A HISTORY OF DISASTER: LAND AND RELIGION IN ISRAEL AND PALESTINE
Written by Mneesha Gellman
Toward Freedom, VT
Oct 11 2005
When the sun sets on the holy city of Jerusalem, the thick limestone
buildings are cast in a shimmering gold light. The ancient Old City
contains the Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Armenian Quarters, and the
religious mood is palpable in every alleyway. On Friday nights the
air is thick with Hebrew singing welcoming in the Sabbath, mingling
with the Arabic call to prayer from the mosques, and church bells
peal through the dusk. The interconnection between land conflict
and religious conflict is clearest in the Old City of Jerusalem
where the Western Wall borders the Dome of the Rock. The Western
Wall which stands today is part of the second temple complex which
was gradually rebuilt by the Jews upon the ruins of the first temple
when they returned from exile. After a period of rule by the Greeks,
Jerusalem was incorporated into Roman-occupied Palestine in 63 BC,
and when the Jews revolted against the Romans in 70 AD the second
temple was destroyed. The part of the Western wall which remains
standing is believed to be the closest place to the Holy of Holies
that Jews are allowed to go.
Millions of Jews make pilgrimages to the Wall every year, but generally
Israeli military prohibit Jews from entering Muslim-controlled Dome
of the Rock plaza for fear of violence from either side. Messianic
Jews believe they are not allowed to enter the Holiest of Holies
until the messiah comes, and thus they would refuse to enter the
Dome of the Rock complex anyway, for fear of treading on the area
prematurely. Tourists, however, flock to this controversial attraction.
Built atop the earlier location of the first and second Jewish Temple,
the Dome of the Rock was built by the Muslim ruler Abd el-Malik in
688-691 AD. Muslims believe this is the place from where Allah lifted
the prophet Mohammad into the sky and took him on a night tour of the
heavens. The gold-domed building is considered a shrine to this event,
and not a mosque.
Men pray instead at the Al Aqsa mosque located right next door,
and Muslims have sanctified this as the third most holy place in
the Muslim world, after shrines in Mecca and Medina, both in Saudi
Arabia. The fervor with which both Jews and Muslims believe in their
differentiated religious histories of the Dome of the Rock, Temple
Mount, and Western Wall area has led to bloody clashes and these places
are a major source of the ongoing discord between the two groups.
Origins of Zionism
In 1896 Theodor Herzl published his highly influential book The
Jewish State, and the following year the first Zionist Congress met
in Basle, Switzerland to discuss the idea of a Jewish state. This
was in response to the waves of anti-Semitic pogroms sweeping Europe
which systematically murdered the Jewish population from Estonia
to Ukraine. Whenever possible, European Jews fled. By 1914, 65,000
Jewish immigrants were living alongside half a million Arabs in the
Turkish Ottoman Empire that is now Israel and Palestine. Relations
between the groups were generally peaceful at this point in history.
In 1917, the British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour had committed
Britain to work toward “the establishment in Palestine of a national
home for the Jewish people”, in a letter to leading Zionist Lord
Rothschild (BBC). “The Balfour Declaration, made in November 1917 by
the British Government…was made a) by a European power, b) about a
non-European territory, c) in flat disregard of both the presence and
wishes of the native majority resident in that territory” according
to Edward Said in his book “The Question of Palestine.” In fact
“In 1916 the British Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, had
promised the Arab leadership post-war independence for former Ottoman
Arab provinces since they aligned themselves with the Allies (BBC).
To nobody’s surprise, this double dealing had disastrous results.
On December 9, 1917, as World War I neared its end, Jerusalem
surrendered to the British forces. This act marked the end of four
centuries of Ottoman-Turk rule and the beginning of thirty years of
British rule (Palestine Facts). Unable to keep promises to both the
Arabs and the Jews, Britain subdivided the Palestine Mandate along
the Jordan River-Gulf of Aqaba line. The eastern portion–called
Transjordan–was to have a separate Arab administration operating
under the general supervision of the commissioner for Palestine,
and the western portion would be given to the Jews (Palestine Facts).
