Table of Contents
The following article explores the deep historical background of the Palestine conflict, tracing it from its ancient origins to recent events. This first installment examines how Zionism developed, the religious foundations of the conflict, and the complex Christian-Jewish alliance that shaped modern events.
The Origins of a Century-Long Struggle
In the name of ALLAH, praise be to ALLAH, and peace and blessings upon the Messenger of ALLAH, His family, companions, and those who follow Him.
Welcome, dear brothers and sisters, to this first article in our new series, “The Palestine Story“. In this article, we will attempt to narrate the complete story of Palestine from its distant beginnings—from when the idea of Jewish return to Palestine first emerged—up until the outbreak of the flood in October 2023.
Together, we’ll try to understand this story and its roots, comprehend its development, and examine why it remains, even after more than a hundred years, an inflammatory and burning issue. We’ll see how Herzl succeeded where his predecessors failed for three thousand years, and why all attempts to resolve this issue—whether through establishing a single state uniting Arabs and Jews or through creating two independent states—have failed. We’ll explore why some experts, like the renowned Egyptian geographer Dr. Gamal Hamdan, saw the fate of the entire global order as linked to the fate of this issue. Why is this spot, among all places in the world, where the three major religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—collide? Why?
How did the Christian-Jewish alliance against Islam emerge? This alliance formed to occupy this land and establish this state that had disappeared three thousand years ago. What is the future of this story as mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah, and as indicated by events?
Before beginning this story, I’d like to note that these articles are extracted from the book “The Summary of the Palestine Story“1. I will, ALLAH willing, provide a download link for this book at the bottom of this article for anyone who wishes to review each piece of information, verify it, and know the source with edition and page numbers.
The Roots of Zionism and Jewish Claims
Let’s begin together with the roots of Zionism. What is Zionism? Who are the Zionists? What brought them to the land of Jerusalem? How did they manage to establish Israel amid this vast sea of Arabs and Muslims?
Zionism is a long story, and we can begin this story—the story of Zionism—from Jewish doctrine. In Jewish belief, Jews believe in their right to Jerusalem and Palestine. Why? They say this land is the holy land where their prophets lived: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It’s the land to which Moses and Aaron migrated, where prophets after Moses were sent, and where the peak of their Jewish golden ages occurred: the era of David and Solomon, the two prophet-kings who ruled from Jerusalem.
After their deaths, the kingdom fell into weakness and division, eventually disappearing under successive blows from Babylonian, Egyptian, and Roman empires. The Jews lived in this land oppressed and subjugated, or were expelled from it and led away as captives and slaves to Babylon and elsewhere.
This is what Jews believe and how they read their history. Consequently, they made attempts to return to Jerusalem. Since that ancient time, three thousand years ago, Jews have been trying to return to the Holy Land and re-establish their state there.
During these thirty centuries—long centuries—there were some attempts, all of which failed. In fact, historians doubt whether these were actual events or real attempts. However, since we’re discussing history now, among the most prominent attempts mentioned in history, which historians might question:
The attempt of David Reubeni. This attempt was in the early sixteenth century, around 1523 CE. It’s surrounded by mystery, with elements of legend in its accounts. This attempt was published in David Reubeni’s diaries, translated and issued by an Egyptian historian in Istanbul, Dr. Mustafa Wajih, with an introduction by the well-known Egyptian historian Dr. Ahmed Al-Adawi. Anyone who reads Dr. Ahmed’s introduction and the translation will find details of these legends surrounding these diaries. This is said to have been an attempt to return to Jerusalem.
The second attempt: This was by a man named Joseph Nasi. This attempt came about forty years after Reubeni’s attempt, around 1561. Joseph Nasi was a Jew who fled from the Spanish Inquisition.
As you know, when the Spanish defeated Muslims and expelled them from Andalusia, a terrible era of torture and intimidation began, known as the Inquisition. During this era, Spanish Catholics targeted the forced conversion of Muslims and Jews. Many Muslims and many Jews migrated to Islamic countries, including the Ottoman Empire.
