Occupation Therapy #4: Peeling Back the Occupation Onion

A map showing the population of Jews in the Middle East and North Africa from 1948 to today.

(Please note: This blog does not advocate violence or the destruction of any people or their homes. Besides the factual, verifiable historical information posted in this blog, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.)

Note: Jews have been known as Arabs; Jews have been known as Palestinians.

Until the late 1960s, the whole world understood that the word "Palestinian" meant Jew and that "Palestine" was the Jewish homeland.

The Israeli Jewish newspaper was called the Palestine Post.

The Israeli Jewish orchestra was called the "Palestine Orchestra."

The American movement to reestablish the Jewish State was called the "American League for a Free Palestine." The Israeli Jewish hero of Exodus stated: "I am a native-born Palestinian."

From the Myth of Occupation published by The Zionist Organization of America

In my last post, I mentioned a mainline Christian named Alistair, who continues to struggle with the idea of Israel and what he refers to as Israel’s occupation of Palestine.  At a recent Coffee Hour in our Parish Hall, Alistair said to me, “It doesn’t matter what maps you show me, if Israel is on it, Palestine is occupied.”

The maps I have been disputing are highly popular and deceptively shrewd. They indicate that Israel has progressively taken more and more land. (The map below is disseminated widely and has been proven to be false. See previous post for that discussion.)

• The first map shows all the land now Israel, as belonging to “Palestinian lands,” with a sprinkle of Jewish owned land.

• The next map shows the 1947 UN Partition Plan that divides the land between Jews and Arabs, showing more loss of Palestinian lands.

• The next map shows Israel having even more land after the Arabs lost a war they raged against the new state in the 1948 “War of Independence.”

• The last map shows a sprinkle of “Palestinian lands” left for Palestinians following the Oslo Accords of 1993. The post clearly explains the falsity of these maps.  

Once explained, most readers see the clever and deceitful strategy employed in these maps.

Alistair sips his full octane coffee and says: “It doesn’t matter what maps you show me. Forget who lost land or gained land. If Israel is on the map, then it’s occupying Palestine!”

As we twist and turn to new paradigms, it's important to understand the "why" of our perspective. Like most mainline Christians, Larry would vehemently deny any anti-Semitic leanings. However, his angry dialogue about Israel and Palestine unfortunately weaves in an anti-Semitic thread which you will see below.

For all well-intentioned mainline Christians like Alistair, it may be distasteful to discover that such a good Christian is surprisingly anti-Semitic. Good Christian feelings aside, it's more important to understand the verifiable facts about the supposed occupation of Palestine by Israel.

One need only examine the verified facts about Christian participation in the Holocaust, including Nazi Christians, and Nazi Church officials to see that the world in 1938 is not so far behind us today. ( CLICK HERE: Please see my March 7th post: "Peeling the Occupation Onion.")

As I expected, Alistair almost chokes on his coffee when I say that the Christian Church participated in the Holocaust. "That's not me! I am not a Nazi!" He exclaims indignantly. “Besides, the British mandate gave the Jews Israel as a compensation for the Holocaust!"

“Just another occupier! Arabs lived in the land! You just can’t give it to non-indigenous people! And don’t tell me about the Kingdom of Judah, and King David, and Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, living on the land. That was a long time ago. If you want you can go back to primordial slime to see who owns the mud? Jews had it rough in the Holocaust, but that doesn’t give them the right to take Arab land for a country, and throw the Arabs out. Hamas’s actions are justified. Palestinians are oppressed in their own land!”

Alistair continues, already wiping away a yet unspoken counter argument that there never was a Palestinian state.

“Even if they don’t have a state, or never had a state, it’s Arab land. So, don’t try telling me Palestine was never a country. Arabs lived there, even if they didn’t own property. They worked and lived there."

I take a gluten-free muffin made by one of the talented Altar Guild bakers and consider Alistair, whose face is turning a dangerous red. . For a Christian today, to believe that Israel is illegitimate by somehow occupying Palestinian land, is dangerously false. The massacre of Israelis on October 7, celebrated outwardly (with pride) and inwardly (by some Christians ashamed to show their secret joy that something, even violent, might end the Israeli occupation) by peace loving Christian pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists, indicates a continuing residue of Christian theologically embedded in Jew-hatred.

