Why did the Jews believe that Palestine belongs to them?

Answer 1

The way the question is written is to assume that it is not theirs, which is not the case in the slightest. Nobody asks what "entitled" Poles to create a nation-state in Prussian, Russian, and Austrian land or what "entitled" British colonists to create a European-Style country in North America. The people who live in a certain area and have a connection to that area have an intrinsic right to that land. The Jews are no different as concerns Palestine.

According to historical, religious, legal, and political grounds, the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine at least partially, if not entirely, belongs to the Jewish people.

1) Historically: The Jews have an undeniable presence in the land from at least 700 BCE until 70 CE and this is proven not only by the Biblical account, but from Assyrian Ruins, Babylonian documents, Hellenistic inscriptions, and Roman volumes. Jews had a continuous presence in the land from 70 CE until the present day (even though they were nowhere near the majority) even though they were forcibly deported from the territory. The fact that they survived, as opposed to the Arameans or Hittites who were similarly exiled does not illegitimate their claims.

In addition to the population-part of the historical claim, Jews have physical ruins and cities that are very sacred to them in the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine. The city of Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Bible. The city of Nablus used to be the Northern Metropolis of Shechem. Hebron was the first capital of Ancient Israel whence Saul ruled and David ruled until he conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Even more recent sites like Masada document the Jewish presence and struggle to persevere.

2) Religiously: The Jewish claim to have a connection to the land of the British Mandate of Palestine is firmly grounded in their religion. Jews as early as the Babylonian exiles wrote about returning to the land because God had promised it to them. According to the Pentateuch, God promised Abraham that piece of land. (This promise is even acknowledged in the Qur'an 5:20-21, 17:104, and 26:59.) Many Jewish Holy Sites are in Israel such as the Kotel Hama'aravi (Western Wall).

3) Legally: By international law, the Ottoman Empire took the territory from the Seljuks and Abbassids by internationally recognized conquest. The territory was ceded to the British as a Mandate by the Ottomans as a term of surrender in World War I. (Even though the British had promised the territory to both the Arabs and Jews during the War, neither promise is legally binding.) According to the terms of the Mandate, even though the British were in control, the League of Nations had official jurisdiction. In 1947, the British gave direct authority to the League of Nations' successor, the United Nations, in accordance with the terms of their Mandate. The UN passed the 1947 Partition Plan that gave both a Jewish State and an Arab State the Right to Declare Statehood. The fact that the Arabs decided not to immediately declare such a state does not make the Israeli declaration any less valid. (It is important to note that Palestine did declare statehood on these grounds in 1988, which further cements the legality of this view.)

4) Politically: Jews invested a lot in building the political and physical infrastructure of the land even before they had control. Jews built farms, trained military brigades, created political parties, studied government, and defended themselves. This created a system that was able to repel the Arab Attacks in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9, secure expanded borders in the Six Day War of 1967, and hold those borders in the Arab-Israeli War of 1973. Israelis were actually able to exert control over this territory.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive, but should capture the sentiment of the question.

Answer 2

Historically, the Jewish people had been ill-treated and harassed out of almost every country they had ever lived in. In particular, in Europe, the Holocaust resulted in 6,000,000 Jewish civilian deaths and an untold number of European Jews being forced out of their homes. The people who returned found that the population that came back was now intolerant of them. In the Arab World, Jews had been second-class citizens who had to pay special taxes and had fewer rights at law. When the Europeans came in and colonized the Middle East, they granted the Jews facial equality, which angered many Muslim Arabs and drew the Jews close to the colonizers. As the European countries began to give the Arab World independence, Jews were treated horribly for their connection to the former colonial infrastructure.

Since most of world Jewry was in either Europe or the Arab World, those push factors drove a large percentage of Jews to find a new place to live. They wanted a country where being Jewish was no longer a detriment, so they went to the British Mandate of Palestine because that territory was established with the intent of creating just such a Jewish homeland.

Answer 3

After being expelled from Israel when their temple was destroyed over 1,900 years ago, the Jewish people have had no homeland or country. Each country that they resided in became a temporary homeland. Therefore, the Jews felt it necessary to find a homeland of their own.

Because the Jews wanted a place of their own and to practice their religion in peace :)

They needed to be organized as a country in order to have a voice in international affairs and to resist persecution.

