Who was occupying Palestine before the Jews did in 1948?

Question

I have heard from a person who answered a similar question that the Palestinians didn't occupy the land until the early 1900s. Is this true, because I am very suprised I didn't know this? So, if it is true what the other answerer said, who did occupy the land?

I know the area was controlled by the British from WWI until WWII. Maybe, I am asking this question incorrectly, who was actually in the land before the Jews took control of the land in 1948?

Answer 1

Great question! Here's a rather long answer:

The region formerly known as Palestine was formerly known as Israel and only renamed to Palestine by the Romans in order to offend the Jews who lived there


The history of the area is complex due to the many tribes and (later) nations that settled, conquered and ruled, traded there or moved through: Canaanites, Philistines, Samaritans, Nabataeans, Greeks, Romans, Muslims and Christians.

In pre-Biblical times, the area was known as the Land of Canaan and had been a collection of city-states, tributary to the Egyptian Pharoah, as attested to in the Tel-El Amarna tablets. The breakup of the Egyptian empire beginning about 1500 BC made possible the invasion of the Israelites. According to Jewish tradition, twelve tribes entered Canaan from Egypt and conquered it, led by Moses approximately 1240-1200 BC. Historical evidence from the Amarna tablets suggests that there were already 'apiru' (Hebrews) among the Canaanites in the time of Egyptian rule.

During the final years of the Late Bronze Age, the Philistines also invaded Canaan (1500 - 1200 BC). Other evidence suggests that around 1200 BC, semi-nomads from the desert fringes to the east, joined by elements from Anatolia, the Aegean, and the south, possibly including Egypt, began to settle in the hill country of Canaan. A large proportion - probably a majority of this population - were refugees from the Canaanite city states, destroyed by the Egyptians in one of their periodic invasions.

The Biblical account continues with the rise of an Israelite kingdom, first under Saul and then under David at about 1000 BC, the date of David's conquest of Jerusalem.

In 539 B.C. the Persians conquered the Babylonians. The Jewish Temple, destroyed by the Babylonians, was rebuilt (516 BC). Under Persian rule the Jewish state enjoyed considerable autonomy. Alexander the Great of Macedon, conquered the area in 333 BC His successors, the Ptolemies and Seleucids, contested for control. The attempt of the Seleucid Antiochus IV (Antiochus Epiphanes) to impose Hellenism brought a Jewish revolt under the Maccabees, who set up a new Jewish state in 142 BC The state lasted until 63 BC, when Pompey conquered the region for Rome.

At the time of Christ the Jewish state was ruled by puppet kings of the Romans, the Herods. When the Jews revolted in 66 AD, the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem (70 AD). The Bar Kokba revolt between 132 and 135 AD was also suppressed, Jericho and Bethlehem were destroyed, and the Jews were barred from Jerusalem. The Roman Emperor Hadrian determined to wipe out the identity of Israel-Judah-Judea. Therefore, he took the name Palastina and imposed it on all the Land of Israel. At the same time, he changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina. The Romans killed many Jews and sold many more in slavery. Some of those who survived left the devastated country (and established Jewish communities throughout the Middle East) but there was never a complete abandonment of the Land of Israel. That is, there were always Jews and Jewish communities in Palestine, though the size and conditions of those communities fluctuated greatly.

When Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity (312), he took steps to elevate the status of Jerusalem and the city became a center of Christian pilgrimage. Constantine relaxed some restrictions on Jews, but renewed the prohibition on the residence of Jews in Jerusalem, permitting them to mourn for its destruction once a year, on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av.

Palestine over the next few centuries generally enjoyed peace and prosperity until it was conquered in 614 AD by the Persians. It was recovered briefly by the Byzantine Romans, but fell to the Muslim Arabs under caliph Umar by the year 640. During the Umayyad rule, the importance of Palestine as a holy place for Muslims was emphasized, but little was done to develop the region economically. Few Arabs came to Palestine; the Muslim rulers ruled Christians and Jews.

In 691 the Dome of the Rock was erected on the site of the Temple of Solomon, which is claimed by Muslims to have been the halting station of Muhammad on his journey to heaven. Close to the Dome, the al Aqsa mosque was built. In 750, Palestine passed to the Abbasid caliphate, and this period was marked by unrest between factions that favored the Umayyads and those who preferred the new rulers.

