When and How the Jewish Majority in the Land of Israel Was Eliminated: Are the Palestinians Descendants of Islamized Jews

By Rivka Shpak Lissak

Imperialist Rome employed a policy of colonization and confiscation of Jewish land, transferring it to foreigners who immigrated to the Land of Israel and settled there with the support of Roman governments. Jewish resistance to Roman policies in the Great Revolt (6670) and the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132135) was cruelly suppressed. Of a population of nearly 2.5 million Jews in the Land of Israel during the first century CE, only 800,000 or so remained by the end of Roman occupation in the fourth century CE. The Jewish majority in the Land of Israel was eliminated by war casualties, the sale of prisoners of war in Roman slave markets throughout the empire, and the flight of Jewish refugees. In response to the Jewish resistance to Roman policies, the Romans concentrated their attacks on elements central to the Jewish religion, destroying the temple in Jerusalem and passing decrees against circumcision and the study of the Torah. Renaming Judea as Syria-Palaestina aimed to remove any surviving connection to the Jewish nation. The Jewish minority in the Land of Israel continued to shrink during the centuries of Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, and Mamluk occupations. Jews preferred emigration over conversion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503599062

Rivka Shpak Lissak

Rivka Shpak Lissak was born in Israel. She has a master’s degree in Jewish history and a doctorate in American history from the Hebrew University. She has taught history at Tel Aviv and the Hebrew University. She wrote six books in Hebrew and three books in English, among them When and How the Jewish Majority in the Land of Israel Was Eliminated (in Hebrew and English) and When and How the Jewish Diaspora Was Created in the Ancient Period (in Hebrew).

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CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

PART 1

ELIMINATION OF THE JEWISH NATIONAL-CULTURAL ENTITY AND THE JEWISH MAJORITY IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL

Chapter 1 COLONIZATION AND LAND CONFISCATION UNDER HELLENISTIC OCCUPATION (333–142 BCE)

INTRODUCTION

A.   POPULATION COMPOSITION IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL DURING THE HELLENISTIC OCCUPATION

B.   PHASES IN THE FOREIGN (GREEK AND MACEDONIAN) COLONIZATION OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL

C.   LAND CONFISCATION AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF FARMERS INTO TENANTS

D.   MASSACRES, DEPORTATION, AND SALE OF PRISONERS OF WAR INTO SLAVERY

E.   DEPORTATION AND FLIGHT OF JEWS DUE TO POLITICAL CAUSES

F.   EMIGRATION DUE TO ECONOMIC CAUSES

G.   THE POLITICAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF JERUSALEM BECOMING A POLIS IN 175 BCE

H.   CURBING THE SETTLEMENT OF JEWISH SURPLUS POPULATION

I.   TAXES

J.   RELATIONS BETWEEN THE JEWS AND THE HELLENISTIC CITIES AND THE HASMONEAN REVOLT

SUMMARY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chapter 2 ROMAN POLICY (63 BCE–324 CE): TO OBLITERATE THE JEWISH NATION, CULTURE, AND MAJORITY IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL

INTRODUCTION

A.   THE POPULATION OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL ON THE EVE OF THE GREAT REVOLT (66 CE)

1.   Population Figures

2.   The Population Composition during the First Century CE on the Eve of the Great Revolt (66 CE)

B. HOW THE JEWISH MAJORITY WAS ELIMINATED

1.   The Roman Policy of Colonizing and Hellenising the Land of Israel

INTRODUCTION

a.   THE PROCESS BY WHICH THE LAND OF ISRAEL BECAME ROMAN-HELLENIST

b.   THE DISTRIBUTION OF URBAN HELLENIST POPULATIONS

c.   THE ROLE OF FOREIGNERS IN THE STRUGGLE OVER THE CULTURAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSFORMATION OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL (63 BCE–70 CE)

2.   Land Confiscation and the Spread of Tenancy

a.   POMPEY AND GABINIUS: LAND TRANSFERS TO THE POLEIS AND TENANCY FOR JEWS

b.   HEROD’S POLICY: POLEIS PREFERENCES (37–4 BCE)

c.   THE PROCURATORS (PROVINCIA JUDAEA)

d.   DATING THE CHANGE IN OVERALL JEWISH LANDOWNERSHIP

3.   The Taxation Policy

a.   TAXATION UNDER ROMAN OCCUPATION (63 BCE–373 CE)

b.   TAXATION POLICY UNDER HEROD (37–4 BCE)

c.   TAXATION POLICY IN THE PROVINCE OF JUDEA (6–324 CE)