Answer 4

This is a very complicated and controversial issue. For current justifications see the Related Question.

Introduction

It has similarities in other places - such as, the Serbian people claim that Kosovo belongs to them, because that is the area where their nation was born, long before the Ottoman Turks invaded in the late middle-ages and converted the Albanians nearby to Islam.

Most Jews are pragmatic and do not wish to have the large areas populated by Arabs as part of the State of Israel. If those Arabs wish to call themselves Palestinians - that is their right, but they are not a distinct people any different in language, culture or any other measure, than the inhabitants of Jordan, and to a certain extent, Syria and Lebanon.

Religious and Traditional Jews who follow the words of the Hebrew Scriptures (original Old Testament) believe that the historical "Land of Israel" was given to the Jews by God, as detailed clearly in the book, and that therefore it is the right of the Jews to have this land as their own, as they were only forced out of it by foreign conquerors.

However, even in the Books of Hebrew Scripture, the Nation of Israel possesses only certain parts of today's Israel, Jordan and Palestinian Territories. The view that the entire region should be controlled by the modern State of Israel is a minority view among Jews.

History of the term Palestine

The claim is founded in a religious one, but far more a historic one.

Palestine is a foreign word, first invented by the Romans, after whom it was never used until the 20th Century by natives of the country.

To go back far into the annals of History, of the peoples who inhabited this land in the 2nd millennium BC - Israelites (Jews), Edomites, Nabateans, Philistines, Phoenecians and Canaanites - only the Jews still exist to this day as a nation (Definition of a nation = common culture, language, geographical connection and in the case of the Jews, a common religion).

These other peoples no longer exist to claim the country as theirs.

In the year 63 BCE, General (Later Emperor) Pompey of Rome took control of the Hasmonean (Maccabean) Kingdom of Judea when called in to solve a dispute between two rival Judean princes.

Pompey (Pompeus) annexed Judea to the Empire of Rome, as "Provincia Judaea" installing a Roman governor but allowing religious independence for the population, which was over 90% Jewish or Shomroni (Samaritan).

The province of Judea kept its name.

When Rome put down by force the Great Jewish Revolt of 66-73 CE (AD), burning the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and extending their rule over more areas to the north and the east in what is today called Syria and Lebanon, the Romans gave the entire region the name of Provincia Syria-Palaestina - corruptions of the names of the great ancient empire of Assyria, (based in today's Iraq) and the ancient region of Philistia, (along the coast of modern Israel), but the region around Jerusalem was still called Judea, as it had been for over a thousand years - It is where the word 'Jew' comes from.

As such - these other names were foreign-imposed, because the Romans were conquerors, not the indiginous population.

During the revolt of 66-73 CE (AD), the Romans forced hundreds of thousands of Jews into exile in other parts of the Roman Empire, mostly as slaves, and forbid the remaining Jews from living in Jerusalem.

The name Palaestina was first officially given to the entire country as a 'punishment' by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the year 136 AD, after he had put down a large revolt by the indigenous Jews and decided to permanently change the name of the country, which had been called Judea since around 1200 BCE. He also changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia-Capitolina.

190 years later when the Roman Empire converted Officially to Christianity in 324 CE (AD), the name "Palaestina" disappeared and the country was referred to as "the Holy Land" - Terra Santa, until the Muslim Arab conquest in 638-642 CE (AD), when it became an unimportant district of the province of Damascus.

Following catastrophic earthquakes in the 8th century CE (AD), most of the population left, as the major cities, bridges and aqueducts were severely damaged or destroyed, and no strong central rule gave security from roaming bandits.

When the Crusaders conquered the country in 1099 AD, they called it the "Kingdom of Jerusalem" and "the Holy Land" - but they too were foreign invaders, and expelled twice, once by Saladin in the 12th century, and finally by the Mamelukes in 1268 CE (AD) - neither of which ever used the name "Palestine"

The early Arab conquerors and rulers never used the word "Palestine" too - the country was referred to at different times as a part of different changing districts of the Ummayad and Ayyubid Caliphates - based in Damascus; the Fatemid and Mameluke Caliphates; based in Cairo, the Abbassid Caliphate; based in Baghdad and later the Ottoman Empire, based in Istanbul.

