Palestine
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
Palestine is the Anglicization of the Latin Palaestina, the name given by the Romans to Judaea, Samaria, Galilee and Peraea. It derives from Philistia and properly refers only to the coastal strip once occupied by the Philistines. The name was imposed after the Jewish revolt as part of a Roman attempt to extirpate the Jewish rebellion completely.
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Later History (70 - 1940)
After the Jewish revolt of 70 AD and the Bar Kochba revolt of 142, the Jews were mostly dispersed away from their land, but many eventually returned and there has always been a Jewish population of some kind.
The land was occupied by successive conquerors, notably the first Muslim conquest, the Crusaders and the Muslim reconquest under Saladin.
The area was under Turkish rule for several centuries. It was a neglected and poverty-stricken area, with few inhabitants, but in the 1840s Jews had a plurality of the population of Jerusalem. In the late nineteenth century, the Zionist movement began, inspired by Theodor Herzl, with the aim of establishing a homeland for the Jews in their original land. Jews began to come back to the land in increasing numbers, buying property from local inhabitants or from Turkish absentee landlords.
During the First World War, it was occupied by the British and awarded to them after that war as a protectorate by a League of Nations mandate. In 1917, the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, wrote a letter to Lord Rothschild expressing sympathy for the Zionist movement and promising British support for it, but the British government, wishing to appease the Arabs and gain secure access to Middle Eastern oil, later reneged on this declaration. In 1929, Arab rioters, inspired by inflammatory sermons from the Mufti of Jerusalem, attacked Jews. It was necessary for Jews to arm themselves for self-defence, but they were hindered by the British who failed to take proper action against Muslim attacks.
Modern times (1940 to Present)
In 1947, the United Nations voted to divide Palestine (being land west of the Jordan River) into separate Jewish and Arab states. David Ben-Gurion, then Prime Minister, accepted it. However, the surrounding Arab nations refused to accept this and all five of them attacked the newly declared state of Israel on its first day of existence, 15 May 1948. They called on local Arabs to leave their homes so as to give them a clear field for their attack; however their attacks were repelled and they were eventually defeated. As a result, the Arabs who had left their homes were unable to return, and were established in refugee camps around the borders of Israel. These 1948 borders were the lines where fighting had stopped. The Israelis had forced a narrow corridor from the coastal plain up to Jerusalem, but Jerusalem was a divided city. The rest of the land west of the Jordan (the West Bank) was annexed and ruled by Jordan until 1967 when Egypt and Syria were defeated in the 6-day War, and Jerusalem was united again.
This event is held to be very significant in prophecy, because Jesus said that "Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles have been fulfilled".
Following the State of Israel's establishment it has become clear to most that Arab governments do not want long-term peace, perhaps short-term but only for the fulfillment of their ultimate objective, which is a Middle East without Israel.
Palestine has never existed as a nation, except as a Jewish state. The region known as Palestine was ruled by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, by the Ottoman Empire, and briefly by the British after World War I. The British then agreed to restore at least part of the land to the Jewish people as their ancestral homeland. It was never ruled by Arabs as a separate nation.
Palestinian people
On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein.
| “ | The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.
For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan. (Zahir Muhsein, executive committee member) [1] | ” |
The Palestinian struggle was to conquer Jewish land! Israel as a nation state with defined borders agreed upon by the international community has a justifiable right to defend itself, and has been in that position throughout the history of its maintenance as a country. In fact, on the same day Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestinian "cause and struggle," signed the Declaration of Principles on the White House lawn in 1993, he explained his actions on Jordan TV.
| “ | Since we cannot defeat Israel in war, we do this in stages. We take any and every territory that we can of Palestine, and establish a sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel. (Yasser Arafat, PLO leader) [2] | ” |
Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir has made bold statements such as this:
| “ | There is no such thing as a Palestinian people. | ” |
The current leader of the Palestinian movement and who is recognized as legitimate, Muhammad Abbas actually casts doubt regarding the historical right for Palestinian people over Christians;
| “ | ... murdering, executing people on the street, throwing fighters from tall buildings, and looting security headquarters, public facilities and Christian houses of worship. [Indeed,] even the churches were not spared. One of the oldest churches in Palestine, which stood long before our arrival [in the region], was looted and set on fire. There are Christians among us, and they are our brothers, and now we discover that [according to Hamas] they are enemies and must leave [Palestine]?! [3] | ” |
The establishment of Israel had been achieved, because prophetically it was important and established long ago. Israel has always aroused strong hostility by merely existing. The use of the name Palestine as it is used today in the political sense, for the land, only encourages and further propagates the propaganda of the more extreme, fanatical Palestinian people. A political agenda that supports the ultimate destruction of Israel, and Jews specifically, is widely documented in history, though mostly ignored by the mainstream media. The Arab so-called Palestinians have manufactured conflict [4], they refused to allow the populations of the refugee camps to be absorbed. Meanwhile, Israel absorbed 700,000 Jews who were expelled from Arab countries, and for the most part robbed of their property.
Among the popular myths about the land of Israel is that Jews have never had a presence in what is now in the modern sense considered Palestine. In fact, the Jews have always maintained a significant presence there and even within the last century before the establishment of the State of Israel at times had a majority in Jerusalem.
References
- ↑ James Dorsey, Wij zijn alleen Palestijn om politieke reden, Trouw, 31 March 1977 (translation unverified), as cited in Zuheir Mohsen by Wikipedia
- ↑ Sound the alarm by Jan Willem van der Hoeven for Israel Insider. June 20, 2002
- ↑ Abbas Admits Palestinian Arabs Not Original Inhabitants Of Israel by Zionist Organization of America
- ↑ Palestinian documentaries by Second Draft
External Links
- Iraqi Author 'Aref 'Alwan: The Jews Have an Historic Right to Palestine by MEMRI. April 15, 2008
- Lovers of Zion: A History of Christian Zionism by Dr. Thomas Ice for Pre-Trib Research Center
- What did Yasser Arafat do to promote the peace process started in 1991? by Palestinefacts.org
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