Website author: Richard Mather 

In times of trouble, Israel advocates (especially those who are new to the cause) may ask themselves, ‘How can I help the Jewish State?’ or ‘How can I support the Jewish people?’

Here are ten ways you can support Israel and the Jews.

1. Support Israel’s export market by purchasing gifts online from websites like shopinisrael.com and israel-catalog.com. Buy Israeli produce from your local supermarket.
2. Shun trade unions and businesses that have signed up to the boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) agenda.
3. Report all instances of anti-Semitism to the Police and/or relevant authorities.
4. Write to politicians and the media to express your concern about anti-Semitism, anti-Israel hostility and media bias.
5. Organise and/or take part in pro-Israel marches and demonstrations. Hand out leaflets, talk to the public.
6. Become familiar with Israel’s history, its ancient roots and its modern rebirth. Alan Dershowitz’s Case for Israel and Efraim Karsh’s Palestine Betrayed are excellent books.
7. Use social media to make the progressive case for Israel – a democratic state where there is freedom of worship and expression, and protection of minorities.
8. In conversations and in the media, highlight the Arab people’s history of political rejectionism and their refusal to live alongside the Jews in the Middle East.
9. Give to charities that help Israel, such as Magen David Adom, which is Israel’s only medical emergency response service.
10. Punish the “Islamoconomy” by not buying goods or services from Muslim countries. Instead of holidaying in Turkey or Dubai, holiday in a “non-Muslim” country, preferably Israel.

A brief history of the Jewish people 

·         The twelve Israelite tribes, having escaped slavery in Egypt, settle in the land of Canaan between 1200 and 1000 BCE.

·         Under Saul, David and Solomon, respectively, the tribes are united under a single monarchy.

·         David makes Jerusalem his capital. His son and successor, Solomon, builds the First Temple.

·         Solomon dies in 930 BCE. Mistakes made by his heir lead to the division of the united monarchy into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Israel, comprising of the ten northern tribes, with its capital in Samaria; and the kingdom of Judah, comprising of the two southern tribes, with its capital in Jerusalem.

·         In 722 BC the Assyrians conquer and settle the kingdom of Israel, scattering the northern tribes (hereafter known as the ‘ten lost tribes’).

·         Judah is conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, with much of the population deported to Babylon.

·         The exile ends in 538 BCE when the Persian conqueror of Babylonia, Cyrus the Great, gives the Judeans permission to return to their homeland. The returnees proceed to build the Second Temple.

·         The Persians conquer Israel but are, in turn, conquered by Alexander the Great.  In 167 BCE the Maccabees revolt and gain independence for the Judeans.

·         Two decades, Simon Maccabaeus establishes the Hasmonean Dynasty, which rules Judea and the surrounding regions.

·         In 63 BCE, Judea becomes a protectorate of Rome. In 37 BCE, Herod becomes the client king of Judea, reigning until 4 BCE.

·         The Roman Empire annexes Judea in 6 CE. The first Jewish revolt against Rome begins in 66 CE.

·         In 70 CE, the Romans almost completely destroy Jerusalem and the Second Temple.  A second Jewish revolt against Rome some decades later is crushed.

·         The Romans, in an effort to de-Judaize the land, rename Judea as Palestine.

·         Despite the best efforts of subsequent invaders, a Jewish remnant remains in Palestine and is occasionally joined by Jewish migrants from other parts of the world.  During the centuries that follow Roman rule, there are Jewish communities in Safed, Gaza, Ashkelon, Jaffa, Jericho, Tiberias, Jerusalem and Hebron.

·         Following Roman and Byzantine rule, Palestine is conquered by Muslim invaders in 634 CE.

·         Throughout the Middle Ages, Muslims and Christian crusaders wrestle for control of the land. 

·         Between 1517 and 1917, Palestine is a province of the Ottoman Empire. In 1847, there is a massacre of Jews in Jerusalem by Muslims.  Several pogroms take place throughout the Middle East.

·         The Ottomans, having lost the First World War, relinquish control of the Middle East to the British. In accordance with international law, Britain recognises the right of Jews to live in Palestine.

·         Palestinian state of Transjordan is created in 1923.

·         Attacks on Jews and Jewish communities increase. In 1929, the Jews of Jerusalem and Hebron are violently attacked.  

·         In 1947, the United Nations votes by a two-thirds majority to divide west Palestine into two states.  The Arabs reject the vote and declare war on the Palestinian Jews, who declare independence in May 1948.

