CANAAN

The Holy Land became known as Palestine, although there has never been an independent state with that name. It included territory on both sides of the river Jordan. It was the home of the Hebrews, or Jews. Two small Jewish kingdoms, Israel and Judah, existed in ancient Palestine. Palestine became part of the Roman Empire. Jesus was born in Palestine.

In AD 66 the Jews rebelled against the Roman rule. In AD 70 the Romans razed down the temple at Jerusalem. Josephus wrote:

While the Sanctuary was burning, looting went on right and left. There was no pity for age, no regard for rank; little children and old men, laymen and priests alike were butchered. The Temple Hill, enveloped in flames from top to bottom, appearing to be boiling up from its very root; yet the sea of flame was nothing to the ocean of blood. Nowhere could the ground be seen between the corpses, and the soldiers climbed over heaps of bodies as they chased the fugitives.

In AD 135 the Romans crushed the last Jewish resistance and the Jewish people were driven from their capital Jerusalem. They became scattered over the world. This dispersion was known as the Diaspora. The Roman Empire eventually became christianised.

In the seventh century, Palestine was conquered by the Arabs in the name of Allah. The Muslims regarded the Jewish prophets and Jesus as forerunners of Islam.

During the Middle Ages Christians tried to retake the Holy Land with a series of Crusades but was unsuccessful. From the fifteenth century the Arab power was eclipsed by the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Although the Turks were also Muslims they were not Arabs.

Meanwhile the Jews were persecuted wherever they went. This prejudice against the Jews is known as anti-Semitism.

Theodor Herzl (1986 - 1904), an Austrian Jewish journalist and a lawyer, started to promote the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine. The movement was referred to as Zionism, after Zion, the name of a hill in Jerusalem, and the members known as Zionists. It was not till 1880 that the people started returning to Palestine. In 1896 Herzl organised the first international congress of Zionists at Basel, Switzerland.

The Jews began to return to Palestine between 1880 and 1914. They settled around Tel Aviv and in 1909 it became the first entirely Jewish town. In 1880 there were about 25,000 Jews in Palestine. By 1903 the population had grew to about 50,000, and by 1914 it came to 100,000 against a population of 500,000 Arabs. The Zionists bought lands from the Palestinian Arabs for cultivation and settlement, but the relationship between them was never cordial.

In the First World War (1914-1918) between Britain, France and their Allies against Germany, Austria, and Turkey, the British and the French encouraged the Arabs and the Jews to go against the Turkish government in Palestine. Britain's Foreign Minister, Arthur Balfour wrote to Lord Rothschild, a prominent British Jew, on November 2nd, 1914;

"His Majesty's Government viewed with favour the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people. It will use her best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object with the understanding that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

At the end of the war, the Turkish empire collapsed. The League of Nations gave Palestine to Britain as a mandated territory. Britain was to administer the land and prepare the Jews for self-government. More Jews started to return to Palestine from Germany.

This was bad news for the Arabs. In 1920 they started rioting and attacking Jewish settlements. The Jews organised their own self-defence force, known as the Haganah. The more aggressive among them organised their own units such as the Irgun Zvai Leumi.

The British were unable to keep the peace and in 1937 a Peel Commission recommended that Palestine be divided into a Jewish and an Arab states, with Jerusalem remaining under the control of the British. The Jews accepted reluctantly but the Arab rejected it completely.

Then came the Nazi persecution of the Jews and they immigrate to Palestine in large numbers. By 1939 it was estimated that the Jewish population has reached 450,000, against twice the number of Arabs. The British decided that immigration has to be restricted and within ten years an Arab-majority Palestinian state be set up. The Jews rejected this for obvious reason, but the Arabs rejected it also because they wanted immediate independence.

Then came the Second World War (1939-1945). The Nazi did all it could to exterminate the Jews. Britain found it hard to restrict immigration, as it is impossible to refused the refugees save haven.

When the War ended Britain handed the problem over to the United Nations and the UN decided to partition Palestine on November 1947. United Nations Resolution 194, passed in December 1948 following establishment of the state of Israel, calls for speedy repatriation of Palestinian refugees to their original homes for those who choose to return and compensation for those who do not.