In the 9th century, Palestine was conquered by the Fatimid dynasty, which had risen to power in North Africa. The Fatimids had many enemies - the Seljuks, Karmatians, Byzantines, and Bedouins - and Palestine became a battlefield. Under the Fatimid caliph al Hakim (996-1021), the Christians and Jews were harshly suppressed, and many churches were destroyed. In 1099, Palestine was captured by the Crusaders, establishing the Latin Kingdom. Jews were seen by the Crusaders as infidels, as bad as the Muslim occupiers of Jerusalem, and were slaughtered by Christian soldiers along their way to liberate Jerusalem and then thousands in the city when they got there. Following the first Crusade, a Papal Bull was issued in 1119 AD to reinforce St. Augustine's earlier plea, in 427 AD, not to kill the Jews, but to allow them to wander the earth as evidence of their rejection by God.

By the time the Crusaders were defeated by Saladin at the battle of Hittin (1187), and the Latin Kingdom was ended, Palestine had become a wasteland. Mongol invaders who arrived in 1260 destroyed many of the villages. The Mamluks ended the Crusader period in 1291, but under Mamluk rule Palestine declined further. Mamluks burned and sacked towns and villages, uprooted orchards, and destroyed wells. In 1351, the Black Death was reported in Palestine and by 1500 the population had declined to barely 200,000 people. For comparison, the state of New Jersey, roughly comparable to Israel in size, had a 2001 population of about 8.5 million people and still had rural, undeveloped areas.

In 1516 the Mamluks were defeated by the Ottoman Turks. The first three centuries of Ottoman rule isolated Palestine from outside influence. The discovery of sea routes to the East began to erode the importance of the Middle East to commerce. In 1831, Muhammad Ali, the Egyptian viceroy nominally subject to the Ottoman sultan, occupied Palestine. Under him and his son the region was opened to European influence. Ottoman control was reasserted in 1840, but Western influence continued. The Ottoman tax system was ruinous and did much to keep the land underdeveloped and the population small. When Alexander W. Kinglake crossed the Jordan in 1834-35, he used the Jordan's only bridge, a survival from Roman antiquity. Among the many European settlements established, the most significant in the long run were those of Jews, Russian Jews being the first to come (1882).

World War I led to the British expulsion of the Ottoman Turks as rulers over their province of Palestine. In the war, the Ottoman empire aligned with Germany against France and Britain. The war also gave Britain the excuse to depose the Egyptian Khedive, Abbas Hilmy, and to create a British protectorate there.

In 1920, following the defeat of the Turks, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the peace conferences after World War I, the British Mandate for Palestine was created by the League of Nations. The Mandate was international recognition for the stated purpose of "establishing in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people." Note that this is long before World War II.

The area of the Mandate was originally 118,000 square kilometers (about 45,000 square miles). In 1921, Britain took the 91,000 square kilometers of the Palestine Mandate east of the Jordan River, and created Trans-Jordan (later the Arab country of Jordan) as a new Arab protectorate. Jews were barred by law from living or owning property east of the Jordan river, even though that land was over three-fourths of the original Mandate.

In 1923, Britain ceded the Golan Heights (another 1,176 square kilometers of the Palestine Mandate) to the French Mandate of Syria. Jews were also barred from living there. Jewish settlers on the Golan Heights were forced to abandon their homes and relocate inside the westerb area of the British Mandate.

The total remaining area of the Mandate for Palestine, after these land deductions, was just under 26,000 square kilometers (about 10,000 square miles). The southern part of the Mandate – the desert of the Negev – was also closed by the British to Jewish settlement. The area was inhabited by 15,000 roaming Bedouins, and had no Jewish or Arab settlements in it.

The balance of the Mandate, the inhabited part of Palestine, and only the part west of the Jordan, was just 14,000 square kilometers. Jewish immigration was limited by the British from time to time, especially after the periods of Arab riots and severely restricted after 1939. At the same time, Arab immigration was not restricted or even recorded. By 1948, when the State of Israel was founded, 1.8 million people lived the western area of the Mandate, estimated to be 600,000 Jews and 1.2 million Arabs. Following the war between the Jews and the Arabs in 1948, the inhabited areas of the 14,000 square kilometers were divided along cease-fire lines between Israel and Jordan/Egypt. 8,000 square kilometers, or 57% of the reduced area (which is only 6.7% of the original Mandate territory), became Israel. The rest of the area of western Palestine, 5,700 square kilometers of historic Judea and Samaria, was annexed by Jordan – and renamed the West Bank - while 360 square kilometers were occupied by Egypt and called the Gaza Strip.

