Who is occupying Palestine?
While many “experts” and activists are busy screaming that Israel is occupying Palestine, Hamas unapologetically states that it was, in fact, Islam that conquered and occupied Palestine. According to Hamas, “Israel will be established and will stay established until Islam nullifies it as it nullified what was before it“.1 Hamas is making it clear here that Islam destroyed what was originally in the Palestinian region to establish an Islamic land, and it believes that Islam will one day destroy the current State of Israel too.
You may say, “Well, given that Islam occupied the Palestinian region in the 7th century and nullified what was before it, how did the Jews manage to come back to create the current State of Israel in that Area? Doesn’t that mean the Jews subsequently occupied that area?” The answer is – No! The word “occupy” in the current context generally means taking a land by force. Islam took the Judea and Samaria (Palestinian region) by force and persecuted the Jews and Arabs living there at that time, but that was not how the modern state of Israel was formed.
How did the State of Israel form?
After hundreds of years of exile and being scattered all around the world, Jews sought to reestablish a country that they could call home, so that they no longer had to be persecuted wherever they went. So, in the early 19th century, they began returning to what was once their homeland. Unlike Islam, the Zionists did not come back and take the land by force; they paid large sums and purchased the lands from Arab owners.2 It is through those land purchases that the Jews gained a substantial portion of land, which they then wanted to be declared as the nation or state of Israel. They sought the British, who at the time were controlling that land, to make that declaration. However, after various failed promises, at the end of British rule, on 15th May, 1948, the Zionists issued the “Declaration of Independence [of Israel]” marking the formal recognition of the [modern] state of Israel.
Is not Israel responsible for the Palestinian refugee crisis?
Yes and No! Many Palestinians were displaced due to the land purchases made by the Zionists. However, the number of people who turned into refugees due to Zionist land purchases was significantly smaller than those who turned into refugees due to the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars!
Let’s first talk about the people who were displaced due to Zionist land purchases: Was it wrong for the Jews to ask those Palestinians to leave? Absolutely Not! When someone pays full price and purchases a piece of land, it becomes theirs. You cannot sell your land to others and still expect to have a right to stay there. Since the Jews purchased the lands and acquired land titles, they had every right to ask the people to leave, and expel them with force when they did not comply.
What about those who became refugees due to the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars?
Although there had already been several clashes between the Jews and Arabs living in Palestine by that time, it wasn’t until the 1948 war (the First Arab-Israeli War) that the refugee crisis began. Who was responsible for the 1948 war? The Arab League! The very next day after the Israeli declaration of Independence, troops from multiple neighbouring Arab countries waged a war against Israel. Israel not only won that war but gained significant portions of land, which was originally proposed (by the UN) to be given to the yet-to-be-formed Arab State. This war resulted in more than 700,000 refugees as people fled from their homes that were in the war zones.3 The UN and many others point to this and say that Israel is the occupier, and it resulted in the refugee Crisis. My response to it is that Israel did not seek that war. Had not the Arab league started the war, the refugee crisis wouldn’t have begun. It is unreasonable to blame Israel for the 1948 refugees when it’s the Arab countries that were responsible for the war. As to the issue of “occupation”, Israel won that (unprovoked) war and as victor, gained ownership of the region beyond its original borders.
Tensions between Israel and the Arab world continued with another major war (the second Israeli-Arab war in 1956, which was unrelated to the Palestine issue). As tensions continued on, fearing an attack from Egypt, Israel launched a strike on Egypt’s air force. That led to the six-day war of 1967, which further resulted in another horde of refugees and also resulted in the expansion of Israel’s borders. Again, the UN calls this the Israeli occupation and blames Israel for being the aggressor. My response is the same as before. Had the Arab nations sought peace with Israel instead of its eradication, none of these wars would have occured and none of the land expansion would have occurred. Therefore, it is disingenuous to blame Israel for the Palestinian refugee crisis.
Why doesn’t Israel return the land it gained in the 1948 and 1967 wars?
Return to who? Israel did not occupy the territory belonging to any other sovereign country. It occupied the portions of Palestine previously occupied by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Why is it that Egypt, Syria, and Jordan can claim parts of Palestine but not Israel? You may say, “Well, Israel can return the land not to any other country but just to the people who were originally living there and let them determine for themselves what they want to do with it.” The UN often presents the “Palestinian problem” in those same terms, saying Palestinians must be afforded the “right to self-determination”.
Israel did just that, with Gaza. Although it gained Gaza and Sinai from Egypt in the 1967 war, it later returned Sinai to Egypt in 1979 after signing the peace treaty (The Camp David Accords) with Egypt.4 In 2005, it evacuated Gaza unilaterally and removed every single Jew living there, by force, and left the future of Gaza to its residents. Not a single Jew lived in Gaza since 2005, and not a single Jewish soldier entered it since then. What was the outcome of it? The people of Gaza elected a terrorist organisation, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), to lead Gaza. What has Hamas done since 2006? Instead of caring for its citizens who are stricken with poverty, it focused on building armed capabilities to destroy Israel. There have been various major armed conflicts between Hamas and Israel (in 2008-09, 2012, 2014, and 2021) since Hamas took power in 2006. Most recently, Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th 2023, when it killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages.