·         In 1967, the State of Israel wins the Six-Day war and now controls Gaza and the West Bank.

·         In 1993, Israel and the Palestinians agree to share power in the West Bank. In 2000 and 2008, Israel offers to give up control of the West Bank in return for peace. On both occasions, the Palestinians refuse.

The vanishing state of Israel... 

The earliest Zionist pioneers in the late 19^th century had to a lot to contend with. They faced malarial swamps and barren deserts. There were no natural resources and precious little water.  The settlers drained the swamps and transformed them into fertile farmland, thereby boosting agricultural production and providing space for housing.  From then on, Zionists worked harm to improve healthcare in Palestine. A British official in 1937 reported that the increase in the number of Arabs moving to Palestine “had been largely due to the health services combating malaria, reducing infant death rates, improving water supply and sanitation.”

The resourcefulness of the Jews has been unrelenting. The State of Israel is a nation of excellence and innovation. It has the highest number of university degrees per capita in the world, and since the founding of the state, Israel has won more Nobel Prizes per capita than any other country (apart from Switzerland). Many of these prizes were for excellence in chemistry. More Israeli patents are registered in the US than from Russia, India and China combined. It also leads the world in patents for medical equipment.

Below is a breakdown of some of Israel’s inventions and discoveries since 1948. It is far from exhaustive.

Physics and chemistry

·         There are more scientists and technicians in Israel than anywhere in the world, including the US.  Israel has the most engineers and physicians per capita.

·         Israel’s scientific research institutions are ranked 3rd in the world. Israel produces the 3rd most scientific papers per capita, and the most in stem cell science.

·         Israel is ranked 2nd in space sciences.

·         In 1972, Jacob Bekenstein of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was the first to suggest that black holes should have a well-defined entropy. He also formulated the generalized second law of thermodynamics, black hole thermodynamics, for systems including black holes. Both contributions were affirmed when Stephen Hawking proposed the existence of Hawking radiation two years later.

·         In 1959, Yakir Aharonov and David Bohm discovered a quantum mechanical phenomenon now known as the Aharonov-Bohm effect.

·         In 2009, Dan Shechtman, of the Technion University in Haifa, discovered quasicrystals, which are crystals with structural form previously thought to be impossible

Above: Atomic model of quasicrystal surface

Technology

·         Israeli company Medigus has created the world’s smallest video camera for medical endoscopic procedures.

·         Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation is a notation system for recording movement on paper or computer screen. The system was created in Israel by dance theorist Noa Eshkol and Avraham Wachman, a professor of architecture at the Technion. The system is used in dance, physical therapy, animal behaviour and early diagnosis of autism.

·         Nanowire , a conductive wire made of a string of tiny particles of silver, a thousand times thinner than a human hair, was invented by Technion University in Haifa.

·         The world's smallest DNA computing machine system was developed by the Weizmann Institute of Science. It is composed of enzymes and DNA molecules capable of performing simple mathematical calculations.

Medical breakthroughs

·         Discoveries made by the Weizmann Institute of Science led to the creation of Copaxone immunomodulator, a  drug for patients with multiple sclerosis. The Weizmann Institute was also responsible for Beta-Interferon, another drug for multiple sclerosis patients.

·         Israeli professor, Rafael Beyar of Israel, invented a device called B-Stent  to hold arteries open, thereby improving blood flow to the heart muscle.

·         Technion University in Haifa worked with scientists in the US to design a surgical device called SpineAssist, a robotic tool which guides doctors through spinal cord operations.

·         The Israeli-designed ReWalk is a bionic body suit that enables a paralyzed person to stand upright, walk, sit and climb stairs.

·         Researchers from Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital pioneered a method for producing large amounts of human foetal stem cells that could be used to cure Parkinson's disease and grow new organs.

Above: ReWalk suit

Defense

·         Israeli gun designer Uziel Gal developed the Uzi Submachine gun in 1948. It was officially adopted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1951.

·         Following the 1972 Yom Kippur War, Israel developed the unmanned aerial vehicle, an aircraft that flies without a human crew on board.

·         In 2011, the Iron Dome was made operational. Invented by an Israeli defense company, the Iron Dome is a mobile air defense system designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells.

·         In 2010, the IDF heaped praise on a newly-designed through-wall vision system. Designed by an Israeli company, the unique radar utilizes Ultra Wide Band to allow users to see through walls.