Never did Moslems refer to the land as "Palestine" before 1919.

The term "Palestine" emerged in Western Europe in the 1800's.

Throughout most of the 'dark ages' (which in the middle east were not so dark, under the Byzantine Empire) and the later 'middle ages', there was a majority of Jews, Samaritans, and Greek-speaking Roman settlers, but later, by the 1600's the country largely fell to ruin and had a very small population estimated at under 60,000 in 1830.

The Samaritan population was largely persecuted by the Byzantines and finally annihilated by the Crusaders.

Their religion was an older version of Judaism, dating to 722 BCE but if they existed today in numbers of more than a few hundred - the Samaritans too could claim the land as historically theirs.

The vast majority of todays Arab population who call themselves "Palestinians' are made up of 2 peoples whose ancestors began to come and live in the country from the Arabian peninsula in the late 1600's when the Galilee had a Bedouin ruler, or from Egypt, when Egyptian peasants (Fellahin) were encouraged during the Egyptian rule of Mohammed Ali (1832-1841) to come and settle.

"Palestine" got its name again in the mid 1800's when mainly British explorers and early archaeologists began visiting and excavating biblical sites. It was used in literature academically, because Latin was the dominant usage in academia and it had been the last name used by the Romans for the country.

In 1919, the British Government was given a mandate by the League of Nations, to rule a large area they called British Palestine. In 1922, half of this territory - east of the Jordan valley - was given to the Hashemite Arab Prince Abdullah, and became the Kingdom of TransJordan, later the Kingdom of Jordan

That is the historical background to the use of "Palestine"

A small anecdote: The source word for Palestine, being Philistine, is a Hebew and Aramaic term, "Plishtin"meaning "Invaders".

Answer 5

If you're referring to the entire area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, you're about seventy years out of date. It's Israel, not Palestine.If, however, you're speaking about the Palestinian areas specifically, some of the land has in any case been ceded by the Israelis to the Palestinians, in whole or in part. In general, that is a matter for negotiation.

As to the principle itself, it may be noted that:

(click to see the links)

1. God promised the land to the Israelites many times.
   
2. Jews have had a continuous presence in Israelfor over 3300 years. Of that time, the Jews were a majority in the land for around 1900 years.
3. The Muslims' Qur'an clearly states that Israel belongs to the Jews.
4. Israel is more than willing to get along with the Palestinians and to come to some negotiated arrangement. However, it must be realistic since its citizens are under constant threat and attack. Areas which have been handed over to Palestinians, have been used to stage these attacks.
5. Israel is more concerned for the citizens of those who attack it, than are the attackers themselves. While far from perfect, its treatment of civilians is better than that of any other country in the region.

Answer 6

If you're referring to the entire area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, you're about seventy years out of date. It's Israel, not Palestine.If, however, you're speaking about the Palestinian areas specifically, some of the land has in any case been ceded by the Israelis to the Palestinians, in whole or in part. In general, that is a matter for negotiation.

As to the principle itself, it may be noted that:

(click below to see links)

1. God promised the land to the Israelites many times (Genesis ch.28).
   
2. Jews have had a continuous presence in Israelfor over 3300 years. Of that time, the Jews were a majority in the land for around 1900 years.
3. The Muslims' Qur'an clearly states that Israel belongs to the Jews.
4. Israel is more than willing to get along with the Palestinians and to come to some negotiated arrangement. However, it must be realistic since its citizens are under constant threat and attack. Areas which have been handed over to Palestinians, have been used to stage these attacks.
5. Israel is more concerned for the citizens of those who attack it, than are the attackers themselves. While far from perfect, its treatment of civilians is better than that of any other country in the region.

Answer 7

According to the Hebrew Bible, God promised the holy land to the descendants of Abraham. A problem with using this, literally, as the sole basis for the Jewish claim to Palestine is that the supposed descendants of Abraham include both Hebrews and Arabs. So, on this evidence alone, Palestine should be shared between Jews and Arabs.

However, The Bible contains subsequent covenants, which appear to promise the land to Jews alone. However, the Promised Land was not always seen as comprising all of Palestine - it changed from time to time and from author to author. For example, the Yahwist author, who contributed to the story of Exodus, believed that only the region that was later to become the southern kingdom, Judah, was promised to the Israelites.

