A Full History of Israel and Palestine (c. 100 CE – Present and Beyond)

The Land Between: A Full History of Israel and Palestine (c. 100 CE – Present and Beyond)

Introduction: A Contested Homeland

The narrow strip of land on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea is known by many names: Israel, the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael), Palestine, the Holy Land. For millennia, it has been a crossroads of empires, a birthplace of monotheistic religions, and a focal point of divine promise and human aspiration.

Its history is not one of a single people or a simple timeline, but a complex, overlapping tapestry of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim civilizations, each weaving its own story into the very soil. To understand the present conflict is to journey back through two thousand years of conquest, exile, faith, nationalism, and the enduring human attachment to a place called home.

This history is divided into three parts: the foundational two millennia (c. 100-1900 CE), the modern era of conflict and state-building (c. 1900-Present), and a contemplation of possible futures.

The Deep Past – Foundations of Faith and Conflict (c. 100 CE – 1900 CE)

Roman Rule and the Jewish Diaspora (c. 100 – 636 CE)

At the dawn of the first millennium, the land was the Roman province of Judea, home to a vibrant, though often restive, Jewish population. The Great Jewish Revolt (66-73 CE) had ended catastrophically with the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem,

a seismic event in Jewish history. The Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-136 CE) was the final, desperate gasp of Jewish sovereignty for two millennia. The Roman response was brutal and definitive: they razed Jerusalem, building a new pagan city, Aelia Capitolina, on its ruins, and banished Jews from entering it.

They renamed the province Syria Palaestina, after the Philistines, ancient enemies of the Israelites, in a deliberate attempt to sever the Jewish connection to the land.

This period marked the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora (Galut), the scattering of the Jewish people across the Roman Empire and beyond. However, a small, continuous Jewish presence always remained in the land, particularly in Galilee and later in holy cities like Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias. 

The Jewish people maintained their identity through rabbinic Judaism, centered on the study of the Torah and Talmud, with the hope of return to Zion embedded in their prayers and rituals.

Simultaneously, the land gained profound significance for Christianity. Jesus of Nazareth lived, preached, and was crucified in Roman Judea. Sites associated with his life became centers of pilgrimage. In the 4th century, after Emperor Constantine's conversion, the Byzantine Empire (the Eastern Roman Empire) Christianized the region, building magnificent churches like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

The Islamic Caliphates and the Crusades (636 – 1516 CE)

In the 7th century, a new power emerged from the Arabian Peninsula: Islam. The armies of the Rashidun Caliphate conquered the region from the Byzantines in 636 CE. For the majority of the next 1,300 years, the land would be under Muslim rule. 

Under the Umayyad Caliphate, the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque were constructed in Jerusalem, making the city the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina. This event cemented the deep spiritual connection of Muslims to the land, which they called Filastin.

Life for Jews and Christians under most Islamic caliphates (Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid) was generally one of "dhimmi" status—protected but second-class citizens subject to a special tax (jizya). They could practice their religion but faced certain restrictions. The population was predominantly Christian at the time of the conquest but gradually Arabized and Islamicized over the centuries, forming the basis of the modern Palestinian Arab people.

The Crusades (1099-1291) were a bloody interruption. European Christian armies captured Jerusalem, massacring its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants, and established the Crusader States. This period is remembered in the Muslim world as a brutal occupation and is often invoked in modern narratives of Western aggression 

The Kurdish Muslim leader Saladin (Salah ad-Din) reconquered Jerusalem in 1187, ushering in a period of Ayyubid and later Mamluk rule from Egypt. The Mamluks governed the land as a provincial backwater, with Jerusalem, while spiritually significant, being a minor city politically.

The Ottoman Era (1516 – 1917 CE)

The Ottoman Empire conquered the region in 1516. For four centuries, the land was administered from Constantinople as part of the provinces of Damascus and Sidon. The Ottomans restored Jerusalem's walls and brought a degree of stability. 

The population was diverse, consisting largely of Arabic-speaking Muslims (the vast majority), with smaller communities of Arabic-speaking Christians, Jews, and other minority groups.

