Al Shindagah discovers that the people
with the most historically legitimate claim to the disputed land are the Arab
people now known as the Palestinians
The
Jewish state of Israel has always based it legitimacy on a claim to a
'historical' right to the land of Palestine. This claim is based on treating the
Old Testament of the Bible as if it were the only historical record. But if we
look at a chronology of Palestinian history, we can see that, while a Jewish
State had existed, it had no more claims to the land than any other conqueror.
It would also be clear that the people with the most historical legitimacy to
claim this land as their own would be the Arab people now called Palestinians.
We have drawn up a historical chronology and abridged history of the land of Palestine and its peoples based on current historical research and knowledge. Our aim is to discover the truth of Palestinian history and Jewish claims on it from 60,000 BC to today.
What emerges is that around 3,000 BC a people called the Canaanites migrated from the Arabian Peninsula and settled in Palestine. They established several major cities including Ore-Salem or Yaboos (today known as Al Quds or Jerusalem). It was not until 1250 that the Israelites invaded Canaan. They became known as Hebrews, a word derived from an older word Hiberu meaning 'outsider' which was found in writings sent to Egypt at that time recording the entry of the Israelites into the land of Canaan. About the same time, a number of tribes were forced to leave the island of Crete because of invasion by the Greeks, they invaded the Palestinian coast and gained control of several cities such as Gaza, Haifa and Asqalan. The most renowned tribe was the Balastia from which the name Palestine would eventually be given to the whole county.
What can clearly be seen from a factual history of the country is that the Cannaites, a Semitic people who remained a clearly visible group in the land for over thirteen centuries, were the first to organise society and build cities in Palestine. Giving the lie to the Jewish claim of historical legitimacy.
The point we are making is that
for a people to become a nation they have to feel attached to a homeland and
perceive their past, present and future to be inextricably linked to the land
they hold dear and speak a common language. While both Israeli's and
Palestinians believe this to be so, there is one important difference. It is
clear from reading the history of the region that Palestinian Arabs, and not the
Jews have dwelt in unbroken territorial continuity in the land of Palestine, and
they alone can identify their own unique historical development. The only real
title that any people have to its country comes from birth and continual
possession of the land. This is a principal set down and recognised by humanity
as the basis of integrity and security of all nations and that no just
international order can be established in the world today on any other
foundation.
Do not make the mistake of
thinking that the Palestinians of today are the descendants of Arabian Desert
conquerors of 1,300 years ago. They are in fact, mainly the descendants of the
original native population of Canaanites, Edomites and Philistines that were
there before the Hebrews arrived in around 1550 BC. It is only the Old Testament
of the Christian Bible that supports their claim to supremacy over the land. So
far, despite much searching by Israeli Archaeologists there is no historical
evidence to support their claims of Hebrew supremacy in the land of Canaan (
Palestine).
All this brings us back to our main point. That the state of Israel is an
artificial entity, which has no legitimacy other than that given to it in 1948
by a UN Mandate. That in itself was merely a product of
Europe and America's bad conscience over the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis
during the 1930's and the Second World War.
These carefully constructed historical myths that have been created to justify Jewish ownership of the land have now been accepted as historical fact by the rest of the world. This clever myth making has enabled the state of Israel to be accepted by the community of nations as a democratic state. Having created this myth of ownership the Israelis cannot acknowledge the existence of the Palestinians or their right to the land. For, by doing so it is reminded that Israel's existence depends on the continued dispossession of the Palestinians and the denial of their right to be recognised as the rightful heir's to the land now under occupation.
An Abridged History of Palestine.
The Canaanites were the earliest known inhabitants of Palestine. They migrated from Arabia around 3,500 BC. During the 3rd millennium BC they became urbanised and lived in city-states, one of which was Jericho. They developed an alphabet from which other writing systems were derived. Palestine's location at the center of routes linking three continents made it the meeting place for religious and cultural influences from Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor. It was also the natural battleground for the great powers of the region and subject to domination by adjacent empires, beginning with Egypt in the 3d millennium BC. Egyptian hegemony and Canaanite autonomy were constantly challenged during the 2nd millennium BC by such ethnically diverse invaders as the Amorites, Hittites, and Hurrians. These invaders, however, were defeated by the Egyptians and absorbed by the Canaanites, who at that time may have numbered about 200,000.