Israel rejects this "right of return'' for refugees, saying this would threaten the Jewish character of Israel, which already is 20 percent Arab. Israelis argue that since the Palestinians will eventually be getting their own state, there was no need for them to return to Israel proper. So it was a free for all the few months before the British pulled out. The Jews somehow had the upper hand and drove thousands of Arabs from Palestine by the time the British High Commissioner left Palestine on May 14, 1948. The Jews immediately proclaimed an independent state of Israel, with Tel Aviv as the capital. David Ben-Gurion became its first Prime Minister (1948-53, and 1955-63). The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon joined in to prevent this from happening. The war lasted for about a year and Israel won, but to the Arab states the war had not ended. They are technically still at war. Israel ships were not allowed passage through the Suez Canal or the Straits of Tiran. There is no government-to-government relationship and people-to-people interaction is forbidden.

Israel is under a permanently siege and national services is compulsory. Meanwhile the Palestinian Arabs were scattered in the neighbouring countries - Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt. Except for Jordan most of the Arab states do not welcome them. On the other hand Israel passed the Law of the Return in 1950 which considered every Jew a citizen of Israel. Most of those who returned were from the less developed countries, the Sephardic Jews.

In 1952 the army of Egypt overthrew the monarchy and Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918 - 70) became the new leader. He had dreamt of a Pan-Arab confederation stretching from Egypt to Syria. He took back the Suez Canal from the British in June 1956. Then he forged an alliance with Jordan and Syria and began moving troops to the border. On October 29, 1956, Israel decided to strike first and its troops raced across the Sinai Peninsula towards the Suez Canal. The Anglo-French forces took the opportunity to regain control of the Suez Canal on the pretence that they were protecting the vital waterway. However the United States and the Soviet Union pressurised them to withdraw. In 1957, Israel also withdrew from Sinai and a United Nations Emergency Force was stationed there to keep the peace.

This Middle East conflict eventually drifted into the game of the Cold War. The United States became the godfather of Israel and the Arabs were backed by the Soviet Union.

In 1967 Nasser asked the United Nations to withdraw its Emergency Forces. He then imposed a new naval blockade of Israel's passage through the Red Sea. Once again Israel decided to strike first. On June 5, 1967, their air force wiped out the planes of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Within six days their troops drove the Egyptians from Sinai and the entire Palestine (captured the old city of Jerusalem and the West Bank of Jordan), as well as the strategic Golan Heights from Syria. The Gaza Strip and the West Banks with its Arab population were designated the Administered Territories.

The only response from the Arab nations at the Khartoum Conference on September 1, 1967, were the "three noes". No peace, no recognition and no negotiation. Egypt and Syria by now has grown tired of their Palestinian cousins. The Palestinian guerrillas (or fedayeen) in most cases existed as a state within a state and their activities brought retaliation from Israel. So the fedayeen began moving to Lebanon and Jordan.

In 1968 an Israeli counter attack at Karameh, Jordan, was repelled by Fatah. This made the leader 39-year-old Yasser Arafat a hero. He soon took over the Egyptian-run Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). In 1970 the PLO began causing problems in Jordan so much so the Jordanian royal troops chased them out of Jordan. The only place left to go is Lebanon.

The PLO at times found it more effective to attack targets outside Israel. They murdered eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics in Germany. In 1974, the PLO was recognised by all the Arab states as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Arafat was even invited by the UN to address the UN General Assembly.

On October 6, 1973, Egypt (now under Anwar Sadat) and Syria executed a surprised attack on Israel on the Day of Atonement (the Yom Kippur celebration). The Syrians assaulted the Golan Height and the Egyptians crossed the Suez Canal into Sinai. However by October 15 the Israeli units had crossed the Suez Canal and had the Egyptian Third Army trapped. The Soviet Union threatened to intervene and the United States had to call Israel to back off. The Yom Kippur War was won with heavy casualties.

Meanwhile trouble was brewing in Lebanon, by 1975 the government collapsed under fractional fighting between the various partisan groups, the PLO included. The PLO was staging attacks in Israel from its base in Southern Lebanon. So in 1978 Israel moved into southern Lebanon to rid it of PLO. They then withdrew in favour of a UN force.