Throughout this period, the Jewish presence, while small, was constant. It was composed of two main groups: the Sephardic Jews who had been expelled from Spain in 1492 and found refuge in the Ottoman Empire, 

including its Palestinian provinces, and the Ashkenazi Jews who came from Europe, often as pious scholars seeking to study and be buried in the Holy Land. By the mid-19th century, the population of Palestine was estimated to be around 400,000-500,000, with Jews constituting a minority of roughly 3-5%

The 19th century saw the rise of European influence and nationalism. Western powers established consulates and began acting as "protectors" of religious communities—the French for the Catholics, the Russians for the Orthodox, and the British for the Jews and Protestants.

 This "capitulations" system eroded Ottoman sovereignty. Simultaneously, two nascent national movements began to stir: Zionism among Jews in Europe, and Arab nationalism within the Ottoman Empire, including among the intellectuals of Beirut and Damascus.

Part II: The Present – Collision of Nationalisms and the Struggle for Statehood (c. 1900 – Present)

The Rise of Zionism and Arab Nationalism (Late 19th – Early 20th Century)

Zionism emerged in late 19th-century Europe as a nationalist movement in direct response to rampant antisemitism and pogroms, particularly in the Russian Empire. Its core belief, articulated by Theodor Herzl in The Jewish State (1896), was that the Jewish people required a state of their own to be safe from persecution. 

While other territories were considered, the ancient Jewish connection to the Land of Israel (Zion) made it the focal point. The first major wave of Zionist immigration (the First Aliyah) began in the 1880s, with pioneers establishing agricultural settlements like Petah Tikva and Rishon LeZion.

Arab nationalism was also on the rise, seeking greater autonomy or independence from the weakening Ottoman Empire. The Arab population of Palestine, while not possessing a separate Palestinian national identity distinct from "Syrian" 

at this time, was deeply rooted in the land and viewed the growing Zionist settlement with increasing alarm. They saw the land as rightfully theirs, and the purchase of land by Jewish organizations from (often absentee) Arab landowners, leading to the displacement of tenant farmers, created early friction.

The British Mandate and the Escalating Conflict (1917 – 1948)

World War I was the great catalyst. The Ottoman Empire sided with Germany and was defeated. In a series of conflicting promises, the British sowed the seeds of a century of conflict:

· The Hussein-McMahon Correspondence (1915-16): Seemed to promise Arab independence in the lands of the Ottoman Empire, including Palestine, in exchange for an Arab revolt against the Turks.

· The Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916): A secret treaty between Britain and France to divide the Middle East into spheres of influence.

· The Balfour Declaration (1917): A public statement in which British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour declared: "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people... it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine."

This last document became the cornerstone of the Zionist project and a symbol of betrayal for the Arabs. After the war, the League of Nations granted Britain the Mandate for Palestine, with the explicit responsibility to put the Balfour Declaration into effect.

The next three decades (1918-1948) were characterized by escalating violence between the two communities and against the British. Jewish immigration, spurred by the rise of Nazism in Europe, increased dramatically.

 

The Arab population, fearing dispossession, launched revolts (most notably the 1936-39 Arab Revolt) demanding independence and an end to Jewish immigration and land sales. The British, caught in the middle, issued white papers limiting Jewish immigration, even as Jews were desperate to flee the Holocaust—a policy seen by Zionists as a profound betrayal.

By 1947, Britain, bankrupt and weary, handed the problem over to the United Nations. The UN proposed Resolution 181, a partition plan to create independent Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem under international control. 

The Jewish leadership, seeing it as the best available deal, accepted. The Arab leadership and the surrounding Arab states rejected it outright, arguing it gave away majority-Arab land to a Jewish minority.

The 1948 War: Al-Nakba and Israeli Independence

Upon Israel's declaration of independence on May 14, 1948, five Arab armies invaded. The ensuing war was a seismic event that defined the modern conflict. Israel, against the odds, won. For Israelis, this was the War of Independence, a miraculous birth of a state after the horrors of the Holocaust, a victory for survival.

For the Palestinians, it is known as Al-Nakba ("The Catastrophe"). During the war, between 700,000 and 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes. The reasons are deeply contested—Israeli historians point to a combination of military orders, expulsions, and Palestinians fleeing due to fear or at the urging of invading Arab armies; Palestinian historians emphasize a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing. The result was undeniable: the Palestinian society of pre-1948 was shattered. 