Computers

·         1n 1999, Israeli inventors from M-Systems patented the USB flash drive.

·         In 1997, an Israeli company launched Babylon, a computer dictionary and language translation software.

·         In 1996, Mirabilis launched the world’s first-ever Instant Messaging software

·         The world first processors were all invented by Israeli engineers in Intel’s Israel branch.

·         Windows operating systems XP and Vista, including Microsoft Office, were invented by Microsoft Israel.

·         Jewish engineer Robert Adler invented the remote control and developed it in Israel.

·         In 2006, Google acquired an advanced text search algorithm invented by an Israeli student.

·         Internet security was pioneered in Israel. The firewall and the first PC anti-virus software were invented in the Jewish state.

·         Mobile phones, voice mail and the camera function were all invented in Israel.

Agriculture

·         Israel's most-exported environmental technology is the refined drip irrigation system, which allows farmers to produce greater crop yields while using less water. This technology is used in Africa, Australia and the Americas.

·         Israel is the only country that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, which is impressive given that the country is mainly desert.

·         Per acre, Israel is one of the world’s largest crops producers.

Energy

·         Israel operates the world’s largest desalinization plant.

·         The Jewish state is ranked in the top five Cleantech countries of the world.

·         90% of Israeli homes use solar energy for hot water, the highest percentage in the world.

·         Israel is the first country to host a national electric car network.

·         At the end of the 1990s, technicians in Haifa developed the “super-iron” battery, a new class of a rechargeable electric battery based on a special kind of iron.

·         In 2006 it was reported that the Weismann Institute had developed technology for producing hydrogen in vehicles.

Above: Weizmann Institute

Consumer goods and appliances

·         The first type of epilator, an electrical device used to remove hair, was the Epilady released in Israel in 1986.

·         The Wonder Pot, a pot developed for baking on the stovetop rather than in an oven, was introduced in Israel during the 1950s.

·         Israel is at the cutting edge of fashion technology. Israeli company Tefron uses computerized robotic manufacturing methods to produce seamless garments for Victoria's Secret, Gap and Banana Republic, among others.

·         BabySense, a non-touch, no-radiation device designed to prevent crib death, was developed in Israel.

Business

·         Israel has the most startups per capita. In absolute numbers, Israel has more startups than any country, after the US.

·         Israel has the 3rd highest rate of entrepreneurship among women in the world.

·         Israel has attracted the most venture capital investment per capita in the world, 30 times more than Europe.

·         After the US, Israel has more NASDAQ-listed companies than any country.

Types of Zionism

Ancient (or Biblical) Zionism is the name given to the biblical origins of the Jewish people’s connection to the Eretz Israel. The first “Zionist” was God who ordered Abraham to leave his father’s home and to travel to Canaan, where God said, “To your offspring I will give this land” (Genesis 12:3-7) and “I will give to you and to your offspring […] the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession (17:8). The key text of Ancient Zionism is the Tanakh. The yearning for the land of Israel can be found in the Jewish songbook, the Psalms: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem” or “when the Lord brings about our return to Zion, we will be like dreamers.” (Jewish benedictions (blessings) also hope for the rebuilding of Jerusalem.)

The bond between people and land is expressed through the literature of the Bible (and subsequent Jewish writings) and was strong enough to maintain a sense of national identity following the destruction of Judea and Jerusalem by the Romans in the first century. As a people, the Jews left Israel neither spiritually nor physically. Even after the Roman invasion, a remnant of Jews remained, particularly in Galilee. Over the centuries individual Jews or Jews in their hundreds returned to the land of Israel. A Jewish community in Hebron was founded in the 7^th century. In 1210, several hundred rabbis, known as the Ba’alei Tosefot, re-settled in Israel. In 1263, Rabbi Nachmanides established a Sephardic community in Jerusalem.  Spanish Jews came to Israel in the 15th and 16^th centuries. In the 16th century, large numbers of Jews migrated to the northern city of Safed, which became a major center of Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah. and Polish Hassidic Jews arrived in the 18^th century. Between 1808 and 1812 disciples of Rabbi Eliyahu Kramer settled in the Galilee before settling n Jerusalem. In the 1830s, Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, an Orthodox German rabbi, was in favor of the Jewish re-settlement of the Land of Israel in order to provide a home for the homeless Eastern European Jews that would support itself by agriculture. He also favored a Jewish military guard for the security of the Jewish colonies. Kalischer spearheaded a movement called the Lovers of Zion, the inspiration for what became known as practical Zionism.

