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.
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
Christadelphian Hall
Longfellow Court
Longfellow Road
Coventry
CV2 5DE
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