This series on Israel and Palestine has been our most popular content this year. We thought Part 5 was the end, but here we present an epilogue.
Philip Church is a member of Royal Oak Baptist Church and a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Theology at Laidlaw College in Auckland. He has a PhD in New Testament and has taught Biblical Languages and Old and New Testament courses at Laidlaw for 15 years. In his retirement, he has taught block courses in several countries in the Majority World. Philip has a longstanding interest in the Middle East and has travelled there several times. He has a particular interest in the Hebrews and the temple.
Click here for Part 1, published on 18 May 2024
Click here for Part 2, published on 28 May 2024
Click here for Part 3, published on 11 June 2024
Click here for Part 4, published on 25 June 2024
Click here for Part 5, published on 5 July 2024
Last week, I was interacting on Facebook with a friend with Christian Zionist convictions who lives in Canada. She is a dear friend whom we have known for over forty years and who showed us great kindness when we arrived there in 1981. I was interacting with this image that she had posted. It had the caption, “Sometimes no words are needed.”:
We are supposed to infer from the image that Palestinians are Arabs and should be welcomed into the surrounding Arab countries and leave Israel to the Israelis (original image from @AzrayevAlex on X).
In my response, I mentioned Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kings 21). Naboth had a vineyard that was part of his ancestral land, but King Ahab wanted it. It was only one small vineyard, and even though Ahab offered Naboth another vineyard, he would not part with his ancestral land. Ultimately, he lost his life. Some Palestinians can trace their ancestry and their ancestral land back 300 years, and the suggestion that they leave and go and live elsewhere shows an appalling ignorance of the connection Indigenous people have with their ancestral and tribal lands (something we in Aotearoa New Zealand and those in Canada, where First Nations people have similar grievances to Māori, should be familiar with). The suggestion is part of ongoing efforts to deny the legitimacy of Palestinian claims to their land. These efforts take many forms, and I suggest a few here.
At one point in our conversation, my friend called them “Philistines/Palestinians.” Indeed, “Palestine” is etymologically related to “Philistine”, but it is not appropriate to refer to Palestinians as Philistines. The Philistines came from Caphtor (Amos 9:7)[1] and were ancient Israel’s enemies from the time of the conquest under Joshua until during the divided kingdom when they played a less significant role. They were always portrayed negatively, and this portrayal persists until today. To refer to Palestinians as Philistines is to cast a slur on them and delegitimise them.
Some people believe that all Palestinians are terrorists who want to drive the Israelis out. Some years ago, Alex Awad, the then Dean of Students at Bethlehem Bible College, spent a sabbatical leave at Laidlaw College. The Principal had a telephone call one day suggesting that he was “harbouring a Palestinian terrorist.” Another time, Alex was speaking at a church, and a questioner denied the existence of any Palestinian Christians, even though she was speaking to one. I do not deny that Hamas denies the legitimacy of Israel and that it is a terrorist organisation that wants Israel removed. And while Hamas is the duly elected government of Gaza, Hamas operatives are a small minority, and most Palestinians are peace-loving people who simply want to get on with their lives. And some of them are our Christian brothers and sisters faithfully living their lives in a war-torn country.
Others simply deny that Palestinians exist. There are several variations of the slogan “a land without a people for a people without a land.” The first use of the expression was apparently by Church of Scotland clergyman Alexander Keith in 1843.[2] As Diana Muir shows, the expression is problematic, but it is often repeated and, in effect, denies the existence of the Palestinian people before the formation of the state of Israel. Of course, the slogan is not true, as the early Zionists knew full well (and did not use the slogan). However, people unfamiliar with the history continue to use it. Indeed, in a subsequent post, my friend suggested that the Palestinians (although she did not use the term) came from Egypt and Transjordan.
Similarly, some deny the existence of an ethnic group with the name Palestinian and the existence of an entity called Palestine. Somebody critiquing the title of this article series recently pointed out that the Bible never calls Israel, Palestine and nor should I. This person pointed out that while it was called Palestine from AD 70–1948, the UN called it Israel in 1948, and that is what it is to be called. I do not deny that countries and their territories and the names they call them often change. Maybe Israel and Palestine together should be called Canaan, the name of the territory conquered under Joshua, but I don’t think that would be acceptable to anybody. Nor would it be acceptable to use the names of the tribes that were allotted their respective territories under Joshua, although I expect this is part of the rationale behind Benjamin Netanyahu’s reference to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria.” Germany did not exist before 1870, and Italy did not exist before 1861. Northern India became East and West Pakistan in the last century, and then East Pakistan became Bangladesh. We do not deny the existence of these countries because they did not exist at some time in the past. I use the term “Palestine” to refer to the territory where people lived in what was called Palestine before 1948 and their descendants who are forbidden to enter the state of Israel (or can only do so with a temporary permit). I use the term “Palestinian” to refer to these people. The Arabs who live in Syria are called Syrians, those who live in Jordan are called Jordanians, and those who live in Egypt are called Egyptians. My correspondent claimed that the entire territory should be referred to as Israel, although I doubt this person would want the Palestinian Arabs to be called Israelis. “Palestinian” is adequate to refer to these people, and “Palestine” is adequate to refer to where they live.
Endnotes
[1] It is not clear where Caphtor is, but it is usually considered to be in the Greek Islands. Interestingly, in Amos 9:7 God claimed to have brought them (to what is now Gaza).
[2] See Diana Muir, “A Land without a People for a People without a Land” The Middle East Quarterly 15, no. 2 (Spring 2008): 55-62. https://www.meforum.org/1877/a-land-without-a-people-for-a-people-without.
This is the epilogue of a 5-part series. Here is a list of the questions answered:
Click here for Part 1, published on 18 May 2024.
1. What is the relationship between the Old and New Testaments?
2. How should we read the Old Testament now that the New Testament has been written?
3. How are we to read the Old Testament Prophets?
4. Who are the People of God?
5. Are the citizens of Israel to be identified with the Israelites of the Old Testament?
6. Has God rejected his People (Romans 11:1)?
Click here for Part 2, published on 28 May 2024.
1. What is Replacement Theology or Supersessionism?
2. What does Paul mean when he says, “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26)?
3. What does the Bible say about the Promised Land?
Click here for Part 3, published on 11 June 2024
1. What is the significance of Jerusalem?
2. What is Zionism?
3. What is the Millennium?
4. What about Dispensational Premillennialism?
Click here for Part 4, published on 25 June 2024
1. What are Dispensational Hermenutics?
2. What is the Rapture?
3. What about the Great Tribulation?
Click here for Part 5, published on 5 July 2024
1. Does God intend the temple to be rebuilt and sacrifices reinstituted?
2. Does God intend to save the world through Israel?
3. Does all the matter?
4. Loose ends:
a. How should we express our disapproval of Hamas and both the Israeli government and the IDF without appearing either anti-Semitic or approving of (perhaps even glorifying) Israel and their policies against the Palestinian people?
b. Given that most Israelis are not believers in Jesus, is it reasonable to expect them to forgive/extend grace to those who wish to exterminate them?
c. Palestinians are Islamic by faith, why is it that all the Islamic states around Gaza do not want to have anything to do with the Palestinians? Where is the Islamic brotherhood message gone?
Image credit: @AzrayevAlex on X, 1 January 2024, header image: crop of same image in article.t