Political Zionism stressed the importance of political action and deemed the attainment of political rights in Palestine a prerequisite for the fulfillment of the Zionist enterprise. Political Zionism is linked to the name of Theodor Herzl, who considered the Jewish problem a political one that should be solved by overt action in the international arena. His aim was to obtain a charter, recognized by the world leadership, granting the Jews sovereignty in a territory owned by Jews. The Basle Program, drawn up in accordance with these principles, states that Zionism aims to establish “a secure haven, under public law, for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.” Organizational and economic mechanisms such as the Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund were established to carry out this program. Interestingly, Herzl wasn’t particularly interested in reviving Hebrew as a national language. Indeed, some Zionists professed a preference for German.

Practical Zionism emphasized the practical (rather than the political) means of attaining Zionist goals, such as immigration to Palestine, rural and agricultural settlement and educational institutions. This approach originated in the Hibbat Zion or Lovers of Zion movement in the 1880s. This movement, which preceded Herzl’s political Zionism, was established in Eastern European countries in the early 1880s. After Herzl's death in 1904, practical Zionism gained strength. The champions of this doctrine were the members of the Second Aliyah, who settled in Palestine at this time. They founded rural settlements, some along cooperative principles. They built modern towns and established the first industrial enterprises.

Later on a combination of these two main approaches was produced and is known as Synthetic Zionism. This is a doctrine that coalesced at the eighth Zionist Congress (1907). Chaim Weizmann (who later became the first President of Israel) was its principal champion. This merger advocated political activity coupled with practical endeavor in Palestine. It also stressed Zionist activity in the Diaspora, such as modernized education, collecting money for the Jewish National Fund and active participation in national and local elections.

Cultural Zionism was an ideology espoused by Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg in the late 19^th and early 2oth century. He believed that the Zionist movement should place its emphasis on the development of a Jewish national culture. Although national independence was important, the majority (or a significant bloc) of Jews would remain outside of the land of Israel.  Therefore, Israel should become a cultural and spiritual center that is beacon to the world. He promulgated the view that Hebrew should be revived as a spoken language for Palestinian and Diaspora Jews in order to create a genuine Hebrew literary culture. In this regard, Ginsberg was highly influential, especially since Herzl didn’t have much use for Hebrew.

Labor Zionism was the belief that a Jewish state would not be created simply by appealing to the international community or to Britain, but rather that a Jewish state could only be created through the efforts of the Jewish working class settling in Palestine and constructing a state through the creation of a progressive Jewish society with rural kibbutzim, cooperative agricultural communities and an urban Jewish proletariat. Originally proponents of socialismand a Greater Israel, modern Labor Zionists, such as the Labor Party, tend to be favorable towards capitalism and the two-state solution.

Revisionist Zionism was initially led by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. His foremost political objective was to maintain the territorial integrity of the historical land of Israel and to establish a Jewish state with a Jewish majority on both sides of the River Jordan. The idea of partitioning Eretz Yisrael was anathema and so Jabotinsky and his followers rejected proposals to divide Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. Revisionist Zionism supported firm military action against the Arab gangs that attacked the Yishuv in Palestine. This hardline position led to split in the movement and some members established the Irgun, a paramilitary group. Predominantly secular in outlook, revisionist Zionists supported economic liberalism and opposed Labor Zionism. Revisionism is the precursor of the Likud Party.

Revolutionary Zionism views Zionism as a revolutionary struggle to ingather the Jewish exiles from the Diaspora, revive the Hebrew language as a spoken language and re-establish a Jewish kingdom in the Land of Israel. As members of Lehi (a militant Zionist group) during the 1940s, many adherents of Revolutionary Zionism engaged in guerilla warfare against the British administration in an effort to end the British Mandate of Palestine and pave the way for Jewish political independence. Many revolutionary Zionists envisaged a kingdom of Israel rather than a state, with a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. Revolutionary Zionists generally espouse anti-imperialist political views, thereby defying left/right categorization.

[The modern day incarnation of revolutionary Zionism is the Zionist Freedom Alliance (ZFA), which defines the Zionist revolution as the liberation of Jewish land from foreign rule, the ingathering of the Jewish people from the exile, the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language for everyday use and the creation of a model society. The Jewish people, says the ZFA, have a legitimate moral and historic right to the land of Israel, stretching from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean.  ZFA views the Jewish people as indigenous to the Middle East and the victims of Western imperialism. The ZFA points out that the UK, the United Nations and even the USA did everything in their power to prevent a Jewish state from coming into existence. The Zionist struggle is therefore an anti-imperialist struggle aimed at liberating the land of Israel from foreign rule and securing the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their country.

