Christian Zionists, as well as religious Zionists in Israel and throughout the world, believe that Jewish people have an absolute entitlement to the lands of Israel including the occupied territories (OPT).
They claim that this fact is unambiguously stated in the Bible and can be seen to be so by anyone who bothers to take the time to read the Old Testament scriptures. They believe this fact is so clearly and obviously proclaimed that it is indeed a dividing line between those who honour God’s word and those who don’t.
Anyone declaring that the Israeli settlements are illegal, no matter what legal arguments are used to defend such a position, are denounced as being in league with Satan. The very concept of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Gaza or the Golan Heights is a contradiction in terms. The recent denial of the illegal status of Israeli settlements in the OPT by the current US administration has been met with rapturous approval by Christian Zionists the world over. This would be seen as further proof, as if any were needed, that the US is indeed God’s instrument on Earth in worldly affairs.
Any protests against Israeli settlements are met with accusations of anti-Semitism and racism against Jews. The spectre of Nazi Germany is quickly invoked to demonise anyone even thinking about Palestinian rights. Palestinians rights are the rights of the devil!
I well remember once telling an avid Christian supporter of Israel that Palestinian Christians didn’t share his view of Zionist entitlement. His only answer was a sarcastic, “Have they read their Bible?”
A “no concession” policy is rigorously held to by Christian Zionists when it comes to any type of negotiations with Palestinians. After all, you don’t negotiate with the devil!
But the simple fact remains that the settlements ARE illegal under the clear and reasonable demands of International Law, and the concept of illegal Israeli settlements, within the bounds of what is considered “the promised land”, is completely compatible with scripture and the justice and mercy of God as revealed in both Testaments of the Bible. I believe it is not only compatible with, but is indeed demanded by those same scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation.
My defence of this position is based on a two-pronged argument:
- The Bible does not teach that Jewish people, simply by virtue of their Jewishness,
have an absolute and unconditional entitlement to the “Promised Land”. Jewish
occupation of the land can indeed be illegitimate in God’s eyes.
- International Law on this issue is completely compatible with God’s will for how
nations should deal with each other and hence it’s clear dictates need to be
respected by ALL Christians who claim to believe in the rule of law.
I will start with a defence of point one.
From the very first instances in scripture, when God promised the Land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants, we see that the relationship of the Promised Land (TPL) to the Jewish people was conditional. God delayed Abraham’s taking of TPL by some hundreds of years so as to make sure that no injustice was done to the people then occupying the land. It was not until God judged the people in the land as being guilty of innumerable sins and hence needing to be justly removed from the land that Abraham’s descendants were allowed to enter TPL.
But even then, as the scriptures clearly tell us, there was no unconditional entitlement of Jews to enter the land. We see that even Moses, hardly a more prominent Jewish person could there have been, was not allowed to enter TPL. The most obvious question to be asked is, “Why wasn’t he allowed to enter?” Even a cursory glance at the text shows that it was his behaviour that was the key reason that he was barred from entering TPL, and this provides us with the basis for the whole concept of the totally conditional nature of the Jewish people’s relationship to the land.
God indeed made a covenant with the Jewish people in that the only way that they could legitimately enter and occupy the land was that they faithfully obey the commands of God. Many of these commands relate to how they treat non-Jews living in the land with them. The punishment for disobedience with regards to this issue was expulsion from the land.
Every orthodox Jew in history will tell you that the occupation of the land for Jews is tied up with the concepts of redemption and exile. Jews are currently in a state of exile and are therefore forbidden to try and take control of the land. No Jewish Rabbi anywhere in the world would dare declare that the exile is over! So, if that be true, how is it that the State of Israel is in existence with half the world’s Jews living there?
The answer is that the responsibility for the creation of the State of Israel was in the hands of Zionists, not Jews who were faithful to the Torah and its traditional teachings about exile, redemption and the coming of the Messiah. Orthodox Judaism had taken oaths, as far back as 130 AD, to never even try and take TPL even if all the rulers of the Earth commanded it, even if the land itself was empty, even if it did not involve any kind of violence whatsoever.
Exile was a spiritual problem and required a spiritual, not military or even diplomatic, solution.
Scripture clearly relates that the Jewish people are God’s tenants, not landlords in TPL. If they do not obey God’s covenant with them, they will be expelled from the land, just like any other nation or people that defiled the land. Their Jewishness would not confer any special privileges for them if they were disobedient. If anything, it made them more accountable. God’s covenant with Abraham would not mean that they could unconditionally enter and occupy the land. Being in exile would not, however, make the covenant with Abraham void. This covenant was still in operation regardless of whether the Jewish people were in exile or not. Exile came when the Mosaic covenant was broken by the Jewish people while in the land. The Mosaic covenant could be broken but the covenant of God with Abraham could not. God would never give up on the Jewish people no matter how many times He had to cast them from the land. Orthodox Jewish tradition holds that this expulsion has already occurred twice. The end of the current exile will be heralded by the miraculous coming of the Messiah and not before. This event will come in God’s sovereign time.