Alistair is on his third cup of coffee, and I can tell he's almost ready to levitate. I try to take a peaceful approach.

I ask him, “What should happen to Israel now,” He grabs a slice of banana cake “I don’t know, but Justice has to happen. Israel needs to give the country to the Arabs, and leave.”

“Where should they go?“ I ask.

Alistair tosses half the cake into the trash with an expression of distaste.“I don’t care where they go. They just need to leave.”

I’m astonished at the blatant anger.

Alistair continues, “Who had the right to give the Jews the land anyway?”

I keep trying. "Are you aware that Jews have lived in the land you call Palestine since Biblical days?"

Alistair looks at me quizzically, miffed at my seeming desire to defend the Jewish right to be there.

I gesture to a nearby chair, and Alistair sits down, relieved to be off his feet.

I say, “Let me just give a bit of history. This information is not in the Bible, so maybe that’s why this information is not widely known to us as Christians."

"Jews never left the land completely, even though they were exiled and lost sovereignty.

Even after the biblical exile 587 BC, 135 AD, Jews dispersed and lived all over the Middle East, including in what is Israel today. These Middle Eastern Jews self-identified as Arabs and were considered by Arab Muslims to be Arabs.They were Arab Jews."

A map showing the population of Jews in the Middle East and North Africa from 1948 to today.

I show Alistair a book of maps showing where Arab Jews have resided and continue:

"They’ve lived in Arab lands until 1948. Between 750,000 and 850,000 of these Arab Jews were no longer considered Arabs by their Arab neighbors, because of Arab anger that European Jews were given a state of Israel.

"Arabs had wanted all of Mandate Palestine, but the whole section east of the Jordan river was given to a new country called Transjordan in 1921. So, ousted from or fled because of persecution, from their Arab countries, these Arab Jews were now separated from their Arab culture and language, and became refugees.

"We keep hearing about the 750,000 Palestinians who fled or were ousted from what is now Israel. Israel took its Arab Jewish refugees and made them citizens of Israel. There is no refugee problem. However, no Arab country, except Jordan who allowed some Palestinians to become citizens, has allowed Palestinian refugees from 1948 or 1967 to become citizens of their countries. Over 6 million Palestinians live in refugee camps throughout the Arab world and are not welcomed as citizens."

Feeling my professorial mantle descend on my shoulders and enjoying Alistair's rapt attention, I continue:

“So, what do we know about Jewish life in the land of Palestine, through all the occupations?

“I think you’re about to tell me,” Alistair replies.

I smile and say, "After the Jews were expelled from Jerusalem, they lived in other places within Palestine. From biblical times, four holy places were settled continuously with Jews: Hebron, Jerusalem, Safed, and Tiberius. Even during Arab rule (637-1099), Jews lived in Gaza, Ashkelon, Yavne, Jaffa, Nablus, Lod, Ramla, Beisan , Nazareth, Dan, Banias, Yavne, One, Bene Berak, and Akraba.

"From the 13th to the 19th century, a population of 10,000 Jews formed in Safed alone and more in Tiberius. There, in 1563, the Jews created a Hebrew printing press.

"In the 15th and 16th centuries, Jews were expelled from eight countries. Many immigrated to Palestine: from Spain in 1492, Lithuania in 1495, Portugal, Sicily, and Sardinia in 1497, Rhodes in 1502, and Naples in 1541."

Alistair grabs the book of maps from my hands. “Wait. Wait. Stop! I’m not aware of any of this. Why don’t I know about it?”

I say, “That’s the fault of the church. Until after WWII, we believed Judaism was dead and replaced by the church. We didn’t keep track of what Jews were doing in Israel. We knew and perpetrated persecution of Jews in Europe, but we didn’t give much notice that Jews and Judaism was not dead."

By now, coffee hour is over. Alistair and I are so absorbed in our discussion, we don’t even notice that the cups have been cleared away, the napkins and paper plates thrown in the trash.

Alistair has become more thoughtful. We realize the parish hall is empty now, and a silence permeates the air with a noticeable gravity.

We both stand, and, for some inexplicable reason, we shake hands.