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The Biblical Roots of the Palestinian Problem
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| A
picture of anti-Zionist orthodox Jews in a Jerusalem protest
of Israeli Elections in 28 Jan 2003, who believe the Israeli
government has forsaken its duties to Judaism and the true
Torah guidance. |
Jehovah’s
Promise
The
Zionist Jews claim that Jehovah promised the whole Land of Palestine
exclusively to them, as they are the Children of Abraham. The
relevant scriptural verses are:
Now
the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred
and your father's house to the land that I will show you.
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and
make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
(Genesis 12: 1, 2)
And
he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the
Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
(Genesis 15: 7)
And
I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein
thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting
possession; and
I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my
covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their
generation.s (Genesis 17: 8, 9)
Chiefly
relying on a twisted interpretation of the above verses in their
scripture, the Zionists claim that God's eternal covenant with
Abraham and his descendants means that Israel must have undivided
political sovereignty over all the land mentioned there, which
according to them stretches from the Nile in Egypt to the Euphrates
in Iraq.
In
fact this Zionist claim is erroneous from the Bible’s own point of
view, because God's covenant was given to Abraham and to all his
descendants; not merely to Israel. Abraham is 'the father of many
nations', not only one nation as can be seen from Genesis 17:3-6:
Then
Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, "Behold, my
covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of
nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be
Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I
will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you,
and kings shall come forth from you.”
Zionist
claim is erroneous from the Bible’s own point of view, because God's
covenant was given to Abraham and to all his descendants; not merely
to Israel. |
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We
know that the Bible speaks of Abraham’s two sons: His firstborn
was Ishmael, and the second, Isaac. The Arabs are the children of
Ishmael and the Jews the children of Isaac. The mother of
Abraham's son Ishmael was Hagar the Egyptian, who had received a
covenant promise: "I will so increase your descendants that
they will be too numerous to count" (Genesis 16:1-15). Those
descendants were Arabs, settling in Arab territory (Genesis
25:13-18).
But
the Zionists argue that only the children of Isaac deserve to live
in the Land promised to the Children of Abraham; because Ishmael’s
mother Hagar was only a handmaiden of Sarah, so (they say) her
children have no right to their homeland.(1)
The
above claim of Zionism is deliberately aimed at denying their Arab
brethren any right to the land of their birth. It is interesting to
see how the architects and believers in Zionism twist the divine
command to establish their unreasonable claim. For this, they
blatantly refuse to honor this law in the Torah, (indeed in
Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Bible):
“If
a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have
borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the
firstborn son be hers that was hated: then it shall be, when he
maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make
the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which
is indeed the firstborn: but he shall acknowledge the son of the
hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that
he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the
firstborn is his”
(Deuteronomy 21: 15, 16, 17).
...[The]
claim
of Zionism is deliberately aimed at denying their Arab brethren any
right to the land of their birth… [f]or this, they blatantly refuse
to honor this law in the Torah… |
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It
is obvious here that the status of the mother of the firstborn does
not in any way disqualify him from inheriting his rights (which is
the double of what the other son gets, according to this provision)
from his father. But the Jews as well as some sects of Christians
sideline this simple rule of the Torah, just for denying the
Palestinians the right to the land
which God gave them as well as to their brethren, the
Children of Isaac (or Children of Israel).
The
Jews believed in the superiority of their race, because they thought
that their status as the 'Chosen People of God' could mean nothing
else. The Qur’an (though it has sometimes been criticized by some
Jews as anti-Semitic(2)) very clearly states that the Children of Israel are
the Chosen People of God. But the Qur’an clearly denies the claim
that this means that God will consider the Jews as His favorites in
derogation of others.(3)
Their special status only means that God chose them as the special
carriers of His Message; for He chose from them a large number of
prophets, for instance.
As
a community of people, the Jews were unmindful of the mission
entrusted with them, and compared to others they were very 'casual'
in the matter of obedience to God and His prophets.(4)
The way the Jews treated their prophets could be understood from the
experiences of those prophets, as described in the Old Testament of
the Bible. Muslims and probably Christians too would say that this
was the reason why God made them undergo severe hardships again and
again.(5)
The
point to be made here is that the Jews, Christians and Muslims are
all followers of the same religious tradition; and those in the
Middle East irrespective of their religion are the Children of
Abraham, whether through Ishmael or Isaac. Neither the Jew, nor the
Christian nor the Muslim can deny this, since it is clearly stated
in their respective scriptures.
One may find in this a ray of hope for the settlement of the
Middle East crisis.(6)
But of course, when the politics of racial or tribal pride or
what could be crudely put as “herd instinct” rules, things get
worse and worse as it happens now.
[W]hen the politics of racial or tribal pride or what could be crudely put as 'herd instinct' rules, things get worse and worse as it happens now… |
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The
People, the Land and the Torah
It
was in the 19th century, following a trend that began earlier in
Europe, people around the world began to identify themselves as
citizens, parts of a 'nation-state' project, and to demand national
rights. At this time, the Jews living as citizens of different
countries for centuries could have remained in their respective
countries, as the Christians and Muslims were doing. But two factors
conspired against this. One, their consciousness of the Promised
Land to which the Jewish fundamentalists had been calling all Jews
to return; and two, the bitterness they felt against the lands where
they had been treated as outcasts so far.(7)
The
Zionist movement began in 1882, with the intention of recovering
what they thought to be the land 'exclusively' promised to the Jews
by God. The extremists among them believed that they could live as
real Jews only if they practiced all the laws in the Torah. This
would be possible 'only' if they returned to the Promised Land;
because otherwise the laws regarding farming and settlement, and
politics and government could not be observed, for instance(8).