Although hardline on Israel’s borders, the ZFA is generally liberal and fights for social causes often associated with the Left, such as freedom for all nations such as the Chechens and Kurds from foreign rule. But the ZFA denies there is a Palestinian nation. The Palestinians, says the ZFA, do not constitute a distinct national group. Palestinian national identity is merely a tool invented in the 1960s by the Arab League and Western powers for the purpose of robbing the Jewish people of their homeland. Despite this position, the ZFA avoids anti-Arab or Islamophobic rhetoric. The conflict is not caused by conflict between Jews and Arabs but is the result of meddling by third parties, particularly the United States and Europe, which use political and financial leverage to further their own imperialist agendas.]

Religious Zionism maintains that Jewish nationality and the establishment of the State of Israel is a religious duty derived from the Torah. As opposed to ultra-Orthodox Jews who claim the redemption of the Land of Israel will occur after the coming of the messiah, religious Zionists maintain that human acts of redeeming Eretz Israel will bring about the messiah. Religious Zionists form the backbone of the settler movement in Judea and Samaria.

Christian Zionism (formerly known as Restorationism) is a belief among some (especially conservative evangelical) Christians that the return of the Jews to the land of Israel is in accordance with Biblical prophecy. Some Christian Zionists believe that the "ingathering" of Jews in Israel is a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus. 

Muslim and Arab Zionists are rare but growing. Pro-Israel advocacy groups such as Arabs for Israel and British Muslims for Israel have been formed within the past ten years. Individual Muslims who dare to publicly support Zionism are former radical Islamist Ed Husain and the Bangladeshi journalist Salah Choudhury. And there are a number of Muslim clerics (such as Britain’s Imam Dr Muhammad Al-Hussaini) who believe that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land is in accordance with the teachings of Islam (see Qur'an 5:21). Kurds, Berbers and Circassians (all of whom are non-Arab Muslims) have voiced support for Israel. The Arab Druze population in Israel is highly supportive of Zionism. Many Druze have attained top positions in Israeli politics and serve in the Israel Defense Forces. There is also a growing number of Arab Christians in Israel who recognize the Jewish character of Israel and want to enlist in the IDF.  

Key Terms

Anti-Semitism: A suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their religion, heritage or ethnicity. Anti-Semitism can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome. It can be found almost anywhere in the world, even in places where there are no Jews. There is little agreement on why people hate "the Jews." Various theories have been put forward (e.g. anti-Semitism can be explained on economic, political, theological, racial, cultural, social or ideological grounds) but none of them can explain why anti-Semitism is so persistent and so mutable.

Eretz Yisrael: Literally, the Land of Israel. This is a biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, the West Bank, western Jordan and southern Lebanon.

Islamofascism:  A violent and apocalyptic interpretation of Islam. It is antagonistic towards modernity; nostalgic for a lost golden age; fixated on real and/or imagined humiliations; xenophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist;  anti-homosexual; anti-capitalist and anti-democratic. Islamofascists employ violence, terrorism and martyrdom to further their agenda of oppressing or destroying enemy populations (usually defined as “infidels”).

Israelophobia: Hysterical and irrational hatred of the State of Israel.

Jewish Nakba: The expulsion and/or flight of between 850,000 and 1,000,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim countries during the 1940s and 1950s.

Judeophobia: An irrational fear or hatred of the Jews.

Left-wing fascism: A violent far-left creed that mixes anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism and pro-Islamofascism. Left-wing fascists are antagonistic towards Israel and her supporters. They have legitimized a political style reminiscent of the Nazi brown shirts by waging a Kulturkampf (culture war) against Israel, the most notorious tactic being the boycott of Israeli individuals and companies.

New anti-Semitism: Denying the Jewish people the right to self-determination; applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation; using the symbols and images associated with classic anti-Semitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis; drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis; holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel.

Palestine: The name given to Judea (the former southern kingdom of Israel) by the Romans following the massacre and expulsion of Jews in 70 CE. The word Palestine is a deliberate echo of the word Philistine. The Philistines were an ancient non-Semitic people in the Gaza region and were enemies of the Israelites.

