Who Is Really Occupying Whom?

Who Is Really Occupying Whom?

Are those who are claiming now to be Palestinians since ancient times the real indigenous people of what is called by some Israel and by others Palestine or are THEY the foreign occupiers and colonizers?

Are the claims of the Israelis that the land is the land of their ancestors just based on the Bible or is there actual archeological and historical documentation outside of the Bible to back up their argument?

The History of the Peoples of the Land from Ancient Times to Modern Times

Throughout ancient history whether it be the Bible or some other ancient manuscript the Holy Land has been called the Land of Canaan, not Palestine, which mean the people of the land were called Canaanites and not Palestinians. The name Palestine was a name that the Romans started calling the land centuries later. --more about this later on. The Canaanites were comprised of several different tribes that were separated into two main categories: the Northern or Coastland Canaanites and the Southern or Mountain Canaanites.

The Northern Canaanites lived in the south-eastern side of the Gulf of Iskenderun to around the Gulf of Haifa. The Ancient Greeks called them Phoenicians but they called themselves "Kana'ana" or "Kinachnu" which was translated as Canaanites. They were peaceful skillful artisans, seafarers and builders that lived in city states. They spoke Aramaic the language of the Arameans, which is closely related to Hebrew (the language of the Jewish Torah and Talmud) not Arabic (the language of the Q'uarn) . In Deuteronomy 26: 4,5 we read these words " The Priest will take your basket from your hand and set it before the alter. Then you shall say before the Lord your God, My Ancestors were migrant Arameans (some translations use the term wondering Aramean or Syrian) who went to Egypt for refuge. They were few in number, but in Egypt they became a might nation." They were conqured by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians, Seleucians and Roman and they intermarried with the different peoples that dwelled in their land, mostly the Greeks and Armenians.

·The Southern Canaanites dwelled in the mountain region from the Golan southwards, on both sides of the Jorden river and along the Mediterranean coast from the Gulf of Haifa to Jaffo, also known as the Biblical Canaan. They were composed by various tribes. Besides the proper Canaanites (Phoenicians), there were Amorites, Hittites and Hurrian peoples like the Yevusites, Hivvites and Horites. They never came together as an organized state but remained as separate tribes.

According to Genises the 12 sons of Jacob who's name was later changed to Israel were told by God not to marry the Canaanite women lest they temp them to follow their gods. However, some of the sons like Judah, for example, did marry Canaanite women. When the descendeds of these 12 sons of Jacob came back to the land after 400 years of slavery in Egypt and after many battles with the Canaanites many of the Canaanites intermarried with the Israelites and some became part of the Israelite army under King David. For example, Uriah the Hittite. Thus it is the Jewish Israelies that has more in common with the ancient Canaanites than the so-called Arab "Palestinians".

Is the Bible the only place that the Jews and Israel are mentioned in ancient times? It is very tempting to assume that the Bible is the only place that mentions Jews living in the ancient middle- east or a nation called Israel during ancient times and that there is no outside sources separate from the Bible to prove the fact. But is this true or is it just an assumption, a deliberate denial of history in order to deny the Jewish people their identity?

Let’s take a look at the following:

The Egyptian "Merneptah Stele" (also known as the Israel Stele), an upright stone slab which is over seven feet tall that contains hieroglyphic text dating to about 1230 BC. It describes the military victories of Pharaoh Merneptah and includes the earliest mention of "Israel" in the ancient world. It shows that the Israelites were already living as a people in ancient Canaan by 1230 BC.

In the great Karnak Temple of Luxor (ancient Thebes), a large wall picture was discovered which shows battle scenes between the Egyptians and Israelites. They too have been attributed to Pharaoh Merneptah and date to around 1209 BC. The Karnak Temple also contains records of Pharaoh Shishak's military victories over King Rehoboam of Judah in about 925 BC, when Solomon's Temple in Judah was ransacked.