God’s command that Jews treat the “alien”, (non-Jew) in the land fairly and justly and as an equal, stems from the fact that when Israel was in bondage as slaves to Egypt, God stood up for them against the oppressor and gave them freedom. In scripture God continually reminds the Jews to remember how they were slaves in Egypt and in doing so therefore do not oppress the non-Jews living amongst them. Failure to do this would bring consequences to the Jews almost too horrible to think of!
So, the question can legitimately be asked, “Is the Zionist regime in Israel legitimately occupying TPL?” The simple fact of their confessed Jewishness is not sufficient, regardless of any claims about fulfilled prophecy. End times prophecy can never be twisted in such a way so as to negate the righteous demands of God for the descendants of Abraham to live up to their obligations to God with regards to their relationship to the land. A secular Zionist state does not get a free pass any more than Moses did!
I will now move on to my second point:
The basis of the United Nations Charter and International Law with regards to how nations should deal with one another is grounded in the desire to avoid violent conflict and oppression by powerful nations over less powerful nations. This is clearly stated in the concept of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by means of force. This acquisition of territory in order to gain access to living space, resources or anything else by force is seen as the main motivation for armed conflict in our world. Making this type of acquisition of land illegal, by any nation, is a clear a deterrent for conflict between nations by removing the legitimacy of the very motivation for conflict.
This is obviously a good idea, and I see nothing in this that is somehow innately anti-Semitic or against God’s word. Whether or not this concept has been applied fairly and consistently is another matter entirely.
We need to remember that all members of the United Nations must sign on to this principal. Australia, the US, Israel, Canada and the UK have all signed on to this principal as a matter of law.
In 1947, the United Nations created a partition plan that gave the Zionists 55% of historic Palestine for the creation of a Jewish state and 45% of the land to the Arabs for the creation of a Palestinian state. The Zionists accepted this plan. The current regions known as Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights were not part of the land that was given to the Zionists in the 1947 partition plan. These regions are currently under Israeli control since they entered these areas by force in 1967. As such they are under Israeli military occupation.
The validity or fairness of this partition plan will not be dealt with here. At this stage it suffices to say that the Zionist State is in control of lands that it acquired by means of military force and is holding onto these regions by military force as well, despite the fact that International Law and UN Resolutions have demanded Israel’s ending of the occupation way back in 1967.
The Fourth Geneva Convention, of which all member states of the United Nations must sign on to, clearly states that no occupying power may transfer any of its population into the areas being occupied. Israel has clearly been in breach of this since 1967 when it started building Israeli only settlements in both the West bank and Gaza. It entices Israeli citizens to come and live in the OPT with significant financial incentives. These settlements are fully integrated into the rest of the state of Israel via Israeli only highways that connect the settlements back to greater Israel. Palestinians are forbidden to travel on these roadways.
The Israeli government rejects this judgement based on the fact that they do not consider the OPT to be occupied and hence International Law does not apply. This idea is based on the fact that the West Bank and Gaza had no official governance at the time of the 1967 War and so International Law does not apply.
This judgement has been rejected by the entire international community. The issue of governance is not the point. The fact is that Israel has gained access to territory by means of force. This territory was not granted to any Israeli government in the 1947 partition plan that the Zionists did agree with. That territory was inhabited by a people who did not identify as Jewish and hence are not represented by any Zionist government.
The Israeli settlements in the West Bank have been judged as illegal right from the start and this decision has been reviewed and verified on numerous occasions since then by the best legal minds in the world. This judgement is firmly based in International Law.
From the above we can see that the Israeli settlements are clearly in breach of International Law and that International Law in this particular context is neither anti-Semitic or un-Biblical.
It is possible, and I would say, highly likely, that God respects and agrees with the judgement that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal.