4.   The Destruction of the Jewish Socio-Economic Structure, the Damage to the Jewish Economy, and the Deterioration in the Economic Condition of the Jewish Population

a.   ECONOMIC POLICY DURING THE ROMAN OCCUPATION

c.   CHANGES IN THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF JEWISH SOCIETY UNDER ROMAN OCCUPATION

d.   THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SITUATION IN THE PROVINCE OF JUDEA (6–324 CE)

Up to the Great Revolt (6 CE–66 CE)

5.   The Decrease in Jewish Population (War Casualties, Civilian Massacres, Enslavement of POWs, and Flight)

a.   WHEN DID THE JEWS BECOME A MINORITY IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL?

b.   DESTRUCTION OF CITIES AND VILLAGES

c.   THE DEPORTATION OF CIVILIANS AND PRISONERS OF WAR AS SLAVES

d.   BATTLE CASUALTIES AND VICTIMS OF MASSACRE 63 BCE–66 CE

e.   FLIGHT AND EMIGRATION

6.   Hellenist, Syrian-Aramaean, and Samaritan Expansion into Rural Areas Emptied of Jews (70–324 CE)

a.   ROMAN POLICY IN THE DEPOPULATED REGION OF JUDEA

b.   FOREIGN POPULATION DISTRIBUTION RESULTING FROM ROMAN SETTLEMENT POLICY

c.   COMPARISON OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE POLICIES IN THE PROVINCE OF JUDEA TO THOSE IN OTHER PROVINCES

d.   SAMARITAN EXPANSION

7.   Jewish Population Centers at the End of the Roman period (Third to Fourth Centuries CE)

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 2

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PART 2

THE JEWISH MINORITY PREFERRED EMIGRATION TO CONVERSION

Chapter 3 THE FAILURE OF FORCED CONVERSION OF JEWS UNDER CHRISTIAN-BYZANTINE OCCUPATION (324–640 CE)

INTRODUCTION

A.   POPULATION COMPOSITION UNDER CHRISTIAN-BYZANTINE OCCUPATION

B.   CHRISTIANITY BECOMES THE EMPIRE’S OFFICIAL RELIGION

C.   CONVERSION OF THE PAGAN POPULATION

D.   EFFORTS BY THE CHURCH AND THE BYZANTINE RULERS TO CONVERT THE JEWS

E.   SAMARITAN REVOLTS AGAINST CONVERSION

F.   FAILURE OF THE CONVERSION EFFORTS

G.   DETERIORATION OF THE PROVINCE OF SYRIA-PALAESTINA

H.   ECONOMIC DETERIORATION AND DECLINE IN JEWISH POPULATION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chapter 4 POPULATION COMPOSITION AND ARAB SETTLEMENT IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL DURING THE ARAB-MUSLIM OCCUPATION (640–1099 CE)

INTRODUCTION

A.   POPULATION AND SETTLEMENT DECLINE UNDER ARAB-MUSLIM OCCUPATION

B.   DURING THE ARAB-MUSLIM CONQUEST

C.   WAVES OF ARAB PENETRATION

D.   POPULATION COMPOSITION UNDER ARAB-MUSLIM OCCUPATION

E.   ARABIZATION POLICY (CULTURAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE)

F.   THE LEGAL AND RELIGIOUS STATUS OF NON–MUSLIMS

G.   THE ISLAMIZATION POLICY

H.   ISLAMIZATION OF THE LOCAL POPULATION

I.   WAS THERE A MASS CONVERSION OF JEWS TO ISLAM?

J.   DEMOGRAPHY OF THE JEWISH MINORITY

SUMMARY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PART 3

FROM A CHRISTIAN MAJORITY TO A MUSLIM MAJORITY: THE JEWISH MINORITY SURVIVED THE CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM OCCUPATIONS

Chapter 5 THE POPULATION OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL DURING THE CRUSADER OCCUPATION (1099–1260/1290 CE)

INTRODUCTION

A.   POPULATION COMPOSITION DURING THE CRUSADER PERIOD

B.   POPULATION DISTRIBUTION ALONG ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS LINES

C.   THE ETHNIC-RELIGIOUS POPULATION COMPOSITION AND THE STATUS OF THE NON-FRANKS

SUMMARY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chapter 6 POPULATION COMPOSITION DURING THE MAMLUK OCCUPATION (1260–1516): ELIMINATION OF THE CHRISTIAN MAJORITY

INTRODUCTION

A.   THE MAMLUK RULE

B.   DRASTIC DECLINE IN POPULATION

A.   THE STATUS OF THE NON–MUSLIM POPULATION

B.   THE CONVERSION TO ISLAM OF THE EASTERN CHRISTIAN POPULATION

C.   THE ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION

SUMMARY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Concluding Remarks

To my grandchildren, Guy, Tomer, and Ronny,

to my children, Michal and Boaz, and my daughter in law, Neta.

