Myth #2: Jews and Muslims "have been killing each other forever."
As I write this, Israel and Hamas are fighting each other in the Gaza Strip, to the world's horror. Whenever the Israeli-Palestinian conflict flares up like this, people inevitably say something like, “Those people have been killing each other forever; they're not going to stop any time soon.” The problem with this line of thinking is that not only is it overly-pessimistic, but it's wrong. Well, okay, people everywhere have been killing each other forever, but the Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself is a much newer phenomenon.
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all stem from the same tradition. At the time of Muhammad, most of the Middle East (west of Persia) was Christian, but Arabians were still pagan. The Quran was conceived as God's revelations specifically to the pagan Arabians, who were then to spread this, the last prophecy of God, to the other nas al-kitaab (“People of the Book”) who had misinterpreted the revelations of prophets like Moses and Jesus, and distorted their doctrines. Islam was an update, the way Christianity had been an update to Judaism.
When the Arab armies conquered Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, they encountered a population that was part pagan, part Jewish, and mostly Christian. As discussed in the last entry, the People of the Book were allowed to worship and live as they pleased, so long as they paid their taxes.
That said, over the centuries, sometimes the reality on the street was somewhat different. It can safely be said that before the foundation of Israel, there really was no truly safe place in the world for Jews. In both Christian Europe and the Muslim Middle East, Jews were at times scapegoated by angry mobs and local demagogues.
In the Holy Land itself, Palestine, all three faiths coexisted under the Caliphate. In fact, Palestine is notable for it's general lack of pogroms against Jews (except during the Crusades, when Christian soldiers from Europe invaded the Holy Land and killed many Jews). Elsewhere in the Muslim world, as in Europe, Jews were occasionally persecuted. Notable pogroms in Muslim lands occurred in Grenada in 1066; Morocco in 1033, 1276, and 1465; Persia in 1839; and in Baghdad in 1941.
Still, Jews were arguably safer in Muslim lands than they were in Christian lands. Jews being persecuted in Europe usually fled to Muslim countries: from England in 1290; France in 1391; Austria in 1421; Spain in 1492; Portugal in 1497. Most Jewish refugees from Europe fled to Morocco or Palestine.
This brings us to the cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 1896, Theodor Hertzl, a Hungarian Jewish journalist, wrote Der Judenstaat (“The Jewish State”), which articulated the realization among some European Jews that no matter how good things were beginning to get for them in Europe, they'd never truly be safe from persecution until they had their own state and government. This was Zionism, which referred to the Biblical Land of Zion, given by God to the Israelites. In 1897 the First Zionist Congress declared its decision to set up a Jewish national home in Palestine.
At first this was a fringe idea, and small groups of European Jews moved to Palestine starting in the 1870's and established communes. The Ottoman Turkish government, which controlled Palestine at the time, tried unsuccessfully to slow European Jewish immigration to Palestine. Over time, the idea grew, which began to cause friction, because the European immigrants upset the landlord relationship present in Palestine at the time. Most Palestinians didn't own the land on which they lived and worked. They rented it from a landlord. But if that landlord sold his land to a group of European Jewish immigrants, suddenly all the peasants working that land were homeless and without a way to feed their families.
At first this only affected a small number of people, but Zionism as an idea was gaining steam in Europe. After World War I, control of Palestine passed to Britain, and Jewish immigration sped up. More and more Palestinians were losing their land and forming an urban underclass. And it must be kept in mind that the European immigrants were forcing Palestinians off their land regardless of their religion, and many Jewish and Christian Palestinians lost their land to the newcomers. The conflict's divide was not yet between Muslim and Jew, but between Arab and European.
That changed in 1920. That year, tensions boiled over and riots erupted between Arabs and European Jews in Palestine. Anti-semitism began growing in the non-Jew Palestinian population. After that, Palestinian Jews increasingly identified with the Zionists.
After the outbreak of riots, Britain began to reconsider its support for Jewish immigration to Palestine. They tried to limit immigration, but by that time the rise of Hitler in Germany made it impossible. Jews were pouring out of Germany, fleeing persecution. Most went to America, but many went to Palestine.
The Jewish immigrants were well-funded, well-organized, and shared a common ideology and world view. There was a real spirit of camaraderie and cooperation among them, especially on the communes, and especially with the rise of Hitler. They bought as much of the best land in Palestine as they could, and they set up a parallel government (the Jewish Agency) besides the British colonial government. They joined the Royal Army and Royal Air Force and became skilled soldiers.
The Palestinians, on the other hand, were generally poor. They were divided along tribal lines and effectively leaderless. They worked within the British colonial government, and were as such dependent on it. This would become significant later, when that government ceased to be.
By 1945 the European Jewish population of Palestine had swelled to 25% of the whole. Britain had tried to work out a settlement between the two sides, without success. The Zionist government in Palestine felt confident about its own power. The Zionist army, which had gained experience fighting with the British and had become skilled veterans, began attacking British troops and bombing British military sites. They raided guns and even tanks, stockpiling them. Meanwhile, riots between Palestinians and Jews continued.
