Introduction

CONTEXTUALLY, proximity is the defining factor of neighbourhood, regardless of nationality, religion or belief. Most religions urge that neighbours submit to a mutual lifestyle of love, mercy, forgiveness and tolerance, even in the face of differences of opinions. Christianity in particular advocates that you should love your neighbour as yourself. In the Bible, it is written: “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for the one who loves his neighbour has fulfilled the Law” (Romans 13:8). In other words, a person should love, rather than hate. 

However, the Israeli-Palestinian relationship appears to be one of the major exceptions to this neighbourhood rule over the years.

Palestine and Israel have been entangled in a recurrent tale of hate, wars and deaths from time immemorial. 

In October 7, 2023, the Hamas launched several rockets into Israel and armed militants broke down the hi-tech barriers to gain access into Israel. This led to the death of about 1,200 Israelis, and the capture of several others whose whereabout are still unknown. 

After 44 days of war and the death of over 14, 000 people, who also had the inalienable right to life, I ask myself, will there be an end to this hate? Is the relationship between Israel and Palestine one of hate without an end? 

I have attempted to answer these questions hereunder by tracing the origin of the wars between Israel and Palestine, and lending my voice to the suggestion for a lasting peace between Israel and Palestine.

Who owns Canaan?

The land of Canaan in the Middle East has been ravaged by frequent political conflicts and violent land seizures. This is because of its strategic geographical location of Canaan land. Modern-day wars in the Canaan Region are due to the Palestinian refusal to recognise and accept the proclamation of the State of Israel as a neighbouring country.  Israel has also refused to acknowledge Palestine as an independent country. To sum it all, the major cause of the recurrent battle between Israel and Palestine is the ownership of the land of Canaan. So far, the three most contentious areas in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian wars are the Gaza strip (which is between Modern day Israel and Egypt), the Golan Heights (between Syria and modern-day Israel) and the West Bank between modern day Israel and Jordan.

History has it that the original inhabitants of Canaan were the Canaanites. These are the Kushites, Edomites, red and black Nubians, Nilotes, Egyptians, Sudra, Horties and the Ainu. None of these tribes became the present-day Palestinians or Israelites. Rather, archaeological and DNA evidence reveal that inhabitants of the present-day Lebanon and Sidon were the original historical owners of the land now occupied by the Israelites and the Palestinians. 

The Palestinians

The name Palestine, was the name given to the areas under the Jewish domain by the Romans, following their conquest of the region. All the inhabitants were referred to as Palestinians at this time, including the Israelites (these were referred to as the Palestinian-Jews). Later, the inhabitants of this region were referred to as Christians, then in 600 CE, Arabs. Prior to 1948, the Israelites considered themselves as Palestinians. However, following the War of Independence in 1948, the Arabs appropriated the name exclusively for themselves. 

Archaeological evidence revealed that the present-day Palestinians are descendants of the Philistines, who were said to have been Aegean immigrants into Canaan from Europe in 12th Century BC. They arrived shortly before the Israelites. However, they integrated themselves peacefully with the indigenes until they acquired the five Philistine cities of Gath, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and Ashdod.

The Israelites on the other hand, were also immigrants in Canaan. From Biblical accounts and historical texts, they originated from what is now the modern-day Iran/Iraq. They were Arabs who migrated to Egypt and back to Canaan, acquiring the land they now live in by conquest. Therefore, neither the Palestinians nor the Israelites have an original historical claim to the land.

History also has it that one of the key antagonists to Israel’s peaceful possession of the land won by conquest was the Philistines (the Palestinians). However, the Israelites gained total independence from the Philistines under the reign of King David in the 11th Century. There was no mention of an invasion of Israel by the Philistines since this time, either in historical texts, or in the Bible. The Kingdom of the Philistine was completely destroyed in 7th century BC by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  

The lordship over Palestine passed from the Israelites to the Assyrians in 722 BC, the Babylonians in 568 BC, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Fatimids, the Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, Egyptians, Mamelukes, and the Ottoman empire until 1917.

Hate midwifed

In the late 19th century and the early 20th Century, Zionism emerged among the Jews. This was a religious and political movement for the re-establishment of a Jewish hometown in Palestine. This movement led to the migration of about 75, 000 Jews to the ancient holy city between 1882 to 1914. At the time of this re-location to Palestine, the land was recorded in history to have been sparsely populated and a desert. 

The Jews were said to have played significant roles in the victory of the World War I which ended in 1918. In recognition of the contribution of the Jews, the League of Nations gave Britain the administrative control over Palestine through the British Mandate for Palestine. However, they also included a mandate for the establishment of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine, a movement which was fuelled by Zionism and the Balfour Declaration of 1917.This led to the Mandatory Palestine(the United Nation’s Partition Plan for Palestine into two states, one for the Arabs, and the other for the Jews) in 1948, and laid the foundation for the Israeli-Palestinian wars which metamorphosed into the Hamas-Israeli wars that had ravaged the Middle East in the 20th and 21st centuries. 

The details of these wars, their frequencies, their causes and how they were resolved each time will be discussed in Part II of this publication.  

To be concluded

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