PREFACE

P rof. Shlomo Sand published his book The Invention of the Jewish People in 2008. In it he claims that:

• The Jewish people descend, in the main, from Khazar, Berber, and Yemenite converts and are, therefore, Jews by faith but not ethnically, i.e., the Jews living in Israel today are not ethnically descended from the Jews, who lived here in the past.

• The Romans did not exile the Jews. The Palestinians are descendants of the Jews who inhabited the Land of Israel and converted to Islam during the Arab occupation (seventh to eleventh centuries CE).

These claims have political implications:

• Since the Jews in Israel today do not ethnically descend from the Jews who lived here in the past, they do not have any historical right to the Land of Israel. The exile to the Diaspora is a myth lacking historical basis, and Zionism is a colonialist movement.

• The Palestinians are the legitimate heirs of the Jews who converted to Islam and are the true owners of the Land of Israel, and therefore, the Jewish state must be disbanded and replaced with a State of all its Citizens, a bi-national state.

My book has been written to examine Sand’s second claim (that there was no exile of the Jews) in the light of historical and archaeological research. Citing secondary sources (studies), it summarizes up-to-date research and scholarly conclusions. Validating or refuting Sand’s claims on the basis of historical fact is important, not only for the sake of truth but also because of the implications of such claims for the political situation in Israel.

My book examines the history of Jews in the Land of Israel between the Roman and Arab occupations (and thereafter); the history of other ethnic-religious populations remains in the background.

The book is divided into three parts:

Part 1: Elimination of the Jewish Majority in the Land of Israel

Chapter 1 summarizes the colonization policy and the confiscation of Jewish lands under Hellenist occupation, which transformed the country into a mainly Macedonian-Greek (Hellenist) populated country.

Chapter 2 details the elimination of a Jewish national entity by means of continued Hellenist colonization, Jewish land confiscation, re-acculturation, and diminution of the Jewish population to minority status by the Roman occupation.

Part 2: The Jewish Minority Preferred Emigration to Conversion

Chapter 3 describes how the Land of Israel became a Christian country through the conversion of the Hellenist and Syrian-Aramaean populations under Christian-Byzantine occupation, continued colonization, the failure of efforts to convert the surviving Jewish minority in Palestine, and the further decrease of the Jewish population.

Chapter 4 discusses the Arab conquest, occupation, and the acculturation (without conversion) policies of the Muslim rulers. Despite the Arab occupation, the Christians remained the largest population, and while the Jewish minority held on to its faith, it continued to shrink in numbers.

Part 3: From Christian to Muslim Majority: the Jewish Minority survived Christian and Muslim Occupation

Chapter 5 discusses the Crusader occupation, under which Christians remained the largest group in a population that included Muslim, Jewish, and Samaritan minorities.

Chapter 6 discusses the Mamluk Muslim occupation. During this time, the Muslims became the majority—80,000 out of a total population of 126,000. The Christians became a minority alongside the Jews and Samaritans. This period is marked by drastic population decrease due to struggles for power among greedy Mamluk rulers, ongoing Bedouin raids, and the onset of the bubonic plague. Palestine became a depopulated wasteland.

These chapters were originally written as a series of articles.

A second volume is planned, entitled How the Jewish Diaspora Grew and the Extent of Conversion to Judaism. It will discuss the contribution of Roman and Byzantine policies to the expansion of the Jewish Diaspora (from its beginnings following the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles), the economic and security deterioration in the Land of Israel from the time of the Arab occupation (apart from a short recovery under Crusader occupation), and the debate on the extent of conversion to Judaism.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to thank Prof. Zeev Safrai for his comments and other archaeologists and historians whose names appear through the book for their assistance.

I also wish to thank the librarians in the reference room of the Meditech Library in Holon for their valuable help: Shoshi Gelles, Rivka Zarkowksi, and Hava Rosenthal, and Ari Dale for her assistance in editing the English manuscript.

My deepest gratitude goes to my cousin Simcha Shpak in Maryland, USA, for making possible the publication of this book.

