Tevet 5, 5769, 1/1/2009
Quotes and Notes Corner: Palestine 2009
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
"Everyone has a right to their own opinion but nobody has a right to their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
The new Christian calendar year is as good an opportunity as any to review the history of Palestine from the civil calendar year 1 through the end of 2008 CE.
From 1 to 136 CE the people of Judea - called "Jews" in modern English - struggled on and off against imperial rule of their nation by the Romans. Jewish sovereignty in what the Romans later renamed "Palaestina" was finally destroyed with the crushing of the Bar Kochva Revolt.
In 351 CE the Roman Empire, morphed into the Christian Byzantine Empire, moves its center to Turkey and the regime continues to rule Judea/Palestine.
614 CE: Persians conquer "Palestine" under Chosroes.
628 CE: The Byzantines reconquer the region.
635 CE: Muslim imperialists from the Arabian peninsula conquer "Palestine".
661 CE: Omayyad Empire rules "Palestine" from Syria.
750 CE: Abbassid Empire of Baghdad takes over.
878 CE: A Turk from Egypt conquers "Palestine".
904 CE: The Abbassid Empire returns.
934 CE: Egyptians (eventually including the Fatimids) take over "Palestine" from the Abbassid regime.
1070 CE: Seljuk Turks conquer "Palestine".
1099 CE: European Crusaders conquer Jerusalem; their reign continues in parts of "Palestine" until 1291.
During the Crusader rule, in 1187 CE, the Kurdish leader Saleh a-Din (Saladin) of Damascus captures Jerusalem and most of "Palestine".
Even the Mongolians get into the act and in 1244 CE Genghis Khan inspires a successful invasion of "Palestine", parts of which they hold until Mameluk Sultans of Egypt defeat the Mongols at Ain Jalut in 1260. In 1299-1303 CE there was another Mongol invasion.
In 1517 CE the Turkish Ottoman Empire takes over "Palestine".
From 1799 through 1840 CE, "Palestine" saw French and Egyptian conquerors, until Turkish rule was restored. That is, until World War I and the final dissolution of the Turkish Empire in 1918. "Palestine" is taken over by the British Empire.
In 1946 CE, the British see to the establishment of the kingdom of Transjordan (later, Jordan) on 70% of "Palestine" as they received it. Transjordan is handed to a prince from the Arabian peninsula.
1,948 years from our historical starting point, Judea (still for some reason called "Palestine", as per the long-dead Roman Empire) reverts to the Jews. They decide to call their reconstituted commonwealth "Israel", rather than Judea. Perhaps because the heartland of Judea only returned to Jewish hands in 1967 CE.
1994 CE: Israel hands over parts of "Palestine" to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), headed by an Egyptian named Yasser Arafat.
2005 CE: Israel removes all the Jews from the Gaza region of "Palestine" and hands it over to the PLO.
2006 CE: The Iranian-backed, Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Hamas takes over the Gaza region of "Palestine" from the PLO.
That's it, more or less. I believe there are three important points to note when perusing this timeline:
a) there never was any sovereign political entity or regime known as "Palestine" anywhere;
b) the Jews are the only rulers in the entire litany above for whom the Land of Israel ("Palestine") was also their sole national homeland;
c) the main reason there are Arabs currently residing in "Palestine" is that Arab imperialists invaded and instituted a "belligerent occupation of Palestine" (as it might be called today) in the early 600s.
But don't bother trying to show this to your self-proclaimed "anti-Zionist" acquaintances. Their standard reply is that it doesn't matter, none of it, which is the adult equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and saying, "Nah-nah! I can't hear you!"
Researched, compiled and presented by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
