Israel and Palestine: The Complete History [2019 Edition]

By Ian Carroll

In July 2018, Israel’s Knesset approved the Nation-State Bill, a controversial piece of legislation, both at home and abroad, which declared Israel a sovereign state for the Jewish people. It followed US President Donald Trump’s 2017 decision to relocate the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Both events provoked consternation and scorn from many countries, and offer the latest twists in the Israeli-Palestinian saga: two peoples on an everlasting – and seemingly irreconcilable – path to peace.

Israel and Palestine: The Complete History seeks to explain the overall story of Israeli and Palestinian tensions and divisions in the region. Indeed, without properly understanding the full history of the area, it is impossible to understand the current situation.

In this book, author Ian Carroll takes the reader back to the very beginning of the conflict some 4,000 years ago, then moves through the major events of the Middle Ages and 20th century, and brings us right up to the present day, documenting the significant events that have happened along the way. The reader is allowed to make up their own mind as to where praise and condemnation belong with this complicated issue.

From Exodus to the birth of Jesus, from Islam to the Crusades, through the Diaspora and up to the recreation of the modern state of Israel and beyond, Israel and Palestine: The Complete History avoids a dry academic approach. It aims to tell the history of the region and peoples in a balanced and brisk fashion, from a storyteller’s perspective.

With talk of a Third Intifada and the introduction of the Nation-State Bill all bringing this age-old issue to the forefront of world news once more, there has never been a more appropriate time to understand and appreciate Israel and Palestine’s history.

Note: This is an updated, expanded, and re-edited version of “Israel / Palestine – a 4000 year history” by Ian Carroll, originally published in 2006.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bennion Kearny
• Release date: Jan 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781911121688

Book preview

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE: THE COMPLETE HISTORY [2019 Edition]

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Ian Carroll

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[Smashwords Edition]

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Published in 2019 by Dark River, an imprint of Bennion Kearny.

Copyright © Dark River 2019

ISBN: 978-1-911121-68-8

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that it which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Dark River has endeavoured to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Dark River cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Published by Dark River, an imprint of Bennion Kearny Limited, 6 Woodside, Churnet View Road, Oakamoor, Staffordshire, ST10 3AE

