Written by: Richard Trotsky
Over the decades and even centuries there have been countless tragedies befallen many different races and ethnic groups under the premise of religion granting these tragedies as acceptable. One in particular immediately comes to mind that, when I ponder it, completely consumes my very being with anger, that being the plight of the Palestinian people. Over the past decade we have seen and heard countless stories of the immense levels of suffering forced upon the people of Palestine, many of which could very well bear the hallmarks for the bringing forth charges of crimes against humanity. Enacting blockades to restrict the flow of goods and services, limiting access to critical services, blatant indiscriminate murdering of innocent civilians, how much more must they endure? How long will those of us who empathize with their suffering anguish over the conditions that have been forced upon them?
For those who would say that the Jews always inhabited that land, I would simply point to historical facts and even a historian of Jewish descent who transcribed the events of the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, Josephus Flavius. Due to significantly oppressive policies that stood at odds with the religious laws of the Jews, a significant rebellion took place in 66 CE. Vespasian Flavius had been appointed generalship from Nero and appointed an army to quell the uprising, however in 68 CE, Nero took his own life and Vespasian returned to the capital and was declared emperor. His son Titus was assigned command of the army to continue to combat the dissent. By 68 CE the northern part of the province had resistance quelled, and the Roman army then focused on Jerusalem. Josephus had actually been a former leader of the Jewish revolt who had surrendered to the Romans and had won favor from Vespasian Flavius. In gratitude, Josephus took on Vespasian's family name - Flavius - as his own. By 70 CE the Roman army had surrounded Jerusalem and laid siege to it long enough to begin to strangle it off.
The Roman soldiers set the temple ablaze, (although against Titus’ wishes and direct orders) and in the ensuing chaos, indiscriminately massacred all who stood before them. Unarmed civilians, women, and even children were butchered, thousands perished. Of those who were fortunate enough to be spared, thousands were sent to mines in Egypt, others to the various arenas throughout the empire. The resistance continued on, albeit insignificant, for another three years until it was finally extinguished in 73CE when the remaining pockets of resistance fell, along with the stronghold in Masada. Fast forward over a thousand years, and it becomes the Ottoman Empire who lays claim to the land, followed by the British, who gained the land through the Sykes–Picot Agreement and named it Palestine.
There were in fact Jews living there, however they were considerably small in number, but increasing Jewish immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries added considerably to the Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Jaffa. During World War I the British government issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917, stating that the British Government favored the establishment of national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The British captured Jerusalem a month later and The League of Nations formally awarded Britain a mandate over Palestine in 1922. The land west of the Jordan River was under direct British control until 1948, while the land east of the Jordan was a semi-autonomous region known as Transjordan Emirate, under the rule of the Hashemite family from the Hijaz, which gained independence in 1946. The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine was an uprising by Palestinian Arabs against British colonial rule and mass Jewish immigration.
After the Nazi Holocaust, pressure grew for the international recognition of a Jewish state in Palestine. In 1947, the British Government announced its intention to terminate the Mandate. The United Nations General Assembly voted to partition British Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish states, with a special international regime for Jerusalem. The Arabs rejected the partition of Palestine and civil war erupted in the immediate aftermath.
The Jews of British Palestine declared the independence of the State of Israel in May 1948. During the 1948 Palestine War, Israel overran far more territory than was proposed by the Partition Plan; Jordan captured and annexed the West Bank, while in the Gaza Strip the All-Palestine Government was announced in September 1948. In the Nakba, or "Catastrophe", hundreds of Palestinian villages and over 70,000 Palestinian homes were ruined and destroyed. 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of their homes by the Israelis. The Palestinian refugees were unable to return following the Lausanne Conference of 1949. The question of the Palestinian right to return of the refugees and their descendants remains a source of contention. During and after the 1948 war, a wave of Jewish refugees from Arab countries arrived in the newly created state of Israel. The All-Palestine Government was shortly moved from Gaza to Cairo and eventually dissolved in 1959 by Egyptian President Nasser. Gaza was taken into Egyptian military administration until 1967.
