Questions & Learning Relevant History of Israel/Palestine

October 15, 2023

Hopefully making a separate thread will make this better.

One thing I guess I am still stuck on is that the Jews who were there in ancient times were often subject to discriminatory laws and sometimes expelled from their indigenous lands. So why is it okay to root for one side to take over their indigenous lands but not the other side? Some people paint Gaza as resistance against a colonizing power, but wouldn't the Jews entering back into Israel be doing the exact same thing? That may be the crux of my issue. Why is this not a double standard?

So far other users have pointed out some potentially useful readings:

October 16, 2023

According to Jewish and Christian scripture, the ancient Israelites were promised that land by God and were told to conquer those who already lived there--including women and children. We essentially have one group trying to reclaim their homeland and another trying to reclaim the land that God himself promised them. Think of how many generations on both sides have carried this sense of belonging to the land and the land belonging to them.

I find both those perspectives to be valid, which is why I think we will never see peace there.

James Michener's book The Source is set in this area of the world and helped me get a grasp of some of the issues. It's a looooong read, of course, but it might be helpful to some.

October 16, 2023

If my understanding is correct, the Palestinian people are descended from the Philistines, who were the people the Israelites originally fought way back in the Old Testament/Torah several thousand years ago. Someone correct me if I’m wrong about that though. They have no where else to go, as this is their native land.

October 16, 2023

43 minutes ago, treehugger said:

If my understanding is correct, the Palestinian people are descended from the Philistines, who were the people the Israelites originally fought way back in the Old Testament/Torah several thousand years ago. Someone correct me if I’m wrong about that though. They have no where else to go, as this is their native land.

I don't know this for sure so also am willing to be corrected. But, I think the term Palestinian refers to a very broad group of people who have lived in the region for millenniums. So possibly the descendants of Philistines but more likely also the descendants of a many different people groups who passed through and settled in the area.

Because of trade routes and the religious significance of that area to much of the western world, there would have been a steady influx of people and intermarrying. Ethnographically and linguistically they are classified as Arabic. Religiously they (once upon a time) encompassed a broad range: Sunni Muslim, Orthodox Christian, Druze, Samaritan, etc.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Palestinians I think made up around 90% of the population and Jewish people approximately 10%. With steady immigration of Jewish people and the founding of modern day Israel, the percentages obviously switched.

It seems to me that the hostility between modern Jews/Israelis and modern Palestinians is NOT a conflict that has gone on for millenniums or even centuries. Rather it is a very modern conflict that began around the time of the establishment of the state of Israel.

To say, oh the fighting has been happening there forever and it will never end IMO is a cop-out and not historically accurate.

(I both understand why Israel was founded and support its existence, to be clear. But I also think the treatment of the Palestinians has been awful.)

October 16, 2023

Ahh, thank you @noseybutt. I appreciate the clarification and confess that my intense, Biblical childhood training tends to skew my perspective at times.