Palestinianism: A globalized anti-Semitic ideology that denies or falsifies the Jewish people’s historical, legal, and biblical ties to the land of Israel. Hence, Israel becomes Palestine; Jerusalem becomes al-Quds; Judea and Samaria become the West Bank; Bethlehem and Hebron become Palestinian heritage sites; the Shoah becomes the Nakba; the Mandate becomes the Occupation; the Palestinian Arabs become the “new Jews”; and Jesus the Jew becomes Jesus the Palestinian. Moreover, the Hebrew Bible is appropriated by (a) Christian anti-Zionists who use the text against the Jews, and (b) Muslims who interpret the scriptures from the viewpoint of the Quran. Palestinianism, which advances a fetishized and false image of Palestinian victimhood, is fought using the weapons of delegitimization, defamation, disinformation, anti-Semitic propaganda, faked news footage, boycotts, etc. In contrast, Palestinian terrorism and anti-Semitism are either excused or ignored, and the Palestinian leadership (past and present) is exonerated of any historical or contemporary accountability. 

Pallywood: A portmanteau of "Palestinian" and "Hollywood". A coinage used by media watchdogs to describe doctored or fake media footage created by Palestinians in an attempt to demonize Israel.

The West Bank: Disputed land that borders Israel and Jordan. Historically known as Judea and Samaria. Renamed the West Bank by the Jordanians after they annexed the territory in 1948. Israel gained control over the land following the Six-Day War in 1967.

Zionism:  The national revival movement of the Jewish people. It holds that the Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture. Historically, Zionism strove to create a legally recognized national home for the Jews in their historical homeland. This goal was implemented by the creation of the State of Israel. Today, Zionism supports the existence of the state of Israel and helps to inspire a revival of Jewish national life, culture and language.   Anti-Zionism:   In short, politicalanti-Semitism. More precisely, hostility towards (a) the concept of Israel as a national homeland for Jews (b) the ideological underpinnings of the state and (c) the policies of Israel.

Top 20 Israel facts

1. The name "Israel" first appears on an Egyptian obelisk from 1209 BCE. The twelve Israelite tribes, having escaped slavery in Egypt, settled in the land of Canaan between 1200 and 1000 BCE.
2. Jews have had a continuous presence in the land (including the modern-day West Bank) for the past 3,300 years.
3. Jerusalem has always been considered the focus of Judaism and Jewish identity. Jerusalem is mentioned at least 700 times in the Jewish scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Quran.
4. In 70 CE, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, ravaged the land of Judea and killed hundreds of thousands of Jews.  In an effort to de-Judaize the land, the Romans renamed Judea as “Palestine.” Many Jews fled, although a remnant remained, especially in Galilee.
5. The word “Palestine” has always been a vague term denoting a mutable territory that is to the south of Syria, to the north of Egypt and to the west of the River Jordan.
6. There has never been a country or a state called Palestine. But there have been several Jewish commonwealths in the land of Israel.
7.  The word “Palestinian” does not denote ethnicity. Palestinian Arabs are ethnically and culturally identical to Arabs living in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
8. Before the State of Israel, the word “Palestinian” usually referred to the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine. It wasn’t until the 1960s that a distinct non-Jewish Palestinian identity came into being.
9. The Palestinian Arab leadership actively collaborated with Hitler before and during the Second World War and there was talk of bringing the Holocaust to the Middle East in order to eradicate the Jewish population.
10. In the 1948-49 war, local Arabs were encouraged to leave by their leaders who promised to purge the land of Jews.  Two-thirds of the Arab population evacuated (around 600,000 people). The remaining third were afforded Israeli citizenship rights.
11. Israel is a multi-ethnic, multi-racial democratic state.  Jews from Europe, Ethiopia, Russia, America and the Middle East live in Israel. A fifth of Israelis are Muslim and Christian Arabs, with full voting and citizenship rights. Minorities such as the Druze, the Samaritans and the Circassians enjoy full rights in Israel.
12. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. It is the only country in the region where freedom of religion is observed and minority rights (e.g. gay rights) are observed.
13. Following the creation of the State of Israel, nearly a million Jews who had lived in Arab lands for centuries were forced to flee due to anti-Semitic persecution and pogroms. Many came to Israel and are keen supporters of Likud, Israel’s best-known right-of-center political party.
14. Many of the Palestinian Arabs who fled in 1948 and 1949 were recent economic migrants to the Holy Land. The United Nations has acknowledged that many had only lived in Israel/Palestine for two years prior to Jewish independence.
15. The surrounding Arab nations have consistently refused to integrate the Palestinians, preferring to keep them in camps. The UN has perpetuated this problem by creating a unique agency for the Palestinians.  Since 1971 and for nearly ten years, the UN General Assembly condemned Israel every year for trying to rehabilitate the refugees.  This condemnation always had one requirement: “Send the refuges to the camps.”
16. UN Security Council Resolution 242 does not call on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank but instead calls for a negotiated solution which would leave Israel with secure borders.
17. Following the 1993 Oslo accords, the Palestinians were given full control over 55% of the West Bank population and administrative control over a further 41% of the population.
18. Contrary to popular opinion, the Jewish settlements in the West Bank (or Judea and Samaria) are legal under international law. The League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine (1922) encouraged the Jews to settle the entire Land of Israel (including the modern-day West Bank). This legal instrument has never been superseded.
19. Since 2000, the Palestinian leadership had three major opportunities to establish an independent state. Yasser Arafat walked away from the Camp David talks in 2000 despite being promised 92% of the West Bank, 100% of Gaza and east Jerusalem. A resolution was also put forward by the Israelis in 2008, in which the Palestinians would receive Gaza, the majority of the West Bank, parts of east Jerusalem, safe passage between the West Bank and Gaza, and the dismantling of settlements in the Jordan Valley and eastern Samaria. Unfortunately, Mahmoud Abbas did not give a final response on the matter and negotiations ended.
20. Israel is not the only country to impose a blockade on Gaza. Egypt, too, has imposed a blockade because of Hamas. Despite the blockades, Gaza's real GDP grew by more than 25% during the first three quarters of 2011. Gaza also boasts a five-star hotel, restaurants, a luxury shopping mall, vibrant markets and a thriving beach community.

