Whose Land?

The Bible answer to the Palestinian question

A TINY strip of land 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 sixty years or so, it has been the focus of international attention as rival peoples have claimed their rights to the area. From time to time there have been promising moves towards reconciliation, and bitter enemies have signed cease-fires and peace treaties – yet the state of tension and unrest has continued.

The parties which are directly at odds with each other in this dispute are the Israelis and the Palestinians. Each side provokes the other: Palestinians, often with the backing of other Arab states and political movements, have launched rockets into Israel, undertaken suicide bombings, and promoted unrest among Israeli Arabs. Israel, with the backing of the United States and international Jewish groups, has conducted heavy reprisals, and pushed ahead with its policy of building Jewish settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians. Serious-minded people are concerned about the worsening situation and its implications for Middle East stability.

In this booklet 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 to the question Whose Land? is not to be found by trying to assess today’s claims and counter-claims, but by opening the Bible and examining the ancient 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 page 3). In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Old Jerusalem. [1] 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 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. In ‘land for peace’ deals Israel agreed to a gradual handover of control of these areas to the Palestinians, and the Gaza Strip was completely evacuated by Israel in 2005. 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 in 1999 when Yasser Arafat, then PA Chairman, rejected an offer 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 7.4 million, just over 5.5 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 [2] 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.

[1] In 1967, Israel also annexed a region to the north-east of the Sea of Galilee (part of Syria) called the Golan Heights. The Sinai peninsula was also taken, but later handed back to Egypt.
[2] “Palestine” has been a name associated with the coastal part of the red-coloured area on the cover map since AD 135, and is derived from ‘Philistine’, the name of a tribe who lived in this area in ancient times. In adopting this name, the Palestinians do not, however, suggest that they are descended from the Philistines, who were a non-Arab, non-Abrahamic people.