www.BennionKearny.com

Table of Contents

Title Page

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

MAP OF ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

PROLOGUE

PART 1: IN THE BEGINNING

1. IN THE BEGINNING

2. EARLY DAYS

3. TWIN STATES

4. BEFORE EXILE

5. THE BIBLE

6. THE PERSIANS AND THE GREEKS

7. THE FERTILE CRESCENT UNDER ROMAN OCCUPATION

PART 2: FROM JESUS UP TO THE BIRTH OF ISRAEL

8. THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST

9. THE ARABS IN ISRAEL/PALESTINE

10. THE CRUSADES

11. THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

12. THE EARLY LIFE OF THEODOR HERZL

13. THE FIRST ZIONIST CONGRESS

14. CONGRESS CONTINUED

15. BEFORE THE GREAT WAR

16. THE BALFOUR DECLARATION

17. THE PARTITION OF PALESTINE

18. THE THIRD AND FOURTH ALIYAH

19. THE FIRST ARAB UPRISING

20. THE RISE OF NAZI GERMANY

21. THE AFTERMATH OF WORLD WAR TWO

PART 3: FROM 1948 TO THE SIX DAY WAR

22. THE JEWISH STATE

23. AL-NAKBA

24. THE ARAB EXODUS

25. THE ALTALENA AFFAIR

26. THE BERNADOTTE PLAN

27. THE ARAB INVASION

28. LOOKING UP?

29. THE GENERALS

30. THE SUEZ CRISIS

31. BETWEEN THE WARS

PART 4: FROM 1967 TO THE FIRST INTIFADA

32. DAY ONE

33. DAY TWO

34. DAY THREE

35. DAY FOUR

36. DAY FIVE

37. DAY SIX

38. THE OCCUPATION

39. BLACK SEPTEMBER

40. FRIENDS DIVIDED

41. THE PRICE OF OIL

42. THE YOM KIPPUR WAR

43. THE INTERREGNUM

44. ISRAEL AND THE UNITED NATIONS

45. THE CAMP DAVID ACCORDS

46. INTO LEBANON

47. BEIRUT

48. SABRA AND SHATILA

49. INTO THE CAMPS

50. NO MORE WAR

51. INTIFADA

52. A SIMPLE PLAN

PART 5: FROM THE FIRST INTIFADA TO THE SECOND INTIFADA

53. THE OFFSPRING OF INTIFADA

54. THE MADRID CONFERENCE

55. YITZHAK RABIN

56. THE OSLO ACCORDS

57. AFTER OSLO

58. AFTER RABIN

59. MR. PALESTINE

60. SUICIDE BOMBERS

61. THE ROAD TO PARADISE

62. HEBRON

63. THE END OF PEACE

PART 6: FROM THE SECOND INTIFADA TO THE PRESENT DAY

64. THE PASSOVER MASSACRE

65. ISRAELI INCURSION

66. THE BATTLE RAGES

67. THE AMBUSH

68. ISRAELI RESPONSE

69. THE AFTERMATH

70. THE BETHLEHEM SIEGE

71. THE RAMALLAH COMPOUND

72. FROM 2000 TO THE PRESENT

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DEDICATION

To my wife Lesley and to my mum and dad for all your love and support.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am indebted to the many commentators on this subject who have enlightened me along the way. I have attempted to acknowledge most within the text of the book. To name each and every source would render the text virtually unreadable. This is meant to be a subjective and not overly-academic work. Above all, I have attempted to be clear, concise, and truthful. I hope I have succeeded on the most part. Thanks for reading.

MAP OF ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

[below image] Israel and Palestinian-controlled (West Bank and Gaza) territories.

PROLOGUE

I first became interested in the story of Israel and Palestine in 2002, at the height of the Second Intifada or uprising of the Palestinian people against Israel. Images of stone-throwing youths confronting tanks flashed nightly across my television screen. And I, a 36-year-old writer, resident in Liverpool, with no affinity in either direction, wondered why they were fighting and how it would end. I wanted to get involved somehow, but I understood that a little knowledge was a dangerous thing, and I did not know enough about it to take sides. Instead, I resolved to go back to the beginning of time, to find out who was there first and document EVERYTHING that had happened since. Only then might it be possible to decide where right lay in this complicated issue.

The following history represents the evidence I have gathered along the way. I am neither a historian nor an academic. I have a Master’s degree in Writing, and I am first and foremost a storyteller. This is my attempt to promote peace through understanding. I hope you’ll come with me. It promises to be some journey.

PART 1: IN THE BEGINNING

The question as to who was there first – the Israelites or the Palestinians – is one that resonates to the present day and is of fundamental importance to the tensions in the region.

The ancient land of Canaan, as the area was known in ancient times, had been a magnet for invading forces since time immemorial. This was the land bridge out of Africa; it drew Bedouin tradesmen bringing spices from the Arabian Peninsula, and formed part of the Silk Road to Asia. At a time when the world was only slowly being populated, Canaan must have been the most cosmopolitan place on earth. And this was all before the area became the focus for three of the world’s most important religions.

After the birth of ‘One God’ monotheism in neighbouring Egypt under Pharaoh Akhenaten, the new followers were expelled from that country in what came to be known as the Exodus. These early believers in the One God religion then settled in the hills above Canaan, hoping to fulfil their covenant with the Lord and inherit the Promised Land. At a similar time came the arrival of the Mysterious Sea-Peoples, as the armies of the Aegean poured out their number. Amongst the tribes that made up this invading army were the Peleset, later termed Philistines, and ancestors of the modern-day Palestinians. They would contest this land with the Israelites, in a conflict that goes back to biblical days. It is a land that they both still occupy and fight over today.

1. IN THE BEGINNING

Our story begins with the birth of man, somewhere in Africa, some 200,000 years ago. There, possibly in the region of Ethiopia, the first modern man was born.

Prior to this, human beings inhabited earlier forms of evolution: Palaeolithic, Neolithic, and the like, and are not important here.

Look at an atlas of Africa, Arabia, and Asia and one thing stands out: once the continents had separated, the only way that man could have migrated out of Africa, to eventually populate the world, is through the narrow strip of land where Egypt and Arabia meet, between the Red and Mediterranean Seas.