Between 1947 and 1948 Britain decided that enough was enough and began walking away. As they left, war broke out between the Zionists and the Palestinians, which the Zionists easily won. As the Zionists took control of Palestine, they evicted the Palestinians who remained in Jewish-controlled areas, forcibly removing hundreds of thousands of non-Jews. Many other Palestinians fled their homes, expecting to return once the Zionists were defeated.
As soon as the British had completely left, on 14 May 1948, the State of Israel declared its independence. The Jewish Agency became the government of Israel, and David Ben-Gurion became the first Prime Minister.
Immediately the Arab states around Israel launched a combined attack. Israel was completely surrounded and cut off by a British blockade, but they managed to stave off the attack and maintain their independence. This unlikely victory against overwhelming odds has cemented itself in Israeli popular history, an object of wonder at how close the Jewish state came to not existing. Since then, Israelis have maintained a strong military, in which every young Israeli must serve. They have fought numerous wars with the Arab countries around them, who traditionally sympathized with the displaced Palestinians. Each time, the survival of the tiny country was thrown into question, and the mindset of struggling for their very survival is omnipresent in Israeli society and politics.
Similarly, Palestinians felt that they were fighting for their survival as a people. Most Palestinians live in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, or in the two parts of Palestine not taken by the Israelis - the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. From there, they launch attacks into Israel, guerilla raids, suicide bombings, and rocket attacks. To many of these Palestinian fighters, civilians are considered fair game, because every Israeli man, woman, and child is essentially an invader. It is not about religion, but about their displacement before the Manifest Destiny of Zionism. They are afraid of going the way of the native Americans.
For most Israelis , it is not about religion either. Rather, they fear for the survival of their community and their culture, and they defend it tooth and nail against any threat. The mantra, “Never again,” referring to the Holocaust, is viscerally felt by many Israelis. And they feel that if Israel looses, just once, then the safety embodied by a Jewish state will be lost forever. Both sides are fighting for the existence of their identity.
This is the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Not religion. And the conflict hasn't been going on for thousands of years. The conflict began with the Zionist-Arab riots of 1920, and really got started when Israel was declared in 1948. This is not to say that the problem is easily solvable; it isn't. So many wrongs have been committed in the last 60 years that neither side wants to give an inch. And it will not end easily or soon, in all likelihood. But it isn't an ancient or inherent struggle, which should give us some hope that it can be ended.
For more information I highly recommend Ken Blady's book Jewish Communities in Exotic Places, which documents the Jewish experience not only in the Middle East, but all over the world. Specific to Palestine, Ilan Pappe's A History of Modern Palestine is extremely comprehensive and accessible.
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all stem from the same tradition. At the time of Muhammad, most of the Middle East (west of Persia) was Christian, but Arabians were still pagan. The Quran was conceived as God's revelations specifically to the pagan Arabians, who were then to spread this, the last prophecy of God, to the other nas al-kitaab (“People of the Book”) who had misinterpreted the revelations of prophets like Moses and Jesus, and distorted their doctrines. Islam was an update, the way Christianity had been an update to Judaism.
When the Arab armies conquered Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, they encountered a population that was part pagan, part Jewish, and mostly Christian. As discussed in the last entry, the People of the Book were allowed to worship and live as they pleased, so long as they paid their taxes.
That said, over the centuries, sometimes the reality on the street was somewhat different. It can safely be said that before the foundation of Israel, there really was no truly safe place in the world for Jews. In both Christian Europe and the Muslim Middle East, Jews were at times scapegoated by angry mobs and local demagogues.
In the Holy Land itself, Palestine, all three faiths coexisted under the Caliphate. In fact, Palestine is notable for it's general lack of pogroms against Jews (except during the Crusades, when Christian soldiers from Europe invaded the Holy Land and killed many Jews). Elsewhere in the Muslim world, as in Europe, Jews were occasionally persecuted. Notable pogroms in Muslim lands occurred in Grenada in 1066; Morocco in 1033, 1276, and 1465; Persia in 1839; and in Baghdad in 1941.
Still, Jews were arguably safer in Muslim lands than they were in Christian lands. Jews being persecuted in Europe usually fled to Muslim countries: from England in 1290; France in 1391; Austria in 1421; Spain in 1492; Portugal in 1497. Most Jewish refugees from Europe fled to Morocco or Palestine.
This brings us to the cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 1896, Theodor Hertzl, a Hungarian Jewish journalist, wrote Der Judenstaat (“The Jewish State”), which articulated the realization among some European Jews that no matter how good things were beginning to get for them in Europe, they'd never truly be safe from persecution until they had their own state and government. This was Zionism, which referred to the Biblical Land of Zion, given by God to the Israelites. In 1897 the First Zionist Congress declared its decision to set up a Jewish national home in Palestine.
