ibn Saud seized the
kingdom from him. Saud turned it into the new state of
Saudi Arabia. Hussein spent his last years in exile on
the British-controlled island of Cyprus.
Hussein ibn
Ali
King Ibn
Saud
Saudi Flag
assassination of
abdullah
Abdullah
assassinated in
1951 in the
Haram esh
Sherif in
Jerusalem
The direct heir to
the throne Talal
(right), was
Hussein’s mentally
ill father. Not
surprisingly, the
succession passed
over him.
Talal, 19511952
Hussein I (1935-1999)
hussein’s
son,
Abdullah
II presently
rules
Jordan
AbDullAh’s
grandson Hussein
I—educated in
Jordan, Egypt, and
Britain— took the
throne
He is Western educated,
democratically minded, willing to
work with the European powers, and
in favor of preserving the peace
between Jordan and Israel.
Contemporary
Arguments and
Positions
British Promises to the
Arabs
The Arab Argument
• There Were 700,000 Arabs vs. 80,000
Jews in Palestine in 1918
• The Arabs were cheated and
betrayed
The Arabs joined nations from days gone by that
perceived England as “Perfidious Albion,” a
phrase in the English language that has come to
signify treachery toward other nations.
“Perfidious Albion”
The White Cliffs of
Dover from which
“Albion”—the
moniker for
England—is derived.
From a Continental
perspective, the Cliffs
are England’s
distinguishing
geographical feature.
Prussian
King
Frederick
the
Great
(1740-1786)
Frederick made the
earliest use of the
epithet. He was
particularly unhappy
with what he
considered a
premature
withdrawal by
England, his ally, in
Seven Years’ War
(1754-1763).
The Jewish position
For the Jews, the British Did Not Move Quickly
Enough to Establish and Confirm an Independent,
Sovereign Jewish Nation-State
Allenby, Balfour, and Samuel
Architects of the New Jewish
National Home
isrAel’s boundaries
in 1947
In 1948, the Israelis
revolted against British
rule
This rebellion prompted the British to withdraw from
Palestine
pb_rsItem
_bOpen=t
David ben Gurion,
Israel’s 1st Prime
Minister, 19481953
The Israeli Flag
The
Israeli
revolt was
violent
and
effective
The British
Role
British policy forced the
collision of two nationalism:
Zionism and panarabism
The Jewish Claim to
Palestine
Yahweh, the God of the
Patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob (a.k.a., Israel)—
promised the Land of Canaan
to Abraham’s descendants.
That promise was to be
fulfilled through the line of
Isaac, Abraham’s first and
only son through his lawful
wife, Sarah.
20th-19th Centuries
B. C. E.
Abraham migrates
from Ur of
the
Chaldees to
Canaan
where he establishes
himself and his In Canaan, Abraham experiences
his greatest trial: Yahweh’s instruction to
family
offer Isaac as a sacrifice.
The Isaac
Sacrifice
According to
tradition, the Isaac
sacrifice was to
occur on Mount
Moriah, presentday location of the
Temple Mount in
Jerusalem.
Israel Into
Egypt
Abraham’s grandson Jacob
eventually moved the extended
family to Lower Egypt in
Goshen where his son Joseph
served as Pharaoh’s prime
minister. The families of
Jacob’s 12 sons grew large,
sojourning in the northeastern
Nile Delta for centuries. The
Egyptian government
eventually enslaved he growing
Israelites population.
The Nile
Delta—
Goshen
to the
Northeast
Joseph
welcomes
his family
to Egypt
Away from Canaan: Israel’s
Sojourn in Egypt
Eventually,
Pharaohs arose
whom, not
knowing Joseph,
put the Israelites
under heavy
bondage for many
years
The Israelites eventually
returned to
Canaan under
the leadership of Moses
who brought them out of
slavery. Moses led them
back to the border of the
land that they believed
Yahweh had given to
them through His
covenant with Abraham.
A Return to the
Promised Land
15th vs. 13th
Century
Conquest
of
Palestine
A debate persists among
scholars over when the
Exodus and subsequent
Conquest of
Canaan occurred.
