We are told that “Israel has stolen the land from the Palestinians”

Well let’s look at the history.

First, let’s take a look at the overall timeline. In figure below, from Israel My Channel the history of the Holy Land has been laid out as a stacked bar chart consisting of four rows. The upper row contains the earliest dates. We can see that the Hebrew patriarchs were in Israel starting at around 2166 BC. The first patriarch was Abraham. From 1976 to 1406 BC, while the Hebrews were in Egypt, the land was controlled by Canaanites. Then between 1406 and 1000 BC the tribes of Israel were back in the land. And then from 1000 to 931 BC it was the United Kingdom of Israel in the land. And then from 931 to 722 BC it was the divided Kingdom with Israel in the north and Judah in the South. And then from 722 to 586 BC it was a Assyria in control of the north because they had scattered the northern tribes out of the land. But the Kingdom of Judah remained in the South. On the 2nd row we see that Babylon was in charge of the Holy Land between 586 and 539 BC after taking the Israelites captive marking the beginning of their seventy-year captivity in Babylon. From 539 to 330 BC Persia was in control and they helped the Israelites move back to the land and rebuild their temple under king Cyrus. And then from 330 to 323 BC it was Greece in control initiated by Alexander the Great. When Alexander the Great died, his Kingdom was divided among four generals and it was one of those, Ptolemy who initiated the Ptolemaic control over the Holy Land from 323 to 198 BC. After that it was the Seleucids and then from 167 to 63 BC the Maccabees were able to push their enemies out and take full control of the land. And then from 63 BC to 285 AD Rome was in control. It was during this time that the Romans destroyed the temple in 70 AD and scattered the Jews further scattered them in about 135 AD. On the 3rd row from 285 to 1099 AD we can see a series of empires that were in control of the Holy Land from the Byzantine all the way through several caliphates to the Fatamid caliphate which ended in 1099 AD. On the 4th row we can see the crusader states were in control of the Holy Land from 1099 to 1187 as a result of the Crusades. Following this, we see two Islamic empires leading up to the Ottoman empire which was in control of the land from 1517 to 1917 AD at the end of the First World War. Finaly, the British Empire controlled the Holy land from 1917 through the Second World War until 1948 when Israel became a state.  And on the very bottom of course we all know that the state of Israel has been in control from 1948 until today. Two fundamental things pertinent to our discussion should be noted: one is that Jews were in the land all of this time even when there were foreign powers that had ultimate control over their land. The second thing to note is there is no Palestinian state or Palestinian people mention, but only a march of empires vying for control of the region.

The following two maps give us an idea of the extent of the territory held by the Israelites very early on. The first is a map of the territories of the 12 tribes of Israel during the time of the judges. That would be around 1400 BC. The second map shows the territories of the kingdoms under King’s Saul David and Solomon which Cover a period from 1000 BC to 924 BC.

On the Judges map on the left we can see that territory was held from below the Dead Sea in the South all the way up to Lebanon in the north.

During the time of the United Kingdom under Kings Saul, David and Solomon, Israel’s territory has been expanded from the Red Sea in the South to well above Damascus in Syria in the north.

Note that at the time these maps were made, Palestine was synonymous with Israel. It was simply a name for the territory of Israel.

The next two maps show the lands assigned to Britain and France as victors after the First World War. The one on the left shows that the original British mandate included the territories of Israel and what is now Jordan. The French mandate is Syria in the north. The one on the right shows Britain’s division of their mandated area into Palestine Or Israel and Transjordan which eventually became Jordan.

Note that before this there were no countries like Syria and Saudi Arabia and Jordan but only territories of the Ottoman Empire. It was Britain and France that established the boundaries of countries like Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia after the First World War.

The following map on the left shows the UN partition plan of 1947. It’s the original two state solution. The dark brown areas are the lands to be assigned to the Arabs. And the light brown areas that is the rest of the territory of Israel were to be assigned to the Jews. The Jews accepted this plan, but the Arabs did not. This forced Israel’s hand and on May 14^th, 1948, it declared itself a state. The Arabic nations all around Israel Immediately attacked. By the end of the 1948-49 war, the Israelis held more land than the UN partition plan. This is shown on the map on the right. Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria which became known as the West Bank, and later annexed it. Egypt occupied and administered the Gaza Strip. Jerusalem became a divided city: Israelis held the western, Jewish-inhabited part and Jordanians the eastern portion, including the religiously significant Old City. Israel unilaterally proclaimed West Jerusalem its capital in 1950.

Note that Israel did not steal land. It accepted the 1947 partition plan. And realizing that the Arabs were not going to accept that plan declared itself a state intending to maintain control over the land that the UN had assigned to it. The Arabs rejected the idea of living side by side with Jews and intended to annihilate them in the war. But Israel won the war and, as a result of their victory, gained more territory over and above that assigned to them in the partition plan.

Since 1949 the history of Israel and its relationship with the Arabs in territories and nations around it has been complex. To try to keep this discussion short let me summarize by saying that over the years there have been continual conflicts between the Arabs and Israel with major wars since such as the six-day war of 1967 and the Yom Kippur war of 1973 and others. These wars have always been initiated by the Arabs but won by the Israelis. The map below generally shows the arrangement of land in and around Israel currently.

It appears that the Arabs regret having rejected the 1947 partition plan and gaining a state or regret having failed in their attempts at annihilation of the Jews at that time and at every other opportunity since then.

A review of the consistent Arab rejection over the years of peace plans and two state offers as outlined in the figure below, makes one think that the Arabs regret more their missed opportunities for annihilation of the Jews then their missed opportunities at gaining a state.

So, we see that it’s not their land that has been stolen from them, but their opportunities for genocide.

Shalom all!