Claims for the Holy Land

Claims for the Land

Seriously, who’s is it? That’s what many people around the world have been asking about the land tucked away on the Mediterranean Sea. It is known as the holy land to many in that area, but more commonly to the rest of the world as Israel. For almost a thousand years now, the fight for the land between the Palestinians and Israelis has progressed. Both feel that they have right to occupy the holy land, and will fight until they get it. But who is really entitled to this land? Each side has their own claims and beliefs about who should get it, making the decision more difficult. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians give historical, political, and religious claims for the land while fighting strongly for rights to the land they believe that they deserve to inhabit the holy land alone.

The Israelis and Palestinians believe that they both should have control of the land largely in part to their historical claims. Both believe that Abraham is their founding father, and that he has promised them with the land. According to the Bible, the Lord said to Abraham, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you” (Genesis 12: 1-2). Abraham then traveled to Canaan, and the Lord said to him “To your offspring I will give this land.” (Genesis 12:7)

God promised them that Sarah would bear a son for Abraham. But Sarah, a 90-year-old woman, the figured was unable to bear children. So Abraham slept with Hagar, a maidservant of Sarah. Hagar had a son who they named Ishmael. Abraham was happy, but God wasn’t.

He said to Abraham,

“Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But, my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year” (Genesis 17:19-21).

This is the basis for the Palestinian claim that they have rights to the land from their forefather, Abraham. However, the bible also states: “The promise did not go through Ishmael because the covenant had already been made with Abraham, with a yet-unborn Isaac the designated heir, before Ishmael was born” (Genesis 15:2-3). The Jews then step in with their claim that Abraham is their founding father and Isaac is the son that God had blessed him so that he could keep his promise. Ishmael was born due to Abraham’s sin and not part of God’s plan.

As Armstrong states, in 1882 the first Jewish settlers made their way into Palestine, making their way back to what they believed was their holy land. They thought that they were entitled to the land due to divine rights from their God. The pogroms in Russia forced a wave of Jews into Eretz Israel, much to the dismay of the Palestinians. (2001, p.77) The Jews were looking for a place to live, and imagined that the holy land would be a wonderful place to call home, so they headed back to the land of their forefathers. The Balfour Declaration, written by Arthur Balfour, was put forth in 1917, starting the spiral of conflict between the two groups. The Balfour Declaration stated support for “the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people.” (PBS, 2001. p. 1) The declaration finally gave the Israelis a place to live in Palestine. When they first started to settle, Palestine was an Arab nation, with the Jews making up a mere 10% of the population in 1931 However, by 1948 the Jews made up 71% of the population. Then, in 1948 the United Nations proclaimed Israel as the new state for the Jews, giving them 77% of the land (Al-Shihabi, 1997, p. 1). They believed that they finally had their homeland; however, the Palestinians were thinking differently.

The Palestinians considered the area, known to them as Falastin, their homeland. Their ancestors had inhabited the land since the 7th century, when they left the desert and established an empire that quickly spread over three continents (Katz, 1985, p. 1). However, the Israelis believe that since their forefathers went on crusades and captured the holy land, they are entitled to solely inhabit the land. They also believe that they need to live in Falastin to get closer in touch with their ancestral roots. The Palestinians think that since they were there thousands of years before the Crusades took place, when they lost the land, they are still entitled to the Holy