What are the claims for Jews and Palestinians to the land of Israel?

Answer 1

The Jewish claim to Israel is that Jews have lived on this land without interruption for over 3000 years. That this land is their ancestral land. Religious Jews have the additional claim that the land was promised to the Jews by God.

The people who now refer to themselves as Palestinian (prior to 1967, the only people who named themselves were Jews) are made up of a combination of descendants of Jews who converted to Christianity and Islam in ancient times, Syrians, Lebanese, and Egyptians. A large percentage of Jewish people did not enter Israel until after 1920.

The Arabs who chose to not support the attacking Arab countries in 1948 went on to become full Israeli citizens with all the rights citizenship entails.

Answer 2

• Genesis 13:14-17 And the Lord said unto Abram... 'Lift up your eyes, and look...northward and southward and eastward and westward. All the land which you see, to you I will give it, and to your seed forever...Arise, walk through the land..for unto you I will give it.'
• Genesis 17:8,18,19 And I will give unto you (Abraham), and to your seed after you...all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. ...And Abraham said unto God: 'would that Ishmael might live in Your presence!' And God said: 'No; Sarah shall bear you a son; and you shall name him Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.'
  
• Genesis 21:2,3,12 And Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son...And Abraham...named his son Isaac....And God said unto Abraham...'through Isaac shall it be called your seed.'
  
• Genesis 26:1-3 And Isaac went unto Abimelech...And the Lord appeared to him, and said...'Sojourn in this land...unto your seed I will give all these lands.'
  
• In Genesis ch.25: Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Esau. In Genesis 28:13,14: And, behold, the Lord stood beside him (Jacob), and said: 'I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your (grand)father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you are laying, to you I will give it, and to your seed...and you shall spread to the west, east, north, and south.'

History:

The Patriarchs and their family were in Israel (Canaan) for 220 years. The era from Joshua until the First Destruction (including the Judges and Kings) was 850 years. The Second Temple era was, according to traditional chronology, another 420 years (not 586), which included the Hasmonean dynasty. That's a total of 1490 years. (See: Jewish history timeline)
After the Second Destruction, there were thousands of Jews who remained in Israel (Judea; Palestine) throughout the Talmudic era and beyond (see for example the Talmud, Sanhedrin 17b). They were the majority of Palestine's population well into the fourth century, with records attesting to at least 43 Jewish communities, most of them in the Galilee and Jordan valley. After that, there were still Yeshivas in Israel with at least some thousands of community-members.

• In the fifth century, the Jerusalem Talmud was redacted in the yeshiva of Tiberias, by the disciples of Rabbi Johanan; and the Christians of Palestine declared the Jews to be a tolerated minority.
  
• In the sixth century CE, Mar Zutra and his descendants served as head of the community and the Rabbinical academy in Tiberias.
  
• In the seventh century, the Palestinian Jews joined the Persians in a battle to take Jerusalem from the local Byzantines, and enjoyed a brief autonomy, which the Byzantines under Heraclius officially recognized in 628.
  
• At the time of the Moslem conquest of Palestine in 638, the Jewish population in the land has been put at no less than 300,000; and a period of flourishing began. Caliph Umar encouraged Jews to resettle Jerusalem.
  
• In the eighth century, there were 30 synagogues in Tiberias.
  
• In the ninth century, the Jews of Palestine instituted their own Gaon (leading sage) in Tiberias and later in Jerusalem.
  
• In the tenth century, we have the greatest of the Massoretes, Rabbis Aharon ben Asher and Ben Naphtali, flourishing in Tiberias.
  
• Contemporary with Rashi (11th century), we have a Rabbi Abiathar and others, who lived in Israel (see for example Rashi commentary, Talmud Berakhot 62a), and large Jewish communities in Rafah and Ramle, Hebron, Acre, Caesaria, Jaffa, Ashkelon and Gaza.
  
• In the 12th-13th centuries, the Palestinian Jews were harshly persecuted under the Christian Crusaders, yet many Jews continued to live in all the above-mentioned towns as well as Haifa, with Judah Halevi journeying to Palestine in 1141, Maimonides in 1165, and Nachmanides in 1286.
  
• In 1187, Saladdin invited more Jews to settle Palestine. In 1204, a group of Maghreb Jews arrived; and in 1211, 300 Rabbis arrived from France and England. In 1260, Rabbi Yechiel of Paris established a Talmud academy in Acre.
  

a) The Muslims' Qur'an clearly states that Israel belongs to the Jews.
b) Israel is more than willing to get along with the Palestinians and to come to some negotiated arrangement. However, it must be realistic since its citizens are under constant threat and attack. Areas which have been handed over to Palestinians, have been used to stage these attacks.
c) Israel is more concerned for the citizens of those who attack it, than are the attackers themselves. While far from perfect, its treatment of civilians is better than that of any other country in the region.

Answer 3

The main claim of the Israeli Jews, even secular Jews who do not really practise Judaism, to the land of Israel is a religious one - their God promised the land to Abraham and his descendants. In this, they are perversely aided by the Palestinians themselves, whether as Muslims or Christians, because they worship the same God and give credence to this claim. A secondary claim is that Palestine was once the land of the Jews and they should rightfully be allowed to return.

The main claim of the Palestinians is that this has been their traditional land for at least two thousand years. The likelihood that the Palestinians could be descended from the former Canaanite and Philistine inhabitants would push this period of continuous occupation thousands of years back into antiquity.

