What is Israel? Do people mean occupied Palestine?

Answer 1

Because you took it over at one point in history it is eternally yours?
That would mean that it eternally belongs to Israel. You took it from them, and then they took it from you. Guess you shouldnt have lost that battle. Maybe if your people were stronger.

Answer 2

No - Israel has been there for thousands of years. Palestine is the name the Romans gave Israel when they tried to remove all traces of it back in AD 70. The inhabitants of Israel are Jews and Arabs (80%/20%). The land of Israel was bought and owned by Jews and won from countries that attacked it. No more occupied than Texas is occupied Mexico or Poland is occupied Germany. Learn some history here: www.lookisrael.com

Answer 3

Israel is a sovereign state that has existed since 1948.

There never was an independent state called Palestine. That being the case, Israel's existence is not an occupation unless you are willing to consider Jordan's presence in the West Bank from 1948 to 1967 an "occupation" as well. Then again, maybe you do, but you'll be the first one.

Answer 4

No I mean the country mandated by the UN to be a homeland for the Jewish people that was carved out of Transjordan. There was no Palestine in the area as a political entity. Any occupied territories are those taken in wars that were used as invasion routes by Arabs against Israel in an unprovoked attack and should remain occupied until all the countries agree to Israel's right to exist as a means of defense.

Answer 5

Yes, I suppose they could mean occupied Palestine.

There was no UN "mandate" to establish Israel as claimed by the Zionists. Th UN General Assembly resolution #181 (1947) recommended a partition of Palestine into two states, a Jewish state and an Arab state. Zionists supposedly accepted the resolution, but didn't follow it because they began attacking Arab villages outside the area allotted under the resolution to the Jewish state. Another UN General Assembly resolution, #194 (1948), required Israel to allow the Palestinian refugees it had recently evicted to return and live at peace with their neighbors should they so desire, or be compensated if not. Israel accepted that resolution too, but never allowed the refugees to return, or gave compensation.

The majority of the people who lived in what is now Israel prior to 1948 were Palestinian Arabs, and these people were forced out in 1947-1948, mostly by massacres, terrorism and threat of being killed, and their land and possessions were confiscated by the state of Israel for use by one ethnic group (Zionist Jews). The Zionists only declared the State of Israel after the undertaking to get rid of Arabs was well under way, and only formed itself as a democracy enough Palestinians who probably would not have voted for it to be a "Jewish" democracy were expelled (in years before WWII Palestinians had shown much desire for a democracy with equal rights for all, but that's not a Jewish democracy). Thus, ethnic Palestinian inhabitants deprived at gunpoint from voting. In that sense you can call the land occupied Palestine.

Answer 6

Israel is the land G-d promised to the Jewish people; read Genesis.
No independent Arab or Palestinian state ever existed in Palestine. In fact, Palestine is never explicitly mentioned in the Koran, rather it is called "the holy land" (al-Arad al-Mugaddash).

Palestinian Arabs never viewed themselves as having a separate identity. When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, the following resolution was adopted: "We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds."

The representative of the Arab Higher Committee to the United Nations submitted a statement to the General Assembly in May 1947 that said, "Palestine was part of the Province of Syria" and that, "politically, the Arabs of Palestine were not independent in the sense of forming a separate political entity." A few years later, Ahmed Shuqeiri, later the chairman of the PLO, told the United Nations Security Council, "It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria."
Prior to 1967, when under Jordanian rule, Palestinians did not demand self-determination or statehood.

The Arab and Zionist national movements shared the desire for independence in their homelands. But there was an important difference: The Zionists were united in their attachment to Palestine, while the Arabs were divided by the competing interests of individual leaders from different lands throughout the region.

Palestinian Arab nationalism, moreover, did not become a significant political movement until after the 1967 Six Day War and Israel's capture of the West Bank. Prior to that time, when they were primarily under Jordanian rule, Palestinians did not demand self-determination or statehood.

I hope this answers your question, Hussein.

Answer 7

Nope- we mean the country, established by UN mandate, on land that was previously occupied by the British and prior to that various other empires and kingdoms, all the way back to the time when the last independent entity there was a Jewish kingdom! So the independent Jewish state has been re-established after being occupied by various foreign entities, without ever having been independent in between!

Answer 8

What is the West Bank? Do people mean occupied Israel?

Answer 9

Israel and Palestine are the same place. Western countries, such as the United States and England, list the country as Israel on maps. However some other countries, including middle eastern countries, will list it as Palestine on maps.

Answer 10

Like every other country in the Middle East, Israel was created from territories that changed hands after WWI. As Jews are an indigenous people to the region (ie: Moses and Jesus - hello!) they deserve a place to call their own. Palestinians were granted - like the Jews - the autonomy to establish their own nation. Instead, they allied with other Arab nations that promised them they could have ALL the territory, as the Jews would be easily defeated.

We know they got *that* one wrong, and they're still ticked off about it.

Maybe should've taken door number one, methinks.