When Joseph Nasi successfully escaped to the Ottoman Empire, he joined the Ottoman Sultan’s court. It is said that he tried to transfer Jewish groups to the city of Tiberias. He was reportedly granted the right to administer and develop it, meaning he was perhaps an administrator in the Ottoman Sultanate in Tiberias, and tried to transfer Jewish groups there. This attempt was also mentioned by the famous historian Stanford Shaw in his well-known book “The Jews and the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic”, and also mentioned by the historian of Tiberias, Issam Sakhnini, in his book “Tiberias: An Encyclopedic History”.
But if we look at the overall circumstances and details, it’s impossible to believe this was a type of planning for return, because the Ottoman Empire at that time was at the height of its power. We’re talking about the time of Suleiman the Magnificent and his sons afterward. We’re talking about the empire at the peak of its strength. And Jews at that time were scattered and dispersed, with nothing uniting them.
The most that can be said is that what Joseph Nasi did was an attempt to save Jews fleeing from the Inquisition, bringing them to Tiberias so they would be in a safe place under Jewish influence—a wealthy person with connections to the Ottoman Sultan.
I imagine these matters would have been forgotten, no one would have remembered them… but the later establishment of Israel motivated Zionists and historians to dig into history looking for ancient attempts and roots of previous efforts.
Jewish Ambitions and Ottoman Resistance
There are other attempts mentioned as well, but about Jewish return to Sinai, not to Palestine. Of course, you know that Jews also believe Sinai is part of their holy land. Jews believe they should own all the land between the Nile and the Euphrates. This is written in their slogans and on the Knesset building. Even the Israeli flag: the Israeli flag has two blue lines symbolizing the Nile and Euphrates, with the six-pointed star known as the Star of David between them, as a symbol of the Jewish kingdom between the Nile and Euphrates.
But Sinai specifically also has special sanctity for Jews, because Moses received revelation there for the first time when he was returning to Egypt, and also received the Torah there after escaping from Pharaoh.
There are three Ottoman documents revealed by Dr. Ibrahim Abdel-Latif in a study called “From Arab History Documents“. This study was published in Cairo University’s journal in Khartoum in 1971 in the second issue. These three Ottoman documents were issued in these years: 989 Hijri (equivalent to 1581 CE), 991 Hijri, and 993 Hijri, meaning the end of the tenth century Hijri. These three documents reveal the Ottoman authorities’ efforts to prevent Jews from settling in the Mount Tur area in Sinai. I leave it to those who want to expand on this to refer to these documents and examine them, as time doesn’t allow us to narrate them.
So the Ottoman Empire confronted any attempts. When any attempt began… this situation continued throughout the time of Ottoman strength. What happened? What happened was that as times changed and the Ottoman Empire weakened, the balance of power began to tilt toward Western empires, because during the same period of Ottoman decline, Western empires rose.
Here, Jews entered the line of this fluctuation in the balance of power, and also benefited from new conditions that emerged in Europe. These conditions made the situation of Jews change for the better. Among the most important of these conditions was the emergence of a new Christian sect, Protestantism. This Protestant sect was founded by the famous German priest who broke away from the Catholic Church, Martin Luther. This sect, the Protestant Christian sect, managed to control some European countries after European chapters, and carried with it new ideas that poured into the benefit of Jews. We’ll come to this shortly.
The Religious Nature of the Jerusalem Conflict
But now as we talk about Jews, we’ll find that these new conditions in Europe renewed the hope of Jews that their return to Palestine was approaching. This hope began to transform into appeals, calls, poems, books, and writings, and practical movements also began to appear, trying to motivate the return of Jews to Palestine.
There’s a beautiful book where we can see these attempts called “Non-Jewish Zionism: Its Roots in Western History”, a book by Regina Sharif published in the Knowledge World series, one of the very beautiful books.
There’s a matter we must pay attention to that increases the sensitivity of the Palestine story and its intensity. This matter is that Jews believe that the Temple—the Temple which is the greatest temple built by Solomon, and this Temple which was completely destroyed in Roman raids and before that also in Babylonian ones—they believe that this Temple was built in the place of the Al-Aqsa Mosque now.
