Introduction: Palestine Before Israel

      These are the words from the diary of Theodor Herzl , who is often regarded as the forefather of Zionism or the movement to create a Jewish state. Herzl wrote this in 1895, amongst the backdrop of growing antisemitism and Jewish pogroms in Europe. He thus looked to create a Jewish nation state to ensure their safety. While Herzl and the other Zionist founders contemplated building their state in different countries such as Brazil, Kenya, Cyprus, and other countries, they desired the land of Palestine for biblical and historic reasons but also to escape Europe's antisemitism. Jews lived in the same land of Palestine under Roman rule and in the bible it was deemed as the holy land for Jews. Usually For these reasons, they believe that Palestine is actually their land. However, despite their desire to build their state, they had one big problem in their way: the Palestinians.   

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      Another common saying amongst Zionists is  "A land without a people, for a people without a land", meaning that Israel would be created for the Jews in an uninhabited land. But again, Palestine was already inhabited by an indigenous, mostly Arab population (but notice how with the aforementioned quote they are already attempting to ignore the existence of Palestinians).  To get a deeper dive into the history of Palestine here is a more exhaustive chronology assembled by the UN. The Palestinian History Tapestry is also good as a visual, chronological resource. Here is another article that helps explore the question of origin by decolonize Palestine. They have a readling list, debunking common myths, and Palestine 101 page that is good as a primer. They reminded me of another point that the concept of nationalism / borders was is a modern phenomenon. 

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       I believe the question of Palestinian nativity lies in another very simple testament that is their skin tone: are we seriously gonna argue that white, Europeans and Americans are native to the land over people with tanner skin? If that is the case, why is it that Israel has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world? According to this article, it is largely the European demographic with the highest number of cases. To fill in the gaps for those that aren't following, melanin (the substance that is responsible for darker skin) protects against UV rays from the sun. This article further explains my argument for Palestinian nativity - unfortunately they don't declare Australia as a subject of colonialism but just "migration" :| 

       It is also rather telling of how Israel has been known to burn and uproot native olive trees in Palestine. According to this article by Time in 2019, they have uprooted 800,000 olive trees since 1967. Despite all of this, Israel has the audacity to use olive symbols on their passport... It should be noted that part of this uprooting is not only to eradicate Palestinian culture but also their income and livelihoods as olive oil is a major crop and export; one quarter of gross agricultural income in Palestine comes from olive oil. 

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      To resume our historical discussion, prior to the fabrication of  Israel's nation-state and occupation, Palestine was a pluralistic and diverse people comprising of Muslims, Christians, and Jews.

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Before the Nakba in 1948:

1931: Jewish 174,606 against a total of 1,033,314; 

1936: Jewish numbers had gone up to 384,078 and total to 1,366,692

1946: 608,225 Jews, 1,912,112 Arabs

(The Question of Palestine Edward Said, p. 11)  

To reiterate it, Palestinians are the native people of the land. 

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      However, despite their native, historic ties to the land, Palestine would be signed off by the Brits for in 1917 under what is known as the "Balfour Declaration" which essentially provided the Zionists with their approval to create their state. It must be noted however that there was no Palestinian representation when this deal occurred between the Brits and Zionists. 

       Before we continue further, if you don't know, you outta know know where Falastin is and what the land looked like before Israel's occupation (Aljazeera's Palestine Remix is a great resource for visualizing the occupation. It  also has a useful timeline amongst other resources on their website.) 

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