The last time you had a conversation about Israel and Palestine, how did it end? Perhaps you chose a side, Israel or Palestine, and believe one has a supreme right to the land, or perhaps you just look at the conflict and you wish Britain had never screwed up relations between Jews and Arabs so badly and things would be better today. But maybe, these conclusions have been drawn on untrue, or preconceived notions, or they're the result of ignorance of the incredible history of the conflict. 

See, both Israel and Palestine have a deep history in the land encompassing Jerusalem on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Jerusalem was once home to Solomon’s Temple and today it’s home to the Dome of the Rock Shrine and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Both Judaism and Islam have great ties to the city and neither can be disregarded. 

Then, while the British can be blamed for poor handling of tensions in the area, they are not the only instigators of conflict in the situation. For a vast majority of recorded history, the piece of land that is today Israel has been fought for relentlessly.  It has been under the control of and the influence of dozens of empires so what we see is largely a manifestation of that and a desire for an independent Jewish state, not so much a result of just one empire. 

This essay does not attempt to take sides on the issue. Rather, it aims to guide you to a fuller understanding of the history of Israel and its surrounding neighbors; a history which I can almost assure you have never heard of in school. 

While the Egyptians were constructing colossal monuments to worship their gods, another group called the Israelites, or the Hebrews, were leaving their legacy in a different way. They were different because they worshiped one deity, rather than multiple and they were leaving their legacy in writing, rather than in mammoth structures. Called the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible recounts how Abraham was called by God to travel from his home in Ur to the land of Canaan, which was promised to him and his descendants forever. 

This was repeated to Abraham’s son Isaac and then to his son Jacob, who was renamed Israel. Jacob had 12 sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel. Biblical books describe conflicts between the tribes and the surrounding peoples, the most troublesome being the Philistines, or sea peoples. Many leaders, including Ramses Ⅲ of Egypt, succeeded in fending off the Philistines. However, the Israelites were not so lucky.

The first king of Israel, Saul, committed suicide after losing to the Philistines at the Battle of Gilboa in 1010 BC. The succeeding king, King David, was a much better warrior, leading Israel to great territorial expansion and to the conquering of Jerusalem. He then made the city the capital of Israel. His son, Solomon, then commanded the first temple, Solomon’s Temple, to be built in Jerusalem. His time is widely considered the golden age of Israel. 

Solomon’s successor marked the end of that golden age. His refusal to reduce taxes ultimately led the 12 tribes to break away from the union. A new Kingdom of Israel was formed in the northern region with the Kingdom of Judea forming in the southern region. The term ‘Jew’ is derived from Judea and refers to a person from the region. 

The northern kingdom lasted for two centuries before being captured by the Assyrians in the 720s BC. The southern kingdom lasted longer, although it too, was conquered in 586 BC. The Babylonians destroyed Solomon’s Temple, conquering all of Jerusalem, and forcing all the Jews to relocate to Babylon. 

After conquering Babylon around 538 BC, Persia’s Cyrus the Great permitted the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild the temple. The land remained a Persian province until the 330s BC, when Alexander the Great established Greek rule. Grecian culture appealed to many Jews and was widely accepted until Antiochus Epiphanes came to power. He launched an attack on the Jewish religion and the Jewish people, sparking the Maccabean Revolt, which led Judea to gain independence.

Judas Maccabaeus cleansed the profaned Solomon’s Temple and rededicated it to the god of Israel, an event remembered annually by Jewish people on Hanukkah. Although Judea had achieved freedom from the Greeks, it was not free from internal conflicts. Quarrels over the throne led to the Hasmonean Civil War in 67 BC, which subsequently ended with Roman control over the region. In 6 AD, Judea officially became a Roman province.  

Meanwhile, a baby had been born in a village called Bethlehem whose name was Yeshua, or Jesus. Devoted Jews, such as Paul of Tarsus, began preaching the gospel of the good news of Jesus and the core of the Christian doctrine was formed. Christianity then began spreading throughout the Roman Empire. All of the first Christians were Jews, yet the majority of the children of Israel did not accept Yeshua. This, accompanied by growing resentment to Roman rule, led to the First Jewish Roman War in 66 AD. 

After years of fighting, the Romans under the rule of Titus once again captured Jerusalem, destroying the city and Solomon’s Temple, as well as enslaving its populace. Then again, in 132 AD, the Jews revolted, leading the Romans to kill over half a million Jews and rename the region Syrian Palestine, the name Palestine being derived from the Philistines. 