Approximately one hundred miles wide, this crucial juncture afforded the only land bridge out of Africa and was to become an essential migratory route and an avenue of trade long before it became a focus for religion and one of the most disputed areas on earth.

There are other possibilities for dispersal from the first continent: Ethiopia to Yemen is a short trip of 50 miles across the Red Sea at its narrowest point, as is the journey from Morocco to Spain, but it seems certain that early man would have trekked rather than sailed out of Africa.

Leaving the dusty plains and deserts behind, following the lush, verdant valley that accompanied the Nile, migratory man would then have crossed the Sinai Desert and emerged in the ancient land of Canaan, as the area of Israel and Palestine was then known. The eastward sweep of the Mediterranean coast here earned the name of the Fertile Crescent.

South East of this landscape lie two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, located in modern Iraq, then known as Mesopotamia. It was in this land, fed by these two rivers, that civilisation began. The use of the wheel, the earliest forms of writing, the first cities, and the beginnings of society and state, all originated here.

As populations began to emerge in the far-flung corners of the globe, two great civilisations emerged either side of the Fertile Crescent: that of Egypt and that of Mesopotamia. And as a land bridge, for trade or warring parties, the route through Canaan was the one and only choice.

Also, as demand grew for Arabic spices, pottery, and precious metals, the ports of the Fertile Crescent on the Mediterranean Sea gave access to the known and unknown world.

Is it any wonder then that this sought-after land has been much fought over, and conquered, for thousands of years, or that it should have drawn inhabitants from far and wide; a mixture of peoples. The name Canaan means merchant, and the population was related by virtue of entrepreneurial skills, and was not necessarily homogenous.

Like the Swiss throughout the Second World War, you might expect a certain sanctuary for these beneficent locals, yet the land was subject to a flux of invaders, who all left their mark and their men in the area.

Egypt, emerging as the triumphant power in the region, would station troops here in order to stake its control, or would appear at times of unrest to reinstate the rule of law. Similarly, invading forces, such as the Hyksos (from western Asia), circa 1500 BC, would also mingle, marry, and maintain a presence that would echo down the generations.

At a time when the world became a home for many races – African, Asian, Arabic, and Hellenic – the land of Canaan must have been the most cosmopolitan place of all.

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According to the Old Testament of the Bible, this land was promised by the Lord, the one God, to Abraham, who lived in the town of Ur in old Mesopotamia. The Lord instructed Abraham to travel to Canaan ‘Where the Canaanites live’, and there he would become father to a great nation: God’s Chosen People.

Abraham did as instructed, and with his son, Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob (who fathered the twelve tribes of Israel) they became known as the Patriarchs, the founding fathers of the Chosen People in the Promised Land.

Many scholars have sought to place the age of the Patriarchs according to the chronology offered by the Bible. Faith-based sources, endorsing a literal translation, point to the 480 years between Exodus and the destruction of the state of Israel by the Assyrian empire in a non-disputed 722 BC, and the 430 years of slavery prior to the flight of the Israelites from Egypt. This then gives the age for the founding fathers of God’s own people, including their own recorded lifespans, as somewhere around the first century of the third millennium BC, around about 2,100 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.

However, using this method – and working backwards to the appearance of Adam in the Garden of Eden – we have a date for the first human being of approximately 4000 BC. Which, of course, does not square with modern science’s view of man as a 200,000-year-old entity.

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Egypt, the greatest civilisation of early history, formed the dominant regime in the Middle East, and as such drew a variety of immigrants and traders across its borders. These would appear to have been a mixture of captives from the various wars, merchants bringing their wares from subjugating territories, or starving neighbours drawn in during times of famine or drought. And it is from Egypt that the story of Exodus – the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan – originates.

The story of the Exodus has been notoriously hard to date, and some historians feel it cannot be linked with any particular point in history. But, archaeology and Egyptian texts from that era point to one chapter of history that accords with the idea of a religious community being expelled from Egypt.

For aeons, the Egyptians had worshipped a pantheon of gods, but then a new Pharaoh called Akhenaten introduced monotheism, the belief in one god. The former priests and the redundant power-brokers in the ancient capital rallied the army and expelled the heretic Pharaoh from Egypt, together with his followers (our aforementioned ancient Israelites). This occurred around 1350 BC, and this expulsion was what became known as Exodus.

