Brief History of Palestine-Israel

Brief History of Palestine

What was the history of Palestine between Biblical times and the modern era?

Canaanites are known to be the earliest population that inhabited Palestine who lived in the land around 3rdmillennium BC. The 2nd millennium saw the area taken over by Pharaonic Egypt and their rule was weakened by new invaders, who included the Hebrews from the Semitic tribes of Mesopotamia and a group of Aegean people from Indo-European stock, the Philistines. The country was given the name of “Philistine” because of their Philistine inhabitants. The Israelites were an alliance of Hebrew tribes, who although defeated the Canaanites, found defeating Philistines much difficult. The philistine population took over the southern coast of Palestine and established an independent state there, controlling Jerusalem, the Canaanite own, and defeated Israelites in 1050 BC.

Construction and Destruction of the First and Second Temple

One feature which gave Israelite tribe recognition was their unity which enabled Prophet Dawood to work for an independent state for his people, which he did, making Jerusalem the capital of this state. A place of worship was built by Prophet Dawood’s son, Prophet Suleyman and this magnificent structure was named The First Temple. This temple was destroyed by the pagan Assyrians as it housed the Ark of Covenant.

After Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem, they built another temple deciding the site of The First Temple for this purpose. The Second Temple which was further expanded by King Herod but was turned to rubble and the city along with it, when Romans reached Jerusalem in 70 CE.

Muslim Rule in Palestine

In 324 CE, Constantine of Byzantine marched into the city, rebuilt it and opened it for Christian pilgrimage; however, they were harsh on the populace. Their discrimination was not only limited to Jews who were banned from entering into Jerusalem but they were equally unjust to those Christians who would not act upon the same teachings as they did. The situation was completely different with Muslims who were known to have compassion and mercy as victors. Therefore, when Muslims entered the region, the people of Palestine gave up the city without much struggle and there was no bloodshed or massacres. Instead, people were given the freedom to leave the city with all their goods if they wished or stay with complete religious freedom and security.

Peace and prosperity in the region was introduced by Muslim Conquerors who put an end to oppression and tyranny which prevailed in the land for centuries. Palestine flourished to the extent that it became a learning center and produced a large number of scholars. Muslims ruled over Palestine for 1300 years, with the exception of a period where Crusaders took over it and named it Filastin. The Crusader occupation brought injustices and massacres whose targets were Muslims, Jews and Christians equally. Palestine was liberated from the Crusader clutches by Salahuddin Ayyubi, who worked once again to bring peace and justice to the land and to implement Islamic law.

Israel and Palestine Today

In the 1800 many Jews from Muslim countries immigrated to Palestine, due to Arab-Muslim persecution and discrimination. by the 1970. over 700,000 Jewish families who were expelled from Arab-Muslim countries were settled in Greater Israel.           The First World War brought the fall of the Ottoman Empire, following which the French and British victors divided the Arab region. It was also the start of British occupation in Palestine. While this was going on, the population of Jews in Palestine started increasing through immigration with the help of non-Muslim countries.

In 1917, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration which stated Palestine as a homeland to Jews and after the defeat of Ottoman Empire, it encouraged Jewish immigration from European countries to Palestine. The population of Jews in Palestine kept increasing so that by 1947, total Jews in the area had become 650,000. They began establishing organizations to train the Jews in arms and terrorist activities. They prepared to the extent that Jews had thousands of trained and armed people at their disposal at the time Division of Palestine was announced.

Comment:

The land of Israel and Palestine were the occupation of the Canaanites and other tribes who are the descendents of Canaan the grandson of Noah. Canaan tribes are the tribes cursed by God because Cam the son of Noah had seen the nakedness of his father Noah. They had occupied the land of Palestine and other surrounding lands. But the Lord had kept this land prepared for the Israelites the descendants of Abraham. God promised Abraham that He will lead the people to the land of canaan and will deliver the land to the descendants of Abraham.(Genesis 12:7). Ishmael was born to Ahar who was an Egyptian and the hand maid of Sarah the wife of Abraham. The Egyptians are the Medianites (Genesis 37:27&28) who were of the descendants of Canaan the son of Cam. They were the various tribes who were cursed by God. They had settled in the land of Palestine. This land was in fact was prepared and kept by God for the descendents of Abraham. But it was illegally occupied by the various tribes which were cursed by God. But God told Moses “I have said said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.” Exodus 3:17). Now the question arises a to who are these Israelites called as the children of God. The Bible is clear that these Israelites are the descendents of Abraham. The title Israelites came because they were teh descendents of Jacob the Son of Isaac and the Grand son of Abraham. Jacob was renamed as “Israel”(Genesis 35:10). 12 tribes came up from the 12 sons of Israel who were called as the Israelites. The descendants of these 12 tribes were also termed as God’s people. They all were born out of the seed of Isaac the son of Abraham. God did not recognise the descendants of Ishmael as they were born of the hand maid ‘Ahar’ though they were also the seed of Abraham. God made this very clear to Abraham saying “This (Ishmael) shall not be thine heir;but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowls (Isaac) shall be thine heir. In Genesis 22: 1&2 God commanded Abraham and said “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest”. Therefore the Israelites are the descendents of Isaac and no of Ishmael. Latter during the time of King Solomon the 12 tribes of Israelites were divided into two viz. the Israelites consisting of 10 tribes of Israel. The descendents of Judah the son of Jacob were called as the Judah's and they were given the land of Judea with Jerusalem as the capital. the remaining 10 tribes were given the remaining land of Palestine with Samaria as their capital. The 12 th descendants of Levi were called as the “levites” and they were given the job of the priests and they were in common to the israelites and the Jews. These Israelites were led by God through Moses to the land of Canaan i.e Palestine and the tribes who were illegally occupying the land were chased out by God’s strength. (Joshua chapter-24). But since these Israelites had committed sins during the time of the reign of Israel King Hosea these Israelites were handed over to the hands of King Shalmanesar the King of Assyria who took the Israelites as slaves to Assyria and they were made to settle in Halah and Habor by the rivers of Gozan and in the city of the Medes (2 Kings 17:6) Latter since the Jews also committed sins they were also taken as slaves during the time When King Jehoiakim ruled over the Jews in Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon. King Shalmanesar had brought men of Babylon and from Cuthah and Sepharvaim and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel and they possessed Samaria and dwelt there and they feared not the Lord” (2 Kings 17 :24) This how the Muslim brothers came into the land of Palestine. But during the reign of the Persian king Cyrus He liberated the Jews from their 70 years of slavery and the Jews returned back to Judea and rebuilt the temple of Jerusalem. But again since they had committed sins of fornication and idol worship they were scattered into the various part of the world during the time of the reign of the reign of the Roman empire (BC 63 to AD 395) and also during the period of the reign of the Muslim rule (AD 638 – AD 1517) But the God had promised that He will gather all his people the Israelites i.e the Israelites and the Jews as one tribe the Israelites unto the land of Canaan again, and a seperate ensign (flag) will be given to them (Isaiah 11:11&12). Accordingly Israel was declared as an independant nation and given a flag for the nation on 5th May 1948. The Israelites scattered throughout the world are now gathering in the land of Israel.