The Historical Framework

Palestine is the crossroads of the ancient world. Its location at the junction of trade routes linking three continents has meant that it was a melting pot for religious and cultural influences. It has also, unfortunately, been a natural battleground for the region's powerful states and, thus, subject to domination.

The Canaanites

The Canaanites were the earliest known inhabitants of Palestine . During the 3rd millennium BC, they became urbanized and lived in city-states surrounded by walls. The Canaanites were then known by the name of the towns, in which they lived and started trading with Egypt and Babylonia . They developed an alphabet from which other writing systems were derived; their religion was a major influence on the beliefs and practices of Judaism, and thus on Christianity and Islam.

The Egyptians

The earliest recorded foreign rulers of Canaan were the powerful Pharaohs of the First and Second Egyptian Dynasties who made the country a colonial possession around 2800 BC. Egyptian hegemony and Canaanite autonomy were constantly challenged during the 2nd millennium BC by such ethnically diverse invaders as the Amorites, Hittites, and others. These invaders, however, were defeated by the Egyptians and absorbed by the Canaanites. Relations between the Pharaohs and the kings of various Canaanite cities are described in the Tel al-Amarna letters(1350 BC).

The Philistines

As Egyptian power began to weaken after the 14th century BC, the Philistines (after whom the country was later named), entered the Land of Canaan and settled in the southern coasts between Jaffa and Gaza . They had achieved military supremacy over the greater part of the country around 1200 BC and called it Palestine . The Philistines were well organized in a federation of five city-states and were skillful in using iron, not only for chariots, shields and swords but also for making iron-tipped ploughs, while their ships and camel caravans maintained commercial links with countries bordering the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia .

The Hebrews

The Hebrews were semi-nomadic tribes from Egypt who had little agricultural expertise or political organization. They invaded Palestine and a land dispute between them and the Philistines caused numerous wars. In order to unite the Hebrew tribes against the Philistines, the prophet Samuel anointed Saul as king. His reign, however, lasted twenty years until about 1000 BC. Saul's successor, David, finally took the fortified Canaanite town of Jebus ( Jerusalem ) and completed Saul's task of defeating the Philistines, and conquered Canaan . David's son, Solomon, ruled for a further 33 years. His Temple in Jerusalem was built between 957 and 950 BC. On Solomon's death in 928 BC, the 73-year-old kingdom fell apart and split into two hostile parts: Judaea in the south, and Samaria in the north.

Assyrians, Persians & Greeks

In 723 BC, the Assyrians swept the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In 586 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar came from the east, invaded Judaea, looted Jerusalem , burned its Temple and palaces, and exiled the people of Judaea to Babylon . In 538 BC, the conquering Persians took over the Babylonian Empire including Palestine . The vast Persian Empire lasted for 200 years. Next to invade was Alexander the Great, who led a Greek army through the Middle East as far as Persia , taking Palestine in 332 BC.

Romans

In 63 BC, General Pompey conquered Palestine for Rome and made it a province ruled by a puppet king. It was during the rule of King Herod the Great (37-4 BC) that Jesus was born. For the people of Palestine , the period of Roman rule under local puppet kings and procurators was a brutal one. The ministry of Jesus that was later to have such an impact on the world, was at the time an attempt to unite Palestinian society. The province of Judaea fought two bloody but unsuccessful revolts against the Romans: the first, in 66 AD culminated in the destruction of Herod's Temple (70 AD) by Titus, the second (135 AD), was led by Simon bar Kochba. This time Jerusalem was completely razed by Hadrian who built a Roman city over its ruins and banned Jews from living in or even entering the city.

Byzantine Era

In 330 AD, Emperor Constantine succeeded in reunifying the Roman Empire, and moved its capital to the Greek city of Byzantium , ushering in Byzantine rule in Palestine . Christianity became the official state religion, and many sites associated with Jesus were identified and consecrated for the first time. Much of the local population converted to Christianity at this time, but restrictions placed on Jews and Samaritans led to the Samaritan revolt in 529 AD. Byzantine rule was interrupted, however, by a brief Persian occupation (614-629) and ended altogether when Muslim Arab armies captured Jerusalem in 638 AD. Their conquest lasted fourteen hundred years.