The first mention of Israel comes in the victory stele, or monument, of a later Pharaoh, Merneptah, and is dated 1207 BC. Recording an invasion of Canaan and the decimation of the various tribes of that region, the inscription boldly declares that ‘Israel’s seed is not’, after his army had finished with them.

This is the first recorded mention of Israel anywhere in history and, crucially, they are identified by the hieroglyphs as a people, not a place.

Therefore, they had not yet completed their conquest of Canaan. Instead, they merely had designs on it and were waiting in the terrain above, until they had sufficient numbers to invade the lowlands and coastal plain below, where the best fishing, trading, and fertile land could be found.

But who were these hilltop inhabitants? They were not mentioned in an earlier comprehensive census of the region. They were definitely an emerging presence, and they may well have been exactly who they have claimed to be: refugees from Egypt with their own unique identity, led by their prophet: Moses.

Who was Moses? Looking down a list of early Egyptian monarchs, we have Ahmosis, Tuthmosis, and Ramoses (or Raamses) so ‘Moses’ it would seem, would be in keeping with a name from the Royal household.

Also, in the Bible, when Moses approaches the new Pharaoh, he is carrying a staff, which he turns into a serpent. A staff topped with a serpent’s head was as much a part of a Pharaoh’s attire as a crown is for a king.

We know nothing of Moses except what the Bible tells us, that he was raised in the royal household after being found in a basket amongst the bull-rushes of the Nile and taken in by a princess.

It is a wonderful story, pointing to humble beginnings, but the point, nevertheless, is that Moses grew up in the palace.

And of his people, what do we know?

It may be that the band of followers he had drawn to him was related more by religion than race at this point, but through the experience of the Exodus, and their desire to remain separate from the followers of other religions, they became a different entity and a tribe apart.

The tribe purportedly spent years wandering in the Sinai Desert, and the interim would allow their numbers to grow to the point where they might make their presence felt in the region of Canaan, which they hoped to colonise for themselves eventually.

The 40 years in hiding and the time required for their numbers to increase fits nicely into the gap between the end of Akhenaten’s reign in 1350 BC and the first recorded mention of a new people who called themselves Israel in the (previously referenced) stele of 1207 BC.

These followers of Moses and monotheism would emerge from the wilderness to contest a land that they occupy, yet still fight for, today.

2. EARLY DAYS

Moses led the Chosen People to the Promised Land, but he did not get to see it himself. It was the descendants of this generation that would enter Canaan.

Until the middle of the twelfth century BC, Egypt was the dominant force in the region, and the land of Canaan was pacified. This was a time of stability. Egyptian strongholds existed throughout Canaan, and anyone wishing to conquer the area would have to defeat not only the native population but the army of the Egyptian governors too.

The Israelites would have to wait until this era of security came to an end before the opportunity arose to colonise the land. When the opportunity eventually arrived, it was as a result of someone else’s war.

Living on the high plateau above the coastal plain – planting vines, grazing their livestock, and raising their families – life must have seemed pretty promised anyway. But all that was about to change.

Two great empires, the Egyptian and Mesopotamian, had dominated the civilised world since early times. There were other occasional contenders, such as the Hittites from Anatolia who had plagued both parties, but even their 100-year hiatus could not prepare the Near East for the commotion that was to come.

The Mycenaeans (modern Greeks) were at war with the residents of the kingdom of Arzawa in what became known as the Trojan War and, although no one can be sure, it is possible that veterans of this conflict, rather than returning home when the fighting subsided, set sail for the southern Mediterranean and became known as the Mysterious Sea-Peoples.

According to a temple inscription of the reign of Raamses II, the Sea-Peoples were a confederation of the Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denyen, Weshen, and Peleset combined.

These invaders sacked the Fertile Crescent, toppling the major ports of Tyre and Sidon, destroying the native Canaanite communities. Eventually, they would come up against Egypt.

Artwork left by Raamses III shows a fierce naval battle between the two sides, and it is a frantic picture of hand to hand fighting, on boats, with swords.

Egypt claimed victory, but the assault on their shores inflicted enough damage that, from thereon, the great empire was happy to stay behind its own borders, leaving the rest of the Middle East to fend for itself.