Conservative theologians
believe the Israelite entry into
the Promised Land
came at the end of the 15th
century B. C. E.
Pharaoh of the Exodus
OR
Pharaoh Ramses II
Amenhotep II
(1453-1419) of
Dynasty XVIII
(c. 1570-1293)
One of the longest tenured
of the pharaohs, he was
renowned for his massive
building programs and
military conquests.
Israel’s Arrival
in Palestine
Testimony from the
Merneptah Stele
provides independent,
extra-Biblical
confirmation of an
Israelite presence in
Palestine no later than
the late 13th century
B.C.E.
Merneptah, c.
1212-1202
B.C.E.
The Merneptah
Stele came to light
in 1896 C.E., found
in the Pharaoh’s
mortuary temple in
Thebes. It describes
Merneptah’s
punitive expedition
into Canaan where
the monarch claims
to have defeated
Israel in the 5th
year of his reign.
isrAel’s Golden AGe:
11th-10th Century
B. C. E.
In the late 11th century,
David ben-Jesse
brought political unity to
the 12 Israelite tribes. He
subdued Israel’s
surrounding enemies,
creating a kingdom whose
David,
boundaries stretched
King
from Egypt in the
of
southwest to the
Israel
Euphrates River in the
northeast.
Solomon, King of Israel
The Divided Kingdom:
10th-8th Century
B. C. E.
Challenging the
heavy taxes levied by
the Davidic Dynasty,
Jeroboam formed a
separate independent
Northern Israelite
Kingdom that was
often at odds with the
Kingdom of Judah to
the south.
The Divided
Kingdom
Assyrian Captivity of the
Northern Kingdom
721-718
In 721, the
B. C. E.
Assyrian
Empire
swept over the
Northern Israelite
Kingdom based at
Samaria. The
Assyrians
eventually
extinguished the
kingdom’s very
existence.
Assyrian
Empire
Sargon II
(722-705 B.C.E.)
over-ran Israel and
deported its
population
Assyria extended its
influence from the Persian
Gulf and across
Mesopotamia into Egypt
Assyrian Invasion
Israelite prophets
characterized the
Assyrian
army as the rod of
God’s anger
against the
kingdom
Shalmaneser III’s
Black
Obelisk
offers the 1st
known depiction
of an Israelite.
It represents a masterservant relationship
that heralds the
eventual collapse of
Assyrian-Israelite
diplomacy followed by
the vengeful invasion of
the Northern Kingdom.
Fate of the
Northern
Tribes?
The Ten Tribes comprising the Northern Kingdom
were last seen in the late-8th century heading
northeast out of Samaria and toward the Caspian
Sea. They left their homes as deportees at the notso-gentle behest of the Assyrian
imperial government. From
this point, they disappear into the mists of history,
becoming mysteriously known as the “Lost Ten
Tribes.”
And What
About Judah?
The Babylonian
Captivity of the
Kingdom of Judah
605-585 B.C.E.
In three successive waves over 20 years,
King Nebuchadnezzar
carried the majority of Jews living in Palestine
into captivity in his native Babylon.
An Exile in Babylon
Although Jews received an
opportunity to return home
after the Persian
conquest of
Babylon in 539
B.C.E., by that late date,
The Hanging Gardens of
most of the deportees and
Babylon
their children had
assimilated. Only a few
The
chose to take on the
splendor
challenge of rebuilding
and exotic
their vanquished and longwonder of
neglected homeland.
Babylon
The Ishtar Gate
The
Restoration
The 6th-5th Century
Restoration and
Return Under
Zerubba-bel, Ezra,
and Nehemiah
Cyrus the Great,
King of Persia (559530 B.C.E.)
After Zerubbabel rebuilt
the Temple, Ezra the
Scribe restored
traditional Jewish
worship services and
holy day observances.
The Cyrus
Cylinder
documents a general
policy within the
Persian Empire to
return deported
peoples to their
original homelands
at Persian expense.
Enter the Roman
Empire
From almost the
beginning of
Roman domination
of Palestine in the
1st century B.C.E.,
the Jews proved to
be uncooperative
and oftentimes
rebellious subjects.