The claim that it is the Palestinians who immigrated into the land in recent times is demonstrated to be false by the British census taken following the end of the First World War, in which the British classified the 800,000 inhabitants of Palestine according to religion: 650,000 Muslims, 80,000 Christians and only 60,000 Jews. The Palestinians can claim to be descendants of the pre-biblical occupants of Israel. Similarly, there never was a League of Nations condition, implied or otherwise, on the British Mandate that any part of the Mandate be made independent, either as a Jewish or Palestinian state. After the Second world War, the British government determined to create a unitary, democratic state (Palestine) to the west of the River Jordan, but Zionist terrorism, including the assassination of the British representative and the bombing of the King David Hotel, resulted in Britain retreating from this proposal.

Involved in all of these claims, the main determinant is power. The nation of Israel is militarily strong and can impose its will. The Palestine Territories are weak and for them, merely to return to the 1967 borders would be a successful outcome and a sound reason to accept a peaceful solution. Moderate Palestinians now limit their claims to the territory within those borders.

Answer 4

CLAIMS OF THE JEWS

1) Historically: The Jews have an undeniable presence in the land from at least 700 BCE until 70 CE and this is proven not only by the Biblical account, but from Assyrian Ruins, Babylonian documents, Hellenistic inscriptions, and Roman volumes. Jews had a continuous presence in the land from 70 CE until the present day (even though they were nowhere near the majority) even though they were forcibly deported from the territory. The fact that they survived, as opposed to the Arameans or Hittites who were similarly exiled does not illegitimate their claims.

In addition to the population-part of the historical claim, Jews have physical ruins and cities that are very sacred to them in the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine. The city of Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Bible. The city of Nablus used to be the Northern Metropolis of Shechem. Hebron was the first capital of Ancient Israel whence Saul ruled and David ruled until he conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Even more recent sites like Masada document the Jewish presence and struggle to persevere.

2) Religiously: The Jewish claim to have a connection to the land of the British Mandate of Palestine is firmly grounded in their religion. Jews as early as the Babylonian exiles wrote about returning to the land because God had promised it to them. According to the Pentateuch, God promised Abraham that piece of land. (This promise is even acknowledged in the Qur'an 5:20-21, 17:104, and 26:59.) Many Jewish Holy Sites are in Israel such as the Kotel Hama'aravi (Western Wall).

3) Legally: By international law, the Ottoman Empire took the territory from the Seljuks and Abbassids by internationally recognized conquest. The territory was ceded to the British as a Mandate by the Ottomans as a term of surrender in World War I. (Even though the British had promised the territory to both the Arabs and Jews during the War, neither promise is legally binding.) According to the terms of the Mandate, even though the British were in control, the League of Nations had official jurisdiction. In 1947, the British gave direct authority to the League of Nations' successor, the United Nations, in accordance with the terms of their Mandate. The UN passed the 1947 Partition Plan that gave both a Jewish State and an Arab State the Right to Declare Statehood. The fact that the Arabs decided not to immediately declare such a state does not make the Israeli declaration any less valid. (It is important to note that Palestine did declare statehood on these grounds in 1988, which further cements the legality of this view.)

4) Politically: Jews invested a lot in building the political and physical infrastructure of the land even before they had control. Jews built farms, trained military brigades, created political parties, studied government, and defended themselves. This created a system that was able to repel the Arab Attacks in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9, secure expanded borders in the Six Day War of 1967, and hold those borders in the Arab-Israeli War of 1973. Israelis were actually able to exert control over this territory.

CLAIMS OF THE PALESTINIANS

1) Original Inhabitants: This is the strongest case for the Palestinians and goes back to how the Palestinians lived in the British Mandate of Palestine for at least 800 years as the consistent majority of people in the territory. They have love and reverence for the land and consider it to be an intrinsic part of their identity.

2) Atrocities have no Statute of Limitations: Many Palestinians assert that Israelis stole their land and possessions from 1920-1949, most violently during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9 when numerous massacres were perpetrated by Jewish militias to secure the exodus of the Palestinian People. These Palestinians assert that Israel should not be allowed to profit from this seizure of territory.

3) Muslim and Christian Holy Sites: The Palestinians have numerous holy sites that pertain to their religions as well in the British Mandate of Palestine. Jerusalem holds Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, the third most holy sites in all of Islam. There are also the Christian Monuments such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the cities of Nazareth and Bethlehem. Many Palestinian Muslims and Christians want to live in these places as they used to.

4) Arab Reception: Palestinians have been confined to refugee camps and occasionally attacked in violent pogroms by their Arab neighbors (like the attack on Sabra and Shatila in 1982 and Nahr El-Bared in 2007). Palestinians assert like the Jews that nobody is really looking out for their best interests other than other Palestinians and this is why they could never truly settle in another Arab State.

5) Never Allowed to Declare a State: Whether the Palestinians accepted UN Resolution 181 or not, they were never given an opportunity to Declare the Arab State which that Resolution gave them the right to do. After the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9, Jordan and Egypt occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, effectively preventing the nascent Palestinian organizations from becoming a nation, even though they may have wanted to do so. In the present day, the United States has actively tried to prevent Palestinian access to the forums that would allow it to declare its Right to be a State because of its protection of Israel.