Pre Zionist Ancient History of Palestine
As the solar plexus of Europe, Asia, and Africa, Palestine has been coveted by empires for thousands of years. This place is one of the most important arteries of the world’s economic circulatory system. Expansionist rulers valued Palestine as a trade route, a conduit to attack enemies, and a bottleneck to stop enemies from attacking them. You get a sense of how wealthy it was from what remains of antiquity’s massive, beautiful structures. Even without written records, these structures tell us two things about the place when they were built; there was fabulous wealth and there was enough water to meet the needs of major populations.
A point about the name ‘Palestine’
*The name ‘Palestine’ has been the regional name throughout Classical Antiquity through Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic history and has been the preferred name used for political, geographical, and administrative purposes by pretty much everybody. Further, the Biblical narrative of ‘Israelites’ winning the ‘Land of Canaan’ is myth-based rather than history based. ref: Historian Nur Masalha, The Concept of Palestine: The Conception of Palestine from the Late Bronze Age to the Modern Period. Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies, November 2016, vol 15, no 2, pp. 143-202 Edinburgh University Press
A few selected conquerors:
Egypt: Thothmes III 1481 BCE-1485-BCE) Made Syria and Canaan and Amorites Egyptian Empire. Pacifist Pharaoh after Thotmes III lost part of the Empire which the Ramessids regained.
Hittites
Philistines
Tjekkers 1200 BCE-1100 BCE Bronze age sea peoples
Hebrews
Horites
Assyrians 720 BCE Captured Palestine along with most of the Middle East
Babylonians
Yarmukians
Moabites
Persians
Abbasids: from Bhagdad fought Cairo Caliphs for trade routes through Palestine
Alexander of Macedon
Rome:
Arabs:
Mongols
Franks
Crusaders: Took Jerusalem in 1099.
Saladin took Jerusalem in 1187. Crusader castles lasted for decades after that while Arabs were repulsing Mongol invaders.
Norwegians: in 1107 Sigurd Magnusson aka Sigurd the Crusader took 5,000 Vikings out doing what Vikings did, Sigurd made it all the way to the Jordan River, then back to Norway in one piece.
Mongol generals: Jebe’, Tugachar, Subutai Bahadur drove Muslim Turks south through Palestine. The Turks devastated the countryside.
.Byzantines
Muslim leader Bybars Bundukdar (The Crossbowman) stopped the Mongols in Southern Galilee in 1260 at Ain Jalut with his Mamelukes, Circassians, and Sudanese. With the Mongols gone, Egypt and Assyria went back to fighting everyone for Palestine.
1291 Last Crusader fortress fell (defenders massacred).
1500’s to 1918 Ruled by Ottoman Turks: Selim the Grim:
March, 1799 France: Ottoman Napoleon attacks Jaffa, Ottoman Palestine. Takes the city. His troops rape and pillage. Massacre thousands. Tried to take Acre next. Fierce resistance from the city, which had heard what the French had done to Jaffa. With help from British sea power, and Ottoman reinforcements, Palestinians repulse the French forces. Napoleon, in danger of losing his army, departs May 21, 1799.
1918 Great Britain: General Allenby with largely unacknowledged help from 100,000 Arab fighters, defeats the Turks in WWI, takes Palestine ending 400 years of Ottoman Turkish rule. England breaks promises made to Arabs and gives Palestine to Zionist Jews.
After 30 years of being attacked by Arabs and Zionists, British Army says to heck with it.
England flicks Zionist Palestine like a booger onto America’s windshield where it sticks to this day.
*Palestine got its name from the Philistines who probably came from Crete.
**Zionists claim there’s no such thing as Palestinians because so many invaders have occupied the place over time. They miss the connection that all previous invaders are gone but Palestinians remain.
***European Jews, now called Proto-Zionists, dreaming of Jewish colonies in Palestine, had been around for centuries.