Rivka Shpak Lissak

PART 1

Elimination of the Jewish National-Cultural Entity and the Jewish Majority in the Land of Israel

CHAPTER 1

COLONIZATION AND LAND CONFISCATION UNDER HELLENISTIC OCCUPATION (333–142 BCE)

INTRODUCTION

A lexander the Great conquered the Land of Israel from the Persians in 332 BCE. His heirs, the Diadochi, established Hellenist kingdoms: the Seleucid Empire in modern-day Syria, and the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt. The Ptolemies ruled the Land of Israel from 301 to 198 BCE, the Seleucids from 198 to 142 BCE, at which time Judea regained independence.

From Alexander’s time, the Hellenist rulers employed a policy of colonization and Hellenisation throughout their empires, establishing some 350 Hellenist cities (poleis).

Alexander’s conquests were followed by an enormous wave of immigration from Greece and Macedonia into the regions he conquered, including the Land of Israel. This immigration was encouraged by Alexander as well as his Seleucid and Ptolemaic successors, who established colonies of Macedonian veterans in the Land of Israel. Macedonians and Greeks from the Balkans and Greece, the islands of the Aegean Sea, and Asia Minor streamed into the Hellenist empires and, in the Land of Israel, joined the Aramaic-Syrian and Greco-Phoenician immigrants who had settled there earlier.

In the absence of official records, scholars estimate this immigration numbered hundreds of thousand people.

Alexander’s successors Hellenised existing cities as well as building new ones in the Hellenist style. The neighboring agricultural area was annexed to the cities. The Hellenistic rulers confiscated these agricultural lands belonging to Jews and other non–Greek populations to provide land for the Hellenist population. The confiscation of agricultural lands annexed to the poleis transformed independent farmers into tenants on their own lands.

The Hellenistic rulers also confiscated land in the Jezreel Valley, the Jordan Valley, Galilee, Gaza, and Judea, turning the land into royal estates and their farmers into tenant farmers.

This policy reduced the land available for accommodating the Jewish natural population growth, effectively forcing Jews off their land.

In the province of Syria-Phoenicia (including the Trans-Jordan and the Land of Israel), about thirty poleis were established during the Hellenist period, twenty of them in the Land of Israel west of the Jordan River.

Unlike most other areas in the empire where the Hellenisation process was carried out with little objection, in Judea, the Hellenist rulers encountered fierce resistance from the Jewish population. The resistance stemmed from several causes:

*. The policy of confiscating Jewish land and the consequent transformation of their status into dependents of the foreign poleis and royal estates, at times driving them off the land altogether

*. The foreign colonization policy, which stood in contrast to the Jewish natural population growth and need for land to accommodate it

*. The tax burden, carried mostly by the farmers

*. The attempt to forcefully change the country’s ethnic-religious character

The Hasmonean Revolt of 167 BCE was preceded by a civil war in Jerusalem, which ended with the city becoming a polis called Antioch (175 BCE). This civil struggle between the Hellenised upper echelon of Jewish society and the lower classes that were not accepted as citizens of the polis became a rebellion against the Seleucid rule, which supported the Hellenised elements in society against the lower classes.

This combination of socio-economic and ethnic-religious tensions was the driving force behind these rebellions. At first, the struggle was against land confiscation, the transformation of farmers into tenants, and heavy taxes, and then added to it were demographic objections to the colonization process, which barred the move of population surpluses from Judea to other parts of the country. The Hasmoneans, while aware of these underlying causes, joined the rebellion for religious reasons.

A. POPULATION COMPOSITION IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL DURING THE HELLENISTIC OCCUPATION

The Hellenist period saw changes in the population composition of the Land of Israel. The Hellenist conquest brought waves of foreign settlers, and the wars among Alexander’s successors (323–301 BCE) and the Syrian wars (301–198 BCE) caused destruction, civilian massacres, and the enslaving of captured prisoners. The armies’ conduct caused the displacement of civilians who fled as refugees, mainly during the fourth Syrian war. In the absence of concrete data, Aryeh Kasher proposes that, demographically, the overall result was a decrease in the local population and an increase in the colonizing Hellenic population. It is interesting to note that the population of Judea was relatively less affected during the Syrian wars, probably because the main battles took place in other areas.

The Jews

According to the book of Ezra, the Babylonian exiles who returned to the Land of Israel following the Persian king Cyrus’s declaration of 538 BCE numbered 42,360 freemen and 7,300 slaves.

