The Arab Israel conflict — Layman’s explainer
The 3500 year old origin of the conflict that affects three major monotheistic religions
The Middle East conundrum has suddenly made many Indians come up with their own support and oppose groups. Whom do you support, Israel or Palestine? I face this question from various individuals and groups and it is difficult for me to answer, without explaining them the context.
But who needs context? Who is interested in history? Everyone is after small bytes and half baked truths.
I thought this is a good opportunity to put here a no-brainer on the chronology of events that have led to this war. This is not a history lesson and I am trying not to be opinionated. Nor is this meant for history experts.
There is a lot of “believed to be” used in this because most theory have two versions and I am not trying to prove which one is correct or wrong. A lot of Biblical quotes are also given because to know the origin of this conflict, the first book of reference is Bible or Torah.
All the information is borrowed from the public domain, because the Bible is used heavily as reference point. Some may think this as tilted more towards Christianity. But anyone who wants to indulge in early history will have to rely on the Genesis.
Chapter 1: Introduction
There are three major monotheistic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They are commonly referred to as the Abrahamic faiths. That is because of a common father — Abraham. Isaac is the ancestor of both Prophet Moses and Jesus Christ, while his brother Ishmael is identified as the father of the Arabs, an ancestor of Prophet Muhammad — both born to Abraham.
You may ask who Abraham is and what is his relation to Jews? No, Abraham was not a Jew. He was a Hebrew and his ancestors were idol worshippers. Genesis 14:13 says — “Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner; these were allies of Abram.”
Read “Abram the Hebrew” in the verse.
Hebrew originates from Heber, a region mentioned in Joshua 24:2 — “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors — Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor — lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods.”
Served other gods clearly differentiates that the region was not Jewish. Read Luke 3:34 and Abraham’s ancestry.
To understand the conflict, it is very much necessary to go back to where Abraham came from. The following chapter will give an idea about that. You can skip it if you find it boring.
Chapter 2: Noah’s Ark
You must have all read and seen movies on Noah’s Ark which he is believed to have built on God’s instructions to save lives from catastrophe. All his family entered the ark and once the flood was gone, they all survived. But how many are aware what happened to this family after that?
Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Genesis 5:32 and 6:10) It is believed that Shem had five sons one of which was Arphaxad. He had a son named Shelah whose son was Eber. He had two children Peleg and Joktan. Peleg had a son Reu. Complicated? Wait, it goes further.
Reu had a son named Serug whose son Nahor is the father of Terah? Now who is Terah? Well, he is the father of Abraham.
Now you know the lineage of Abraham and his connection to Noah. It was Abraham whom God establishes a covenant with. The descendants of Shem came to be known as “Semites.” (Now you understand the word anti-Semitism which is hostility, prejudice or discrimination against Jews).
Do not confuse Terah with Torah which is the name of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy — or the Written Torah in Jewish tradition. These books are the source of the first glimpses of the early history.
Let us now go back to Noah. The Bible refers to the flood which drowned the entire earth except for Noah and his sons from whom mankind descended. If you read Chapter 10 of Genesis, you will get a better idea of the origin of tribes — a kind of mythologized ethnology whose tribes were called as per the time of writing the chapter. It is not a race but a linguistic and cultural classification.
When Noah died, his three sons got their portions of land. Ham received Africa and is believed to be the ancestor of the dark-skinned peoples of Africa. Japheth got what is today’s Europe and is believed to be the ancestor of the Medes, Persians, Greeks, etc. who later came to be known as Aryans. Shem is the ancestor of Hebrews and their various cognates in the continent of Asia, which included Israel.
You may not deny the doubtfulness of this theory given the scholarly historical, linguistic, archaeological, and ethnographical evidence; it still stands a chance to be a matter of big debate.
The descendants of Shem and Japheth were constant allies. Many Biblical nations are credited to this lineage which include the Persians, Assyrians, Chaldeans (Babylonians), Israelites, Edomites, Lydians, and Syrians.
