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Why Israel Is
A Nation Of Squatters, or
The World's Largest Ghetto

My views on the world including Israel have changed considerably from the time I wrote this article. This article will remain as it is just for the record. I may revise it in the future. Do not be a$$hole and post it on other sites. Thank you.

By the way, I am not a Muslim or a Christian. I am an Indian. I cannot be biased against either party in the conflict.

Early Palestine

Based on the Old Testament, the Israelite kingdom^# was supposed to have reached its greatest extent under David and Solomon, who are dated at 1004-928 B.C.E. After the death of Solomon, the kingdom was divided into two - Israel in the North and Judah in the south. Archeological evidence and recorded history show that the area where these two regions were supposed to be was occupied by several people including the Assyrians,^* Babylonians,^†, Medes^‡ and Persians^¤ during different periods in time. At one time, it was even occupied by the Greeks under Alexander the Great. Romans occupied Judea in 63 B.C.E. Continuous written records kept by the Romans are available from this period.

Jewish homelessness started with the Jewish revolt against the Roman empire in the first century. In the year 39 C.E., the Roman emperor Caligula ordered that his statue be set up inside Solomon's Temple (Beit ha-Midkash) in Jerusalem. Caligula may have done this in order to establish his authority in Jewish lands or perhaps even to humiliate the Jews.

Even going by Roman records, Caligula was indeed a strange character. But treating monarchs on par with gods was a common feature in those times. Caligula was different because he ordered his deification during his lifetime. Apart from this, Romans procurators collected heavy taxes in Jewish areas. All this fuelled the rise of Zealots, a virulent group of anti-Roman rebels. Before he could do any more damage to Jews, Caligula became a victim of an assasination.

In the year 66, the Roman procurator Florus looted the Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. Enraged Jews wrought revenge on a small Roman garrison that was then stationed in Jerusalem. Cestius Gallus, the Roman ruler in neighboring Syria, sent in a larger force of soldiers. Even they were routed by the Jewish insurgents. After these victories, the ranks of Zealots began to grow and the idea of defeating the Romans grew stronger. This was a mistake because the Romans returned with a force of 60,000 and overran the Jewish stronghold of Galilee. Over one lakh Jews were killed or sold into slavery.

In the other Jewish stronghold of Jerusalem, the leadership was aware of the futility of the revolt and did not bother to join Zealots in Galilee. Embittered refugees from Galilee escaped to Jerusalem and were locked in a suicidal civil war. By 68 CE, most moderate Jewish leaders were dead. Meanwhile, Romans had laid seige to the city. In the summer of 70, the Romans breached the walls of Jerusalem, and initiated an orgy of violence and destruction. It is estimated that one million Jews died in the revolt. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, who opposed the revolt, arranged for his disciples to carry him outside the city disguised as a corpse. He then surrendered to the Roman general Titus Flavius Vespasianus, who granted him concessions that allowed Jewish communal life to continue. With the exception of this sect, Jews were totally wiped out. (The only other Jewish sect to survive the revolt were the Christians. Most Jews living today are descendants of certain converts from Central Asia. They are called Ashkenazi Jews. Ashkenazi Jews are not related to Jews from Palestine. There are however some Jews who can indeed trace their origin to Palestine. They are called Sephardic Jews. Sephardic Jews are a minority and are often subject to racial prejudice by Ashkenazi Jews.)

There would be one more major revolt against the Romans - the The Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132-135 C.E.) In the words of Roman historian Dio Cassius:

In the beginning, the Romans were not worried about the insurgents. But little by little, the disturbances spread to all of Judea. The Jews rose in rebellion throughout the country, inflicting increasingly heavy losses on the Romans, sometimes resorting to ruse, sometimes to all out war. People from other nations, attracted by the pillage, threatened to join them. The entire world was seething. Finally, Hadrian dispatched his greatest generals to fight them. The most famous was Julius Severus, the governor of Brittany. Initially, the latter did not risk openly attacking the insurgents because of their great numbers and the intensity of their desperation. Instead, he preferred to undertake isolating them, forcing them to withdraw to their strongholds and cutting off their provisions. Thus, he succeeded, slowly but surely, to weaken and destroy them. Few Jews survived. Julius Severus seized about fifty of their best fortresses; 985 of their most important villages were reduced to ruins; 580,000 men died in ambushes and in battles. The numbers of those that died of starvation, that were victims of epidemics or that were burned to death cannot be determined. Almost all of Judea was devastated.