What does this mean? It means that rebuilding the Temple, which is the Jewish project, equals demolishing Al-Aqsa Mosque. Of course, Al-Aqsa Mosque is the first Qibla and the third of the two Holy Mosques, and it is the night journey of our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, where he prayed with the prophets, and from which he ascended to heaven, and it is mentioned in the Holy Quran.
So Al-Aqsa Mosque is part of Muslims’ faith, part of their religion. And in honor of this Al-Aqsa Mosque, and in honor of Jerusalem, the Muslim Caliph himself, Umar, went to it to be its conqueror. This is something that didn’t happen to any other spot at all. And Umar wrote in it the Umar Covenant, which is part of Muslims’ heritage.
Therefore, from here we understand that the conflict in Palestine is, in its essence, origin, and center, a religious conflict. This religious conflict, with deep realism, and without deceiving ourselves, this religious conflict cannot be resolved except by the final victory of one side over the other, because the nature of sacred sites, religious sanctities, do not accept compromise, do not accept division, no one has the right to dispose of them, no one has the right to give them up, no one has the right to negotiate on them. Therefore, the conflict will remain, in its essence and origin, a religious conflict.
So this Jewish dream remained dormant in Jewish hearts, in poems, in anthems, but strong Islamic states would not allow Palestine or Al-Aqsa Mosque to be seized. So what happened?
The Christian-Zionist Alliance
Here we open a new story. We stop at this Jewish scene and open a new story, which is the story of Christian Zionism. Christian Zionism? How?
Let’s start from Christian doctrine. The Christians believe that Christ Jesus son of Mary—peace be upon him according to us, of course; he is god according to them—Christ Jesus was born in the land of Palestine and in Bethlehem, and in it he was sent, and in it he lived his life, and in it he spread his teachings, and in it he was also crucified as redemption for humanity in their belief. They believe that Christ the god was embodied in human form and crucified as redemption for humanity, and in it is his tomb, and from this tomb was his resurrection also.
Therefore, Christians make pilgrimage to this land and also see it as a holy land, and see that they have a religious duty to liberate Christ’s tomb from the hands of infidels—infidels here means Muslims. This was the slogan of the Crusades: “Liberating Christ’s tomb from the hands of infidels”.
Christians also believe that Christ was crucified by the betrayal of Jews. Of course, he was crucified by the pagan Roman state, but by the betrayal of Jews.
Historical Shifts in Christianity and Its Impact
Three centuries after the death of Christ—we can say death of Christ because ALLAH said: “O Jesus, indeed I will take you and raise you to MYSELF…”2 (‘Ali ‘Imraan – 3:55)—but three centuries after Christ was raised or after the end of Christ’s life whatever it was—the pagan Roman Empire embraced Christianity. Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity, so he was trying to reconcile between Christianity, which was spreading, and paganism. Anyway, it has a long story that doesn’t concern us now.
What concerns us now is that the great empire split into two empires and two churches: an Eastern Empire, which is the Byzantine Empire, its capital Constantinople or Byzantium, which is Istanbul now, and its great church Hagia Sophia, which is a mosque now, and its language was Greek, and its religious doctrine Orthodox, this is the first division.
The other empire, the Western Roman Empire, its capital was Rome, its church the Vatican, its language Latin, and its doctrine Catholic. The Levant region and Jerusalem generally remained under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire, which is the Byzantine Empire, except for short periods when, for example, the Persians controlled it in their conflict with the Romans, until the Islamic conquest of the Levant and Egypt came. So the Levant and Jerusalem remained in the possession of Muslims for twelve centuries.
There was a century in the middle of this period when control over Jerusalem was, for once only, by the Western Latin Catholics, who are the followers of the Vatican. This is the period of the Crusades. The Crusades continued for two centuries in the Levant region, but Jerusalem was in their possession for only about a hundred years; Saladin liberated it. And after that, minor occupations, things not mentioned in history, and the Mamluks later completed the liberation of the entire Levant from the Crusaders. But Jerusalem, they controlled it for about a hundred years, no more than that.
So Islamic control remained until a hundred years ago, meaning all this period: twelve centuries of Muslims, with only one century for the Crusaders, and afterward Islamic control continued until the occupation of Jerusalem in December 1917, when the English occupied Jerusalem, meaning after six centuries.