Key dates and events

The Sykes–Picot Agreement, 1916

This agreement was conducted in secret between the governments of the UK and France (with the assent of Russia) defining their proposed spheres of influence and control in the Middle East should the Triple Entente succeed in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World War I. A small area of modern Israel, including the ports of Haifa and Acre, were to be British-controlled. Much of the Galilee was to be French and the rest of what would become Israel was designated an international zone. There were possible plans for an Arab state or states (or dependencies) but not in the territory of modern-day Israel, Gaza or the West Bank.

Following the Russian Revolution of October 1917, the Bolsheviks exposed the agreement and the plan was abandoned by the Allies at the San Remo Conference in April 1920, when the Mandate for Palestine was conferred upon Britain.

Balfour Declaration

The Balfour Declaration (November 1917) was a letter from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Baron Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland:

His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

The text of the letter was published in the press one week later. The "Balfour Declaration" was later incorporated into the San Remo agreement and the Mandate for Palestine.

San Remo Conference

The San Remo Conference of 1920 instructed Britain to establish a Jewish national home on territory covering what would become Israel, Jordan and part of the Golan Heights. But in the following year, Britain made a distinction between “Palestine” as a national home for the Jewish people, and Transjordan as a home for the Arabs. Already, the Jews had to accept a territorial compromise in order to appease Arab interests.

British Mandate for Palestine

The 1922 Mandate for Palestine formalized the creation of a Jewish homeland, as well as Transjordan for the Arabs. The entire League of Nations unanimously declared that “recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.” The Mandate, which incorporated the Balfour Declaration, not only legalized the immigration of Jews to Palestine, it encouraged close settlement of the land. The notion of internationalizing or dividing Jerusalem was never part of the Mandate.

(It is important to note that the Balfour Declaration, the San Remo Agreement and the Mandate gave the Jews nothing that wasn’t already theirs. These agreements merely recognized rights that already existed and enshrined these rights in secular law.)

Peel Commission Partition Plan

The Peel Partition 1937 was in response to the massive upswing in Arab violence against Jews that started in 1936.

The report recommended that the Mandate be eventually abolished—except in a corridor surrounding Jerusalem, stretching to the Mediterranean coast at Jaffa—and the land under its authority be apportioned between an Arab and Jewish state (with some population transfers).The Jewish side was to receive a territorially smaller portion in the mid-west and north, from Mount Carmel to south of Be'er Tuvia, as well as the Jezreel Valley and the Galilee, while the Arab state was to receive territory in the south and mid-east which included Judea, Samaria, and the Negev desert.