The
extremists among them [the Zionists] believed that they could live as
real Jews only if they practiced all the laws in the Torah. This would
be possible 'only' if they returned to the Promised Land… |
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The
question that comes to the fore here is: whether God actually
wants us humans to uphold values of justice and truth in everything,
while He supports His Chosen people to defy them in the matter of
their unfortunate brethren. Of course the Jews have always been
able to find precedents in their own history to support their unjust
policies (for instance the Book of Joshua, where Jehovah is reported
to have supported a very brutal war against the Gentiles, to take
away their land, their property and their lives).(9)
The
Zionist movement identified Palestine as the place for their new
nation and started a wave of immigration from Europe for settlement
there. At that time, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire.
According to Ottoman records, in 1878 there were 462,465 subject
inhabitants of the Jerusalem, Nablus and Acre districts: 403,795
Muslims (including Druze), 43,659 Christians and 15,011 Jews. The
great majority of the Arabs (Muslims and Christians) lived in
several hundred rural villages. Jaffa and Nablus were the largest
and economically most important Arab towns.(10)
Until
the beginning of the 20th century, most Jews living in Palestine
observed traditional, orthodox religious practices, spending their
time studying religious texts.
Their attachment to the land was 'religious' rather than
'national', and they were not involved in the Zionist movement,
which began in Europe and was brought to Palestine by immigrants.
Until
the beginning of the 20th century, most Jews living in Palestine…
[t]heir attachment to the land was 'religious' rather than 'national',
and they were not involved in the Zionist movement. |
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Most
of the Jews who immigrated from Europe lived a more secular
lifestyle and were committed to the goals of creating a Jewish
nation and building a modern, independent Jewish state.
Zionism, or Jewish nationalism “was influenced by
nationalist ideology, and by colonial ideas about Europeans' rights
to claim and settle other parts of the world.”(11)
But at the same time, the secular Zionists were cunning
enough to make use of the religious fervor of the fundamentalists.
For
fundamentalist Jews, the land and the people and the Torah formed a
triad, each of which is holy. They considered it a religious duty to
annex and occupy all the Promised Land(12) (the borders of which God alone knows), no matter who
owns it now. They believe that in this effort Jehovah is with them,
as He was with Joshua. For this reason, to the Israelis world
criticisms against their atrocities, or the UN resolutions against
occupation of Arab lands, do not matter, whatsoever.
Isn’t
it a paradox that the Jews who were the victims of a racial holocaust
are now inflicting a similar racial holocaust on the Palestinians? |
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Isn’t
it a paradox that the Jews who were the victims of a racial
holocaust are now inflicting a similar racial holocaust on the
Palestinians? When the Zionist leaders accuse the Palestinians of
religious fundamentalism and terrorism, the whole of “the
civilized world” believe them. But really, who could be more
fundamentalist or more terrorist than the Zionists who openly
encroach on Arab lands, demolish Arab homes, kill Arab men, women
and children in the name of Jehovah?
Shahul
Hameed Head
of the Department of English, Farook College, Calicut University,
India. He is also the President of Kerala Islamic Mission, (under
the da'wah wing of the Jama'at-e- Islami, Hind, Kerala Zone)
Calicut, India.
1-
Beliefnet: “What You
Need to Know about Judaism” :‘(Sarah) was childless
for many years. She gave her handmaiden Hagar to Abraham so he
could have children, and Hagar bore Ishmael. At the age of
ninety, Sarah was told she would give birth and she laughed
because she thought she was too old to have children. Sarah gave
birth to Isaac (Yitzhak). Later Sarah drove Hagar and Ishmael
away, saying "the son of this hand-maiden will not inherit
together with my son, Yitzchak." (Bereshit 21:10)’:
http://judaism.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-p_sarah.htm
2- Qur’an
2: 47
3-
Qur’an
62: 6, 7
4- Bible,
Exodus 32: 1- 9
5-
Exodus chapter 32: Here we see how the Children of Israel were
ungrateful to Jehovah even after He freed them from the tyranny
of the Pharaoh by a miracle. They return to the worship of the
Golden Calf under the leadership of Aaron himself.
6-
Rabbi Arthur Waskow writes in Parashat Hashavua – The
Weekly Torah Portion
:(http://www.ariga.com/pluralism/waskowpessah98.htm):
”Tonight the children of Hagar through Ishmael
and the children of Sarah through Isaac
call out to each other:
We
too are children of Abraham!
We are cousins, you and we!
As Isaac and Ishmael once met at Be'er LaChai Ro-i,
the Well of the Living One Who Sees,
So it is time for us to meet --
Time for us to see each other, face to face.
Time for us to make peace with each other …”
7-
Karen
Armstrong: The Battle for God (Harper Collins, London,
2001) p.150
8-
Ibid. p.
258
9-
Joshua
10: 25: “And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed,
be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the LORD do to all
your enemies against whom ye fight.”
10-
The
Middle East Research and Information Project: http://www.merip.org/palestine-israel_primer/toc-pal-isr-primer.html
11-
Ibid
12-
Ibid
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