But here’s an important matter we must focus on because it’s very important in our story. This last entry of the English—it’s Western control, meaning Westerners controlled it again—but this last entry of the English was not by the Orthodox or the Catholics, but by the new sect, which is the Protestants.
Protestants are a sect that broke away from the Catholic Church, led by the German priest Martin Luther. Martin Luther lived from 1483 to 1546—so we’re talking about the late fifteenth century and the early sixteenth century.
This sect, after chapters, battles, and long conflicts, and many details in European history, managed to dominate the strongest Western kingdoms and states: Britain then America. So Britain then America are Protestant and not Catholic.
How Protestantism Changed Views on Jews
What concerns us now is that this sect came with innovations and new ideas in many matters. What concerns us is their view of Jews, how?
Western Catholics—before Martin Luther appeared—Catholics believed that Jews were an unbelieving, misguided, deviant people, why? Because they didn’t believe in Christ. Meaning the true, righteous Jew is one who must believe in Christ, and at that point, of course, he would become a Christian. But the one who didn’t believe in Christ isn’t a righteous Jew. And therefore, Catholics see that Jews existing after the time of Christ are not a natural extension of the believing Jews mentioned in the Torah or in the Old Testament.
So what is the natural extension of righteous Jews? The natural extension is the Jews who believed in Christ, meaning they became Christians, meaning followers of the Catholic Church. Meaning the Catholic Church then became the vessel of believers who believed in the Torah and the Gospel and the message of Christ.
The meaning of these words is that what is mentioned in the Torah about this land being a holy land for Jews, or that Jews will return, for example, to the Holy Land, this has one of two interpretations in the minds of Catholics: either these texts in the Torah were an ancient matter that passed and ended, meaning it was realized in history for Jews who returned before the mission of Christ more than once, or it means the Catholic Church, because the Catholic Church is the natural extension of believers in the Torah. So Catholics should return again and inhabit this Holy Land.
These are Catholic ideas. So what did Protestants bring? What do Protestants say?
When Protestants appeared, they adopted an idea that makes contemporary Jews not a deviation but an extension of the ancient Jews mentioned in the Old Testament. This means that these contemporary Jews are the ones promised to return to the Holy Land, they themselves, and this return of theirs will be the preparation for Christ’s second descent to earth, which Christians believe in.
Also among the important ideas they brought that concern our story now, is that they—Protestants—fought against priests’ and clergy’s monopoly on reading and interpreting the Holy Book, and the idea of indulgences and others. They saw the Holy Book as a book open to every reader, everyone receives the word of the Lord and understands it himself, doesn’t need an intermediary, doesn’t need a priest, doesn’t need a clergyman.
The Spread of Biblical Knowledge and Its Consequences
Among the effects of this idea is that Protestants translated the Holy Book into local European languages, printed it, published it, and distributed it. It’s like saying now: we want to understand the Quran without sheikhs, and also this Holy Quran we write it in local dialects, so we write it in Egyptian dialect and we write it in Moroccan dialect and we write it in Gulf and Iraqi dialect and so on.
What happened is that this matter led to what we can call a popular revival in the West of Jewish memories and the history of Jews and the prophets of the Children of Israel in the Holy Land. So it was no longer written in Latin language which people were ignorant of, no, it is now written in local languages and people read it. So they began to discover a history of Jews and a history of the prophets of the Children of Israel in the Holy Lands.
Of course, this spread was at the expense of or deducted from the Catholic Church and its history and biographies of saints and fathers and so on. So we can say: the European collective consciousness discovered, when the Holy Book spread, that Jesus, peace be upon him, is just one prophet in a series of prophets of the Children of Israel, he’s no longer a central figure as he was… and if Jesus is the Lord in Christianity, the historical truth says that this Lord was born Jewish, meaning before he was sent, before he was dispatched, he was born Jewish.
So these ideas poured into the benefit of Jews. We can say that these ideas began to interact, and the European imagination, especially in areas where Protestantism prevailed—most importantly Britain because Britain would become a global superpower—so the European imagination in these areas began to store a historical memory that sees Palestine as the land of Jews, and that Jews are displaced Palestinians, and that the Holy Book promises Jews and gives them good news that they will return to this Holy Land. Therefore, books began to appear confirming this meaning since the seventeenth century.