These refugees and their descendants, numbering in the millions today, were not allowed to return to their homes in the new State of Israel. The war ended with armistice lines (the "Green Line") that gave Israel more territory than the UN partition plan had allotted. The West Bank (including East Jerusalem) was annexed by Jordan, and the Gaza Strip came under Egyptian military control. No Palestinian state was established.

From 1948 to 1967: A Frozen Conflict

The two decades after 1948 were a period of armistice, not peace. Israel consolidated its state, absorbing hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Europe and the Arab world. The Palestinian refugee problem festered in camps in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded in 1964 with the aim of liberating Palestine through armed struggle.

The 1967 War and the Occupation

In June 1967, amid rising tensions, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. In six days, Israel achieved a stunning victory, capturing the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.

This war was another watershed. For Israel, it meant the reunification of Jerusalem (annexing East Jerusalem) and control over the biblical heartlands of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), a development celebrated by religious and nationalist Jews.

For the Palestinians, it meant the beginning of a military occupation that continues to this day. The UN Security Council passed Resolution 242, calling for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories in exchange for peace and secure borders—a formula that remains the basis of most peace efforts.

The Rise of Palestinian Resistance and the Peace Process (1970s – 1990s)

The PLO, under Yasser Arafat, grew in prominence, launching guerilla attacks and gaining international recognition. Key events included:

· The 1973 Yom Kippur War: A surprise attack by Egypt and Syria that shook Israeli confidence.

· The First Intifada (1987-1993): A largely unarmed popular uprising of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza against the Israeli occupation, characterized by stone-throwing youth, mass civil disobedience, and a strong sense of national identity.

The Intifada changed the calculus, leading to the Oslo Accords (1993-1995). In a historic moment on the White House lawn, Israel (under Yitzhak Rabin) and the PLO (under Yasser Arafat) recognized each other. The PLO renounced terrorism, and a framework was created for Palestinian self-rule. 

The Palestinian Authority (PA) was established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza, with the understanding that this was a five-year interim period leading to a final status agreement on the core issues: borders, Jerusalem, refugees, and settlements.

However, the peace process unraveled. Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank continued, seen by Palestinians as a land-grab meant to preempt a future state. Hamas and other Islamist groups, rejecting Oslo, launched suicide bombings inside Israel, hardening Israeli public opinion. The assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist in 1995 was a devastating blow to the Israeli peace camp.

The 21st Century: The Collapse of Hope and Cycles of Violence

The failure of the Camp David Summit in 2000 led to the bloody Second Intifada (2000-2005), which buried the optimism of Oslo. In response, Israel built a Separation Barrier (mostly in the West Bank), which it said was for security but which Palestinians saw as a land annexation wall.

In 2005, Israel unilaterally disengaged from the Gaza Strip, removing all Israeli settlements and soldiers. Instead of becoming a platform for state-building, Gaza was taken over by Hamas in a violent coup against the Fatah-led PA in 2007. Israel and Egypt imposed a strict blockade on Gaza, citing security concerns, which has led to a severe humanitarian crisis.

The situation has since been defined by a series of devastating wars between Israel and Hamas in Gaza (2008-09, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2023), each causing massive destruction and loss of life, particularly in Gaza. In the West Bank, the expansion of Israeli settlements has continued, making a contiguous Palestinian state increasingly difficult to imagine. The peace process is moribund.

The events of October 7, 2023, marked a horrific new chapter. Hamas launched a surprise invasion of southern Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking over 240 hostages in the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. 

Israel's subsequent military campaign in Gaza has been one of the most intense of the 21st century, resulting in widespread devastation and a massive loss of Palestinian life, drawing severe international criticism and leading to a case at the International Court of Justice concerning allegations of genocide.

The Present Reality is a Fragmented One:

· Israel: 

A powerful, modern state with a thriving economy and military, but facing ongoing security threats, deep internal political divisions, and international isolation over the occupation.

· The West Bank: 

Fragmented into islands of limited Palestinian Authority control (Area A) surrounded by areas of Israeli security control (Area B and C). It is marked by expanding Israeli settlements, military checkpoints, and daily friction.

· Gaza Strip: 

Under a tight blockade, governed by the Islamist militant group Hamas, with a population suffering from extreme poverty, unemployment, and dependency on aid, trapped in a cycle of war and reconstruction.

