The ~3,234 year old Egyptian "Merneptah Stele" identifies Israel as a distinct group of people living in the Canaan region Jews call the "Land of Israel".
1. The Individual: Jacob's Name Change to Israel
Timeline: ~4,000 years ago
- The origin of the region named "Israel" begins with the (most respected leader of a group) patriarch named Jacob. According to the foundational legend Jacob took the name Israel ("one who struggles with God") because he believed he had wrestled with a divine being. At this stage, the name was purely personal, identifying a specific individual and his perceived experience.
- This established a lineage-based, group identity, named after a man named Israel, from a place his descendents would then say is the "Land of Israel" (or "Israel" for short).
- Indigenous Evolution: Modern research indicates these people were largely indigenous to the Levant, developing a unique "Israelite" cultural and religious identity from within the local Canaanite populations.
- As Jacob's/Israel’s descendants (the twelve tribes) grew in number, the name shifted from a man to a well known collective group known as the Israelites.
2. The People: From a Family to the Israelite Civilization
Timeline: 3,234 years ago (1208 BCE)
- Archaeological Record: Non-biblical evidence for the Land of Israel being well known in Egypt is the Merneptah Stele, an Egyptian granite monument. It identifies "Israel" as a distinct group of people living in the Canaan region. It reads: "Israel is wasted, its seed is not".
- Regardless of whether or not a man named Jacob/Israel existed: the Merneptah Stele uses the word Israel as in 4000+ year old Jewish tradition, to define both a place and its culturally unique people.
- Jewish tradition still contains laws and holidays (some at least 3,300 years old) to celebrate Israel's agricultural cycles the Land of Israel depended on for food, survival. Passover (Pesach): Known as the Festival of Ripening (Chag HaAviv) marks the beginning of the spring barley harvest. Shavuot (Feast of Weeks): Known as the Festival of the Harvest (Chag Hakatzir) celebrates the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the summer wheat harvest. It was the time for bringing First Fruits (Bikkurim) to the Temple in Jerusalem. Sukkot (Festival of Booths): Known as the Festival of Ingathering (Chag HaAsif), it marks the final harvest of fruits and the end of the agricultural year in the fall. Tu B’Shevat: The "New Year for Trees," celebrated when trees begin to bloom after the winter rains in Israel. Today, it is a major day for ecological awareness and tree planting. Shemini Atzeret: Following Sukkot, this holiday includes specific prayers for rain to ensure a successful planting season for the coming year. Shmita: A mandated seven-year agricultural cycle where the land is left to rest and recover during the seventh year, often called the "Sabbath of the land". Tu B’Av: Historically a mid-summer matchmaking day that also functioned as a celebration of the grape harvest.
3. The Place: From the Land of Israel to a Powerful Kingdom
Timeline: ~3,000 years ago (1047–930 BCE)
- United Kingdom of Israel emerged as a significant power in the Southern Levant under Kings Saul, David, and Solomon.
- This era marked a peak of Hebrew unity, with King David having established Jerusalem as the capital and Solomon building the First Temple.
4. The Early Eras of Invasions and Identity Erasure
The land was frequently invaded by foreign powers seeking to control the strategic crossroads between Africa, Asia, and Europe.
- Following the appearance of Israel as a distinct place and people, the Philistines arrived on the southern Levantine coast, beginning a multi-century effort to expand inland. Operating from five major city-states, the Philistines exerted pressure on the Israelite tribes, reaching a height of territorial influence around 3,076 years ago (1050 BCE) after the Battle of Aphek. This expansion reached its zenith with the death of King Saul at the Battle of Mount Gilboa in 3,036 years ago (1010 BCE), which briefly left significant portions of the Israelite heartland under Philistine shadow. However, the occupation was effectively halted and pushed back to the coastal plains by King David around 3,026 years ago (1000 BCE), ending the period of Philistine expansionism and establishing a stable, albeit hostile, border that would remain largely unchanged until the Assyrian conquests centuries later.
- 2,766 years ago (740 BCE) Shortly after the Philistine occupation ended the Neo-Assyrian conquest began under Tiglath-Pileser III, who reduced the Northern Kingdom to a vassal state. This process culminated with the fall of Samaria and the mass deportation of its inhabitants, effectively dissolving the Northern Kingdom of Israel. While the Southern Kingdom of Judah survived a devastating siege by Sennacherib in 2,727 years ago (701 BCE), it remained a subservient tributary state for the remainder of the era.