Answer 8

The way the question is written is to assume that it is not theirs, which is not the case in the slightest. According to historical, religious, legal, and political grounds, the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine at least partially, if not entirely, belongs to the Jewish people.

1) Historically: The Jews have an undeniable presence in the land from at least 700 BCE until 70 CE and this is proven not only by the Biblical account, but from Assyrian Ruins, Babylonian documents, Hellenistic inscriptions, and Roman volumes. Jews had a continuous presence in the land from 70 CE until the present day (even though they were nowhere near the majority) even though they were forcibly deported from the territory. The fact that they survived, as opposed to the Arameans or Hittites who were similarly exiled does not illegitimate their claims. For more on the history, please see the Related Question.

In addition to the population-part of the historical claim, Jews have physical ruins and cities that are very sacred to them in the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine. The city of Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Bible. The city of Nablus used to be the Northern Metropolis of Shechem. Hebron was the first capital of Ancient Israel whence Saul ruled and David ruled until he conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Even more recent sites like Masada document the Jewish presence and struggle to persevere.

2) Religiously: The Jewish claim to have a connection to the land of the British Mandate of Palestine is firmly grounded in their religion. Jews as early as the Babylonian exiles wrote about returning to the land because God had promised it to them. According to the Pentateuch, God promised Abraham that piece of land. (This promise is even acknowledged in the Qur'an 5:20-21, 17:104, and 26:59.) Many Jewish Holy Sites are in Israel such as the Kotel Hama'aravi (Western Wall).

3) Legally: By international law, the Ottoman Empire took the territory from the Seljuks and Abbassids by internationally recognized conquest. The territory was ceded to the British as a Mandate by the Ottomans as a term of surrender in World War I. (Even though the British had promised the territory to both the Arabs and Jews during the War, neither promise is legally binding.) According to the terms of the Mandate, even though the British were in control, the League of Nations had official jurisdiction. In 1947, the British gave direct authority to the League of Nations' successor, the United Nations, in accordance with the terms of their Mandate. The UN passed the 1947 Partition Plan that gave both a Jewish State and an Arab State the Right to Declare Statehood. The fact that the Arabs decided not to immediately declare such a state does not make the Israeli declaration any less valid. (It is important to note that Palestine did declare statehood on these grounds in 1988, which further cements the legality of this view.)

4) Politically: Jews invested a lot in building the political and physical infrastructure of the land even before they had control. Jews built farms, trained military brigades, created political parties, studied government, and defended themselves. This created a system that was able to repel the Arab Attacks in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9, secure expanded borders in the Six Day War of 1967, and hold those borders in the Arab-Israeli War of 1973. Israelis were actually able to exert control over this territory.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive, but should capture the sentiment of the question.

Answer 9

According to the Hebrew Bible, God promised the holy land to the descendants of Abraham. A problem with using this, literally, as the sole basis for the Jewish claim to Palestine is that the supposed descendants of Abraham include both Hebrews and Arabs. So, on this evidence alone, Palestine should be shared between Jews and Arabs.

The Bible contains subsequent covenants, which appear to promise the land to Jews alone. However, the Promised Land was not always seen as comprising all of Palestine - it changed from time to time and from author to author. For example, the Yahwist author, who contributed to the story of Exodus, believed that only the region that was later to become the southern kingdom, Judah, was promised to the Israelites

Answer 10

Israel is important to Jews because God promised it to Jacob (Genesis ch.28), the father of the Israelites, and his descendants. Jacob was renamed Israel by God (Genesis ch.35); and the Israelites lived in Israel during the era of the Patriarchs (220 years), during the era from Joshua until the First Destruction (850 years), during the Second Temple era (420 years) and afterwards. They remained a majority in the land for another 300 years after the Second Destruction; and a minority of Jews remained there throughout the ensuing centuries.

Link: Jewish history timeline

Israel had been the site of the First Temple, built by King Solomon; the dynasty of King David; the Second Temple, built by Ezra; and the Hasmonean Dynasty. It was where the Hebrew Prophets lived, and where the Mishna (Oral Torah) was codified. Also, many of the Torah's commands apply only in Israel.

Link: Jewish history in Israel

See also the other Related Links.

Link: Is Israel still protected by God?

Link: Does Israel belong to the Jews?

Link: What a Muslim has to say