In 1946, Britain unilaterally granted Transjordan its independence completing the action taken in 1922 when all land within the Mandate east of the Jordan was set aside for the Arabs. With Transjordan's independence, the British had partitioned Palestine and created an independent Palestine-Arab state with 77% of the original territory.

In 1947 Great Britain declared its Mandate in Palestine "unworkable" and referred the matter to the youthful UN. That body created a special committee of eleven member states to study the issues and report its recommendations. The UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was the first truly independent tribunal to examine the Palestine question. UNSCOP's majority concluded that the League of Nations pledge of a Jewish national home had never been fulfilled, as Jewish immigration and land purchases had been artificially restricted by the British Mandate authorities.

The committee recommended an end to the British Mandate and the partitioning of the area. However, the partition plan was directed only at the 23% of the original Mandate that was left after the British subdivision that gave 77% to create the Arab territory of Transjordan. Of the remaining 23%, 56% was allocated to a Jewish state, 42% to an Arab state, and an international zone for the holy places in and around Jerusalem was allocated 2%.

On November 29, 1947, the U.N. General Assembly by a two-thirds vote (33 to 13 with Britain and nine others abstaining) passed Resolution 181 partitioning Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. The Jewish community of Palestine jubilantly accepted partition despite the small size and strategic vulnerability of the proposed state. Not only were Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip not included, but also Jerusalem, most of the Galilee in the North and parts of the Negev desert in the South were excluded. The Arab national movement in Palestine, as well as all the Arab states, angrily rejected partition. They demanded the entire country for themselves and threatened to resist partition by force. Had they accepted the U.N. proposal in 1947, the independent Palestinian Arab state, covering an area much larger than the West Bank and Gaza, would have been created along with Israel. Instead, they launched a war to destroy the nascent Jewish state.

It is important to note that there was a Jewish population in Palestine continuously. Even after the Jewish state was ended by the Romans, Jewish communities continued to exist. All of the successor governments tried to eliminate the Jews at one time or another, but none succeeded as numerous accounts testify over the centuries. When the Zionists started the modern "return" to Eretz Yisrael in the 19th Century, they were joining Jews who never left.

Answer 2

Do you really want an accurate answer? If so, here it is:

The Jews have lived for over 3000 years, continuously, in what is now Israel. It used to be named Judea - then the Romans conquered it, kicked the Jews out, and renamed it 'Palestina', after the sea faring Philistines, who attacked the Jews and also other nations.

The area was conquered and reclaimed by many different people but one thing held true: it was always linked to Judaism. Note: Jews were living in Jerusalem before Islam even existed!

Now press fast forward - and skip to 1948. Britain has the mandate for Palestine. There are many Jews living there, they form a Palestinian national orchestra, for example! If you were to ask for an example of a Palestinian holy temple - you would be directed to a synagogue!

There are also Arabs and Christians living there. The Arabs come from Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon. So the term 'Palestinian' now refers to ALL these people: Jews, Arabs, Christians.

But for centuries, Jews have dreamed of rebuilding their homeland. And of course in 1948, the world is only just recovering from WW2 and the tragedy of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews are slaughtered by the Nazis.

The Jews are now understandably desperate for one tiny place to call home - because again please note, during WW2, those Jews that managed to escape Europe were not allowed into other countries. Even America turned them away!

So what can Britain do? She wants to keep the Arabs on side - but she also had many British Jews fighting on her side against the Nazis and must now do the right thing by them. So Britain suggests...... PARTITION.

Some of the land will go to the Palestinian Arabs, and a smaller bit of land to the Jews! So there will be a Palestinian Arab country, and a Jewish country!

The Jews say yes.
The Arabs say no.

No way is the Arab world prepared to allow a Jewish democracy in the middle east! And within 12 hours of Israel officially becoming a country - FIVE Arab armies attack her.

The Arab leaders tell the Palestinian Arabs to flee and that they can return when the Jews have been conquered - again. But by some miracle, the Israelis defend themselves. And in pushing away the Arab armies, Israel ends up with more land than she was originally given by Britain and the UN.

At the same time, the poor Palestinian Arabs are now homeless. And so are an equal number of Jews who have been kicked out of every Arab country!