The Titus
Arch –
Pompey,
Roman general
who subdued
Palestine in 63
B.C.E.
Captive Jews
(70 C.E.)
Roman authorities had to contend
with frequent resistance to Roman
rule, fueled in no small way by the
commonly held expectation of a
coming Messiah to lead a Jewish
independence movement that would
restore the halcyon Golden Age of
David and Solomon. The Titus
Arch depicts Rome’s defeat of the
Jews during the “First Jewish War”
(66-70 C.E.).
Expulsion of Jews
from Palestine
135 C.E.
Simon bar Kochba led the Third
Jewish War (132-135 C.E.)
against Rome (see bar Kochba
coin to right). The conflict
resulted in a general expulsion of
Jews from Palestine. They
remained largely absent from that
area for the next 18 centuries.
A Modern-Day
Restoration
Balfour
Declaration and
Establishment of
a Jewish National
Homeland, 1917
Assessing the Israeli
Claim
Depending on when one dates the
Israelite Exodus from Egypt and the
Conquest of Canaan, the Jewish
people can lay claim to somewhere
between 1,400-1,500 years of
residency in their ancestral
homeland.
The Palestinian Claim to
Palestine
The Palestinian Claim
Ishmael was the first-born son of Abraham
through Hagar, the Egyptian handmaiden
of Abraham’s lawful wife, Sarah. As 19th
century B.C.E. custom and law allowed,
Hagar produced an heir for Abraham
through what might be best described today
as becoming a surrogate mother. The
resulting product—Ishmael—was some 14
years older than his half-brother, Isaac.
Consequently, the Arab world considers
Ishmael the rightful heir to the land
promised in the Abrahamic Covenant.
Abraham & Hagar
Ishmael
Banishment of Hagar &
Ishmael After his banishment
Rivalry between
Ishmael and Isaac led
Sarah to insist that
Hagar and her son be
cast out of Abraham’s
household. The Patriarch
reluctantly acted on
Sarah’s demand.
Abraham banishes
Hagar and
Ishmael
from the presence of
Abraham, Ishmael
eventually migrated
south and west. His
descendants settled on
the Arabian
Peninsula. Ishmael’s
lineage chart reveals
that he fathered
twelve sons—a
forerunner that finds
echo in the lineage
chart of Jacob, the son
of Ishmael’s halfbrother Isaac.
Mohammed and the
founding of the Islamic
Faith
Born in c. 570 C.E.,
Mohammed lived on
the Arabian Peninsula.
In around 610 C.E.
while meditating in a
cave on Mount Hira, he
believed he began
receiving revelations
from the Archangel
Gabriel.
Mohammed had
his revelations
recorded in the
Muslim holy book,
the Koran.
The minaret or prayer tower has become a symbol
of the Muslim faith.
the7th century Muslim
Conquest
After
MohAMMeD’s
death in 632 C.E.,
to promote unity
among Muslims
the 2nd Caliph,
Omar (582-644),
embarked upon a
series of wars of
conquest the gave
that Arabs
control of
Palestine.
Caliph
Omar
Omar’s victory at Yarmuk signaled an end to the
Byzantine Empire’s dominance
of Palestine.
The Muslim Taking of
Jerusalem, 638 C.E.
By 638 C.E., Omar
brought Jerusalem under
Arab control. Ironically,
the Muslim Omar actually
reversed a Christian
Byzantine fiat
that forbade the Jews
from living within the
confines of the city of
Jerusalem.
Sixth Century Byzantine
Map of Jerusalem at Madaba in
Jordan
MohAMMeD’s Ascension To
Heaven from Jerusalem
Dome of the Rock
built by Caliph Abd
al-Malik, 691 C.E.
Until the time of his
Caliphate, Jerusalem
had no special
significance in the
Muslim world.
In time, however, the legend of MohAMMeD’s mystical
ascension to heaven—the mi’raj—developed. This story
purports that The Prophet met Gabriel on the
Temple Mount and went to heaven on a 40-day sojourn
where he visited with prophets like Moses and Jesus.