Uneasy relations existed between the two groups until the situation
exploded into violence with the establishment of the state of Israel
in 1948.
Land Wars
The day after the state of Israel was declared in 1948, five Arab
armies from Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq immediately invaded
Israel but were initially repulsed
Eventually the Arab forces won key sections of land but many lives
were lost on all sides. Armistices established Israel’s borders on the
frontier of most of the earlier British Mandate Palestine. Egypt kept
the Gaza Strip while Jordan annexed the area around East Jerusalem and
the land now known as the West Bank. These territories made up about
25% of the total area of British Mandate Palestine” (BBC). When the
Jewish Quarter of the Old City was surrendered to the Arab armies,
Jews lost access to their most sacred place, the Western Wall. From
then on, the religious Jewish community struck out at the Arab
population whenever possible, in retaliation for taking away their
access to the Wall.
Prolonged tension between Israel and its Arab neighbors culminated
again in six days of hostilities starting on June 5, 1967 and ending
on June 11. The War of 1967 changed the geographic map considerably.
“Israel seized Gaza and the Sinai from Egypt in the south and the Golan
Heights from Syria in the north. It also pushed Jordanian forces out
of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The territorial gains doubled the
area of land controlled by Israel. The victory heralded a new age of
confidence and optimism for Israel and its supporters. The UN issued
Security Council Resolution 242, stressing “the inadmissibility of
the acquisition of territory by war” and calling for “withdrawal
of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent
conflict.” According to the UN, the conflict displaced another
500,000 Palestinians who fled to Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan”
(BBC). Israel was trying to fulfill the Zionist vision of creating
a modern state with Biblical borders. When “occupied Palestine” is
referred to, it is usually originating from the 1967 conflict when the
West Bank of Jordan and the Gaza strip of Egypt were taken by Israel.
After trying to negotiate with international authorities to regain
the territory they had lost in 1967, in 1973 Egypt and Syria launched
major offensives against Israel on the Jewish festival of the Day of
Atonement or Yom Kippur. The Yom Kippur War, as it is known to Jews,
and the Ramadan War as known to Arabs, ended in January 1974, when
Israeli Defense Forces withdrew across the Suez canal of Egypt and
on May 31, 1974, agreed with Syria to withdraw to the 1967 cease-fire
line in the Golan Heights (On War). Israel’s dependence on the US for
military, diplomatic and economic aid increased at this time. Soon
afterwards, Saudi Arabia led a petroleum embargo against nations that
supported Israel, causing inflated gasoline prices and fuel shortages
across the US (BBC), remembered by my parents as the long gas pump
lines of the early 1970s.
Why Intifada?
The first Intifada, translated as the “shaking off” of the Israeli
occupation, began on December 8, 1987 when four Palestinian men waiting
at a checkpoint into Gaza were crushed to death by an Israeli army
transporter (Jerusalemites). The resulting spontaneous explosion of
popular resistance to the occupation rattled the world.
“Protest took the form of civil disobedience, general strikes,
boycotts on Israeli products, graffiti, and barricades, but it was
the stone-throwing demonstrations against the heavily-armed occupation
troops that captured international attention” (BBC).
“According to the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in
the Occupied Territories, 1124 Palestinians lost their lives in the
first Intifada. Some 16,000 were imprisoned and many were routinely
tortured. Fewer than 50 Israeli civilians were killed” (Al Jazeera).
This first Intifada was concluded with the Oslo Peace Accords of 1993,
which attempted to bring calm to the region, but really perpetuated
the occupation by allowing the Israeli Defense Force soldiers to
maintain all their positions in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israeli settlements in Palestine increased dramatically during this
cease-fire period, and many Palestinian homes and olive orchards
were demolished both to make room for the settlements and as acts of
vengeance. Palestine was divided into areas A, B, and C depending on
if they were under all, some, or no jurisdiction of the Palestinian
Authority. Residents of Palestine were not allowed to travel Israel
and visa versa.
