My starting point for this is the various entries in Wikipedia. I’ve added and augmented with my own knowledge and other sources:
One POV is on Brief History of Palestine
DRAFT - INCOMPLETE The answer to the questions of whether there have "always been Jews in Israel" or "always been Palestinians in Palestine" is yes. The question is of what is Israel and what is Palestine - is a very modern question - because these modern countries were a creation by the last empire to rule the region - England. Lets go back a bit: The facts are somewhat dependent on who is keeping history - is the Bible/Torah historical? What we know vs. what we believe is critical thinking here. According to the Torah, the children of the patriarch Jacob (Israel) united to form the Kingdom of Israel. It is believed that this happened around 1025 BCE. Samuel anointed Saul ben Kish from the tribe of Benjamin as the first king of the Israelites, supposedly in 1020 BCE. It was his successor, David c.1006 BCE, who was responsible for consolidating the monarchy and creating the first Hebrew state. In the Torah, after the death of Saul’s son Ish-bosheth, David came to rule the other tribes of Israel, creating a united Kingdom of Israel. David’s grandson Rehoboam was rejected by ten of the twelve Tribes of Israel during the disruption at Shechem, leaving only the Kingdom of Judah ruled by the Davidic line. The Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrian Empire c. 720 BC but the Kingdom of Judah survived for almost 350 years until it was conquered in 586 BC by the Babylonian Empire under Nebuzar-adan, captain of Nebuchadnezzar’s body-guard.(2 Kings 25:8-21). This event coincided with the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem and with the Babylonian Captivity. What about facts? What is pretty much agreed among all historians is that there were Hebrews, Philistines, Canaanites: all nomadic, farming and herding people of the region.
- Most historians agree the Philistines were not from the region originally - they were the sea-peoples probably related to the ancient Greeks and Cretans settled in what is now the West Bank by the ancient Egyptian empire.
- The Canaanites were Sumerian and most historians agree they are not a homogeneous people and probably came from the regions now called Lebanon and Syria and Saudi Arabia. The fact is - we just don’t know - and this goes to heart of the question. Its what we do know that matters.
So what we know is that the only homogeneous people of the region - those from a kingdom that ruled, those that identified themselves as a united ethnicity were the Israelites, Hebrews, Jews - all the same people. Deportation of the Jews by the Assyrian Empire The Ottoman Empire was an Islamic successor to the Greek, Roman and Byzantine Empires. Consider this: After Alexander expanded the Greek empire to include the kingdoms of Judea and Palestine the governments broke down and the rulers became puppets. While there were Jewish kings and leaders most became oppressed and by the time the Romans conquered the Greeks most of the Jews were displaced from power and land. The parts of the Roman Empire around the Mediterranean sea from what is now Greece and Turkey around the coasts to Egypt were eventually the Byzantine Empire Arthur James Balfor, First Earl of Balfor, was Foreign Secretary during the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WW1. Balfour’s service as Foreign Secretary was most notable for the issuance of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, a letter to Lord Rothschild promising the Jews a "national home" in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire. The first Balfor Declaration inked by Balfour was written in 1917 as follows:
Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917. Dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet: "His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country". I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation. Yours sincerely Arthur James Balfour
JimmyC