The Jews are absorbed into Israel.
The Palestinian Arabs are put into refugee camps - and left there to rot. Today they are still there, in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt.

Hope that answer helps :) I've had to leave out some parts but this is an accurate reply to your question.

Both Israelis and Palestinians have suffered dreadfully and the blame rests on the Arab states who rejected partition and declared war.

Answer 3

"who was actually in the land before the Jews took control of the land in 1948?"

Both Jews and non-Jews. In 1922 (implemented in 1923), about 80% of the land known as Palestine was given to the Muslim nation of Transjordan, which is now Jordan.

Thus, current-day Israel is only a tiny portion of the land of Palestine.

In 1947, the UN divided the remaining sliver of land further into Jewish and Palestinian states. However, the non-Jewish Arabs said they didn't want a state and they absolutely didn't want Jews to have a state, so the Arabs attacked.

Answer 4

nicely, it somewhat is like this...The JEWS (now no longer Zionists) have been promised the land around Jerusalem some 4000 years in the previous...there became into as quickly as this guy pronounced as Moses...you may desire to envision him in the Bible or the Torah, i can not get into it...Do the learn your self. meanwhile, this Mohammed character merely regarded in 400AD. it somewhat is exceedingly contemporary, comparartively, does no longer you're saying???? by ability of utilising the a jointly as, the JEWS (those are human beings who enroll in Judaism and that they are no longer Zionists. they're Jews.) have been kicked around, murdered (a l. a. Spanish Inquisition), kicked out of countless international locations (Russia, working example. have you ever ever obtrusive Fiddler on the Roof?) and often, now no longer been dealt with good. So, long tale short, the JEWS (now no longer Zionists) post-Holocaust, are ill of being overwhelmed up and gassed and prefer that. merely so they desperate that as a manner to stay in the sphere that they had would desire to finally end up a militarized human beings. and that they have. and that they are astounding at it. Of all the international locations in the international, Isreal is the final united states i'd would desire to come again to a determination upon a combat with. So, no. The Holocaust, as gruesome and undesirable because it was, merely isn't the purpose that they are so shielding of the territory.

Answer 5

As to who was actually living there before 1948, there were Jews and Arabs. The Arabs did not call themselves Palestinians, but rather Syrians, Lebanese, Egyptians, etc. The Arabs composed the vast majority of the population until most of them fled and some were chased out in 1948. They were only called Palestinians once the neighboring Arab countries refused to allow them in, and only became an independent political and guerrilla force after the 1967 war.

Answer 6

who lived there before 1948? depends how far you wish to look.
the area was occupied by Turkey until 1917. before that it was Egyptian, Babylonian, Christian, Byzantine, Jewish, Greek, Roman, even Mongol. All depends on which period of history you happen to choose as "important"

As to the actual people who lived there- a lot is known about the rulers, but rather little is known of the ethnic composition of the subjects. We know for sure Jews lived there- multiple reports of massacres of jews are recorded in historical sources

As to the "palestinians"- SFAIK they were the landless/ tribeless muslims who were evicted from Jordan/ Syria/ Saudi arabia after the arabic tribes took over power (after WW1). I have never heard of the palestinians as a political entity up until 1948.
The palestinians were not recognised- by the muslims- as a political entity even after that time, since all the palestinian land which was granted to them by the UN was immediately confiscated by their arab neighbours (and promptly lost in the war)

Answer 7

The term palestine was used to describe the LAND the term palestinians wasn't used till after Israel became a state. Palestine was part of the Turkish Empire which was disbanded after WWI and then the area was controled by the British until after WWII Where the sovereign states of Israel, and Trans-jordan became countries

Answer 8

It was a British mandate, now its occupied by the naz, o i mean jews, It was the Palestinians that were in control/lived on the current land that israel is on, they stole the land, bulldozed the homes, and made it seem like they're the ones who everyone should be sorry for.

Answer 9

The first time I ever heard the words Palestine was in the Bible when described as the land of milk and honey that Moses lead the nomadic tribe of the Israelites into.
It was occupied by many other tribes at the time so I would presume they still occupied it.

Answer 10

From the beginning? Hmmm...Canaanites, Jews, Assyrians -many different tribes but essentially people whose ancestry was intertwined. "Palestine" was the term the British used to describe the region - not a people - and it derived from the Greek word used to describe the region - not a people.

Answer 11

british