After the revolt, Jews were sold into slavery and many were transported to Egypt. Judean settlements were not rebuilt. Jerusalem was turned into a Roman city called Aelia Capitolina and the Jews were forbidden to live there. Jews then went under the Byzantine empire and Christianity spread. Over time, Jews migrated out of Palestine and Arabs settled in large numbers. Thus, Jews ended up in large numbers all across Europe including Russia.

In 638, Muslim Khalifa Omar ibn al-Khattab brought an end to the Christian Byzantine occupation and occupied Jerusalem. Prior to this, Prophet Muhammad conducted his spiritual journey to al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Since Muslims believe Prophet Mohammed had his great vision of ascension to heaven from the third shrine in Islam (al-Aqsa), all Arab and Muslim rulers gave the city a prominence. From 638 onwards, Palestine was ruled by Muslims. Between 1099 and 1187 C.E., the Crusaders occupied Jerusalem and had established the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Crusaders were attacked and defeated by Saladin in 1187 and the city retained its Muslim facade. In December 12, 1516, the Ottomans entered Jerusalem. Palestine remained under the Muslim Ottoman rule up to the end of WW-I. Many Arab kingdoms had flourished in the region before Christ. Palestine practically had no Jews until 1878. That year, a Jewish settlement was established inside Palestine under the guise of an agricultural community.

# - The Aegeans (who lived in the regions around the Aegean sea, including Crete, the Cyclades, the Greek mainland south from Thessaly, including the Peloponnese, and Macedonia, Thrace, and western Anatolia) flourished between circa 7000-1000 B.C.E. From c. 7000-3000 B.C.E., they were part of the Neolithic Age. From circa 3000-1000 B.C.E., they were part of the Bronze Age. The Philistines, whom the Biblical books say had originally settled in Palestine, were Aegeans. They lived in five cities that together made up Philistia, from which the Greeks derived the name Palestine. The Philistines fought with the Israelites in the 11th century B.C.E. and were defeated by the Israelite king David in the 10th century B.C.E. Philistines and the Isrealites would later come under Assyria, Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Before the Philistines, Palestine is referred as Canaan. Canaanites were invaded by the Philistines who were in turn defeated by the Israelites. The Philistines left no records and much of the information about their supposed existence in Palestine are from the coloured accounts of the Old Testament. The old testament cannot be taken as an historical document, as it is claimed to be inspired by God. Jewish authors of the Old Testament had an inflated sense of their own origins and embellished their work so much it was ceased to be of any historical value. Archeological and other forms of evidence for Jewish origins in Palestine point to a much later time and it certainly does not compare in scale or glory of other civilizations that actually existed in the area during the times mentioned in the Old Testament.

* - Assyrians were people from the ancient empire of Assyria. The Assyrian kingdom began in a small region around Ashur (northern Iraq) in 3^rd millenia B.C.E. to span an area stretching from Palestine and Anatolia (Turkey). Assyrians overran Palestine and reached the Mediterranean Sea under Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC). The Neo-Assyrian empire (circa 746-609 B.C.E.) occupied much of the Middle East. After the Assyrian conquest of Jewish kingdom of Israel, its population was absorbed by other peoples and the descendants of the people of the Jewish kingdom of Judah were the only ones who were still distinctly Jewish (Judah and Benjamin clans, the two of the original 12 tribes of Israel) and were then came to be known as Israelites. Before the conquest, the ten tribes (the lost tribes of Israel) constituting the Jewish kingdom of Israel was known as Israelites. Thus, most of the desc

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This article was first published in July 2004.