The "Moabite Stone" (Mesha Stele) is a three-foot stone slab discovered near Dibon, east of the Dead Sea that tells of the reign of Mesha, King of Moab, around 850 BC. It tells of the victories by King Omri and King Ahab of Israel against Moab, and Mesha's later victories on behalf of Moab against King Ahab's descendants

The "Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser" a seven-foot, four-sided pillar of basalt that describes the victories of King Shalmaneser III of Assyria. It has been dated about 841 BC was discovered in the Northwest Palace at Nimrud and is now at the British Museum. It shows Israel's King Jehu kneeling before the Assyrian king in humble tribute.

In 1993, archaeologists discovered a stone at the ancient city of Dan with the inscription "House of David." The "House of David Inscription" (Tel Dan Inscription) stone is a victory pillar of a King in Damascus dated a couple hundred years after David's reign, which mentions a "king of Israel of the House of David." Over the next year, more inscription pieces were discovered at the site, which allowed archaeologists to reconstruct the entirety of the declaration: "I killed Jehoram son of Ahab king of Israel and I killed Ahaziahu son of Jehoram king of the House of David."

Besides mentioning Israel, Israelites and names of ancient Kings of Israel and Judah what is the other thing that the Merneptah Stele, the large wall picture and records of the Karnak Temple of Luxor, the Mesha Stele, the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser and Tel Dan Inscription have in common? They are all evidence outside of the Bible that shows that there was a nation called Israel, and Jewish people with their rulers living in what later became known as Palestine in the ancient Middle East.

Yes Virginia, there really was an ancient Israel. All the stories of King David and other ancient kings of Israel and Judah were not just made up by medieval European Christian monks!!!

The Palestinians have always been Arabs and Moslems which have lived in a country called Palestine for thousands of years. True or False:

The name “Palestinians” come from the name "Philistines". The name means invaders from other lands! It is not an ethnic category but an adjective to describe them: Peleshet, from the verb "pelesh", "dividers", "penetrators" or "invaders". They were a non-Semitic people that originated from Crete, the Aegin and Asia Minor. The Arabs are a Semitic people and thus those who now claim to be Palestinians cannot be descended from the ancient Philistines. As the Minoic culture disappeared from Crete when invaders from Greece took control of the island these ancient Cretans invaded Southern Canaan and were known as "Pelestim and Keretim" by the Hebrews and Canaanites who joined forces to fight them. Their first settlement was in Gaza which was originally named "Minoah", after the fallen Minoic kingdom. They also invaded Egypt and were defeated by Pharaoh Ramose III in the 12th century b.c.e. The Philistines were organized in city-states, being the most important the Pentapolis: Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron, and their territory was close to the Mediterranean coast, a little longer and broader than the present-day "Gaza Strip". They never reached Hebron, Jerusalem or Jericho.They did not have towns or villages in all of Cannaan.

These ancient Palestinians became forgotten to history and were not heard about again until they were "resurrected" by the Romans.

In the 2nd century c.e., the last attempt of the Jews to achieve independence from the Roman Empire ended with the well-known, historically documented and universally recognized event at Masada. This event started the Jewish Diaspora. The Land where these things happened was until then was called the province known as Judea or Judah which, by the way, King Nebucanezer of Ancient Babylon derived the name Jew which means of Judah and where the root word for Judaism or religion of the Jews is derived from. There is no mention of any place called "Palestine" before that time. The Roman emperor Hadrian despised the Jewish Nation and wanted to erase the name of Israel and Judah from the face of the Earth, so that there would be no memory of the country that belonged to the Jewish people. He decided to change the name to Palaestina or Palestine after the Philistines an ancient enemy of the Israelites.

The Ancient Romans, as well as modern Palestinians and their allies, have fulfilled the Hebrew Scriptures Prophecy that declares: "They lay crafty plans against Your People... they say: ‘come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more'." Psalm 83:3-4. There is no mention of the name Palestina in history before the Romans renamed the province of Judea. The name is not mentioned in any ancient documents. It is not found in the Bible, neither in the Hebrew Scriptures nor in the Christian Testament, not even in Assyrian, Persian, Macedonian, Ptolemaic, Seleucian or other Greek sources nor has any "Palestinian" people ever been mentioned, not even by the Romans that invented the term. There is no mention of any uprising against Roman occupation by Palestinians with Arabic Moslem names in the ancient historic records. Every historic document mentions the Jews as the native inhabitants, and the Greeks, Romans and others as foreigners dwelling in Judea, but not any Palestinian people, neither as native nor as foreigner. Furthermore, there is no mention of any Palestinian people in the Qur’an (Koran), although Muslims claim that their prophet was once in Jerusalem (an event that is not mentioned in the Koran either). It appears evident that he did not meet any Palestinian in his whole life, nor his successors did either. Caliph Salahuddin al-Ayyub (Saladin) knew the Jews and kindly invited them to settle in Jerusalem, that he recognized as their Homeland, but he did not know any Palestinian...

