People take part in a ‘Free Palestine’ demonstration in Sea Point, Cape Town, last month. Picture: Armand Hough/Independent Newspapers
Patric Tariq Mellet
It is disconcerting that South African newspapers give such a lot of space for Zionist propaganda either as lengthy articles or as letters, while Israeli newspapers do not allow the same for anyone putting forward an alternative view to Zionist propaganda.
Given Israel’s stance in banning journalists and media houses, it does not wash that in South Africa a political movement – racist Zionism which violates our Constitution, bill of rights and values, should be given media space because of a “balance of views”.
In this context I wish to counter the ignorant, false history and propaganda letter of Nicholas Woode-Smith (Cape Times, October 10) responding to Colin Bosman’s article “Understanding the root of the Palestinian-Israeli tensions” (October 8), which falsely contends that Palestine is a 20th century creation. I draw on the work of Dr Mahmoud Hawari and Dr Ghada Karmi in their artwork, Palestinian History Tapestry and Nur Masalha’s magnum opus Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History (Zed Books Ltd, 2018) Civilisations emerged west of Ramallah from early humans between 11000 – 9500BCE with the semi-sedentary Natufian hunter-gatherer culture.
Between 8 000 – 4000BCE settled agricultural communities and villages emerged including Jericho as an early fortified settlement. Between 3000 – 4000BCE a neolithic stone-copper age emerged with rich regional cultures, and between 3000 – 1250BCE Canaanite city states with Semitic populations lived under the rule of the Egyptian Empire.
Between 1250 – 721BCE various peoples, Palestinians, Jews, Phoenicians and other Canaanite civilisations and tribes lived side by side in the broad territory of the Levant or Eastern Mediterranean.
The name Palestine – “pl(s)t” first appears in Egyptian record circa 1188BCE in Assyrian texts as Pilisti and Palastu in 800BCE and Greek texts of Herodotus 450BCE as Palaistinê, also Philistia, as a confederation of Palestinian states located from Tel Aviv down to Gaza. It certainly is not a 20th century creation as asserted by Woode-Smith.
The oldest historical document that evidences reference to the people of Israel (not a kingdom) simply refers to their conquest by the Egyptians –“Israel is laid waste and his seed is not” in an Egyptian text dated around 1205BCE.
Other than these historical first texts there are the non-historical biblical texts that date after these dates, referring to both Israel and “Peleshet”, originating from “Pelishtim” (Philistines). Serious scholars do not see these as historical references but rather as religious references.
The Israelites are recorded as semi-nomadic Semitic people, settled in the central mountains of the original Philistine territory where they created the Judah Kingdom around 931BCE. They were culturally influenced by the Canaanites and they were in conflict with the Philistines. There is a mythology, not backed by concrete evidence (despite Zionists’ attempts to put an ideological spin on history using the biblical story, which has no concrete evidence) that a second Kingdom of Israel was also established in Samaria to the north of Judah and that these were united by King David into a single short-lived Kingdom of Israel.
Kingdom formation out of numerous tribes in the region was in its infancy between 1250 – 721BCE, a relatively short period.
The Philistines as with the people of Judah were brought under Mesopotamian hegemony after they were conquered in 721BCE by the Assyrians and in 586BCE by the Babylonians, who exiled both populations. There is no historical record of a second kingdom which united with Judah.
The Persian emperor Cyrus conquered the occupied territory of “Plistu” and “Judah” and then allowed the people of Judah to return from exile.
Many of the characteristic ideas and institutions, including the term “Jews”, emerged during this time and much of the Hebrew scriptures was rewritten and completed at this time.
Alexander the Great conquered Palestine in 332BCE, bringing it under the influence of Hellenistic culture.
After Alexander’s death his Middle East Empire was divided between two of his generals: Syria and Palestine under the Seleucides, and Egypt under the Ptolemies. The Jews, led by the Maccabees, revolted against the enforced Hellenisation, and an independent Hasmonean kingdom was established in 129BCE.
The Judeo-Hellenic Hasmoneans of Judah forcibly assimilated many of the Idumean Palestinians and the Itureans of Galilee into becoming the Jewish people of Judah. At the time of Jesus, the population under Roman rule in which the Jewish faith was practised were the ethnically mixed Judean Hasmoneans, Samaritans, Idumean Palestinians, Iturean Galileans, Phoenicians, Nabatean Arabs, and descendants of Hellenists.
The Romans conquered Palestine in 63BCE. A vassal king, Herod the Great (an Idumean Arab by origin), was appointed ruler of Judaea in 37BCE.
The name “Palestine” was used by the Romans after 100CE as in “Syria Palaestina”, designating it as the southern portion of the province of Syria. In the Byzantine era the name “Palestine” was used for the provinces of Palaestina Prima, Palaestina Secunda, and Palaestina Salutaris (or Tertia). Palaestina Prima was then administered as a jund or military district by the Arabic name Filastin in the early Islamic era.
The earliest surviving classical maps of the region are Byzantine versions of Ptolemy’s 4th Asia map based on the map of Marinus of Tyre dating from 150CE using the name Palaistinia.
From 325 – 640CE Palestine came under the rule of the Byzantine Empire and from 640 – 1099CE Palestine was taken from the Byzantines by Muslims of the Arab Peninsula when Jerusalem flourished as a centre of learning and pilgrimage. This was followed by the Christian Crusader period of destruction by the Franks. From 1187 – 1250 the Ayyubids, following their predecessors the Zangids, waged a “holy war” against the Crusader states in the Levant.
After Salah al-Din defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin, Palestine culture and Jerusalem was restored.
Salah al-Din recovered Palestine and Jerusalem, restored and consecrated Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, and revived Islamic art and architecture.
Jerusalem was surrendered to the Crusaders by al-Kamil in a peace treaty in 1229 but was recaptured by the Khawarizmians in 1244. From 1260 – 1517 the Mamluks restored Palestine as a multi-faith and multicultural territory with Muslims, Jews, Christians and others living in peace together.
From 1516 – 1917 Palestine fell under the Ottoman Empire after the Ottoman Turkish sultan Selim I conquered Palestine and established “autonomous” rule, such as Zahir al-’Umar in northern Palestine with his capital in Acre.
In 1801, a French military invasion of Egypt and Palestine led by Napoleon was repelled at Acre by Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar. Muhammad Ali declared independence in Egypt and occupied Palestine (1831 – 1840).
Jaffa developed into the most important port in Palestine.
* Mellet is an author and heritage activist. This is the first of a two-part series.
Cape Times
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