Therefore, Israel fears that the same would repeat if it were to leave any of the other lands it acquired in the 1967 war or in other later conflicts. If Israel were to forego control of that land, then it would most certainly be used to develop terror infrastructure aimed at destroying and wiping out Israel. That’s why Israel (at least the current administration) refuses to relinquish any portion of the land that is currently under their control.
How does Israel treat Palestinian Arabs in Israel?
In the Israeli Declaration of Independence5, the Zionists stated, “THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants;… it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, coscience, language, education and culture…”
The same document also says, “WE APPEAL – in the midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months – to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provincial and permanent institutions.”
The State of Israel showed its commitment to those claims. The State of Israel remained true to the statements made in its Declaration of Independence. The Arabs (non-Jews) living in the State of Israel have the same rights as the Jews. There are Arab majority political parties in Israel, whose coalition is the primary opposition to the current Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.6 The Israeli Supreme Court has, among its permanent members, a Muslim Arab Israeli judge (Chaled Kabub)7. Non-Jewish, arab israelis are present in all levels of government and even in the Israeli Armed Forces.
How is Israel treating Palestinians outside of Israel, notably in Gaza?
Hezbollah from Lebanon and Hamas from Gaza have fired thousands of rockets at Israel over the years. Most of those rockets, especially those from Gaza, are launched from densely populated areas. Most of those rockets cost less than US$ 1,000 each.8 Israel could fire similar rockets back at Gaza and Lebanon to kill the militants who are firing those rockets. However, any such retaliatory fire from Israel is sure to kill Palestinian civilians along with militants in Gaza. Therefore, to avoid having to kill civilians, Israel spent billions of dollars to develop the Iron Dome system. The Iron Dome, instead of firing back at the enemy, simply exists to protect the Israeli citizens from the incoming rockets. Compared to the Hamas and Hezbollah rockets that cost less than $1000 each, each Iron Dome battery costs US$100 million, and each of its interceptor missiles costs about US$50,000!9 Are you aware of any other nation in the world that takes as much care to prevent the death of its enemies’ people?
Isn’t Israel committing genocide in Gaza?
No. Have tens of thousands of people been killed in Gaza in the current Israel-Hamas war that started in response to the Oct 7 2023, attack of Hamas on Israel? Yes. The loss of life in Gaza in the current conflict is enormous; that is a fact. However, the claim that Israel is committing Genocide is false. The word “Genocide” is a legal word with a very specific meaning. While the common public often thinks of the term ‘genocide’ to mean mass killings, according to the technical definition, even a single death can constitute genocide. The key is not the number of people killed but rather the intent behind the killings. An act of genocide requires, on the part of the perpetrator, an intent to wipe out a protected people group. I will provide a detailed breakdown of the UNHRC’s report, which concluded that Israel is committing Genocide in Gaza, at a later time, to expose the bias and lies embedded in it. For now, it is sufficient to point out the facts I already mentioned earlier, which show that Israel does not hate Palestinians and is not intent on wiping out palestinian arabs. Israel goes to great lengths to protect Palestinians. Therefore, the claim that Israel is committing genocide is utterly false.
Does Israel have good relationships with any Arab countries?
In their Declaration of Independence, the Zionists stated this: “WE EXTEND our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.”
The governments of Israel, since its establishment in 1948, have shown their commitment to this statement. Israel sought peace continually with its neighbours and formed many diplomatic relationships that are in force even to this day, such as the Camp David Accords, which was signed by Israel and Egypt in 1978, and the Abraham Accords in 2020, signed by Israel with the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco.10
Israel’s wars are with those militant groups and Arab nations that wants the destruction and elimination of Israel. It’s war is not with any particular religious or ethnic group. That’s why it was able to forge cordial relationships with several Arab countries.
Why did the Arab-Israeli conflict even start?
Given that Israel is seeking to be at peace with its neighbours and some of the Arab countries are willing to reciprocate it, why are some other Arab nations, notably Iran, not willing to extend such peace to Israel? Why is Hamas constantly at war with Israel? Why did the Arab League even start the first war in 1948? Why were there armed conflicts shortly before that war between Jews and the Palestinian Arabs?
The short answer: Islam. For a more detailed summary, click the link below:
- The Charter of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) of Palestine, pp.1; https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/attachments/jps-articles/2538093.pdf ↩︎
- https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-208638/ ↩︎
- “The Palestine Question – A Brief History” by the United Nations Palestinian Rights Committee; https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-206581/ ↩︎
- https://www.britannica.com/event/Camp-David-Accords ↩︎
- https://content.ecf.org.il/files/M00642_IsraeliDeclarationOfIndependenceEnglish.pdf ↩︎
- https://israelpolicyforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Israels-Political-Parties-Breakdown-2022.pdf ↩︎
- https://supreme.court.gov.il/sites/en/Pages/Justices.aspx ↩︎
- https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/how-much-does-hamass-rocket-arsenal-cost-668317 ↩︎
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-31/the-iron-dome-shield-protecting-israeli-cities/104532268 ↩︎
- https://www.state.gov/the-abraham-accords ↩︎