According to Bernard Lewis, an eminent authority, "The word Palestine does not occur in the Old Testament. . . . Palestine does not occur in the New Testament at all."

As many, including Professor Lewis, have pointed out, "From the end of the Jewish state in antiquity to the beginning of British rule, the area now designated by the name Palestine was not a country and had no frontiers, only administrative boundaries; it was a group of provincial subdivisions, by no means always the same, within a larger entity.

If the modern day Palestinians are truly native to the land that they like to call Palestine then how come there is no Palestinian flag let’s say from 1850, no ancient signet ring or coin with a name of a Palestinian King with an Arabic Muslim name like Mohammed, Jamal or Husain that can be carbon dated from ancient times?

The people whose nation was destroyed by the Romans were the Jews not Arab Palestinians. Not until seven hundred years would Arabs rule the Holy Land and they were not known as "Palestinians." This short Arab rule would be over Christians and Jews, who had suffered under various other foreign conquerors such as the Romans, Byzantines, Persians, etc. The peoples who conquered under the banner of the invading Arabians from the desert were often hired mercenaries who remained on the land as soldiers. Non -Arabians were also enticed by the promise of the booty of conquest.

Please note, besides the Arabs the following people groups have been called "indeginous Palestinians": Balkans, Greeks, Syrians, Latins, Egyptians, Turks, Armenians, Italians, Persians, Kurds, Germans, Afghans, Circassians, Bosnians, Sudanese, Samaritans, Algerians, Metafile, and Tartars. Also Germans, French, English, etc.

Do you get the irony here folks? Think about it. Hint: Whose biological ancestors are buried in the Holy Land but yet they are called foreign occupiers?

All of these people were considered Palestinian irreguardless of their ethnicity. Simply put, a Palestinian was anyone who lived in the region that was renamed Palestine by the Romans.

In the book from Time Immemorial (the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict in the Middle East) by Joan Peters, among the many things she points out in her book there are three I would like to point out. First, is the murder of thousands of Jews in the region of Palestine by the Crusaders which in itself should be enough proof that the Jews did not appear in so called Palestine for the first time in history in 1947-1948

Second, she investigated the claim of some “Palestinians” that back in 1901 a group of Palestinian farmers had come to the U.S. and taught better farming techniques to American farmers and thus Moslem Arabs of Palestine were farming the land of Palestine and creating cities. She checked the original news clippings of the time and other original source documents of the historic archives and guess what she discovered. Brace yourself: these Palestinian farmers were NOT Muslim they were Jewish!!!

And third, the Jerusalem Post was once called the Palestinian Post but if you examine one of the old Palestinian Post newspapers you would see that it was a very Jewish newspaper.

There is something else that I would like to point out for those who may be tempted to believe the Joan Peters went out of her way to paint Arabs and Moslems in a bad light. When she set out to do the research for her book from Time Immemorial she did so in order to find evidence of Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians in order to point out the displacement and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians by the Israelis, but when she examine the original source documents from historic archives she soon realized that it wasn’t the “Palestinians” who were victims of ethnic cleansing in the Middle East and the ones who were being displaced but it was the Jews.

Many “Palestinians” and their self-righteous allies like to claim that Zionism is racism in the ASSumption that all the Jews living in Israel came from Europe and are therefore White and thus chauvinistic towards the darker skinned Arabs. However, if you examine the facts most of the Israeli Jews that have returned came from other Middle East countries, Africa and Asia, and there are some who in fact trace their family ties generation after generations for thousands of years to the Holy Land. In other words, these Jews escaped the Diaspora. They never lived in Europe let alone the U.S., and therefore are indigenous and not so-called White colonists.

