The Palestinian Nakba - History of Jewish Presence in Palestine

The earliest inhabitants of Palestine

Humans have inhabited the land of Palestine since ancient times, dating back approximately a million years. The offspring of Palestine built the oldest city in the world - Jericho - around 10,000 years ago, approximately 8000 BCE.

The Canaanite Arabs are considered the earliest known inhabitants of Palestine, emerging around the third millennium BCE. They became urban dwellers, inhabiting cities and towns, including Jericho, establishing most of Palestine's cities and villages, numbering around two hundred cities and villages by the second millennium BCE. Among these were cities like Shechem (Nablus and Balata), Beisan, Ashkelon, Akka, Haifa, Jaffa, Hebron, Ashdod, Aqr, Beersheba, Bethlehem, and others. They developed an alphabet that influenced other writing systems.

Due to Palestine's central location connecting three continents, it became a hub for religious gatherings and cultural influence on Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and witnessed conflicts between major powers in the region, falling under the dominance of neighboring empires.

Egyptian dominance in Egypt and the Canaanites in Palestine faced constant confrontations by the second millennium BCE against racially diverse invaders like the Amorites. However, the Canaanites and Egyptians consistently managed to defeat the invaders. Nevertheless, by the 14th century BCE, Egyptian authority began to weaken, succumbing to new occupiers - the Hebrews, a group of Semitic tribes from Mesopotamia, and the Philistines, who later lent their name to the land. The Philistines were a people of Indo-European descent.

Israel’s Kingdom

Humans have inhabited the land of Palestine since ancient times, dating back approximately a million years. The offspring of Palestine built the oldest city in the world - Jericho - around 10,000 years ago, approximately 8000 BCE.

The Canaanite Arabs are considered the earliest known inhabitants of Palestine, emerging around the third millennium BCE. They became urban dwellers, inhabiting cities and towns, including Jericho, establishing most of Palestine's cities and villages, numbering around two hundred cities and villages by the second millennium BCE. Among these were cities like Shechem (Nablus and Balata), Beisan, Ashkelon, Akka, Haifa, Jaffa, Hebron, Ashdod, Aqr, Beersheba, Bethlehem, and others. They developed an alphabet that influenced other writing systems.

Due to Palestine's central location connecting three continents, it became a hub for religious gatherings and cultural influence on Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and witnessed conflicts between major powers in the region, falling under the dominance of neighboring empires.

Egyptian dominance in Egypt and the Canaanites in Palestine faced constant confrontations by the second millennium BCE against racially diverse invaders like the Amorites. However, the Canaanites and Egyptians consistently managed to defeat the invaders. Nevertheless, by the 14th century BCE, Egyptian authority began to weaken, succumbing to new occupiers - the Hebrews, a group of Semitic tribes from Mesopotamia, and the Philistines, who later lent their name to the land. The Philistines were a people of Indo-European descent.

After the Hebrew tribes left Egypt in 1270 BCE, they invaded Canaanite cities. Under the leadership of Joshua, they gained control over parts of Palestine around 1230 BCE, settling in the hills of the land but were unable to fully dominate all of Palestine.

By 1125 BCE, the Israelites managed to defeat the Canaanites but faced invasions from the Philistines. The Philistines established an independent state along the southern coast of Palestine, taking control of Canaanite cities, including Jerusalem. In 1050 BCE, they inflicted a significant defeat on the Israelites due to their organized military leadership and use of iron weaponry.

During this time, various threats compelled the Israelites to unify and establish monarchical rule. In 1000 BCE, the Prophet David defeated the Philistines, allowing the Israelites to consolidate their control over the land of Canaan.

Due to Israel's unity and the weakness of neighboring empires, David established a significant independent state centered around Jerusalem. Israel experienced stability and prosperity during the reign of Solomon. However, after his death in 922 BCE, the kingdom split into two:

    Kingdom of Israel: Located in the northern part of Palestine, with its capital at Shechem, then Tirzah, and later Samaria near Nablus. It lasted approximately 200 years (923–721 BCE). Due to its weakness and insignificance, the British Encyclopedia dubbed it the "tail-end kingdom." The Assyrians, led by Sargon II, eventually conquered this state, deporting its Jewish inhabitants to Haran, the Khabur, Kurdistan, and Persia. The Assyrians replaced them with Aramean groups. The exiled Israelites seemingly assimilated into the surrounding populations, leaving no trace of the ten tribes of Israel who followed this kingdom.

    Kingdom of Judah: Centered around Jerusalem, it lasted for 337 years. It only controlled limited parts of central Palestine and suffered from weakness, falling under prolonged external influence. Jerusalem was repeatedly invaded, including by Pharaoh Shishak of Egypt in the late 10th century BCE. The Palestinians, who captured King Jehoram's palace, exiled his sons and wives. They also fell under Assyrian influence during the reigns of Sargon II, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal. Finally, the Babylonians, led by Nebuchadnezzar, conquered this kingdom, destroyed Jerusalem, and exiled 40,000 Jews to Babylon in Iraq, while those remaining migrated to Egypt.

After Cyrus the Great ruled Persia following the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE, he allowed the Jews to return to Judah. A minority returned, while the majority remained in the new land (Iraq), finding it favorable and settling there. The Jews were granted a degree of self-rule under Persian domination in the Jerusalem region, covering an area not exceeding 20 km in diameter, about 4.8% of present-day Palestine. The returnees reconstructed the walls of Jerusalem and canonized the Torah, which became a symbol of their social and religious life.