The physical control of Palestine by Israel increased dramatically,
while the international community assumed progress was being made
to restore Palestinian rights, since the Oslo agreement was called
a Peace Accord. “The Palestinian leadership, impotent in the face
of Israeli aggression, agreed to seemingly unlimited concessions to
Israeli demands – until there was no more to give. Instead of setting
the stage for Palestinians to move toward freedom and independence,
Oslo was dragging them toward fragmentation and surrender”
(Jerusalemites). Although negotiations with Israelis were starting
to address the four points critical to Palestinians: Jerusalem, the
settlements, refugees, and the establishment of an independent state,
little progress was made. Suicide bombings and soldier violence kept
both sides wound tight in a web of fear and anger, negating any real
chance for dialogue.
The second Intifada began on September 28, 2000 when Ariel Sharon, then
leader of the Likud Knesset opposition (conservative Israeli government
political party) went, heavily guarded by a 1,500 person police escort,
to visit the Temple Mount and enter the al Aqsa Mosque. Although
Sharon had stated he was going on a peace delegation, while there,
he declared the area the eternal territory of the Israelis.
This flagrant insult to the Islamic faith touched off riots by
the Palestinians, who saw Sharon’s actions as the ultimate symbol
of occupation, that not even the holiest Muslim place of worship
was free from Israeli government and military presence. Violence
followed. Palestinians threw stones, Israeli soldiers shot bullets.
“In the first six days of the Intifada, 61 Palestinians were killed
and 2,657 were injured” (Answers). From September 29, 2000 through
May 31st, 2004, the average number of Palestinians killed stands at
2.26 per day. The total killed is 3,023, and the number of wounded
is many times more. Because of their superior weapons and regional
control, Israeli soldiers have been able to inflict much more damage
than they have incurred, and the US has financially supported much
of their military development.
Palestine’s most famous scholar and political commentator Edward Said
notes that time hasn’t improved the lot of his people. “The fact is
that Palestinians are dramatically worse off than they were before the
Oslo process began. Their annual income is less than half of what it
was in 1992; they are unable to travel from place to place; more of
their land has been taken than ever before; more settlements exist;
and Jerusalem is practically lost…” (Said, The Progressive).
Mneesha Gellman is Associate Producer of “A World of Possibilities”
radio program at the Mainstream Media Project in northern California.
She traveled to Israel and Palestine in June 2005. This is the
fourth article she’s written as part of a series on her trip for
Toward Freedom.
Works Cited
Al Jazeera. Online Newspaper. Webstite found July 4th 2005
Answers. Website found July 13th, 2005.
da
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Websites, found June 30th,
2005.
/2001/israel_and_palestinians/timeline/1897.stm,
” orld/2001/israel_and_palestinians/timeline/1948.st m
h/world/2001/israel_and_palestinians/timeline/1967 .stm
epth/world/2001/israel_and_palestinians/timeline/1 973.stm
Chomsky, Noam. “The Fateful Triangle.” South End Press, 1983
Jerusalemites. Website found July 4th, 2005
Let’s Go. “A Let’s Go Travel Guide: Israel and the Palestinian
Territories.” St. Martin’s Press, New York. 2003.
Map. Israel and Palestine after war of 1967. Website found July
27th, 2005
+Israel+After+the+Six+Day+War.htm
Map. Israel and Palestine in 1948. Website found July 27th, 2005.
y/unplan47.html
Mid East Web. Website found July 25th, 2005.
On War. Website Found July 4th, 2005.
ppur1973.htm
Palestine Facts. Website. Found June 30th, 2005
british_mandate .php,
e_un_194.php
Said, Edward. “The Progressive” Magazine, March 1998
Said, Edward. “The Question of Palestine.” Vintage Books Edition,
April 2002.