Official data regarding the size of the Jewish population during the Hellenist period are unavailable, but an estimate can be made based on various sources:

In the mid-fourth century BCE, Ptolemy I exiled 100,000 Jews to Egypt, 30,000 of whom were conscripted into the local garrison, while the rest were sold as slaves. The historian Hecataeus wrote that the population of Jerusalem numbered 120,000, but it is likely that his numbers are slightly exaggerated.

Jonathan the Hasmonean drafted 40,000 men for his campaign against Tryphon, the army commander of the Seleucids. On the basis of this data and assuming that the average family size was 5 to 6 heads, Kasher estimates that, on the eve of the Hasmonean Revolt, the Jews numbered several hundred thousands. The men were drafted mostly from Judea, and no information is available for other regions. The Jewish population in Judea numbered at least 200,000 to 240,000.

Judea

The boundaries of Judea during the Hellenist period were Hebron and Beit-Zur fort in the south, Beit-El and Beit-Horon in the north, the Dead Sea and the Jordan River influx into it in the east, and the Gezer fort in the west.

During the wars among Alexander’s successors and the Syrian wars, the population of Judea was hurt less than the population of other regions. Greeks and Hellenised Jews began to settle in Judea only during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes.

According to Greek sources, the Jewish natural growth rate was very high during the Hellenist period. Judea was too small to contain this population, and Jews moved to other regions of the country, including the south of Samaria, Galilee, Gilead, and the coastal cities (especially Jaffa).

Jewish immigration from the Diaspora and conversion campaigns run by the Hasmoneans also contributed to an increase in the Jewish population during the Hasmonean period (142–63 BCE). In the Eastern Lower Galilee, for example, the number of Jewish settlements and population increased. In a survey he conducted in 2004, Uzi Leibner determined that between the end of the second century BCE and mid-first century BCE, a wave of widespread settlement took place in the Lower Galilee. During this time, the number of Jewish settlements rose from 22 to 38, and the settled area nearly doubled—from 316 to 609 dunam (approximately 79 to 152 acres). Estimating a density of 35 people per dunam, the population in these settlements numbered 21,315.

Galilee

Archaeological surveys and excavations carried out in Galilee indicate that during the Hellenist period, the Jewish population in Galilee was comprised of descendants of the Israelites who remained behind when the Assyrians exiled the top echelons of Israelite society at the end of the eighth century BCE, joined by settlers from among the returning Babylonian exiles from 538 BCE and later on by Jews from the over-populated Judea.

Archaeological finds show that the Upper and Lower Galilee remained less populated following the Assyrian exile, and the surviving population concentrated mostly in the southwest of the Netofa Valley in the Lower Galilee. Mordechai Aviam quoted the book of Kings II 21:19 and 23:36 in evidence that some of the population was not exiled. The verses tell of connections that existed during the seventh and sixth centuries BCE between Judean royalty and families from Rumah (present-day Rummana) and Yotva (present-day Yodfat), both situated near Kfar Canna.

Shmuel Klein listed Galilean settlements mentioned in various Jewish sources. Klein emphasized that this was not an exhaustive list, as there are few sources from that period. The Jewish settlements swelled during the Persian period as Babylonian exiles returned and settled in Galilee and later on, when Jews from over-populated Judea moved there as well.

The Lower Galilee

Archaeological surveys show that following a gap of about two hundred years (from the Assyrian conquest and deportation of Galilee and its inhabitants at the end of the eighth century BCE), a great wave of renewed Jewish settlement took over the Lower Galilee in the sixth century BCE. Of the seventy sites that were settled before the eighth-century exile, 55 percent were resettled. Of the fifty settled sites during the Persian period, 20 percent were new settlements. According to the findings of Aviram Oshri and Zvi Gal, resettlement flourished during the Persian period.

Jewish settlement in Galilee is known through archaeological and historical records: The Jewish resistance to the Seleucid army on Mt. Arbel (near Tiberias) testifies to a Jewish settled presence there. The cities of Shihin (Assochys) and Tzipori were mentioned during the conquest campaign of the king of Cypress in 103 BCE. The names of Jewish settlements collected by Klein from various Jewish sources include Tzipori, Yodfat, Shihin, Arbel, the villages of Nemerin (on the border of the valley of Netofa) and Simonia (southeast of Acre), and the village of Sagani (Sakhani). According to Klein, during the Hellenist period, there were Jewish settlements in the valley of Netofa, around the Sea of Galilee, and around Acre. According to Shmuel and Zeev Safrai, Jews also settled in Bet Anat, located in the valley of Bet Kerem.

