Although it doesn't talk about Yasser Arafat directly this article that I wrote in 2001 should be considered before anyone forms an opinion on the "Palestinian" problem in the middle east. It is a long article but in 15 to 20 minutes you will have an understanding of the middle east that most people... even so-called experts lack. Once the facts are out of the way I would like for us to talk more about Yasser Arafat.
What Palestinian Nation?
Part I
What Is Palestine???
We, in the west have always been observers of the raging battle for the area of the Middle East called Palestine yet few of us understand the historical bases for the problems there. We watch and we hear the political spin that is skillfully spun by both sides to influence world opinion. The wars have been fought; there were winners and losers so the only battle that remains is the war of words and actions aimed at garnering public opinion. Knowing all this I have set myself to learn the historical facts of the region so I can make an educated examination of the claims of the factions in Palestine.
I think the first place to start is with the word Palestine. Palestine is a huge land mass located on the Eastern Shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Many people believe that Palestine is Israel, but the reality is that Israel is only a small portion of Palestine. Palestine is the name of a land mass not a nation. History shows that there has never been a nation called Palestine. The landmass that is referred to as Palestine encompasses parts of modern Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. We will talk about why later, but it is a mistake to associate the so-called “Palestinians” with Palestine. As you can tell, if we use this term, we must also call Egyptians, Israelis and Jordanians “Palestinians”, because Palestine is a land mass… not a country or a race of people. We will find out later how this land mass became known as Palestine.
Most Westerners have at least a concept of the Judao/Christian history that explains the separation of the two people groups we call the Hebrews and the Arabs. These two people groups are related by blood. The Hebrew’s are descendants of Abraham and his union with his wife Sarah. The Arabs are also descendants of Abraham, but from his union with Haggar, his wife’s maidservant. The story goes that Haggar was forced to leave the family by Abraham because Sarah feared for her son’s inheritance. So suddenly, we have two people groups from what was one and there is animosity. But please know, the Arabs have not been shorted in the region. They control about 90% of the land mass and even a higher percentage of natural resources. In the grand scheme of things, the Arabs have faired much better than the Hebrews since the time of Abraham in the region.
Palatines Bloody History
So who has the biggest claim to the land mass known today as Palestine, or more specifically the land covered by the nation of Israel? Let’s look at the recorded history and archeology of the region to try and determine the true “people of the land”. Oddly enough, archeology tells us that the oldest know civilization/settlement was located in this region. This civilization was only discovered in the 20th century and it was believed to be in existence in 8000 BC and was living in cities/states by 3000 BC. One of these was the infamous Jericho. Egypt controlled most of the region and continued to drive conquered people groups into Canaan and many cultures were absorbed by the Canaanites in this manor. By the time recorded history found these people (1000 BC) the Canaanites were the dominant culture in the land and had a population of around 200,000. Two competing powers entered the region at around 1400 BC. These people groups were the Hebrews (who are thought to have come originally from
Mesopotamia) and the
Philistines (Aegean people of Indo-European decent). The Canaanites were conquered and absorbed by the Hebrews when the Hebrews entered that land under the leadership of Joshua, Moses’ successor. Remember, previous to this appearance in history the Hebrews were a nomadic people who had spent 40 years migrating from Egypt where they had been serving as slaves for hundreds of years. So here we see the Canaanites becoming a part of the Hebrew culture. This took place in a land that had yet to be defined as Palestine, but the time was near for the land to get its name.
Once the Hebrews conquered and absorbed the Canaanites they were not yet the dominant people in the land, even though they were a force to be reckoned with by 1125 BC. The Philistines were the dominant people and this is from whom the land was named: Palestine. These two people groups co-existed but did war with one another for another 125 years. At this point the confederated groups of Hebrew tribes united under one king… David. Israel under David defeated and absorbed the Philistines into their culture and secured Israeli dominance in the region when he established Jerusalem and made it the capital of Israel. Israel existed as a nation for 75 years until Solomon’s (David’s son) death. Israel broke into two nations; Israel maintained control of the northern parts of Palestine and Judah controlled the south. The most interesting part about this period was the irony of the Philistines; the “people”, for whom Palestine is named, became participants in the Hebrew culture. Today for all intents a purposes the Philistines are Hebrew. The “Palestinians” of today are
NOT the Philistines for whom the land was named.
The divided Israel survived as two nations for hundreds of years. In 722 BC the northern kingdom was defeated and conquered by Assyria (Syria). In 586 BC Judah was defeated and conquered by Babylonia (modern day Iraq). Babylonia left Jerusalem in ruins and exiled all Jews living there to Babylonia. While in Babylonia they were allowed to live as a nation under their religious framework. When
Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylonia in 539 BC, he allowed them to return to Palestine. The Jews rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and established the Mosaic Law, as the Torah, which molded together Jewish religious and social life. It is clear that under Persian rule the Jews were given a great deal autonomy.
In 333 BC the Greeks conquered Palestine but the Jews regained their independence in 141 BC. In 63 BC the Romans had their turn and allowed some level of self-rule in Israel, but under crippling taxation. The Jews revolted in AD 66 – AD 73 and again in 132- 135. The Romans clamped down hard on the Jews after 135, killing many and removing them from Jerusalem. Israel had its golden age of prosperity, culture and security under Byzantine rule (AD 313-629) primarily due to the Christianization of Rome. Palestine was under Roman rule except for a short Persian occupation until AD 638.
Filastin (the renamed Palestine) would be under Arab rule for the next 1300 years. The irony is that the conquering Muslims allowed the Jews and Christians to have autonomy in their own communities and guaranteed them freedom of worship. The Jews and Christians of that time, became known fondly to the Muslims as “The people of the book”.
Because of Palestine’s strategic importance as a land bridge connecting Africa, Asia, and Europe, AD 750-1517, it was raided and invaded and abandoned by her invaders many, many times (mostly Egyptian descended sects). Yet no one established a kingdom. The only resident people group was Israel and ruminants of the various Arab occupations and invasions. Finally, in 1517, the Ottoman Turks of Asia conquered Palestine and maintained control until 1918. In 1918 Palestine was divided by the Ottoman Empire into districts and each district was given to Muslim Palestinians who were labeled as descendants of Canaanites. The problem here was that after 2000 years the Canaanites had been largely homogenized into the Hebrew population! These rulers were simply looking for an excuse to give an air of legitimacy to a Muslim rule of the districts. But even then the Jewish and Christian communities were still allowed to function autonomously until 1830 when Palestine was conquered by Egypt. The Ottomans regained control of Palestine in 1840. Under the banner of Ottoman rule there was a huge influx of Jewish immigrants from all over the world. By 1880 the 440,000 Arab Palestinians were welcoming the Jews with open arms to sell them their largely resource depleted “Promised Lands” for which they had no further use. Seeming only to be interested in money, the so-called “Palestinians” sold everything of value mostly to the Europeans. Once there was nothing of value left… they began selling the land. The Jewish community was buying back her country one acre at a time. They had become such a force in the region by 1917 that Great Britain, in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, entered into a treaty with Jewish communities to re-establish the Jewish nation if the Jewish people would support their efforts to remove the Ottomans from the land.
<Please go to next post for PartII>