Rent or Own
Heaven and earth shall praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them. For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah, so that they may live there and possess it. The descendants of His servants will inherit it, and those who love His name will live in it. Psalm 69:34-36 NASB
Live there and possess it – According to David’s poem, the citizens of Zion will not just live in the land (yāšab – sit, remain, dwell), they will also own the land (yāraš – take possession of, inherit). This verse was written more than 2500 years ago, long before any conflict over “Palestine” began. Obviously, long before any Islamic claim was made on this land. Of course, there were other tribes in the territory but they were tribes that were not eliminated when Israel initially conquered the land under Joshua. But those tribes, intermingled with the Israelites, existed in relative harmony with the Israelites for centuries before Islam spread across the region. In fact, even after Islam replaced the Christian culture across North Africa, the Jewish population sought protection from Christian pogroms with the Arabs, successfully, it should be added. For example, Maimonides’ relationship with the Califate as a Jewish doctor was while he was widely recognized as a Torah scholar.
But something happened—something modern, not ancient. Claims based on ancient possession of the land all support the children of Jacob. There are no Jebusites, Hivites, Perizzites, Amorites, and other ancient peoples clamoring for possession of the land today. Those people simply ceased to exist. Perhaps we need to remember who decided where the boundary lines were drawn in the sand.
The boundaries of Middle East countries were arbitrarily fixed by the Western powers after Turkey was defeated in World War I and the French and British mandates were set up. The areas allotted to Israel under the UN partition plan had all been under the control of the Ottomans, who had ruled Palestine from 1517 until 1917.
When Turkey was defeated in World War I, the French took over the area now known as Lebanon and Syria. The British assumed control of Palestine and Iraq. In 1926, the borders were redrawn and Lebanon was separated from Syria.
Britain installed the Emir Faisal, who had been deposed by the French in Syria, as ruler of the new kingdom of Iraq. In 1922, the British created the emirate of Transjordan, which incorporated all of Palestine east of the Jordan River. This was done so that the Emir Abdullah, whose family had been defeated in tribal warfare in the Arabian peninsula, would have a Kingdom to rule. None of the countries that border Israel became independent until the Twentieth Century. Many other Arab nations became independent after Israel.[1]
The modern conflict over “Palestine”/Israel was created by European powers after two world wars without regard to the way people actually lived in this area. One day Arabic and Israeli people lived across the street from each other in the same village. The next day they were separated by arbitrary lines down the middle of the street, and some people living there for centuries were suddenly without any recognized nationality. In fact, the area was tribal, not national until Europe forced its governmental model on the population.
When David wrote his poem, none of the modern, government-propagated issues could have been imagined. Nation-states did not exist. Israel’s ancient claim to the land is uncontested by historical evidence until Europe got involved. Perhaps the framers of the French-British mandates after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire should have read David’s psalm first.
Topical Index: land, Palestine, Israel, tribes, boundaries, Psalm 69:34-36
[1] https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/myths-and-facts-boundaries
