Whos e land is it?

Whos e land is it? Gen. 12 ~ 1 Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you.” 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. Gen. 13 ~ 15 “for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever…” Land of Israel Eretz Yisrael

Whos e land is it? Began with the Canaanite Conquest (c BC and ended in 606 BC) Essentially no autonomous rule until May 14, 1948

Whos e land is it? Ottoman Empire ~

Whos e land is it? Mark Twain, 1867 (Innocents Abroad): "Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery, I think Palestine must be the prince … Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies … Nazareth is forlorn … Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and their humiliation, have nothing about them now to remind one that they once knew the high honor of the Savior's presence … Renowned Jerusalem itself, the stateliest name in history, has lost all its ancient grandeur, and is become a pauper village…"

Whos e land is it? Emir Feisal I (future King Faisal I of Iraq) Chaim Weizmann

Whos e land is it? “(I do not understand the) strange attitude of your British Government, and the still more strange hypnotic influence which the Jews, a race accursed by God according to His Holy Book, and destined to final destruction and eternal damnation hereafter, appear to wield over them and the English people generally.” – King Saud of Saudi Arabia

Whos e land is it? Churchill’s “White Paper” (1922) Palestine Mandate Arabs (80%)

Whos e land is it? UNSCOP Partition ~ 1947 Jewish Arab Int’l Zone (Jerusalem)

Whos e land is it? “The question of Palestine as a Jewish homeland goes back to the solemn promise that had been made to them [the Jews] by the British in the Balfour Declaration of a promise which had stirred the hopes and the dreams of these oppressed people. This promise, I felt, should be kept, just as all promises made by responsible, civilized governments should be kept.” – H. S. Truman, Memoirs

Whos e land is it? War for Independence Held by Israel on May 15, 1948 Egypt Jordan Iraq Syria

Whos e land is it? UN “Green Line” Israel

Whos e land is it? 726,000 Arab refugees or exiles during war Equal number of Jews forced out of Arab countries Arabs call the defeat and exile the Nakba (disaster)

Whos e land is it? Arafat founded “Fatah” in 1957 Nasser countered with PLO in 1964 Arafat first began calling Arabs “Palestinians” in 1964

Whos e land is it? May 16, 1967, Radio Cairo broadcast: “The existence of Israel has continued too long. We welcome the Israeli aggression. We welcome the battle we have long awaited. The peak hour has come. The battle has come in which we shall destroy Israel.”

Whos e land is it? King Hussein of Jordan, May 30: “The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel...to face the challenge, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. This act will astound the world. Today they will know that the Arabs are arranged for battle, the critical hour has arrived. We have reached the stage of serious action and not declarations.”

Whos e land is it? Iraqi President Rahman Aref, May 31: “This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since Our goal is clear—to wipe Israel off the map.”

Whos e land is it? Territories occupied in 1967

Whos e land is it? 2,700 Israeli soldiers and 8,500 Arab soldiers died in one month of heavy fighting during the Yom Kippur War

Whos e land is it? Anwar Sadat Jimmy Carter Menahem Begin

Whos e land is it? PLO became Palestinian National Authority with Arafat as its President Peace treaty signed with Jordan in 1994

Whos e land is it? 2000 Camp David talks: Israel agreed to give all of Gaza and 91% of the West Bank September 2000, Sharon visited the Temple Mount Began 2 nd Intifada

Whos e land is it? Saudi Arabian ambassador Prince Bandar Ibn Sultan: "If Arafat does not accept what is available now, it won't be a tragedy, it will be a crime."

Whos e land is it? “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated other before it.” – Hamas Charter (ruling party in Palestine)

Whos e land is it? “The Jews are a cancer which is liable to spread again at any moment.” “There is no solution to the conflict except with the disappearance of Israel.” – Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezb'ollah “If they all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.”

Whos e land is it? “O Allah, destroy America, as it is controlled by Zionist Jews … Allah will avenge, in the name of His Prophet, the colonist settlers who are the descendants of monkeys and pigs…” – Ikrima Sabri, Mufti of the Palestinian Authority, Al-Aqsa Mosque, 7/11/97

Whos e land is it? “Palestine's (1948) war ended in a catastrophe that is unprece- dented in history, when the Zionist gangs stole Palestine and expelled its people from its cities; their villages; their lands and their houses, and establish- ed the State of Israel.” (Arabic Language, Analysis, Literature and Criticism, grade 12, pg. 104) Describes terrorism as “resistance … acts of most glorious heroism.” (pg. 105)

Whos e land is it? Eze. 11:17 ~ “Therefore say, `Thus says the Lord God: "I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel." ' eretz Yisrael." '