· The Refugees: Millions of Palestinian refugees still live in camps across the region, their right of return a central, unresolved issue.

· The Israeli Arabs/Palestinian Citizens of Israel: Making up about 20% of Israel's population, they have full citizenship but often face systemic discrimination and exist in a complex identity between their Palestinian heritage and Israeli citizenship.

Part III: The Future – Scenarios for a Land Between

Predicting the future of this conflict is impossible, but we can outline several plausible scenarios based on current trajectories.

The One-State Reality

This is the current, de facto situation. There is one power, Israel, ruling over all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, but with different classes of citizenship and rights:

· Israeli Jews with full citizenship.

· Palestinian citizens of Israel with formal citizenship but second-class status in practice.

· Palestinians in East Jerusalem with permanent residency but not citizenship.

· Palestinians in the West Bank under military occupation with no political rights.

· Palestinians in Gaza under a debilitating blockade.

This model is often criticized as a form of apartheid by leading human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, a charge Israel vehemently denies. If this situation continues indefinitely, it would mean the formal abandonment of the two-state solution and the entrenchment of a single, bi-national state where one group (Israeli Jews) maintains demographic and political control over another (Palestinians) through force. This is a recipe for perpetual conflict, resistance, and increasing international pressure and isolation against Israel.

The Two-State Solution

This remains the official policy of the international community, the Palestinian Authority, and nominally, the Israeli government (though the current coalition is openly opposed to it). It envisions an independent State of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side-by-side in peace with the State of Israel.

Obstacles are immense:

· Settlements: Over 700,000 Israeli settlers now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Their removal would be politically explosive and logistically daunting.

· Borders and Security: How to draw a secure and viable border? Would Israel accept a fully sovereign Palestinian state with its own military? Would Palestine be demilitarized?

· Jerusalem: How to divide or share a city sacred to three faiths?

· Refugees: The Palestinian demand for the "right of return" to homes in Israel is a non-starter for Israel, as it would mean the end of its Jewish majority and character.

· Political Will: Deep mistrust on both sides. The political leadership in Israel is largely opposed, and the Palestinian leadership is divided between the secular Fatah in the West Bank and the Islamist Hamas in Gaza.

A two-state solution would require a courageous, comprehensive peace agreement led by leaders with immense public mandate and strong international guarantees. Currently, it seems a distant prospect.

The Confederation Model

A more recent idea gaining traction is a confederal model. This could involve two sovereign states—Israel and Palestine—but with open borders, shared economic and security systems, and perhaps even shared residency rights in certain areas (e.g., allowing some Palestinian refugees to live in the State of Palestine but not necessarily in Israel proper). 

This model attempts to address the deep interconnectedness of the land and the people while maintaining national self-determination. It would require an even greater degree of trust and cooperation than the two-state solution.

Further Fragmentation and Permanent Conflict

The most pessimistic scenario is a continuation and deepening of the current trajectory: no political process, continued settlement expansion, the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and more frequent, destructive rounds of war with Hamas or other militant groups in Gaza and potentially the West Bank. This could lead to a formal Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank (Area C), further isolating Palestinian population centers into disconnected Bantustans. This scenario promises only more bloodshed, radicalization on both sides, and regional instability.

Conclusion: The Imperative of a Different Path

The 2000-year history of this land demonstrates that no single people has an exclusive claim. It is a homeland to two peoples, with three faiths holding it sacred. The conflict of the last century is not a simple tale of right versus wrong, 

but a tragic collision between two legitimate national movements, each with profound historical traum the Jewish trauma of the Holocaust and centuries of persecution, and the Palestinian trauma of the Nakba and decades of occupation.

A just and sustainable future cannot be built on the total victory of one narrative over the other. It must be built on the painful, mutual recognition of the other's right to exist, self-determination, and dignity. It requires acknowledging the suffering of both sides—the Israeli victims of terrorism and the Palestinian victims of occupation and war.

Whether the solution is two states, one state with equal rights, or a confederation, the current path of occupation, settlement, and cyclical violence leads only to more darkness. The history of the next century will be written by the choices made today, and it must, ultimately, find a way to reconcile the two souls of this wounded and holy land.

By

Faraz Ali