Uzi Leibner conducted an archaeological survey in part of the Eastern Lower Galilee in 2004. He found that during the Hellenist period, there were few villages, and the settled area was small. Leibner located 21 settlements of a total area of 255-492 dunam (61–123 acres). Estimating the population density at 35 people per dunam, the Jewish population in this part of Galilee numbered 17,220.

The Upper Galilee

An archaeological survey completed in 1990 determined that, contrary to previously held belief, there was an increase in the number of settlements in the Upper Galilee during the Hellenist period. Scholars note that small villages were concentrated in the mountains of the Upper Galilee since as early as the end of the Persian period. Hatzor served as an administrative center throughout the Persian period.

Jewish settlements in the Upper Galilee mentioned in Jewish contemporary sources of the Hellenist period, quoted by Klein, include Gush Halav, Meiron, Tko’a, and Bet Dagan (Bet Jan).

According to Shimon Dar, at the time of Jonathan, the Hasmoneans’ journey to the Valley of Lebanon in 145 BCE, the population of the Upper Galilee was Jewish. He rejected the assumption that Galilee was populated by foreigners at the time of the subsequent meeting between Judas Aristobulus and the Itureans. An archaeological survey conducted by Moshe Hartal in the north of the Golan Heights uncovered Iturean pottery, but no Iturean remains were found in Galilee, which means they did not live there (see below for more on the Itureans).

Rafael Frankel and others held a survey of the Upper Galilee in 2001 and found that the Western Galilee was Phoenician during the Hellenist period. He located twenty-five sites in the Eastern Upper Galilee dated to the Hellenist period but estimates that fifteen were populated by pagans. Settlement in Gush Halav was uninterrupted, meaning that its population was Israelite. Frankel concluded that the fact that the Assyrians did not repopulate Galilee with other nations following their conquest at the end of the eighth century BCE meant that before the Hasmonean conquest (end of second century BCE), Galilee had been populated by Jews.

The Valley of Acre

Following a long period from the end of the eighth century BCE to 538 BCE, when the valley was uninhabited, wide-spread settlement was renewed, and villages and towns were established anew.

The Jezreel Valley and Beit Shean

Jews lived in the city of Beit Shean (Scythopolis), and it seems they also settled in the Valley of Jezreel. Klein mentioned Haffarim (or Offarim) on the border of the valley and is of the opinion that other settlements existed there as well.

Samaria

The district of Narbatta, which had been settled by Jews, was included in the territory of the Hellenist military colony of Samaria. Narbatta was identified by the archaeologist Adam Zertal as Hirbet Al Hamam in the northwest of Samaria, although others identify it with Hirbet Biddus near Kibbutz Ma’anit. The district of Narbatta ranged from present-day Baqa el Garbiya in the west to the Dottan Valley in the east. The district was mentioned in the book of Judith in connection with the Jewish resistance to the Persian conquest. Excavations conducted on-site in 1982 uncovered the upper city, including a street, residential buildings, and ritual baths. Adam Zertal concluded that Jews constituted the main part of the population in Samaria, with Samaritans being the second largest group.

The Trans-Jordan

The book of Maccabaeans I mentions Jewish settlements in the northern Gilead during Judas Maccabaeus’s journey to the Trans-Jordan. In the ancient land of Ammon, called Peraea, Jews, Greeks, and Macedonians were living in a military colony commanded by Tobias, the son of a Samaritan and a Jewish woman.

The Jewish population under Seleucid occupation can be estimated, based on the statistics mentioned so far, at approximately 300,000: in Judea, 200,000 to 240,000; in the Lower Galilee, at least 17,220 in 27 settlements; in the Upper Galilee, about 10 settlements. No statistics exists for other parts of the Land of Israel.

Michael Avi-Yonah estimated the Jewish population during the Hasmonean Revolt at approximately 500,000.

The Greek and Macedonian Populations

No statistics are available for this population, but historical sources indicate there was massive immigration and settlement of Greeks and Macedonians in the Land of Israel. Kasher and Menahem Stern estimated their numbers at several hundred thousands. A. H. M. Jones estimated them at three hundred thousand. Zeev Safrai’s estimate is five hundred thousand.

The Greek-Macedonian immigration, which began during the life of Alexander the Great, continued for several generations. This was the way ancient Greece and Macedonia dealt with population over-growth and economic crises (foreign settlement is further discussed in section B).

The Phoenicians

The Phoenicians absorbed Philistines and other ancient ethnicities that were living along the coast. They practically ruled the coastal cities during the Persian period.

