Who Owns the Land of Israel

"Oct. 5 Ð'-- A bomber charged into a crowded seaside restaurant in this northern Israeli city on Saturday afternoon and detonated explosives that killed at least 19 people, besides herself. At least three of the dead were children" (NYTimes). This is just one of the few terrorist attacks that have come upon Israel in recent years. The land of Israel has been fought over more than any other land in history. Everybody who has been anybody in history has made their pass, or mark, in Israel. The question I will try to answer in this paper is; who are the rightful owners to the land known as Israel? To answer this controversial question I will present both sides of the argument with as much factual information that I can to justify why each side deems that they own the land. I will start my paper with a brief history on both Israel and the Palestine. Then I will get into the main purpose of my paper. I will start off with why the Palestinians believe the land known as Israel belongs to them. I will first start of with why the Palestinians believe the Bible justifies that the land of Israel (Palestine) belongs to them. The next claim to the land brought fourth by the Palestinians is that "their ancestors have lived in the land of Palestine from as far back as any of them can record" (jesusseminar). Lastly, I will present why the Palestinians believe the land belongs to them because before the Belfour Declaration was ever started the British had promised them independence after WWI. After I have discussed Palestine's claim to the land I will discuss Israel's claim. I will start their argument the same way I did with Palestine; the Israeli's believe that the Bible also states that the land belongs to the Jews. After that, I will ask the question; why won't the other Arab states allow the Palestinians to take control and occupy some of their land? And for my last argument for the Israeli's I will discuss that Israel deserves the land just through its war claims. The history of Palestine begins before the 3rd millennium BC when during that time it was inhabited and urbanized by a group of people called Canaanites. These people lived in city states, one of which was Jericho. Because of its location, Palestine was "the center of routes linking three continents-made it a meeting place for religions and cultural influences from Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor" (Palestine). What these influential people started had a huge impact on the alphabet and most importantly their significant role in bringing their beliefs and practices into the Jewish religion, which then went on to influence both the Christian and Islamic religions. (Palestine) Israel's history is dated back to the Old Testament when God gave his people (Jews) the land of Israel. But the first Hebrew State was established in the 11th Century B.C. when King Saul founded the Kingdom of Israel. From then on, the question of who owns the land of Israel will come up to every ruler and conqueror who proclaims the land as their own. But the group of people who have fought and argued the most that the land of Israel belongs to them are the Palestinians. It was up until 1948, when Israel became a universally recognized state that the question of who owns the land was finally answered for all but those who believe that the land should belong to the Palestinians. The land that is now known as Israel has two names depending on who you believe owns the land. It is either called Israel or Palestine. The history of the region of Palestine began when "Hebrew tribes entered Palestine (or Canaan) at the end of the late Bronze Age, and were established by the twelfth century BCE" (McDowall 3). The Old Testament is one of the most credible sources, especially when talking about the land now known as Israel. In Dr. Fayez Al Sayegh's article "Do Jews Have a Devine Right to Palestine" he quotes Professor Guillaume when he sums up the promises made up by God to the Jew's. Professor Guillaume states:

The first explicit promise of Palestine to the descendants of Abraham was at Schechem (now Nablus) in Genesis Ð''Unto thy Seed will I give this land.'Ð'... When Abraham made a covenant with God through commission (xvii. 8) all the land of Canaan was promised as Ð''an everlasting possession.'(Sayegh)

In between the last two quotes the same was said to both Isaac and Jacob. And it is from this that those who believe the land of Israel does not belong to the Jews get most of their backing. When God stated that the land was promised to Abraham and his "seeds" he makes the same promise when He is speaking with Isaac and Jacob. Which means the only way that the land belongs to the Jews alone is if they were the only descendants from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and since they weren't they have no right to be the only inheritors of the land. To put the nail in the coffin, Abraham wife, Sarah, wanted to have a child so very much, but unfortunately she was sterile. So she offered Abraham her servant Hajar in marriage. Soon after Hajar bared a child, his name was Ishmael. After Hajar and Ishmael were banished from Abrahams concubine, Ishmael went on to become the "father of twelve princes who settled vast territories and founded cities. He lived in defiance of his relatives, refusing to be put down, despite his inauspicious beginnings" (pbc). The history of Islam then tells us that "Muhammad taught the Arab people to regard themselves as the descendants of Abraham through his son Ishmael, just as Jews have long seen themselves as the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac" (jesusseminar). To summarize the last paragraph, the ideas behind the Zionist movement was that the Divine promise made in the Old Testament to all and only Jews for the land of "Palestine" is falsified by two very important facts. There are many non-Jews who are descendants of Abraham as well as many Jews who are not descendents of Abraham. So the question remains, how could the land really be strictly for the Jews? The next claim that the Palestinians bring forth is that fact that throughout history, the only location they have ever lived was in Palestine. Lloyd Geering, a renowned author and lecturer states it best; "the Palestinians do not have a common ethnic origin or a common religion. What joins them together is simply the fact that they and their ancestors have lived in the land of Palestine from as far back as any of them can record" (jesusseminar). The Palestinians have never inhabited any other land besides Israel, but this does not mean that they were not taken over and had their land inhabited by outsiders. Palestine was first taken over by the Romans in 70 ce, when they destroyed the city