From 1517 to 1917 most of terroritory of Palestine remained under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

Ottoman Empire was dissolved at the end of World War I. Its successor, modern republic of Turkey, transferred Palestine to British Empire control under the Lausanne agreement that followed WW I.

In 1917 Great Britain issued the Balfour Agreement for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". In 1922 Britain set aside about 80% of Palestine to theTransjordan. Thus, Jordan covered the majority of the land of Palestine under the British Mandate. Jordan also includes the majority of the Arabs who lived there. In other words, Jordan is the Arab portion of Palestine.

The residents of Palestine are called "Palestinians". Since Palestine includes both modern day Israel and Jordan both Arab and Jewish residents of this area were referred to as "Palestinians".

Much of the Arab population in this area actually migrated into Israel and Judea and Samaria from the surrounding Arab countries in the past 100 years. The rebirth of Israel was accompanied by economic prosperity for the region. Arabs migrated to this area to find employment and enjoy the higher standard of living. In documents of about a hundred years ago the area is described as a scarcely populated region. Jews by far were the majority in Jerusalem over the small Arab minority. Until the Oslo agreement the major source of income for Arab residents was employment in the Israeli sector. To this day, many Arabs try to migrate into Israel with various deceptions to become a citizen of Israel.

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted to partition what remained of the British Mandate of Palestine into two states: one Jewish, and one Arab. The Jews accepted the proposal but the Arabs rejected it. This means they could have had their own nation back then but they opt for the dream of Appartidism against the Jews in the hopes of making “Palestine” rid of Jews. (More about this on another hub) Then on May 14, 1948 the first Prime Minister of the Modern State of Israel David Ben Gurion in the Israeli Knesset made the historic radio announcement that the Jewish State of Palestine was to be named Israel.

The “Palestinians” have always called themselves Palestinians: True or False

"There is no such country as Palestine. 'Palestine' is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria. 'Palestine' is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it".

- Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, Syrian Arab leader to British Peel Commission, 1937 -

"There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not".

- Professor Philip Hitti, Arab historian, 1946 -

"It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but Southern Syria".

- Representantive of Saudi Arabia at the United Nations, 1956 -

Concerning the Holy Land, the chairman of the Syrian Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in February 1919 stated:

"The only Arab domination since the Conquest in 635 c.e. hardly lasted, as such, 22 years".

"There are no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. We are all part of one nation. It is only for political reasons that we carefully underline our Palestinian identity... yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel".

- Zuhair Muhsin, military commander of the PLO and member of the PLO Executive Council -

"You do not represent Palestine as much as we do. Never forget this one point: There is no such thing as a Palestinian people, there is no Palestinian entity, there is only Syria. You are an integral part of the Syrian people; Palestine is an integral part of Syria. Therefore it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the true representatives of the Palestinian people".

- Syrian dictator Hafez Assad to the PLO leader Yassir Arafat

Ahem!! Notice these statements? Do they look like the so-called “Palestinians” have always called themselves Palestinians or that they claim to have a long history like thousands of years in the land? I don’t think so!! Also if the place where the Dome of the Rock stands was always Muslim then how come when the Islamic authorities excavated the area in order to make more room for more worshippers did they do so hastily destroying ancient artifacts and dumping them in refuse dumps? You would think they would want to be more careful with Islamic artifacts. Wouldn’t you? GOTCHA “Palestinians”!!!

Also, a few years ago the “Palestinians” were demanding that the Israelis return the Dead Sea Scrolls to them saying that they belonged to them and were a part of their heritage. Oh, really now! And I supposed you were showing respect for these ancient documents that are “part of your heritage” when you cut out pieces of them and sold them as souvenirs to tourist!!!

GOTCHA again!!

LIERS, LIERS, LIERS!!!

Now who is really occupying whom? What I find amazing is that there hasn’t been a Jewish equivalent to an intifada.

Until next time, take care!

RWritings

P.S. Dear Hub Page I revamped this article. Please let me know if it is o.k. That there is no plagerism or copying other authors' writings. I will edit it some more if necessary.