The Palestinian national movement gradually regrouped in the West Bank and Gaza, and in refugee camps in neighboring Arab states. The Palestine Liberation Organization emerged as its leading umbrella group in 1965. During the Six-Day War in June 1967, Israel seized East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt, as well as the Golan Heights from Syria. Despite international objections and UN resolutions calling them illegal, Israel began a policy of establishing Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories. The PLO under Yasser Arafat gradually won international recognition as the representative of the Palestinian people. From 1987 to 1993, the First Palestinian Intifada against Israel took place, ending with the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords.
These accords established a Palestinian National Authority as an interim body to run parts of Gaza and the West Bank (but not East Jerusalem) as per an agreed solution to the conflict. During the Second Intifada (2000–2005), Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and began building the West Bank barrier. In 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections and took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, triggering the Israeli and Egyptian Blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is still in place today. In 2008–09 and again in 2014, Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip engaged in conflict.
Now that we have properly established the historical context that the nation of Israel was created in, we can examine these events a bit more closely. From the very inception of it’s creation in 1948, the nation of Israel has unjustly obtained more and more land by underhanded and forceful means. The populations of these areas were forced from their homes by the Israeli government, it essentially stripped thousands of their homes that had been in families for decades, if not potentially longer. The Israeli/Egyptian blockade established was essentially to block the Palestinian people from receiving any forms of humanitarian aid and essential supplies from any sympathetic nations. It’s nothing more than a noose around the neck of the people of Palestine. Some will point to Hamas’ control of Gaza as the rationale for this maneuver, however it’s very understandable the level of animosity generated from the actions of Israel that led to Hamas taking the actions that it has. That statement is in no way any offering support or even condoning their actions, merely a declaration that the actions are understandable. The tragic aspect of that is because of the heavy handedness of the Israeli government, Palestinian civilians have paid the price in blood for them.
Perhaps the most viable option would be for Hamas to move away from the tactics they have been utilizing, as their countrymen are paying a very harsh price for their actions, to disarm and declare an end to their former stance, and seek assistance from sympathetic nations, as even the UN has condemned the actions of Israel. However, if that were the case, the international community would need to come to their immediate assistance, lest Israel perceive an opportunity to eradicate them. Perhaps they should seek to engage in the political arena, and not the battlefield. This would lend legitimacy to their cause in the eyes of the world, since as it stands now, they bear the official label of terrorist organization. So long as they bear that designation, they will always be seen as unacceptable.
There have been accusations that Hamas uses civilians as essentially human shields, however as seen in the recent massacre of scores of Palestinians protesting too closely to the barrier erected between Israel and Gaza, the Israeli military is entirely capable of inflicting harm and death on civilians without that even needing to be the case. The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross for the Middle East, Robert Mardini, stated as of 19 June 2018, more than 13,000 Palestinians have been wounded, most of them severely, with approximately 1,400 struck by three to five bullets. No Israelis were physically harmed from 30 March to 12 May, then one Israeli soldier was reported as slightly wounded on 14 May, the day the protests peaked, when 60 Palestinians were shot dead at twelve clash points along the border fence. I even recall the story of a Palestinian medic being targeted by an Israeli sniper while she tended the wounded and gunned down. If this medic was clearly identifiable as medical personnel (which I’m sure she probably was, for safety reasons), that stands as a direct violation of the Geneva Conventions, which states medical personnel that are clearly identifiable as such are in no way to be engaged.
Israel’s use of deadly force was condemned by several human rights groups (Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, and Amnesty International), and even the UN in a General Assembly resolution that was brought before it on 13 June 2018, however that resolution was blocked by the US’s appointed ambassador. It seems the current administration has no worth for ensuring human rights do not get violated except if it’s perpetrated against a nation who shares the same stance as it does. The government of Israel exerts direct control over Gaza and indirect control within. It controls 6 of the 7 border crossings, and even access to essential services, among them water, electricity, and telecommunication services. Under the Geneva Conventions the Palestinian people fall under the classification as protected persons, yet they are clearly in no way being adequately protected by the international community. All because the bully on the block, the US, continues to stand in opposition to their protection, it’s time for us, and the global citizenry, to demand this comes to a close.