In May 1977, the Labour Party, which had led Israel since independence lost its hold on power to the Likud Party led by Menachem Begin, the leader of the extreme Irgun Zvai Leumi group. Begin considered the West Bank as part of Israel. Begin had encouraged Jewish settlement in the West Bank. These settlers have the same conviction as Begin that biblically the West Bank is part of Israel. Begin even issued a map in 1977 which considered the Occupied Territories as part of Israel.

In November 1977 Sadat offered to go to Israel to address the Israel Parliament, the Knesset. Begin duly extended him an invitation. By March 26, 1979, the United States under president Jimmy Carter managed to brokered a peace treaty begin Begin and Sadat. Under the Camp David agreement, Israel will withdraw from Sinai and Egypt will recognise Israel and establish trade relationships. Israeli ships will be allowed to sail through the Suez Canal. Israel also promise to look into some form of self-rule for the Palestinians on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In October 1981, Anwar Sadat was assassinated.

In 1982 Israeli bombers bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor to prevent Saddam Hussein from development nuclear capabilities. It followed up with Operation 'Peace for Galilee' in June 6, 1982. They moved as far as Beirut. The PLO decided to negotiate to be relocated to Tunisia, and a Bashir Gemayal, the leader of the Christian Maronite Falangist party, was named the Lebanese president. Within a few weeks he was assassinated. In 1985, Israel left southern Lebanon in favour of a Maronite controlled security zone.

By now the Palestinian knew that there would be no outside help for their cause and they have to do it by themselves. So starting from December 1987 they mounted social disturbances (or intifada) to harass the Israeli authorities. A popular form is to shoot stones at the police or soldiers using catapults.

In 1988 Arafat decided to take the initiative. He said PLO renounced all forms of terrorism and will negotiate for a political and diplomatic solution. The United States was encouraged and made its first official contact with the PLO. Then the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) tried to attack a military camp in Israel. Arafat would not condemn the PLF and the US broke off its talks with the PLO.

In 1990 Iraq attacked Kuwait. When the United States demonstrated that it would take on Iraq, Saddam Hussein played his Arab card. Iraq will withdraw only when Israel withdrew from the Occupied Territories. Arafat fell into the trap and came out publicly to support Saddam Hussein. Iraq was taught a lesson and Arafat was badly weakened. It had even lost the financial support of Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile Hamas, a rival organisation to PLO, is gaining support from the Palestinians, along with other religious fundamentalists like Islamic Jihad and Hizbollah. The agenda is the creation of an Islamic state, and they wanted the entire Palestine, not just the Occupied Territories.

In 1992 the Labour Party took over the government under Yitzhak Rabin. The rise of Hamas made support for the PLO more important. In January 1993 Israel lifted a ban against official contact with the PLO.

In 1993 Israel began secret negotiations with the PLO in Norway. In August 1993 the Oslo Accords was announced. The PLO recognised Israel, renounced terrorism, and accepted responsibility for the actions of all groups within the PLO. In turn Israel recognised the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. It will negotiate with the PLO a plan for self-rule starting with the Gaza Strip and the city of Jericho. The Knesset passed the agreement with 61 votes against 50.

In May 1994, the Palestinian police took over the Gaza Strip and Jericho and Arafat returned to Ramalah as head of the Palestinian Authority.

On November 4, 1995, a peace rally was held at Kings of Israel Square, Tel Aviv, and the Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told the crowd that the peace process was the only way to make Israel secure. As he was leaving the rally Yigal Amir, 25, a Jewish law student at the Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv came up from behind and shot him dead. In a followed up election, his peace partner Shimon Peres was defeated by Binyamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party. The Likud Party is committed to a biblical Israel. By 1998 the peace process has evaporated.

In 2002, the Arabs demanded that Israel pull out of all the West Bank, Gaza Strip, east Jerusalem, Golan Heights and disputed parts of Lebanon. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. After an 18-year occupation of south Lebanon, Israel withdrew behind a U.N.–drawn border in 2000, but Lebanon claims that a small parcel of its land called Chebaa Farms is still under Israeli occupation. Based on the U.N – drawn border, Israel says the land was seized from Syria, not Lebanon. They wanted the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalemto be given to the Palestinians.