Aug. 17, 226 Editor, The News-Gazette: The letter last week from Bennett Ross about Israeli history omits the non-Jewish side of the story. Iwill discuss his first point that Jews have lived in the region since Biblical times, which is true. Unfortunately, however, Ross fails to mention the non-Jews that have lived in the region. The original inhabitants of Palestine were the Canaanites, not the Jews, who were also preceded by the Hittites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Edomites. The Jews entered Palestine around 1200 BC, making them relative newcomers in Palestine’s 9,000 years of settlement.
The rulers of Palestine in order have been the Canaanites (? years), Egyptians (? years), Hyksos (230 years), Egypt (136 years), Hittite (60 years), Egypt (136 years), Canaanites, Philistines and Jews (154 years), Jews (David and Solomon, 73 years), Jews (Israel, 927-722 BC) and Jews (Judah, 927-586 BC), Babylonia (48 years), Persia (208 years), Greece (7 years), Egyptians (123 years), Seleucids (57 years), Jews/Maccabees and Seleucids (72 years), Armenia (7 years), Rome (677 years), Persia (14 years), Rome (10 years), Arabs (477 years), Seljuk Turks (14 years), Crusaders, Turks and Arabs (192 years), Mameluks (226 years), Ottoman Turks (401 years), Britain (30 years), Arabs and Jews (1948-1967), and Jews (1967-present).
The Roman occupation of Palestine left few Jews in Palestine. In 1170, the Jewish pilgrim Benjamin Tudelas found 1,440 Jews in Palestine. By 1845 there were 12,000 Jews in Palestine from a population of 350,000. After WWI, Britain occupied Palestine, and honored its agreement with the Zionists to facilitate their migration there. A 1922 British census found Palestine’s non-Bedouin population was 757,182, with 78% Muslim, 10% Christian, and 11% Jewish. Seventy-five percent of these Jews were Europeans or their offspring. The last official British estimate of the population, in 1947, placed it at 1,908,775 with 61% Muslim, 8% Christian, and 31% Jewish.
A resolution of this conflict requires truth and accuracy. EDWARD QUBAIN Rockbridge County