Interestingly enough, calls for a Jewish “state” were never mentioned by the founders of the Zionist movement. They intentionally refrained from using that terminology and chose to utilize terms such as “homeland”, as declaring a strictly Jewish state would in essence create an apartheid state, as citizenry would be strictly limited to Jews, and no one else. However, actual quotes from the founder of the Zionist movement show a nefarious plan being conceived. Theodor Herzl, the father of the Zionist movement stated the following… "It would be an excellent idea to call in respectable, accredited anti-Semites as liquidators of property. To the people they would vouch for the fact that we do not wish to bring about the impoverishment of the countries that we leave. At first they must not be given large fees for this; otherwise we shall spoil our instruments and make them despicable as 'stooges of the Jews.' Later their fees will increase, and in the end we shall have only Gentile officials in the countries from which we have emigrated. The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies."
This hardly seems like it’s an idea that comes from the premise of the Torah or the Talmud, let alone in any way, shape, or form, even remotely associated with anything that could be floated as being acceptable to God. For a man to conceive a plan of this nature is one strictly to further his own ambitions, and has absolutely nothing to do with the will of God. In 1920, other Zionists voiced similar ideas, including Nahum Goldmann, later president of the World Zionist Organization and World Jewish Congress head. Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizman, said Germany had too many Jews. In 1921, Jacob Klatzkin called for German Jews to undermine Jewish communities as a way to acquire a future state.
In 1963, Moshe Sharett (Israel’s second prime minister from 1953 – 1955) told the 38th Scandinavian Youth Federation Annual Congress that Jewish freedom imperiled Zionism. Delegates at the 26th World Zionist Congress were told that easing US anti-Semitism and freedom endangered Jews. It has absolutely nothing to do or even remotely connected to the ways and desires of God, simply the desires of man. Sadly, there are thousands, if not millions who are completely ignorant to these historical truths because they are intentionally not being revealed. As a Jewish man and firm believer in God (although not the traditional views advocated by many), I stand in full solidarity with the Palestinian people. Does this mean in any way I am anti-Israel? Absolutely not, I firmly believe the Jewish people should in fact have a homeland, however that it should in no way be established through injustice and suffering inflicted against the Palestinian people. Their espousement of Zionism must cease. If the religious heretics of the Zionist movement believe they have God siding with them, they are sadly mistaken. According to belief, God is very patient, but patience only lasts so long.
To those who would say that the actions of Israel are acceptable in the eyes of the Lord, I offer the following:
Proverbs 31:8 פְּתַח־פִּ֥יךָ לְאִלֵּ֑ם אֶל־דִּ֝֗ין כָּל־בְּנֵ֥י חֲלֽוֹף׃
Speak up for the dumb, For the rights of all the unfortunate.
Proverbs 31:9 פְּתַח־פִּ֥יךָ שְׁפָט־צֶ֑דֶק וְ֝דִ֗ין עָנִ֥י וְאֶבְיֽוֹן׃ (פ)
Speak up, judge righteously, Champion the poor and the needy.
Jeremiah 22:13 ה֣וֹי בֹּנֶ֤ה בֵיתוֹ֙ בְּֽלֹא־צֶ֔דֶק וַעֲלִיּוֹתָ֖יו בְּלֹ֣א מִשְׁפָּ֑ט בְּרֵעֵ֙הוּ֙ יַעֲבֹ֣ד חִנָּ֔ם וּפֹעֲל֖וֹ לֹ֥א יִתֶּן־לֽוֹ׃
Ha! he who builds his house with unfairness And his upper chambers with injustice, Who makes his fellow man work without pay And does not give him his wages,
Hosea 10:13 חֲרַשְׁתֶּם־רֶ֛שַׁע עַוְלָ֥תָה קְצַרְתֶּ֖ם אֲכַלְתֶּ֣ם פְּרִי־כָ֑חַשׁ כִּֽי־בָטַ֥חְתָּ בְדַרְכְּךָ֖ בְּרֹ֥ב גִּבּוֹרֶֽיךָ׃
You have plowed wickedness, You have reaped iniquity— [And] you shall eat the fruits of treachery— Because you relied on your way, On your host of warriors.
Deuteronomy 16:20 צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף לְמַ֤עַן תִּֽחְיֶה֙ וְיָרַשְׁתָּ֣ אֶת־הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ נֹתֵ֥ן לָֽךְ׃ (ס)
Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
Proverbs 22:8 זוֹרֵ֣עַ עַ֭וְלָה יקצור־[יִקְצָר־] אָ֑וֶן וְשֵׁ֖בֶט עֶבְרָת֣וֹ יִכְלֶֽה׃
He who sows injustice shall reap misfortune; His rod of wrath shall fail.
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