Occupation Therapy Part #1: Peeling Back the Onion of Occupation

Part of the "Separation Barrier" known as "The Wall" that surrounds the West Bank. (Wikipedia Commons)

Since the October 7th, 2023, massacre of Israelis by Hamas and the consequent war, some fellow Christians and many angry pro-Palestinian protesters have thrown around loaded terms like, “apartheid,” “colonialism,” “genocide,” and “occupation.” These are big words with big meanings, and it’s a huge task to unpack these issues. For this post, I will focus on the often-misunderstood concept of the “occupation.”

When I’ve asked fellow Christians what they mean by the term, the answers are telling as well as vague and misinformed.  Frequently, the responses are not about an occupation at all, but more like admissions of ignorance: “I don’t really know much about it, but why won’t Israel let the Palestinians have a state?”

Defining the root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the result of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories prompts me to respond with further questions like: “When you describe this ‘occupation,’ are you aware of what land is involved, what the land is called, and where it is located?”

Next, I might ask, “Before Israel was founded in 1948, who did the land ‘belong’ to, and what was the country called?”

They often say that the country is called “Palestine” and that it originally belonged to the Arabs. They believe that the Jews poured in after the Holocaust, that they stole the land, and that the Palestinians were forced out. Listening to this inaccurate conclusion, I wonder why it’s so easy to accept these negative narratives about Israel, without looking into the matter more closely?

Now, I bring out the maps—the popular ones that even the news outlets sometimes display in error. That’s how widespread misinformation becomes a version of what we think is the truth; that’s the endgame of smart propaganda.

Not all journalists are conscientious researchers or know enough about the conflict to see that the maps are cleverly deceptive. The misinformation shown on these maps appears to illustrate the progressive loss of Palestinian land to the Jews.

Commonly used graphic (Reddit) to misrepresent land ownership

The first map shows modern Palestine with 1947 boundaries, before 1948 Israel. Two items are noted, in two different colors. The white spaces are called Jewish settlements, where Jews owned land.

The unknown creator of this map leaves you with the impression that the green color represents land owned by Palestinians.

But it doesn’t.

The next map of the UN Partition Plan of 1947 is placed next to the first map so that you can see more land owned by Jews, less land owned by Palestinians. This leaves the impression of Palestinian land lost or taken over by the Jews. Just the impression the illustrator wanted. Very clever.

It’s influenced millions of people to view Jews as thieves who have created Palestinian refugees by stealing their land. I’ve seen Christians using this very map, to teach other Christian lay people and clergy what Jews have done to Palestinians.

And it’s worked! The maps I will show you next are maps showing who actually governed the land as well as Jewish and Arab owned land.

The maps below show Palestine under the government of the British Mandate, which occupied and controlled the land from 1918 to 1948, following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire during WWI.

The 1947 map on the right, under the governance of the British Mandate, shows the actual land ownership of Jews and Arabs in the land.

Please note that the white area is owned by neither Jews or Arabs but is public or state-owned land. And who’s the “state”? The British Mandate.

Moving back in time, the Israelite kingdom of Judea existed from the 6th century BCE (BC) until it was conquered by the Roman Empire in 63 BCE (BC). After the Roman conquest and occupation, the land was continually occupied by foreign countries until 1948.

Moving forward, in 1516, the Ottoman Turks invaded and occupied Palestine, an occupation that lasted for 402 years (1516-1918), except for the 9 years between 1831 and 1840, when the Egyptian Governor Muhammad Ali sent his troops to capture Palestine under the command of his son Ibrahim Pasha.

Historic Palestine was never owned and governed by those we refer to as Palestinians today. In fact, before the 1967 Six-Day War with Arab countries, all residents of Palestine—including Jews—were called Palestinians.

For instance, the Jewish newspaper, "The Palestine Post" (what is today’s “Jerusalem Post”) was founded in 1932. In other words, the Jews referred to the entire area in the same way that it had been referred to by centuries of occupiers and empires: “Palestine.” The Jews who lived there and owned land there, were called Palestinians. The Jewish paramilitary organization, "Haganah" referred to itself as the "Defenders of the Jewish Community in Palestine."

The land of Palestine, before 1948, was inhabited by a diverse population that included Arab Muslims, Arab Christians, Druze, Bedouins, and Jewish communities—and more. A distinct Palestinian national identity emerged over time, but particularly in response to the establishment of Israel and the displacement of many Arab Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Today, the word, “Palestinian’ is used to define only the Arab population of the region.

Certainly, Palestinians have a right to self-determination. But conflating terms like “Palestine” and “Palestinian” out of context and after centuries of upheaval creates a distortion of verifiable facts for the uninformed. Unfortunately, cherry picking media spin and propaganda forces the uninformed to join with Hamas and their proxies in advocating for the destruction of the state of Israel.

Did you know that the West Bank was occupied by Jordan from 1948 to 1967 and that Gaza was occupied by Egypt from 1948 to 1967? Did you know that during this time of occupation, nobody created a Palestinian state?

Stay tuned for more “Occupation Therapy.”