Unlike other Semitic peoples, the Phoenicians integrated well into the Hellenist culture and the polis system since the beginning of the Hellenist period while maintaining their separate ethnic identity. As their trade increased, Phoenicians from Sidon reached and settled in Idumea in the south of Judea.

The Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon ruled parts of the Western Galilee since the Persian period and perhaps even earlier. The distribution of Phoenician coins testifies to the links between these cities and Galilee. Grain, oil, and wine surpluses from Galilee were sold in the Phoenician cities, and archaeological finds indicate Phoenician settlement in Rosh Zayit and in Kadesh.

The Samaritans

Excavations carried out in Nablus (Shkhem) show that the city flourished at the end of the fourth century BCE until the Samaritan rebellion against Alexander the Great resulted in the conquest of the Samaritans’ largest city, Samaria, the massacre of its inhabitants, and the flight of those who survived. The Samaritan population decreased. Archaeological finds show that the Macedonian conquest at the end of the fourth century BCE brought about the destruction and desertion of 150 settlements, leaving only 84, i.e., nearly half the settlements that existed during the Persian period disappeared. The archaeological finds reported by Adam Zertal in his study attest to the extent of Alexander’s retaliatory actions against the Samaritans who had supported the Persians.

The Samaritan center moved to Shkhem (today Nablus). A class of Hellenised Samaritans developed during the Seleucid rule. The internal struggles within Samaritan society, including resistance to the Hellenization process and Hellenist rule, resulted in the religious decrees being applied against the Samaritans as well as the Jews.

The Arabs

The Land of Israel was part of the Seleucid province of Syria-Phoenicia. The Ptolemaic Dynasty conquered the southern coastal plain Pleshet and named it Syria-Palaestina. When discussing Alexander’s actions in Gaza, which had resisted him, Kasher names the population of Gaza as Syrian-Palestinian. Alexander conquered the city, massacred part of the population, and sold the rest as slaves. In their place, he settled new immigrants. According to Herodotus, the old Syrian-Palestinian inhabitants were Arab. The new settlers were Phoenicians from neighboring cities.

The Itureans

The Itureans were a group of Arabic tribes who entered into the Bekaa (Lebanon Valley) during the Persian period. They established a kingdom in Southern Lebanon and spread to other areas of Lebanon. At some time, they spread into the Golan Heights, and archaeological excavations conducted by Moshe Hartal unearthed pottery shreds that indicate Iturean settlement east of Lake Hula and the Sea of Galilee.

Scholars argue whether Itureans settled in Galilee or not. Dar and Kasher are of the opinion that the Jews to whose rescue Jonathan the Hasmonean went in 145 BCE lived in the Bekaa (Lebanon) and not within the borders of the Land of Israel. According to Josephus Flavius (Antiquities of the Jews), Judas Aristobulus I conquered a large portion of the Iturean kingdom and annexed it to his kingdom, but he does not mention Galilee, and there is no evidence either that the clash in 104 BCE between Judas Aristobulus I and the Itureans took place in the foreign Galilee.

An archaeological survey conducted by Moshe Hartal in the Upper Galilee did not uncover Iturean pottery. Rappaport and Kasher believe that for a short time, Itureans spread into the eastern part of the Upper Galilee but did not become a stable ethnic element of the area’s population, maintaining a status of conquerors for the length of their short conquest.

In conclusion, Iturean settlements existed in Golan; but in Galilee, they had little presence.

The Nabataeans

The Nabataeans were an Arabic tribe that emerged from the Arab Peninsula during the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. They were part of one of the waves of Arabic migration that entered the region. The Nabataeans established the kingdom of Nabataea in the south of the Trans-Jordan after pushing the Idumeans west into Judea. Petra was their capital. Starting at the end of the fourth century BCE (i.e., during the Hellenist period), they penetrated the southeastern area of the Negev desert. The Nabataeans settled outside the borders of Hellenist rule. They controlled the camel-train roads leading south and held an important position in the trade of the time. An Aramaic-speaking nomadic tribe that lived off sheep and camel husbandry rather than agriculture, they numbered about ten thousand persons. The Ptolemies tried to take over their kingdom but were met with fierce resistance and gave up. During the Jewish Revolt against the Seleucids, the Nabataeans collaborated with the Hasmoneans, but later on their relations became more hostile.