- Around 2,638 years ago (612 BCE): Assyrian dominance in the region finally ended following the fall of their capital, Nineveh, to the Babylonians and Medes, which dismantled the empire and shifted control of the Levant to the Neo-Babylonians.
- 2,089 years ago (63 BCE): The Roman Invasion. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple. To attempt the erasure of Jewish identity, Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed the region "Syria Palaestina"—after the Philistines (extinct Greek-linked enemies of the Jews)—to suggest the Jews no longer belonged there.
- 1,388 years ago (638 CE): The Islamic Conquests. Islam was founded. Islamic Arab armies from the Arabian Peninsula invaded and captured Jerusalem, beginning a period of forced (cultural and linguistic shift not entirely ethnic) "Arabization."
- 927 years ago (1099 CE): Crusader Kingdom. European Christians captured the land sacred to them, where Christians were being mistreated, but lost Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187.
- 766 years ago (1260 CE): Mamluk Conquest. Based in Egypt, the Mamluk Sultanate defeated both the Mongols and the last Crusaders.
- 509 years ago (1517): The Ottoman Empire. The region was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, who ruled for four centuries until World War 1.
5. The British "Mandate for Palestine" & The UN Partition
- 106 years ago (1920): The British Mandate. Following the Ottoman defeat, the British renamed the Land of Israel to "Palestine" and everyone living in the region were called "Palestinians". Britain was tasked by the League of Nations with creating a "Jewish National Home".
- 87–90 years ago (1936–1939): The Arab Revolt. Arabs and Arabized Palestinians fought the British to end the Mandate, stop Jewish immigration.
- 79 years ago (1947): The UN Solution. The UN proposed a "Two-State Solution" (Resolution 181) to create an "Arab state" and secular Jewish-friendly state.
- The Outcome: Jewish Palestinian leaders accepted the plan; Arab and Arabized Palestinian leaders rejected it, choosing war instead of a shared peace. Israelites/Jews in the "Land of Israel" were forced to defend themselves or be exterminated, by a culture and religion from the Arabian Peninsula.
6. 1948: Independence, Invasion, and the "Nakba"
- 78 years ago (May 14, 1948), The Jewish Palestinian community in the British Mandate declared the independence of the State of Israel, which was immediately followed by an invasion from neighboring Arab and Arabized states. The 1948 war resulted in the Nakba, the displacement of 700,000+ non-Jewish. This exodus was driven by a complex mix of factors: direct expulsions of civilian populations in areas of resistance, psychological warfare, and panic. Simultaneously, some residents left due to the collapse of local leadership or localized instructions from Arab officials to clear battle zones. While some Jewish leaders urged their neighbors to remain, the broader conflict transformed the land from a region that had undergone centuries of Arabization into a sovereign Jewish-friendly democratic state.
- 72 years ago (Sept. 6, 1954): The Jordan newspaper Ad-Difaa reported:"The Arab Governments told us: 'Get out so that we can get in.' So we got out, but they did not get in."
- 78 years ago (1948): Azzam Pasha, Sec-Gen of the Arab League, declared:"This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre."
- Memoirs of Khaled al-Azm (Syrian PM 1948-49):"We ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave... we brought destruction upon a million Arab refugees."
7. The Aftermath: Two Different Realities
- The "Stayers": Roughly 150,000 ignored the orders to leave and stayed in the secular land named Israel. Today, their descendants are among the 2 million+ Arab Israelis who now enjoy full voting rights, serve in the Knesset (Parliament), and sit on the Supreme Court.
- The "Leavers": Those who followed the orders of the invading Arab armies moved to Gaza, the West Bank, or surrounding countries. They lost the war and were largely kept in refugee status by their own leadership to be used as political leverage to "return" to land they vacated.
- Jordan and Egypt occupied/ruled West Bank and Gaza (1948–1967): Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Jordan took control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip, except for a brief interruption in 1956.
- Jordan annexed the West Bank (1950): On April 24, 1950, Jordan formally annexed the West Bank. This action was not widely recognized internationally, with only the UK, Iraq, and Pakistan granting recognition.
- No Palestinian Sovereignty Granted (1948–1967): During the 19 years of Jordanian and Egyptian rule, there was no independent Palestinian state or sovereignty established in the West Bank or Gaza. Jordan granted citizenship to West Bank Palestinians, but Egypt did not for those in Gaza.
- Impact of 1967: As a preemptive measure against an imminent attack, Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip from Jordan and Egypt during the 1967 Six-Day War.
u/GaryGaulin — 3 hours ago