Jews continued to live in Palestine and in the 7th century, the region was conquered by Muslum Arabs. They constructed the Dome of the Rock Shrine and the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the mount where Solomon’s Temple had once stood. Non-muslims in Palestine were forced to pay the Jizya poll tax and to wear special identification. Arab control over the region continued until 1099 when European forces of the First Crusade conquered the land, taking Jerusalem and establishing a Christian Kingdom. Years later, the sultan of Egypt, Saladin, reestablished a Muslim rule, instigating the Third Crusade which ended in 1192 with a truce and the Treaty of Jaffa. The treaty guaranteed safe passage of both Christians and Muslims through Palestine as well as the return of land to Saladin. 

In 1244, Jerusalem was again destroyed by the Turkic Khwarazmian Dynasty who ruled until 1260, when the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt returned. They ruled the region until 1517 when the Ottomans took it over. Palestine enjoyed prosperity and relative stability until ruler Ahmad Pasha Al-Jazzar, was faced with conflict from Napoleon in his attempts to conquer the land. Al-Jazzar in 1799, with the help of British aid, successfully defended against invasion in the Siege of Acre. 

At the same time, as the 19th century progressed, a movement called Zionism was erected, which sought the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. This led many Jews to immigrate to Palestine and resurrect the ancient Hebrew language which had previously died out. 

A trust formed between the Arabs controlling Palestine, and the British. As a result, during WWI, Arabs helped the British fight against the Turks believing they would be granted independence in the wake of the war. After the war, however, The British came to control Palestine and it was revealed that the British had no intentions to grant Arab sovereignty. Tensions started to rise among Palestinians who feared the possibility of living in a Jewish state, and riots such as the Nebi Musa and Jaffa Riots ensued, leading to the deaths of many Jews. 

Militant groups such as the Jewish Haganah emerged as tensions between Jews and Palestinians heightened. Not aiding in easing the tensions, European Jews continued to immigrate to Palestine in the 1920s and 30s. To appease the Arabs, The British restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine. However, this only enraged militant Zionists, who then began attacking and killing Arabs. After WWII, when reports surfaced that millions of Jews had been killed by Nazis in Europe, Jewish desire for a nation increased exponentially. 

In 1947, the UN issued the Partition Plan For Palestine which called for the state to be divided amongst the Jews and Arabs, leaving Jerusalem to be an international neutral zone. The Jews agreed to the deal, but the Arabs did not. So in the same year, the Civil War in Mandatory Palestine broke out, ending with a victory for the Jews and a mass Palestinian exodus from the region. 

On May 14th of 1948, David Benguyon announced the establishment of the independent state of Israel, making himself the first prime minister of the country. Surrounding Arab nations were outraged alongside the Arabs of Palestine and one day later, on May 15th, the Arab Israeli War broke out. Syria, aling with Egypt, Iraq, and Transjordan invaded Israel. Although Israel took the victory, Egypt gained control of the Gaza Strip, and Transjordan gained control of both the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  

In 1967, Egypt began mobilizing troops on the Israeli border however Israel was the first to attack, initiating the Six Day War. Victorious again, Israel defeated the militaries of Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Transjordan to conquer Sinai, Gaza, The West Bank, and The Golan Heights. Shocked and outraged, Palestinians escalated attacks on Israelis and Israel responded by bombing the Palestine Liberation Organization, PLO, Headquarters. 

In 1973, on Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria initiated a surprise attack on Israel, again leading to war. The late 70’s however saw peace between Israel and Egypt as Israel returned control of Sinai to Egypt. 

Hostilities and attacks on both sides continued and in 1987, a Palestinian uprising was led in both Gaza and the West Bank, the locations where the majority of Palestinians lived. Following this and a condemnation of Israeli treatment of Palestinians from the UN, Israel issued the Oslo Accords, which granted Palestinians partial governing authority in Gaza and the West Bank. 

As a result of this, prime minister Yitzhak was assassinated by a nationalist Jew and attacks between Israelis and Palestinians continued. In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, giving Palestinians control of the strip. After the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, came to power though, Israel initiated a blockade of the strip and restricted access to it. Gaza and Hamas responded by firing rockets at Israel, and war broke out again. Casualties were high with Palestinians losing over a thousand lives. Later, Hamas kidnapped three Israeli teenagers, leading IDF forces to hunt for those responsible and causing war to break out again with the 2014 Gaza War. 

These tensions remain today with neither side pledging to end the warfare. The history of Israel and Palestine is messy (really messy) and it isn’t so simple to create a solution to a three millennium-long battle for one piece of land. 

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