Jews dominated the Holyland in 1695
…A resident of Caesarea who is a lover of antiquarian books and Judaica found in Budapest an old book, in Latin, which had been written by a Christian named Reland, chronicling his trip in the land of Israel in 1695/6.
The writer, Reland, a man of many talents - a geographer, a cartographer and a philologist - knew Hebrew, Arabic and Ancient Greek, as well as the European languages, perfectly. The book was written in Latin. In the year 1695, Reland was sent on a tour of the land of Israel or, as it was then called, Palestine. During that trip, he visited approximately 2500 places which had been inhabited and mentioned in the Bible or in the Mishnah (a collection of early oral interpretations of the scriptures compiled about A.D. 200.)…
- …No settlement in the land of Israel has a name of Arabic extraction. The names of settlements are mostly of Hebrew extraction; some of Greek or Latin-Roman. In fact, no Arab settlement (except for Ramla) has had an original Arabic name to this day. Most names of Arab settlements are of Hebrew or Greek extraction which have been impaired and replaced by meaningless names in Arabic. There is no meaning in Arabic for the names Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Nablus, Gaza or Jenin and the names of cities, such as Ramallah, El-Halil and El-Kuds have no historical or philological roots in Arabic. In the year 1696, the year in which the tour was taken, Ramallah, for example, was called Beit El, Hebron was called Hebron and Mearat HaMachpelah was called El Chalil (a name for Abraham of the Bible).
The land was, on the whole, empty and desolate; the inhabitants were few and concentrated in the cities of Jeusalem, Acre, Safed, Jaffa, Tiberius and Gaza. Most of the inhabitants of the cities were Jews, the others were Christian; there were very few Moslems, mostly nomadic Bedouins. Nablus (Schem) was different, with a population of about 120 people from the Moslem Natsha family and about 70 Shomronites. In Nazareth, the capital of the Galilee, there were approximately 700 people - all Christians…
It is interesting that Reland mentions all the Muslims as nomadic Bedouin tribes who arrived in the area as seasonal workers, in both agriculture and construction. In Gaza, for example, there were approximately 550 people; fifty per-cent of them were Jews, the rest Christians. The Jews engaged in flourishing agriculture, owning vineyards and olive orchards and growing wheat (like in Gush Katif) and the Christians engaged in commerce and the transportation of the produce.
In Tiberius and in Safed there were Jewish settlements, though their occupations, on the whole, were not mentioned. The only exception was fishing in the Kinneret – a traditionally Tiberian activity. A city such as Um el-Phachem, for example, was then a village of 10 families, all Christian, consisting of about 50 people; a small Maronite church was also mentioned. (The Shehadah family)
The book totally contradicts the post-modern theory of “a Palestinian heritage” or a Palestinian people, and strongly supports the fact that the land of Israel belongs to the Jews and not at all to the Arabs, who stole the land, and the name Palestine, as well, stole from the Latin and still claim to possess even that.
Very interesting document!
Just one comment: Why do some of us always emphisise that the Land was “empty and desolate” and that we did not conquer it? Thus this mean that if the Land were not empty so we had no right to return? Certainly not! We have the right to “conquer” our OWN land which remains OURS even if arabs happen to live their.
Comment by Tar Yag — June 12, 2008 @ 2:41 am
Three communities have always had a Jewish majority Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberius: That said Tar Yag is correct, we should not have to justify our beliefs and ideology based on the lies of our enemy nor the Truths we hold ourselves. Our truths will always take precedence. I understand my enemies, and respect their beliefs; that we stole their land and they want it back at all costs with no compromises on their part. Because I understand and respect them, I know there can never be peace between us as if they get to be a majority they will have beaten us and if they remain a minority within or a majority adjacent to our land they will do what ever is in their power to seek to remove us from what they believe is Land stolen from them.
Religious Jews have always made personal aliyah to Israel even enduring severe hardships and extreme personal danger: For the Love of Zion!
From: Zionism and Israel On the Web. Ami Isseroff
Judah Ha-Levi, Yehudah Halevi, (Judah Ha-Levi) was a Jewish physician, poet and philosopher. He was born in Toledo in Spain, about 1085 and died about 1141. Much of his poetry reflected his love for Israel, and kept alive the love of Zion as a part of Jewish culture, rather than just a ritual to be expressed in prayer. At the end of his life he actually traveled to the Holy Land to settle there and fulfill his dream. However, according to tradition, he was murdered by an Arab as he knelt at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, soon after he arrived. Ha Levi’s poetry used a relatively simple, direct style that is very close to the modern idiom.
Modern Hebrew poetry and language owe a great debt to him. Two poems in particular became a part of the tradition of Hebrew learning and preserved and enriched Hebrew poetic idiom. “My Heart is in the East” and “Zion, thou art anxious for thy captives” (”Zion Hallo tishali lishlom asirayich”). From the latter poem, we have the modern Hebrew expression “Asir Tsyion” - a prisoner (on account of) Zion, applied to those imprisoned in the USSR for advocating Zionism. From same poem, Naomi Shemer derived a line of her famous song, “Jerusalem of Gold” - ” lechol Shirayich Ani Kinor” which in Halevi’s poem is “ani kinor leshirayich”
All religious Jews if they are truly religious and believe in God and Torah must be Zionists:
Definitions of Zionism
Zionism is the modern expression of the ancient Jewish heritage.
Zionism is the national liberation movement of a people exiled
from its historic homeland and dispersed among the nations of the world.
Zionism is the redemption of an ancient nation
from a tragic lot and the redemption of a land neglected for centuries.
Zionism is the revival of an ancient language and culture,
in which the vision of universal peace has been a central theme.
Zionism is the embodiment of a unique pioneering spirit,
of the dignity of labour, and of enduring human values.
Zionism is creating a society, however imperfect it may still be, which tries to implement the highest ideals of democracy–political social and cultural–for all the inhabitants of Israel, irrespective of religious belief, race or sex.
Zionism is, in sum, the constant and unrelenting effort to realize the national and universal vision of the prophets of Israel.
Comment by yamit82 — June 12, 2008 @ 7:06 am