Parallel traditions
Muslims built the
Dome on the spot from
which they believed
Mohammed
ascended—the same
place where Israelite
tradition suggests the
Angel of the Lord
stopped Abraham from
sacrificing Isaac.
The story of MohamMeD’s ascension is
based on Sura 17 in the
Koran
Successive Periods of
Palestinian History
From the
11th Century to
The Present
The Crusader Kingdom, 1099-1244
At Clermont,
France in 1095,
Pope Urban II
issues the call for
a Crusade to
retake Palestine
for Christianity.
Zealous and
enthusiastic
European
Crusaders
established a
Christian
kingdom in
Palestine
In a bloody,
violent
campaign,
members of
the 1st Crusade
(1096-1099)
recaptured
Jerusalem
from the
Muslims.
Saladin (1174-1193)
Kurdish
Sultan
Saladin
(1174-1193)
took Jerusalem
from the
Crusaders in
1187 C.E.
The Mamluk Period, 12601517
Mamluk rule
lasted in Palestine
for more than 250
years.
The Ottoman Period,15171917
Suleiman the
Magnificent
rebuilt
Jerusalem’s city
walls, the Tower
of David, and
the Damascus
Gate.
Suleiman the
Magnificent, 15201566 C.E.
The British Mandate,
1917-1948
British
Mandate Area
Israeli Nation-State
and Occupation, 1948-Present
Expanding
Boundaries
Israeli
Boundaries in
1948
After Six Day
War, 1967
Since oMAR’s 7th century Muslim
Conquests, rule of Palestine has passed
from the Arabs to the European Christian
Crusaders to the Egyptian Mamluks to the
Ottoman Turks to the British and most
recently to the Israelis. Nevertheless, in
contrast to the Jewish experience, the
Arabs have enjoyed a sustained and
uninterrupted presence in Palestine for
more than 1,300 years.
Palestinian Arabs
and the West Bank
Today--Things to
Consider
The Holy Land Has Been in
Arab Hands for Over 13
Centuries
Since the 7th century C.E., when Arab
armies took Palestine from the
Byzantine Empire, Palestine has been
theirs
Before 1915 (i.e., prior to
the Balfour
Declaration and
Sykes-Picot Agreement),
Palestine was Recognized
as an Arab Area
Beware the
Implications
for America
If Jewish Presence
in Palestine in
Ancient Times
Gives the Jews
Title to the Land,
Then the
American Indians
Should Have That
Same Claim to the
U.S.A.
Indian Removal
Act of 1830 and
The Trail of
Tears, 1838
The ancient Kingdom
of Judah did not have
possession of Samaria
Only the southern
portion of Palestine
went to the Tribe of
Judah
The Northern Kingdom of Israel
represented the Ten Tribes of
Reuben, Simeon, Zebulun,
Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher,
Napthali, Joseph, and Benjamin.
Their inheritance—not Judah’s—
was northern Palestine.
th
4
The
Geneva
Convention Declares
That the Occupying
Power Shall Not Transfer
Part of Its Population
into the Territory
Occupied
Israelis Forced Palestinians Off
Family Lands at Gun Point in
1948 and Again in 1967
The
“Occupied
Territories”
Baqa’a in
Jordan
West Bank
Gaza Strip
The Palestinians Did
Not Choose to Leave
the Land
Palestinian
Refugee Camp
There are 4 million
Palestinian Arabs living
in ToDAy’s MiDDle eAsT
• 900,000 live in Israeli occupied (since
1967) West Bank
• 700,000 live on the Gaza Strip
• 400,000 live in other locations throughout
the state of Israel
• Two million Palestinian Arabs live in
Israel
The Hebrew
Scriptures
According to the
Hebrew Scriptures
rejection of the Torah
led Yahweh to cast
the Northern Tribes
into the hands of the
Assyrians
and out of the
These scriptures stipulate
Promised Land
that disobedience to God
yields forfeiture of one’s
land
Potential
Solutions
• Drive Israel into the sea
• Create a national Palestinian
homeland
There remains a wide gap between the
minimum acceptable for the respective Arab
and Israeli sides
What would
you do?