Understanding Israel & Palestine

PRELUDE

Israel, Palestine, West Bank, Gaza, Hamas….. names that sprinkle world news on a daily basis. Initially I just skipped these bits since had no understanding of the names & the connected issues. However, slowly a curiosity developed. Who are the Israelis? Are they different from Christians? Do Jews belong to Israel? Why have the Jews been persecuted over ages? Was the Holocaust a Hitlerian whim or there was more to it? What is Palestine – is it an independent country? More & more questions crowded my mind which took me to the refuge of Sir Google & I started looking for answers. Even ended up buying & reading few books. But still I can not put a hand on my heart & claim that I understand at least the basics. It’s a complex piece of land with more complex history & the most complex present. Future is unknown. Multiple other countries & regions of the world have similar situations. While each of them have their own stories to narrate but a common person like me hardly has the time or energy to delve into them. Hence, the names mostly reside in the news headlines or are discussed in the upper echelons of politics & academics
I found even a surface scratch kind of research into Israel-Palestine issue to be very engaging. However, what generally puts us off is reading voluminous history
Just had a thought – Why not attempt to simplify the complex in language & excerpts that I myself will comprehend? With this thought, I started putting together pieces of the Israel-Palestine jig saw. Though some pieces are missing, we can enjoy our ride together into the ancient times & the present day, look for these missing pieces & shape up our understanding of this war-ravaged land

At the beginning of our discussion, sharing a map of the territories which we will be referring to. This is the spread of land as we have today

The Israel Palestine jigsaw – Chapter 1

Remember the Mahabharata serial we watched in our childhood. Every week it began with the booming narration – Mein samay hoon. The perspective here is that there is no better witness to the incidents of a period for which we don’t have much of written history than samay or time. Samay watches all that flows by.
So, I grasped Samay’s hand & willed him to transport me thousands of years ago when Abraham walked into his promised land. The sight I behold is of a land spreading from the glittering Mediterranean on one side to the Jordan river on the other. Samay’s time machine has landed me about 4000 years ago & I watch Abraham & his sons toiling their promised land & building their tribes . From these tribes originated the people we know as the Jews today. They worshipped one God & practiced Judaism. During the very early years, I see them building their first temple. Around this temple grows Jerusalem – a city which has been built, destroyed & re-built over the centuries. Each of its cobbled paths, the remains of ancient architecture have tales of their own for every ear which wishes to listen. I lend an eager ear & am told of the plethora of invaders that have come in over the centuries – the Mamluks, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Muslim Caliphate, the Turks & finally the British. Some of them were completely intolerant towards Judaism & wreaked havoc by destroying their temple & persecuting the Jews, thereby forcing them to migrate & take refuge in different parts of the world. This was the Jewish Diaspora. Also, there were invaders like the Persians who were comparatively more tolerant & again I watch as some of the Jews return & build a second temple only to be subsequently destroyed.

Today only a piece of the western wall of this ancient temple stands in East Jerusalem & is a very revered site for the Jews

Over the years, Jews have moved out of this land to escape persecution. They lived in different parts of the world but were always discriminated against & subjected to antisemitism. They lived in ghettos. I always wondered why. One reason can be religion given that they worshipped one God as opposed to their conquerors. The Christians were averse to their view of not accepting Jesus as son of God & supporting his crucification. Another reason could be that the Jews were generally an educated lot with doctors, bankers & had accumulated wealth. They had got into the business of money lending. It was difficult to accept that refugees were wealthier & better off than the nations providing them refuge. But these statements may not have historical evidences
Going back to the ancient land of turmoil, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He lived, preached & died in this area – primarily Jerusalem. This was the point where we see Christianity taking birth & gaining popularity.

There were churches constructed – the church of the holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem where Jesus was said to have been crucified & resurrected & the church of nativity in Bethlehem where Jesus was born.

Samay & me continue our watch as we see Mohammed spreading the holy Islam in & around Saudi Arabia in 600 AD. Mecca was his birth place & Medina is where he was laid to rest. However, it is believed that after his death, he rode a bird like creature & landed on a rock in Jerusalem from where he ascended to heaven. Hence, Jerusalem is the 3rd most holiest city for the Muslims who constructed the Al Aqsa mosque near this dome of the rock

Thus, we have the Jews with their temple mount, Christians with their old churches & Muslims with their mosques considering Jerusalem as their holiest of holy city. The unrest, blood shed & war which we see today over this tiny piece of land goes much beyond control of the land per se – it has seeds sown in the strong beliefs & emotions of the three religions

To be continued..