Terah and his family were believed to be idol-worshipers. After Terah died, God called Abraham to continue the journey of Canaan. Abraham was married to Sarah. She and Abraham are believed to be half siblings as they had the same father (Genesis 20:12). She followed Abraham in his journey to a place he had never heard of. This is how Abraham reached Israel.
Chapter 3: Theories and facts
There is a big debate on which was written first — the Torah or the Quran, the most sacred texts in Judaism and Islam?
History scholars believe Torah came first because the earliest surviving copies of the Torah date back to around the 3rd century BCE, while the earliest surviving copies of the Quran date back to the 7th century CE. Also Quran contains references, stories and characters from Torah. Depending on what you read or believe, this story keeps changing.
Abraham and his legally wed wife Sarah were worried over not having children. Genesis will give in detail how finally Abraham fathered eight sons. His first son is believed to be Ishmael from Hagar, an Egyptian maid of his wife. After a while Sarah also gave birth to Abraham’s second son, Isaac. The rest of the six children of Abraham were born after the death of Sarah, to Keturah, who was believed to be a concubine.
Genesis 15:4–5 says Isaac was the son God had promised Abraham. At this point, it is important to point out that the Bible and the Quran differ as far as the theories of Abraham’s children are concerned. You must understand it first before we go ahead with the rest of the story.
Genesis 22:2 says “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”
And as per Genesis 15:4–5, Isaac was the son promised to Abraham born out of an official marriage, rightful heir to inherit Abraham.
But in the Quran, Hagar is married to Abraham before she bears him a child. Here, I am reproducing three chapters of Genesis which gives a clear picture of what happened.
Genesis 21
The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.
God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Genesis 22
After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba.
Genesis 25:16
God’s promise to make another nation from Ishmael began to be fulfilled when Ishmael had twelve sons who presided over twelve tribes.
Let us leave this and bring in a new character here — Nebuchadrezzar.
He was king of Babylonia from 605 BC until 562 BC (both approximate dates). His name is mentioned close to a hundred times in Bible, especially in the chapter of Daniel. In 586 BC, he conquered Judah and Jerusalem almost destroying it to the ground.
In Daniel 2:31–45 Nebuchadnezzar represents successive Gentile kingdoms which dominated the region until the advent of Christ.
Luke 21:24 says “they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
Who are these Gentiles? They are actually described as people other than Israelites.
But the destruction did not end with Nebuchadrezzar.
Israel and its nearby territories were part of the Roman Empire since 6 AD. Rebellion from local people against the Roman rule was sprouting and Josephus, a wealthy Jewish priest, was part of it.
By 66 AD, there was chaos and one event led to another and a Jewish rebellion led by Josephus emerged. To cut the story short, the Roman soldiers crushed this rebellion and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. They started killing the Jews who had to flee across the globe leaving their home land.
If you visit Rome, do have a look at Arch of Titus, triumphal arch, located on the Via Sacra near the Roman Forum which depicts Jewish captives in chains and Roman soldiers carrying the seven-branched temple candlestick on their shoulders.
In this battle, more than a million Jews perished and nearly 100,000 were taken captive. This event is important because the current conflict did not begin as a conflict between Jews and Muslims as perceived by many who have no background of this history.
It began as a Jews versus Roman conflict.
Chapter 3: The Romans
Romans form an important part of this narrative. Many still believe Romans were Christians since Rome is the epicenter of Catholic faith today. But early Romans were polytheistic — believers in many gods and spirits.
Religion in Roman Empire evolved as rulers changed. The empire’s foundations were formed on Gods and as an approval to this; a Capitoline Triad was established to celebrate three founding fathers — Jupiter, the ultimate god, Mars, the war of God and Quirinus, first king of Rome.
The inspiration to this came from Greek Mythology.
The advent of Christianity was the beginning of the fall of the Roman Empire. The mythological beliefs in Rome were challenged by both Judaism and Christianity (founder of Christianity, Jesus was himself a Jew).