The Peel Commission Partition Plan was rejected by the Arab Higher Committee on the grounds that Palestine does not belong only to Palestine Arabs but to the whole Arab and Muslim worlds.”

Ben-Gurion wrote 20 years later: “Had partition [referring to the Peel Commission partition plan] been carried out, the history of our people would have been different and six million Jews in Europe would not have been killed—most of them would be in Israel.”

White Paper of 1939

In response to the three-year terrorist campaign waged by Arabs against the British and the failure of the Peel Commission Partition Plan, the White Paper of 1939 was produced. This was a policy paper issued by the British government under Neville Chamberlain which called for the creation of an independent Palestine governed by Palestinian Arabs and Jews in proportion to their numbers in the population by 1939. A limit of 75,000 Jewish immigrants was set for the five-year period 1940-1944, consisting of a regular yearly quota of 10,000, and a supplementary quota of 25,000, spread out over the same period, to cover refugee emergencies. After this cut-off date, further immigration would depend on the permission of the Arab majority. Restrictions were also placed on the rights of Jews to buy land from Arabs. Despite protestations from Winston Churchill and other significant political figures, the White Paper was approved by the House of Commons in May 1939.

The Zionists responded by organizing illegal migration which the British countered by blockading Palestine. After the outbreak of war in September 1939, the head of the Jewish Agency for Palestine David Ben-Gurion declared: “We will fight the White Paper as if there is no war, and fight the war as if there is no White Paper.”

The post-war British Labour government persisted with the policy and it remained in effect until the British departed Palestine in May 1948.

UN Partition Plan 1947

Two years after the Second World War, the British handed the Mandate to the United Nations which recommended (rather than enforced) the partition of Palestine between Jews and Arabs. At the end of November 1947, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of Palestine. The UK abstained from the vote. The Jews accepted the partition but the Arabs rejected it. Civil war broke out in Palestine and the partition plan was not implemented.

When British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin received the partition proposal, he ordered for it not to be imposed on the Arabs. The plan was debated in the British parliament and the UK ultimately announced that it would accept the partition plan, but refused to implement the plan by force.

In December 1947, it was decided that the Mandate would end in May 1948, with withdrawal complete by August 1948. During the period in which the British withdrawal was completed, Britain refused to share the administration of Palestine with a proposed UN transition regime. As such, the partition plan was never fully implemented.

On May 14, 1948, the day on which the British Mandate over Palestine expired, the Jewish People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum and approved a proclamation, declaring "the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.”

The following day, several Arab armies invaded the new Jewish state. Israel emerged victorious, with an expanded territory. Jordan annexed what became known as the West Bank, while Egypt captured Gaza and imposed military rule. At the insistence of the Arabs, the 1949 armistice line was “not to be construed in any sense as a political or territorial boundary.”

UN Security Council Resolution 242, 1967

This resolution recommended Israeli withdrawal from territories in return for the right “to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.” At a conference in Khartoum the Arabs refused to negotiate, make peace or recognize Israel. Resolution 242 did not envisage the creation of a Palestinian state for the simple reason that Palestinians were not viewed as a distinct nation. It was assumed that any territories evacuated by Israel would be returned to Egypt and Jordan. Although the resolution referred to “a just settlement of the refugee problem,” this was simply an acknowledgment that both sides had their fair share of refugees.

Camp David Accords, 1978

The Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, and provided the foundation of the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.

Oslo I and Oslo II Accords, 1993 – 1995

In 1988, the Palestinian National Council accepted (in theory) the two-state solution and started to seek a negotiated settlement based on Resolution 242.

Encouraged by the Norwegian government, secret talks between Israeli and Palestinian representatives took place in the early 1990s. These talks resulted in a Declaration of Principles in which Israel recognized the PLO as Palestine's official representative and the PLO renounced the use of violence and recognizes Israel's right to exist. Both sides agreed to Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and the Jericho area of the West Bank by 2000. Issues such as Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Israeli settlements, security and borders were left to future negotiations.

It was signed on the White House lawn in September 1993 in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. It was followed by a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994.

In 1995, the Oslo II Accord, also known as the Taba Agreement, called for Israeli withdrawals from various Palestinian areas and expanded Palestinian self-rule. It divided the West Bank and Gaza into three administrative areas (areas A, B and C). The areas were not contiguous, but rather fragmented depending on the different population areas as well as Israeli military requirements.

Area A: full civil and security control by the Palestinian Authority

Area B: Palestinian civil control and joint Israeli-Palestinian security control