Jewish Settlements
The "settlement issue" the existence of
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The "settlement issue" the existence of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, those parts of "historic Palestine" that came under Isreali control after the 1967 war has in recent years become one of the most contentious issues facing would be peacemakers in the Middle East. Many observers see the settlements as the principal obstacle lying in the way of some convenient territorial compromise that would create a Palestinian state or "entity." They have become the emotional center of anti Israeli rhetoric on the part of Arabs and their sympathizers. The United States has, at various times, damned the settlements as illegal, or at least as "an obstacle to peace." The government of Israel, on the other hand, claims a right to establish such settlements not only for reasons of short term security, but on the grounds of a historic right of Jews to live in any part of Eretz Yisrael, the biblical and historic Land of Israel. The following pages are devoted to a discussion of this last, deeply emotional argument. What historic right, if any, do Jews have to live in any or all parts of Palestine? We will suggest, contrary to what seems to be a widely held view in the West, that Jews have lived continually in all parts of Palestine, or Eretz Yisrael, from very ancient times that they are there as continual occupants or returnees, not in any sense as colonizers. This is in contrast to a view which this writer has never found plainly expre
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The Jewish population did dwindle, but Jewish people continued to live in the region, as accounts from Arab times make clear. Jacob Mann published a study (1920) of Jewish life and culture in Palestine and Egypt during the era of the Fatimid Caliphate (c. 969 1099), based on contemporary documents such as letters. One section is specifically devoted to Jews in Palestine (1920: V. 1, 153 201).
By this time, Jews were a minority in a Muslim region. What had happened to reduce their numbers in the centuries since Bar Kokhaba's revolt was crushed? It is highly unlikely that the predominantly Jewish population was literally supplanted by emigrants from elsewhere.
To understand what actually did happen it is necessary to turn back nearly a thousand years, to the experience of ancient Israel. After Solomon's time, the ancient state split into two sections, Israel and Judah, and the northern one (Israel in the strictest, narrow sense) was conquered by Assyria in the eighth century BC. The Jewish people were "expelled," vanishing from history and into legend as the Lost Ten Tribes.
But, in fact, the Assyrians did not expel or exterminate the entire population of the northern kingdom tha
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2809
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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