The Land Of Israel

Ancient Foundations: The Birth of the Jewish People
The roots of Jewish history in this land run deeper than nearly any other national story on earth. The Hebrew Bible, corroborated by archaeology and ancient sources, tells of the Israelites’ emergence as a people in the land of Canaan more than three thousand years ago. The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, established in the first millennium BCE, were not only independent Jewish states but also the crucible of Jewish religion, culture, and identity. Jerusalem, in particular, served as the unifying capital and spiritual center for the Jewish people—a status it retains today.

Even during times of foreign domination, Jews maintained a continuous presence in the land. Conquests by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians resulted in exile for many Jews, but a significant population always remained. The return from the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BCE, under the Persians, led to the rebuilding of the Temple and a renewed Jewish polity.

Greek and Roman Conquest: Erasure and Survival
The Hellenistic conquest by Alexander the Great and subsequent rule by the Seleucids brought new challenges, culminating in the Maccabean revolt and the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty under the Hasmonean dynasty. This period, lasting from 140 BCE to 37 BCE, was marked by both independence and conflict with surrounding empires.

Roman conquest ended Jewish independence, but not Jewish life in the land. The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the crushing of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE were catastrophic, yet they did not erase the Jewish connection to the land. In a deliberate act of erasure, Emperor Hadrian renamed Judea as “Syria Palaestina” and Jerusalem as “Aelia Capitolina.” The very name “Palestine” was thus imposed by imperial Rome in an explicit effort to sever Jewish ties to the area.

From Byzantium to Islam: Shifting Empires, Persistent Identity
After Rome, the territory became part of the Byzantine Empire. Still, there was no Palestinian state—only provinces ruled from distant capitals. With the rise of Islam in the 7th century, the region was conquered first by the Rashidun Caliphate, then the Umayyads, Abbasids, and Fatimids. Control of the land shifted from Damascus to Baghdad to Cairo, but never did a distinct Palestinian nation emerge.

Under these empires, Jews—along with Christians and local Arab populations—remained a small but persistent minority. Jewish pilgrimage to Jerusalem continued, and significant communities flourished in Tiberias, Safed, and elsewhere.

Crusaders, Mamluks, and Ottomans: Foreign Rule, Never a Palestinian State
The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, founded in 1099, was a European Christian kingdom imposed on the land, lasting less than two centuries. It was ultimately overthrown by Saladin and the Ayyubid dynasty, themselves supplanted by the Mamluks of Egypt. Again, these were foreign conquerors who ruled Palestine as a province or military district, not as an independent nation.

From 1517 until World War I, the Ottoman Empire governed the area. The Ottomans divided the land into administrative regions—Sanjak of Jerusalem, Vilayet of Beirut, and so forth—never establishing a political entity called “Palestine.” Throughout these centuries, Jews continued to return in small but steady waves, often settling in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias, the four holy cities of Judaism.

The British Mandate and Modern Zionism
The defeat of the Ottomans in World War I brought the British Mandate, established by the League of Nations in 1922. The mandate recognized the historical connection of the Jewish people to the land and called for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people.” Jewish immigration accelerated, and new cities, agricultural settlements, and institutions sprang up. Arab populations also grew, driven in part by economic opportunities created by the Jewish community.

Despite Arab opposition and recurring violence, the Mandate period saw a remarkable Jewish renaissance in the land. The foundations for a modern state—universities, hospitals, labor unions, and a representative assembly—were laid by the Jewish community, known as the Yishuv. No comparable Palestinian Arab state-building effort emerged, and all attempts to partition the land into separate Arab and Jewish states were rejected by Arab leaders.

1948 and After: The Birth of Israel
In 1948, the Jews of the Yishuv declared the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in their ancestral homeland by proclaiming the State of Israel. This was not the creation of a new nation, but the revival of a very old one. Israel was immediately recognized by many world powers, and its legitimacy is rooted in both historical right and international law.

The Arab states, rejecting any Jewish state in the region, launched a war to destroy Israel at its birth. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were forced from Arab lands, and hundreds of thousands of Arabs left or were expelled from what became Israel. The 1949 armistice lines left the West Bank and Gaza Strip under Jordanian and Egyptian control, respectively—yet neither country established a Palestinian state.

The Myth of a Lost Palestinian State
A recurring theme in anti-Israel rhetoric is the idea of “restoring Palestine” to the Palestinians. This notion is historically inaccurate. There has never been an independent Palestinian Arab state in this land. The term “Palestinian” as a national identity is a modern development, largely taking shape in response to Zionism and the emergence of Israel.

When Hadrian renamed Judea as “Palestine,” it was a strategy to erase Jewish ties, not to recognize a native Arab nation. Throughout centuries of shifting empires and rulers—Canaanite, Israelite, Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Mamluk, Ottoman, and British—the only people to establish true sovereignty and unique identity in this land were the Jews.

Historical Continuity and National Rights
The Jewish connection to the land of Israel is not only ancient but uniquely enduring. Despite exile, persecution, and repeated conquest, Jews never relinquished their claim or their presence. The modern State of Israel is thus not a colonial creation or a historical anomaly, but the restoration of a people to their ancestral home.

Calls to “restore Palestine” ignore the reality that, until modern times, no such state existed. The creation of Israel was not the dispossession of a pre-existing nation, but the fulfillment of a millennia-old aspiration. Any true understanding of the region’s history must begin with this fact: the Jews are the indigenous people of the land, and their modern state is the latest chapter in a story that began thousands of years ago.

Therefore, just as the Palestinian people have the right to live, flourish, and build a future on this land, so too do the Jewish people of Israel. Both are equally entitled to safety, dignity, and the freedom to exist without fear and persecution.