The Idumeans

The Idumeans were pushed out of the area known in the Bible as Edom (Idumea) by the Nabataeans and spread toward the southern Negev, reaching up to Hebron. The important settlements in Idumea were Maresha and Adulam.

Other Semitic Populations

Some Scholars believe that a Semitic, non–Jewish, rural Galilean population converted to Judaism following the Hasmonean conquest. Unfortunately, their origin or when they settled in Galilee is not known.

According to Joseph Klausner, the entire foreign population (Greeks, Samaritans, and Syrian-Aramaeans) numbered about five hundred thousand.

In conclusion, it is estimated that the population of the Land of Israel under Hellenist occupation numbered more than one million—approximately five hundred thousand Jews and five hundred thousand foreigners.

B. PHASES IN THE FOREIGN (GREEK AND MACEDONIAN) COLONIZATION OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL

Coastal Cities up to the Hellenist Conquest (333 BCE)

King David did not conquer the Philistine and Phoenician coastal cities, and they did not become part of the kingdom of Israel. Contemporary sources are not available, but it seems that the coastal area remained under Egyptian rule until roughly the mid-eighth century BCE.

At the end of the eighth century BCE, the coastal cities were conquered by the Assyrians. Acre was annexed to the district of Megiddo, the area between Mt. Carmel and the Yarkon River became the district of Dor, and the rulers of Gaza and Ashkelon became vassals of the Assyrian king. Hezekiah, king of Judea, took over the region for a short time (Kings II 18:8), but the Assyrian king Sennacherib brought it back under Assyrian rule. The Egyptians ruled the area for a while after the fall of the Assyrians and were replaced in their turn by the Babylonians.

The Persians conquered the Land of Israel from the Babylonians. In return for using the fleet of the Phoenicians, they awarded the Phoenicians control of the coastal cities as far south as Ashkelon. Acre and Gaza maintained their independence.

Colonization during the Hellenistic Occupation (332–142 BCE)

Greek settlement in the Land of Israel began before Alexander the Great’s conquest. According to Naveh’s research, close trading links existed between Israel and Athens as early as the fifth century BCE, and there is evidence for the presence of Greek army personnel in Hashaviah Fortress, south of Yavne-Yam, even earlier, in the seventh century BCE.

Menahem Stern, however, determined that it was Alexander’s conquest that marked a decisive turning point in the history of the country in terms of the penetration of Greek population and Hellenist culture into the Land of Israel.

Professor Stern notes that the Hellenization process of the coastal cities’ population (comprised of descendants of Philistines and Phoenicians) began before the waves of Greek, Macedonian, and Syrian-Aramaic immigration into the non–Jewish coastal cities. Stern believed that Greek settlement in the coastal cities prior to Alexander’s conquest explains this early Hellenization of the local population.

Settlement Activity Mainly Took Place under Ptolemaic Rule between 301 and 198 BCE

According to Gideon Fuchs, the Greek colonization of the Land of Israel took place in three stages as Hellenist rulers encouraged and oversaw immigration over several generations. The Hellenist rulers, ruling over an occupied land and a conquered people, needed Greek settlers in order to maintain their power base. A Hellenist upper class was formed, which was comprised of Macedonian military personnel and Greek administration, joined by business and professional immigrants and tradesmen who gradually accepted into their fold members of the native upper class.

According to Jones, the poleis system was established by Alexander when he built the city of Alexandria in Egypt. The system’s stages included the following: selecting the city’s site; settling a population of Greeks, Macedonians, mercenaries, and native settlers; establishing public institutions along the Athenian model; and placing the surrounding countryside under the city’s jurisdiction.

Stage 1: 333–332 BCE

The first stage began during Alexander’s life, immediately following his conquests, when Greeks and Macedonians began immigrating to the East and to the Land of Israel. This was in fact a third wave of Greek colonization, which had begun along the shores of the Aegean Sea, moving on to Asia Minor, the Black Sea, Sicily, and Cypress. Jones notes that, although Greek influence was felt in the East before Alexander the Great, his conquests turned this gradual flow into a flood.

Under Alexander’s rule, the coastal cities of the Land of Israel became Hellenist cities that enjoyed municipal autonomy.

After suppressing the Samaritan Revolt, Alexander built the city of Samaria as a military colony for his soldiers in Samaria.

Stage 2: 301–198 BCE

The second stage in the Greek colonization of the Land of Israel began with the Ptolemaic conquest in 301 BCE and continued until 198 BCE. The Land of Israel was part of the Syria-Phoenicia province. Contrary to Jones, Professor Stern believes that the system for establishing Hellenist