A Much Needed Lesson On Palestine

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

 All this land was promised to become the Jewish National Home 

    Within 2 years the promised land was reduced by 77% of the original mandate.  Promises are for the birds.  

Poster displayed at The Kinkaid School’s Culture Fest: Wrong!

Wrong! Wrong!

labels Israel,

Gaza and the West Bank as Palestine as of today, prompting accusations of

antisemitism and criticism from Jewish groups .

(Photo: Courtesy of and of course it should: S

topAntisemitism)

This is being taught in a Houston, Texas school, and it shouldn't be as it isn't true.  

Here are the facts:  The Roman Empire renamed Judea to Syria Palaestina in 135 CE. Following the crushing of  Bar Kokhba, the Jewish general revolt (132–136 CE), the Emperor Hadrian sought to erase the Jewish connection to the land and chose the name to insult the Jewish people by invoking their ancient historical enemies, the Philistines.  So that's the start of the name, Palestine.  

   70 CE:  In 70 AD, the Roman legions commanded by future Emperor Titus besieged and captured Jerusalem, effectively crushing the First Jewish Revolt. 

Roman forces razed the city to the ground, completely destroyed the Second Temple, and starved, then  killed or enslaved much of the Jewish population, triggering a centuries-long global diaspora.

         Before the Simon bar Kokhba Revolt (132–135 CE), 

Judea was suffering under oppressive Roman decrees and the aftermath of the First Jewish-Roman War. The region was politically fractured and enraged by Emperor Hadrian’s plans to turn Jerusalem into a pagan Roman colony

     Simon bar Kokhba  was a Jewish military leader in Judea. He lent his name to the Bar Kokhba revolt, which he initiated against the Roman Empire in 132 CE, which was 62 years after the horrible Roman attack in 70 CE.  Though they were ultimately unsuccessful, Bar Kokhba and his rebels did manage to establish and maintain a Jewish state for about three years after beginning the rebellion. Bar Kokhba served as the state's leader, crowning himself as nasi (lit. 'prince'). Some of the rabbinic scholars in his time believed him to be the long-expected Messiah.

Judea was the last of the 12 states of Jacob.  In 135 CE, the land of Israel was the site of the catastrophic climax of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, the final major rebellion of the Jewish people against the Roman Empire. 

This was an embarrassment to the Roman Empire.  It took them 3 years to put an end to Simon bar Kokhba.  

The year's events reshaped the region's history:

• The Fall of Betar: In the summer of 135 CE, the Romans, led by general Sextus Julius Severus, crushed the three-and-a-half-year rebellion by capturing the rebel stronghold of Betar, southwest of Jerusalem. Leader Shimon bar Kokhba was killed, and the remaining resistance was systematically starved or burned out of caves in the Judaean Desert.
• Massive Casualties and Enslavement: The conflict brought about massive devastation and loss of life. Survivors were either slaughtered, died of starvation, or were heavily enslaved and exiled across the empire.

The ancient Romans pinned the name on the Land of Israel. In 135 CE, after stamping out the province of Judea’s second insurrection, the Romans renamed the province Syria Palaestina—that is, “Palestinian Syria.” They did so resentfully, as a punishment, to obliterate the link between the Jews (in Hebrew, Y’hudim and in Latin Judaei) and the province (the Hebrew name of which was Y’hudah).                                

                                    Sea-faring Philistines

“Palaestina” referred to the Philistines, whose home base had been on the Mediterranean coast.  Who were the Philistines?  Certainly not the Arabs who became the Palestinians.  The Philistines were an ancient people who dominated the southern coast of Canaan (modern-day Israel and the Gaza Strip) during the Iron Age. Best known as the formidable, long-time adversaries of the Israelites in the Bible, they were highly advanced seafarers who established a powerful league of five city-states.  The "Sea Peoples": Most historians and archaeologists believe the Philistines originated from the Aegean region—likely the island of Crete (referred to in the Bible as Caphtor)—and migrated to the Mediterranean coast of the Levant around 1200 BCE. This means it happened about 3,226 years ago.   

The 1st World War happened from 1914-1918.  All the people living in "Palestine" were called Palestinians; both Jews and Arabs. Things in Europe were getting impossible for Jews with all the Pogroms going on and rules pertaining to Jews only, so they started coming to Palestine, their ancient homeland, in 1880-1881 in the first of many Alliyot.  They were building their towns and cities, and the Arabs followed them, looking for jobs building.  It was a perfect mesh.  All were called Palestinians until Israel was pronounced a state on May 14, 1948.   5 minutes later, Israel was attacked by 7 Arab countries.  

Seven Arab states, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Algeria  were involved in the hostilities against Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. While the primary belligerents engaged in active combat were Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, a total of seven nations actively committed troops or provided direct military support.  Again, this was a huge embarrassment for them all as Israel won in 6 days !!!

Several terrible events are associated with June 5th in relation to Israel, most notably the outbreak of the Six-Day War in 1967 and recent military escalation in Lebanon. 

• The 1967 Six-Day War (June 5-10): The war began on June 5, 1967, when Israel launched preemptive airstrikes against Egyptian airfields since Egyptians and others were lined up in view ready to attack.. While it resulted in a dramatic and swift military victory that dramatically reshaped the Middle East map, it came at a high cost, with hundreds of Israeli soldiers killed and thousands wounded. Palestinians also mark the devastating consequences of this event, often referring to it as the Naqsa, or "setback". 
• With their tails between their legs, they hurried to Khartoum, Africa for a pow-wow meeting and decided on 3 things:  The "Three No's" declared by the Arab League during the 1967 summit in Khartoum were: 
  1. No peace with Israel
  2. No recognition of Israel
  3. No negotiations with Israel
  These famous principles were outlined in the Khartoum Resolution on September 1, 1967, following the Six-Day War.  They have never been altered, but a few countries have joined the Abraham Accords.  
• Recent Military Escalation in Lebanon: June 5 brought reports of severe airstrikes across southern Lebanon following evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli military. These developments followed Hezbollah's rejection of a ceasefire agreement and demands for a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

Resource:

org/wiki/Philistines