At first this was a fringe idea, and small groups of European Jews moved to Palestine starting in the 1870's and established communes. The Ottoman Turkish government, which controlled Palestine at the time, tried unsuccessfully to slow European Jewish immigration to Palestine. Over time, the idea grew, which began to cause friction, because the European immigrants upset the landlord relationship present in Palestine at the time. Most Palestinians didn't own the land on which they lived and worked. They rented it from a landlord. But if that landlord sold his land to a group of European Jewish immigrants, suddenly all the peasants working that land were homeless and without a way to feed their families.
At first this only affected a small number of people, but Zionism as an idea was gaining steam in Europe. After World War I, control of Palestine passed to Britain, and Jewish immigration sped up. More and more Palestinians were losing their land and forming an urban underclass. And it must be kept in mind that the European immigrants were forcing Palestinians off their land regardless of their religion, and many Jewish and Christian Palestinians lost their land to the newcomers. The conflict's divide was not yet between Muslim and Jew, but between Arab and European.
That changed in 1920. That year, tensions boiled over and riots erupted between Arabs and European Jews in Palestine. Anti-semitism began growing in the non-Jew Palestinian population. After that, Palestinian Jews increasingly identified with the Zionists.
After the outbreak of riots, Britain began to reconsider its support for Jewish immigration to Palestine. They tried to limit immigration, but by that time the rise of Hitler in Germany made it impossible. Jews were pouring out of Germany, fleeing persecution. Most went to America, but many went to Palestine.
The Jewish immigrants were well-funded, well-organized, and shared a common ideology and world view. There was a real spirit of camaraderie and cooperation among them, especially on the communes, and especially with the rise of Hitler. They bought as much of the best land in Palestine as they could, and they set up a parallel government (the Jewish Agency) besides the British colonial government. They joined the Royal Army and Royal Air Force and became skilled soldiers.
The Palestinians, on the other hand, were generally poor. They were divided along tribal lines and effectively leaderless. They worked within the British colonial government, and were as such dependent on it. This would become significant later, when that government ceased to be.
By 1945 the European Jewish population of Palestine had swelled to 25% of the whole. Britain had tried to work out a settlement between the two sides, without success. The Zionist government in Palestine felt confident about its own power. The Zionist army, which had gained experience fighting with the British and had become skilled veterans, began attacking British troops and bombing British military sites. They raided guns and even tanks, stockpiling them. Meanwhile, riots between Palestinians and Jews continued.
Between 1947 and 1948 Britain decided that enough was enough and began walking away. As they left, war broke out between the Zionists and the Palestinians, which the Zionists easily won. As the Zionists took control of Palestine, they evicted the Palestinians who remained in Jewish-controlled areas, forcibly removing hundreds of thousands of non-Jews. Many other Palestinians fled their homes, expecting to return once the Zionists were defeated.
As soon as the British had completely left, on 14 May 1948, the State of Israel declared its independence. The Jewish Agency became the government of Israel, and David Ben-Gurion became the first Prime Minister.
Immediately the Arab states around Israel launched a combined attack. Israel was completely surrounded and cut off by a British blockade, but they managed to stave off the attack and maintain their independence. This unlikely victory against overwhelming odds has cemented itself in Israeli popular history, an object of wonder at how close the Jewish state came to not existing. Since then, Israelis have maintained a strong military, in which every young Israeli must serve. They have fought numerous wars with the Arab countries around them, who traditionally sympathized with the displaced Palestinians. Each time, the survival of the tiny country was thrown into question, and the mindset of struggling for their very survival is omnipresent in Israeli society and politics.
Similarly, Palestinians felt that they were fighting for their survival as a people. Most Palestinians live in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, or in the two parts of Palestine not taken by the Israelis - the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. From there, they launch attacks into Israel, guerilla raids, suicide bombings, and rocket attacks. To many of these Palestinian fighters, civilians are considered fair game, because every Israeli man, woman, and child is essentially an invader. It is not about religion, but about their displacement before the Manifest Destiny of Zionism. They are afraid of going the way of the native Americans.
For most Israelis , it is not about religion either. Rather, they fear for the survival of their community and their culture, and they defend it tooth and nail against any threat. The mantra, “Never again,” referring to the Holocaust, is viscerally felt by many Israelis. And they feel that if Israel looses, just once, then the safety embodied by a Jewish state will be lost forever. Both sides are fighting for the existence of their identity.
This is the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Not religion. And the conflict hasn't been going on for thousands of years. The conflict began with the Zionist-Arab riots of 1920, and really got started when Israel was declared in 1948. This is not to say that the problem is easily solvable; it isn't. So many wrongs have been committed in the last 60 years that neither side wants to give an inch. And it will not end easily or soon, in all likelihood. But it isn't an ancient or inherent struggle, which should give us some hope that it can be ended.
For more information I highly recommend Ken Blady's book Jewish Communities in Exotic Places, which documents the Jewish experience not only in the Middle East, but all over the world. Specific to Palestine, Ilan Pappe's A History of Modern Palestine is extremely comprehensive and accessible.