Why is Israel after Palestine?

By Iftikhar Ahmad

Why Is Israel After Palestine? exposes the full historical continuum behind today's headlines — tracing the story from the time of Abraham through ancient empires, religious transformations, colonial interventions, and modern geopolitics.

Drawing from authentic historical records, scriptural sources, and archaeological insights, the book disentangles centuries of land claims, migrations, wars, and treaties that shaped the destinies of both peoples. It presents how faith, power, and politics intertwined in Canaan, Judea, and the wider Levant, and how those patterns still echo in Gaza and Jerusalem today.

Rejecting slogans and partisanship, the author invites readers to look beyond inherited narratives — to read history through facts, not filters. This balanced account encourages informed empathy, intellectual honesty, and moral clarity. It is a work for anyone seeking to understand not only why this conflict endures, but how humanity might transcend it through truth, justice, and conscience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Iftikhar Ahmad
• Release date: Oct 5, 2025
• ISBN: 9798231307050

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Copyright © 2025 Iftikhar Ahmad

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First Edition: 2025

Disclaimer:

The content of this book is intended for educational and informational purposes. The author has made every effort to ensure the accuracy and neutrality of the historical and contemporary information presented. Opinions expressed are based on careful research, historical records, and sources deemed reliable. This book does not promote any political agenda, religious bias, or personal ideology. Readers are encouraged to consult primary sources and scholarly works for further study.

Dedication

To the innocent martyrs of this enduring conflict—those who bore the weight of battles they never chose, who suffered and perished despite having no part in the strife.

To the children whose laughter was silenced, the families torn apart, and the souls caught in the crossfire of history’s long shadow.

May their memory awaken conscience, inspire compassion, and remind the world that humanity must rise above the cycles of violence, prejudice, and indifference.

Preface

The ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine is often portrayed as a political standoff or a clash of ideologies, yet what the world witnesses today is far more than a dispute over borders. It is a human tragedy—one that stretches across centuries, rooted in overlapping histories, sacred identities, and competing narratives of belonging. Each airstrike, blockade, and displacement we see in our modern news cycle is not an isolated event; it is an echo of millennia-old struggles for survival, memory, and meaning.

It was in witnessing these echoes resound once again—in Gaza’s ruins, in the grief of parents burying their children, in the silence of global institutions—that this book was born. Not from anger or allegiance, but from a yearning for understanding. For too long, the world has been offered fragmented accounts—each claiming moral certainty, each stripped of the depth that only history can provide. In that absence of context, empathy fades, and truth becomes the first casualty of war.

This work seeks to restore that missing depth. It traces the conflict not as a sequence of isolated wars, but as a continuous human story that began long before modern states existed. It reaches back to the first inhabitants of Canaan, to the journeys of Abraham, Moses, and David, to the rise of Islam and the waves of empire that shaped the land now called Palestine. Through this long view, one discovers that what is often portrayed as a religious struggle is, in fact, a complex interplay of power, migration, and faith—each generation inheriting both the hope and the wounds of those before it.

My intent is neither to assign guilt nor to erase pain. Rather, it is to illuminate—to allow history to speak without distortion. The sources drawn upon are diverse: scripture, archaeology, academic scholarship, and contemporary documentation. Every claim has been tested against evidence; every narrative treated with the dignity it deserves. I have written not as a partisan, but as a seeker of truth—believing that genuine understanding is itself a form of justice.

This book is also a call to conscience. The world today risks forgetting that behind every political slogan are human lives—families enduring displacement, children growing up without safety, elders holding keys to homes that no longer stand. These stories demand more than sympathy; they demand perspective. To truly comprehend the present, we must step beyond headlines and rediscover how deeply history has shaped both the oppressor and the oppressed.

To readers—whether historians, students, or those simply searching for clarity—I offer this book as both a window and a mirror: a window into the ancient roots of today’s headlines, and a mirror reflecting our shared responsibility to seek truth before taking sides. May it inspire reflection, awaken empathy, and renew our faith in the power of understanding.

Iftikhar Ahmad

2025

Acknowledgments

All praise and gratitude are due to Allah Almighty, whose infinite wisdom, guidance, and mercy have illuminated my path and granted me the strength to explore, understand, and convey the intricate story of human history. Without His divine will, this work could neither have been conceived nor completed.

I extend my profound love and reverence to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)—the embodiment of truth, compassion, and intellectual clarity—whose timeless teachings continue to inspire my pursuit of knowledge and justice. His noble example remains a guiding light for all who seek understanding and moral balance in a complex world.

This work has been enriched by the insights of scholars, historians, and thinkers—classical and contemporary—whose research and reflections have shaped my understanding of civilization, faith, and global politics. Their intellectual contributions have served as the scaffolding upon which this study rests, and to them I owe sincere gratitude.

I am deeply thankful to my friends and colleagues whose encouragement, thoughtful critique, and moral support sustained me through the long process of research and writing. Their honesty and companionship have refined my thoughts and strengthened my resolve.

My heartfelt gratitude goes to my family, whose patience, prayers, and unwavering support have been the foundation of my perseverance. In moments of personal trial, their compassion and faith lifted my spirit and reminded me of life’s deeper purpose. This book—my seventeenth—is as much theirs as it is mine: a testament to endurance, conviction, and divine grace.

To all who seek knowledge, truth, and justice with sincerity, I offer my deepest thanks. May this work, in whatever small way, contribute to a more informed, compassionate, and peaceful understanding of our shared human history.

Introduction

The Israel–Palestine conflict is not merely a political question of modern borders; it is a chronicle of human civilization itself. To understand why this land—smaller than many of today’s cities—has carried such immense symbolic, spiritual, and geopolitical weight, one must look far beyond the present moment. The roots of today’s crisis reach deep into history, into the soil of prophets and empires, where faith met power and ideals collided with ambition.

This book is an attempt to trace that continuum with clarity, neutrality, and intellectual honesty. It journeys across thousands of years—from the earliest settlements of Canaan and Philistia to the rise of monotheism; from the biblical kingdoms of David and Solomon to the era of Roman rule; from the Muslim conquests and Crusader wars to the colonial reshaping of the Middle East. The aim is not to merely recount what happened, but to uncover why it happened—and why it continues to matter.

Palestine’s story is unlike any other because it sits at the crossroads of continents and convictions. Every major civilization—Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Islamic, and Western—has left its imprint upon it. Geography made it desirable, faith made it sacred, and power made it contested. For millennia, this narrow strip of land has been a stage upon which humanity’s greatest aspirations and gravest errors have been performed.

Yet despite this weight of history, modern discourse often begins in the middle of the story—at 1948, 1967, or the latest eruption of violence—without understanding the centuries that shaped these events. The result is confusion, polarization, and the recycling of incomplete truths. This book seeks to correct that by restoring the continuum of history, showing that no present conflict exists in isolation. Each phase—biblical, imperial, colonial, and modern—flows from what came before it.

To achieve this, the book is organized into five parts:

Part I – Ancient Clashes: Roots of the Struggle explores the earliest civilizations of Canaan, Abraham’s journey, the rise of Israelite identity, and the cycles of settlement and displacement that defined the early narratives.

Part II – The Struggle for Jerusalem Across Empires examines the Persian, Greek, and Roman eras, the emergence of Christianity, Jewish revolts, and the Islamic conquest that introduced new models of coexistence.

Part III – Medieval and Early Modern Conflicts follows the Crusades, Salahuddin’s reconquest, and the relative peace of the Ottoman centuries, when Palestine became a mosaic of faiths under one administration.

Part IV – The Modern Wars unpacks the rise of Zionism, the promises and betrayals of