We said Martin Luther was in the sixteenth century. From the seventeenth century, books began to appear supporting the idea of returning Jews or Jews returning to Jerusalem. If you want to expand and read books written by Christians that establish the return of Jews to Palestine, please return to the book I mentioned a little while ago, which is Regina Sharif’s book “Non-Jewish Zionism“, as it has an excellent follow-up.
Therefore, here arose what is known as non-Jewish Zionism or Christian Zionism or Zionist Christianity, because here the two beliefs united: Jewish Zionism and non-Jewish Zionism, they united in the necessity of returning Jews to Palestine.
It’s very unfortunate, very unfortunate and also dangerous, that this religious depth of the conflict we don’t understand in our Arab and Islamic world, it’s not present with us. For the governments of the Islamic world, unfortunately, most of them are secular governments. What they produce of media products, education, culture, cares about and inflates the political aspect and shrinks the religious aspect.
But whoever looks a little at this subject in Europe or in the West in general, Europe and America, will easily and readily realize that this Christian Zionism is a deeply rooted and firmly established belief in a wide spectrum of the Western elite: political, economic, and cultural, and that this contemporary Zionism we see now we can say is a new version of the Crusades in the Middle Ages.
Three Categories of Western Support for Zionism
So these Christian Zionist beliefs interacted in the world of thought and in the world of politics and intertwined with the developments of events. And we can see three sections of politicians and decision-makers in Europe, these three sections with their differences agree on returning Jews again to Palestine:
The first section: politicians and decision-makers who believe in these ideas. These naturally, as they make decisions and hold political positions, naturally they try to implement them and actually do them. These politicians believe in the Christian Zionist idea.
The second section: these are secular and non-religious. Secularism spread in Europe and Europe embraced secularism. These secular or non-religious who don’t believe in these religious ideas will see in Zionism an excellent means to achieve and implement and move their political purposes, meaning colonial purposes, exploitative purposes, purposes of expansion and occupation. So it helps them in expansion, in control, and this for them, these ideas and those who believe in them, energy and soldiers help them implement their colonial purposes.
The third section: these support the Zionist idea because they hate Jews. So whoever remained in Europe hating Jews, or was Catholic, or hates Jews for any reason, this supports Zionism because he hates Jews. This is strange! How?!
So those who hate Jews found in Zionism an excellent opportunity for Europe to get rid of Jews and expel them to Palestine. So therefore Jews return to where they want, and we in Europe get rid of the Jewish problem. These are, as I said, Christians who remained in their original state of hatred of Jews, but tried to benefit from the Zionist idea that wants to return Jews to Palestine.
And whoever wants to expand on this subject can return to the famous encyclopedia of Dr. Abdel-Wahab El-Messiri, may ALLAH have mercy on him, which is “Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism, and Zionism“. In the sixth part of it we will find two chapters: a chapter on non-Jewish Christian Zionism, and a chapter on non-Jewish secular Zionism. So you can see how these ideas interacted.
This interaction in Western thought couldn’t transform into practical reality except when a very dangerous opportunity arose in our Islamic world. No matter how much the West thought, there was a strong Ottoman state, but at a very dangerous moment in our Islamic history, this represented the opportunity, the opportunity in which these Western ideas transform into reality. This is the era of Muhammad Ali Pasha’s occupation of the Levant—ten very dangerous years.
How was this? What’s the story of these ten years in the occupation of the Levant? This, ALLAH willing, is what we’ll see in the next article.
We ask ALLAH Almighty to teach us what benefits us and to benefit us with what HE has taught us and to increase us in knowledge, and peace be upon you and ALLAH’s mercy and blessings.
Sources:
- Mohamed Elhamy. قصة فلسطين | 1. من أين تبدأ هذه القصة المعقدة؟ وبماذا تخبرنا الجذور؟. YouTube Video.
- The Summary of the Palestine Story ↩︎
- Saheeh International translation ↩︎