Early Arab Period

Palestine was conquered by the Arabs at the battle of Yarmuk in 636 AD. Caliph Omar (638-644 AD) made Jerusalem the capital of the Arab realm of Palestine , and in the course of the seventh century the Mosque of al-Aqsa was built in the city. The Muslim rulers did not force their religion on the Palestinians, and more than a century passed before the majority converted to Islam. The remaining Christians and Jews were considered People of the Book. They were allowed autonomous control in their communities and guaranteed security and freedom of worship. Many Canaanites, who formed the backbone of the rural population, converted to Islam. Most Palestinians also adopted Arabic and Islamic culture. Because of its associations with the Prophet, Jerusalem became the third holiest site in Islam (after the cities of Mecca and Medina ) and a place of pilgrimage. From this time until the end of World War I, apart from the relatively brief Crusader period (1099-1291), Palestine was under Muslim rule.

Crusaders

The army of Crusaders took Jerusalem in 1099 AD, massacring its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants. The Europeans maintained their domination for less than 100 years, until Salah ad-Din (Saladeen) led his Muslim armies and defeated the Crusaders at the battle of Hittin in 1187, and ushered in the Ayyubid dynasty (1187-1287).

Mamluks

In 1248, the Ayyubid dynasty was replaced by that of the Mamluks of Cairo. They began a series of campaigns which culminated in the capture of the last Crusader stronghold, Acre in 1291. During the Mamluks' period in Palestine (1248-1517), many religious, educational and legal institutions were established in Jerusalem , which became a center of pilgrimage and learning.

Ottomans

The Ottoman Turks defeated the Mamluks in 1517 and conquered Egypt itself. Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent took over Palestine and rebuilt Jerusalem where his great walls stand to this day. Ottoman rule, which lasted until 1916, gave Palestine its longest period of peace, but the price was one of economic stagnation. The Ottoman Empire in the 19th century was crumbling and increasingly corrupt and tyrannical. By World War I, the Palestinian population was ready to revolt.

British Mandate

Meanwhile, Zionist leaders were pressing high British government officials for their support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine stressing the strategic advantages to them of having an ally in the Middle East . On November 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary Balfour signed the Balfour Declaration, which stated that "His Majesty's Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."

In April 1920 Britain was mandated by the League of Nations to control Palestine . Acquisition of land and mass Jewish immigration, directed by the Jewish Agency, raised Jewish land holding to 5% and the Jewish population to 17% by 1929. Between 1930 and 1939, substantial numbers of European Jews chose Palestine as a refuge from Nazi terror in Europe, so that by 1939 the Jewish population constituted almost a third of the whole population of Palestine . For Palestinian Arabs, this burgeoning Jewish National Home means dispossession from their land and a violation of promises of independence. Having no formal political organization at the start of the Mandate, their resentment was expressed by a series of violent protests, the first of which was in 1920. Each subsequent revolt - in 1921, 1929 and 1933- was followed by a commission of inquiry that found that the Palestinians had good cause for concern. Eventually, from 1936 to 1939, there was a full-scale Palestinian Revolt. By World War II, the Palestinian nationalist movement had been firmly suppressed and the Zionists began looking to the US for political support.

After intense negotiations and pressure, the General Assembly approved the partition of Palestine on November 29, 1947 (Resolution 181). The Zionists accepted the partition plan, but the Palestinians, being asked to agree to their own dispossession, perhaps not surprisingly rejected it. Between November 1947 and January 1948, an estimated 2000 people were killed or injured in Palestine . Britain announced it would withdraw all its forces and terminate the Mandate on May 15, 1948. The Palestinians were encouraged to leave not only by being dispossessed of their land and livelihood, but also by massacres such as that at Deir Yassin, five weeks before the end of the British Mandate.

Israeli occupation

The Israelis used the opportunity offered by the 1948 war to take an additional 20% of Palestinian territory, including half of Jerusalem . 450 Palestinian villages had been destroyed and some 750,000 Palestinians had been driven out of their homeland and became refugees. The remainder of the land, on the West Bank of Jordan River (including the eastern half of Jerusalem ), was annexed by the renamed Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan until 1967. In the Six Days War of June 1967, Israel acquired territory three times its size. Israel now occupies the remainder of Palestine (the West Bank including East Jerusalem , the Gaza Strip), and the Syrian Golan Heights. More Palestinian villages were destroyed and a further 200,000 Palestinians crossed the Jordan River to become refugees, some for the second time.

Palestinian opposition to military occupation has been growing steadily since 1967. Over half of the West Bank has been expropriated for Israeli settlements. Palestinian resistance intensified and erupted in late 1987 in the Intifada. On November 14, 1988, the PLO took a major step towards a possible settlement, for the first time accepting a two-state solution and UN Resolution 181 (over partition).

Oslo Accord

In September 1993 Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo Accord. Among its provisions, the accord called for a five-year interim period of Palestinian Autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza at the end of which the final status of the occupied territories will be decided. However, the implementation of the accord met setbacks resulting from the intransigence of the Israeli extremists.