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Israel & The Palestinians

Introduction

This is one of the world’s thorniest problems. To whom does the land of Palestine belong? What criteria should decide? And if a conclusion could be made, what happens to the people who do not have rights to the land? This study looks at biblical precedents, prophecy and a little history, and concludes that Israel and the Palestinians must live together. The land belongs to Israel, but there is a high probability that the Palestinians themselves are “Israelis”, brothers of Judah (the Jews).

Land Ownership

Commonsense tells us that the person who was first, is the one who owns the land. Since religion plays such a great part in this case, it must be through religion and history that we decide who owns the land. The Muslims and the Jews would agree that God is the ultimate owner. He does what he wants with it. Now Israel claims God gave the land to Jacob (their father), and to their ancestors Isaac and Abraham. The Bible contains many verses detailing this promise from God (Genesis 13:14-17 being just one of them).

The Muslims and Palestinians claim they worship the same God, and that the land is their’s through Ishmael, Abraham’s son. They say the Bible was corrupted, and the promise to Ishmael was rewritten in favour of Isaac. They also claim Israel forfeited the land because they disobeyed God.

(If anyone can point out chapter and verse in the Koran
detailing Allah’s promise to the Muslims that
Palestine is their’s, please drop me a line:
j m cie m a i li@ l y c o si. c o m)

How do we sort through these claims? Isaac and Ishmael were contemporaries (c. 2000 BC). Ishmael was the first-born. Both dwelt in Palestine and in the surrounding area. No records have been found indicating that they fought one another. The Bible states that Ishmael left the land to Isaac (Genesis 25:18), and from 2000 BC till the advent of Islam, the descendants of Ishmael never challenged this.

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