The very basic tenets of Roman belief got seriously challenge by Jewish ideas. The Jews had to face persecution. Since Christianity was a small sect within Judaism, the Romans did not initially feel the need to attack them.
But eventually, Christian ideas made strong ground and grew at an unimaginable pace. They got support from even Emperor Constantine who himself converted at the fag end of his life. Jesus Christ’s ideas spread like wild fire and its rise slowly resulted in the end of Roman Empire.
Chapter 4: Jewish Origin
Remember Abraham and his ancestors who were idol worshippers? And recollect his journey to Canaan, which are today Palestinian and Israeli territories?
Judaism originated with the generation of Abraham and his followers in this region — which is also called the Promised Land. Major figures in Israelite culture are the patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophet Moses, who received God’s Torah at Mount Sinai.
Rabbinic Judaism is the most practiced today and is a little different from Sadducees, Karaite Judaism, and Samaritanism. Judaism is based on the belief that Moses received God’s Torah in the written form (Pentateuch) and also oral Torah which is basically sermons Moses gave to people. But the second part is only believed by Rabbinic Judaism. The religious practices here have a lot in common with Christianity and Islam — both of which are the offspring of one lineage.
After the fall of the 2nd temple in Jerusalem to Roman onslaught, more and more Jews made Rabbinic Judaism as their primary belief.
Jews, in order to regain their land, attempted a second revolt in 132 CE but it not only failed but resulted in Jews being banned from Jerusalem. Around 329 BCE Alexander ruled from Egypt to India which included all Persian regions and Israel. He did not create any problem for the Jews as long as they did no harm to him and were loyal tax payers. By 516 BCE, Cyrus, the then king even allowed Jews to return and allowed them to build a temple at the original site of Solomon’s Temple.
Post the death of Alexander after 164 BCE, his successors started annexing Jewish areas. Already down and persecuted, there was little resistance. By 198 CE, the Seleucids who took control, started eliminating the religion itself and converted the Second Temple of Jerusalem into a temple dedicated to the Greek god Zeus. This is where the Jews fought to regain the control of the area and purify the temple. This is celebrated today as the Hanukkah.
Getting confused with chronology of years? Remember, BCE (or Before Common Era also called as BC) is written in reverse order.
Chapter 5: The Lost Tribes
Remember Abraham and his son Isaac? Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob. The son through whom the Promised Land was to be given was Jacob who was also called Israel (after which the place is named). He fathered 12 sons who went on to become the 12 tribes of Israel.
Following the death of King Solomon, Israel was split into two kingdoms — the northern part was called Israel and the southern kingdom, Judah. They remained separate for over two hundred years.
The tribes of Reuben, Simon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Ephraim, and half the tribe of Manasseh made up the northern kingdom. Benjamin and Judah made up the southern kingdom.
Around 722 BCE, the Assyrians conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel and exiled 10 tribes of Israel that lived there. These tribes are said to be the Jewish diasporas and most of them are lost to history as they mingled in local cultures wherever they got settled. They came to be known as Ten Lost Tribes.
After this came the attack on the southern Kingdom of Judah, this time by the Babylonians who exiled the Jews there.
The lost tribes as well as Jews from Judah fled and settled everywhere in the world including India. Read the article below to know how they arrived in India. Saint Thomas, the Apostle of Jesus, came to India in search of these Jews.
Chapter 6: World War I
The Judea which Romans destroyed in the 70 AD is the same place where Palestinians now exist. While driving out Jewish people from this region, the name of the place was rechristened as Philistines or Palestine. They were ruled by Romans, Byzantines, Muslims, Crusaders, and finally Ottoman Empire before British colonized it.
The Arabs living here never bothered to have freedom or to have self governance whereas British were facing rebellion in their colonies for self rule and independence.