In 333 BCE, Persian rule in Palestine was replaced by Greek rule after Alexander the Great conquered the region. During the reign of Seleucus IV, one of Alexander's successors, attempts were made to impose Hellenistic Greek culture and religion on the population in the 2nd century BCE. However, the Jews rebelled and established self-rule in Jerusalem from 164 BCE. The scope of their autonomy fluctuated based on the struggles among major powers of the time. They remained under the influence of others and did not achieve full political independence, although they experienced periods of revival and expansion under their leader Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 BCE).

The Romans, who began ruling over Palestine in 63 BCE, changed their policy towards Jewish self-rule from the 6th year CE onwards. They initiated direct rule over Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine. When the Jews revolted against the Romans between 66-70 CE, the Roman Emperor Titus brutally suppressed the rebellion, destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem. Additionally, the Romans quashed another and final Jewish uprising between 132-135 CE, demolishing Jerusalem, plowing its site, forbidding Jews from entering or residing there. Only Christians, provided they were not of Jewish origin, were allowed to reside. The Romans established a new city over the ruins of Jerusalem called Aelia Capitolina, named after the Roman emperor at that time, Hadrian. Hence, Jerusalem came to be known as Aelia, reflecting Hadrian's name. The ban on Jews entering Jerusalem lasted for another two hundred years.

Following Hadrian's rule, the number of resident Christians in Jerusalem steadily increased. With Emperor Constantine I's conversion to Christianity and his mother Queen Helena's visit to Jerusalem in 320 CE, the Christian character of Jerusalem began to dominate its pagan aspect. Constantine himself built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and his successors continued constructing churches and Christian monuments in Palestine. The Byzantines allowed Jews entry into Jerusalem only once a year, near a barrier that remained at the site of the Temple, preserving it in reverence for what Jesus, peace be upon him, had prophesied (Matthew 24:2) in the Gospel of Matthew.

Long before the emergence of Islam in the 7th century, there was continuous interaction between Christians in Palestine and the Arab population, with many Arabs converting to Christianity.

In 637 CE, the Arabs seized Jerusalem from the Byzantines. Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab expressed his respect for the city by personally requesting its surrender. He treated its inhabitants with remarkable compassion and fairness, issuing a document of protection known later as the "Umarian Covenant." Palestine received honor and respect from the Umayyads, for whom Damascus was the capital. The fifth Umayyad Caliph, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, constructed the magnificent mosque known as the Dome of the Rock. During the Abbasid period, the early caliphs of this era showed great interest in Palestine and Jerusalem.

It is believed that the Christians in Jerusalem requested Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, during negotiations for the city's surrender, to include a clause in his covenant banning Jews from residing in Jerusalem. However, subsequent caliphs deviated from the treaty's terms concerning Jews and gradually allowed their residence in the city. The first mention of a Jewish temple in Jerusalem dates back to 1047 CE, as mentioned in the writings of Nasir-i Khusraw.

During the Crusades, the few Jews in Jerusalem suffered similar fates to thousands of Muslims, facing killings, burnings, and torture at the hands of the Crusader forces who occupied Palestine and established the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1187. The number of resident Jews in Jerusalem during the Crusader era diminished to only one person, documented as a dyer by Rabbi Petachia.

However, after the liberation of Jerusalem by Salah al-Din (Saladin), who confronted the Crusades, he worked to revive the Jewish presence in the city. Indeed, all Islamic lands, after the collapse of the Crusades, became a safe haven for Jews from Europe, in contrast to the Crusaders who were antagonistic toward both Semitism and Islam.

Under the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over the entire West Asia region from 1516 until the end of World War I, the Ottomans upheld Islamic practices of tolerance and moderation towards Christian religious interests in Palestine. The Ottoman Empire also opened its doors to hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing religious persecution in Christian countries like Spain. However, the majority of these Jews, following their ancestors' path after the Crusades, avoided living in the same Palestine. Consequently, the Jewish population in Jerusalem decreased significantly under Ottoman rule, from 1330 to 980 individuals in the first century of Ottoman rule, plummeting further to 150 individuals in the second century and dwindling to 115 by the mid-18th century. By the 19th century, only a few Jews had settled in Palestine.

Those who decided to live in Palestine mostly settled in four cities: Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias. The Ottomans established a set of regulations and rules that safeguarded the rights and duties of Jews and Christians, allowing them to practice their religious rites in their places of worship. These regulations were grounded in customary law and the rights recognized by Muslim rulers since the Umarian Covenant.

A land for the Jews

In the late 19th century, a significant development emerged in Eastern Europe that began to cast its shadow on the future of Palestinians. The rise of European nationalist and colonialist sentiments led to the crystallization of a political movement known as the Zionist movement among Jewish intellectuals, primarily from Eastern Europe. Zionists aimed to liberate themselves from their minority status in European societies and the dual threat of persecution and assimilation. They saw the establishment of a sovereign Jewish state as the optimal path to achieve this goal. They used the ancient Jewish connection to Palestine and its religious significance as a justification for choosing this land for their state, although some early Zionists were open to considering alternative locations.