The vacuum of power left in Egypt’s wake was soon to be filled, both by the Peleset (better known as the Philistines) who settled down to enjoy their spoils, and by the Israelites who (as we know) were resident in the hills above awaiting an opportunity to take control of the Promised Land.

Pottery types dating to this period point to an Aegean origin for the Peleset people. They quickly established communities throughout the region, mainly on the coast. The Israelites, in turn, seized the remaining Canaanite villages, rebuilding and putting down roots of their own.

There must have been considerable tension between the two sides, as they considered who had the best farmland, watering holes, vantage points and therefore defences.

Meanwhile, other factions of the Sea Peoples settled in Phoenicia, at the northeastern end of the Fertile Crescent, known as the Levant, which is modern-day Lebanon.

Egypt stood strong in the West, Arabia proved impenetrable to the south, and Mesopotamia and Phoenicia dominated the east. To the north lay the Mediterranean, leaving Canaan boxed in between these superpowers and the deep blue sea.

The population of the contested region would have consisted of original Canaanites who had survived the recent invasion, the traders who were perennially drawn there from neighbouring lands, and the two new arrivals; the Israelites and the Philistines. As war veterans, who had sailed hundreds of miles to get there, and who had fought and conquered their way in, the Philistines were not about to go anywhere.

The Israelites had a date with destiny, though. They had departed from Egypt, and they had waited patiently for their opportunity. They were also, most importantly, on a mission from God.

And so it came to be that this narrow band of terrain, 160 miles long and 80 miles deep, would be home to both; two nations resident in Canaan, neither of whom was about to go away.

The argument as to whom it belongs rages to the present day.

One claim to the territory was built on conquest; the other was built on religion. Both took advantage of the opportunity presented by the Egyptian withdrawal from the region.

The Israelites had lived in the highland region for a hundred years or more, after they had wandered in the desert for forty years after Exodus. They could also claim to be originally Canaanite, having moved to Egypt in a time of famine and then been enslaved by the Pharaoh.

In Egypt, they had adopted Akhenaten’s religion and carried it with them to the land of their forefathers.

They had followed Moses to a land that they already knew well. Their roots were there, and their future too, but it seemed that they would have to share their homeland with another.

It would seem that neither group had the resources to extinguish the other, with one battle-hardened and the other emboldened by faith. Converting one to the religion of the other might be the easier option, but one thing is clear, both from the Bible stories and the archaeological evidence, there were two nations resident in Canaan, and (as mentioned) neither was about to go away. 

3. TWIN STATES

There were now two distinct groups of people in Canaan. Bordered by powerful neighbouring states – Egypt to the west, Assyria to the south, and Phoenicia in

Reviews for Israel and Palestine

[MeiG11 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Unfortunately, this book contains numerous inaccuracies. While it is written in an easy-to-understand language, it is evident that it was not authored by someone well-versed in the field and has not been properly edited or peer-reviewed. It fails to provide a well-rounded presentation of the information and, due to a critical error from the outset, is riddled with extreme inaccuracies throughout. In such a complex subject, I would recommend seeking a better-researched book.

[ryleighesweet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like a lot of people, the latest news about the Israel-Palestine conflict made me realize that I know nothing about what's going on. I had formed a few surface level opinions based on things I'd heard from others, but I didn't like that I had zilch to back up those opinions, so down the rabbit hole I went. I attempted to start with Chomsky's Gaza in Crisis, but I felt like I didn't even have enough background info to understand that one, so I went looking for something that would give an overview of the events from start to finish. Enter this book. It did a great job of summarizing the coflict LITERALLY from start to finish (all the way from the origins of Judaism until present day). It was an easy read; comprehensive, but not too overwhelming or bogged down with excessive detail. Given that this is my first read on the topic, I can't say much about accuracy or bias. It didn't provide sources or citations, which would have been nice, but the author is at least upfront that he's a writer with an interest in the subject and not a professor or historian. Some of the writing could have been better edited in places, but overall it was a great read.

[salmisidik · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is a must-read for all who are interested in general view of what happened to Palestine way back when; overall it is enlightening though somewhat regrettable that the author made light of the sufferings of Palestinians, and the heavy-handedness of IDF in carrying out their military ops, they are war criminals, and murderers from the leaders to their minions. Call them for what they truly are.