The Ottoman Empire fell in World War I giving control to French and British who shared territories in Levant region. French drew Arab states of Syria and Lebanon and Palestine went to the British. Remember the Jews were left with no home land of their own since the Roman conquest and they were all over the world, wielding power and money.
Here comes the role of Theodor Herzl, an Austrian Jewish journalist who is credited as the father of establishing the modern State of Israel. He wrote a note Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), in 1896, that led to the launch of Zionism as a modern political movement with just one objective — creation of a Jewish homeland.
The movement began lobbying across the globe and started fund raising for their objective. The British wanted allies and help during the war. So they promised the Jews their homeland and at the same time promised independence to Arabs from Ottoman rule.
Obviously they could only keep one promise at the cost of the other. Jews were facing severe persecution by this time in Europe and other parts of the world. What was the option before them?
The first Zionist conference in Basel, Switzerland lay the founding stone for the achievement of a Jewish homeland.
In 1917, the British declared establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine but did not declare an independent Palestinian state. This was called Balfour Declaration, which still haunts the region.
In the next four years, a majority of land under the British — close to 80% other than that carved out for Israel — was used to create Jordan where most of the Palestinians live today.
Jews began to invite the Jewish diasporas (including the lost tribes) who were living in many parts of the world to settle in the newly formed nation Israel. In doing so, Israel also created refugees among Arabs who had no place to go.
This led to Arabs, most of them Muslims, hating the Jewish people and trying to expel them from Israel. Israel’s response did not help cool off the frayed tempers. It began colonizing the neighbourhood in the newly formed state by building settlements, believing that those who control the land will control the people.
Chapter 7: The Conflict
Remember the 80% land carved out to form Jordan? The remaining land was disputed till 1947 when UN came up with a partition plan to give it partially to form the Jewish state — to be recognized by all warring factions — and the balance to form a Palestinian Arab state.
The Jewish population had by now grown to 33 percent of Palestine’s population, with only 6 percent of the land. The nearly 70 percent Palestinians had more than 90 percent of the land in historic Palestine.
The Palestinians did not accept the plan to grant half of Palestine, including strategic regions, to form a Jewish state.
But after the Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, and refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the Jewish state captured 78 percent of historic Palestine. The balance 22 percent is what is now known the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A union started forming out of this failed plan and Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon joined hands to attack Israel in 1948. Remember, the Israeli state was not even formed by then, but it had the backing of the West. This war created a humongous humanitarian crisis with refugees on both sides. But Israel gained an upper hand after this war.
As early as December 1948, the UN General Assembly called for refugee return, property restitution and compensation (resolution 194 (II)). However, 75 years later, despite countless UN resolutions, the rights of the Palestinians continue to be denied. According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) more than 5 million Palestine refugees are scattered throughout the Middle East. Today, Palestinians continue to be dispossessed and displaced by Israeli settlements, evictions, land confiscation and home demolitions.
The territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea remains sacred for Christians, Jews and Muslims and thus has become the epicenter of the entire conflict now.
Chapter 8: The Conclusion
Palestinians and Israelis, each make their own claims on this region. Historically, both may appear correct, depending on which side of the fence you sit. For, ultimately it is a story of possession, dispossession and repossession over the centuries.
The main question remains — whose side are you in this conflict?
Violence cannot be the answer to any problem. An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.
But then, neutrality is a crime in today’s deeply polarized world.
So I would always to take sides with the oppressed, whoever they are. And fight the oppressor. But again, who is the oppressed and who is oppressor, seems a difficult question to answer in today’s world.
Perhaps, may be the Palestinians and the Israelis need to sit across the table and sort this out between themselves.
“Our policy has been longstanding and consistent. India always advocated the resumption of direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine, living within secure and recognised borders, side by side at peace with Israel. I think that position remains the same.”
This is the statement made by India after Hamas launched rocket attacks on Israel on October 7. I tend to agree with my country’s position, which has been in place since 1948.
If you find this useful, write on the comments below with your opinion.
Anosh Malekar edited and contributed to this write up.