CRAIG NIELSEN
December 2019
8 comments
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January 8, 2020 at 12:32 am
PureJudaism
While you make some valid points in regards to the governance of the Holy Land by secular Zionists and not by Judaism, you are wrong on every other aspect. In Numbers 33, God commands the Israelites to dispossess the inhabitants of the Land or they will be stings in their eyes and thorns in their sides. But God also says not to do it all at once. So Biblically speaking, this is ordained by God. If God didn’t want Zionists to come into the Land, He wouldn’t have allowed it in the first place. The Second Temple was built under Persian Authority and Nehemiah had to fight the local non-Jewish population to re-building the outer city walls. Now, you are operating under the Lie that there is such a people as Palestinians. They called themselves “Arabs” from Jordan, Syria and Egypt until 1964 when Yassar Arafat came up with the idea of calling themselves “Palestinians”. Jews are called Jews because they originated in JUDEA. The Arabs never cared about the Land or wanting a State when Jordan OCCUPIED the West Bank. This is all about Muslim domination over the Jews. The Zionists didn’t have a problem with living with the Arabs until the Arabs BEFORE 1947 constantly attacked them. Then, when the Arab countries Offensively attacked Israel, Israel defended themselves by expelling the Arab enemies living among them and that is why they were not allowed back. But yes, there was also nationalistic reasons for doing so. The Zionists just wanted to be left alone. It’s not against International Law to take territory won in a DEFENSIVE war, which the war of 1967 was. The territory that Jordan gave up in the Peace Treaty with Israel. Since the Oslo Accords, The Palestinian Authority rules civilly Both Areas A and B. They have their own Police, courts, etc. Area B has SHARED security with Israel’s military. Area C is the only area that Israel has full military control because that’s where all the Jewish Settlements are. Jews are forbidden to go into PA controlled territory, yet Arabs are allowed in Area C. Arabs have freedom of travel throughout the West Bank, it’s the Jews who cannot go where they want. The checkpoints are only at the entrance to Israel Proper. Checkpoints stop terror attacks. That’s why most of the attacks happen in the West Bank because Arabs have freedom to go where Jews are. I could go on…
You really need to learn more about the history of Muslim conquest and Islam. Everyone here in Israel knows this and hears the lies that Abbas and the PA speaks and incites terrorism. Yes, the current State of Israel is not God’s intention for the Jews, but do you realize that doing what God really wants, means the end of religious freedom and “Democracy” in the Holy Land? Compared to that, you would think that is not so bad. Things are the way they are because the Jews are not doing what God wants, but what He wants means everyone, Jew and non-Jew obey Torah Law in the Whole Land. So how do you suggest that happen when Islam won’t let it? The new Sanhedrin here in Israel has declared the Exile over because there are more Jews in Israel than in the Diaspora. You have a lot to learn. Come to Israel and learn for yourself.
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January 8, 2020 at 8:58 am
craignielsen
Thanks so much for your reply. I have to disagree with your comment about if God didn’t want the Zionists in the land they wouldn’t be there. This is pretty poor theology and runs counter to the basic premises of the Oaths Of the Talmud in 130 AD. You are also wrong about International Law. International Law clearly states that the acquisition of territory by means of force is inadmissible regardless of who starts the war or who finishes it. Also, please remember that the West Bank and Gaza were never set aside for the Jewish State but were always meant for the Palestinians. I lived in the West Bank as a human rights observer for 3 months and toured Israel for another 3 weeks two years before that. Most of my information for my book and most of my posts comes from what I witnessed myself and from Professor Yakov Rabkin, an Orthodox Jew and Professor of History at Montreal University. he was happy to endorse my book. Please read his book, “A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism”, Ilan Pappe’s, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” and Miko Peled’s, “The General’s Son” All these books were written by Jews, two of them grew up in Israel, served in the military and even the Knesset. I think that these works refute what you have to say as well as do some other of my blog articles. I believe that Jews and Arabs can live in peace in Israel but not if Israel demands to be. a nationalistic Zionist state. Good luck to you.
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January 8, 2020 at 11:32 am
PureJudaism
Thanks for your reply. 1. The three oaths are a midrash which means it’s a totally made up narrative by the rabbis and not divinely inspired based on verses totally unrelated to the subject and not based on actual biblical history, so they are wrong and I reject it. It’s interesting that non religious people want to use religion when it’s convenient for them. 2. The whole area West of the Jordan river was indeed always meant for the Jews stated in the Balfour Declaration and continued in the San Remo Conference and ratified in the League of Nations and never outright annulled by the UN. 3. The West Bank has never had a sovereign. It never belonged to the “Palestinians”. The land was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, then the British who gave it to the Jews for their national Homeland leaving the current inhabitants enjoying CIVIL and religious rights, not national. 4. So since there was no sovereign, and it was given to the Jews, Israel took back territory that was originally theirs from JORDAN who was the OCCUPIER, not the “Palestinians”. That’s why the narrative has been that the settlements are a detterant to peace, not the legality since this is supposed to be determined by direct negotiations. 5. So as a “human rights” observer, you should know the PA is the worst abuser of their own people. They torture and jail dissidents including reporters and political opponents. They arrest torture and kill converts to Judaism and Christianity. They leave “refugees” in camps IN THEIR OWN LAND. They incite and reward terrorism by paying them for how many Israelis they kill. But you are not writing about that are you? And you wonder why Israel acts the way it does? 6. The word Jew means nothing unless they obey Torah which includes living in Israel. 7. Yes, Jews and Arabs can live together. There are SOME here in Israel proper who love Israel and Jews. But again, you put it all on the Jews when every single overture of peace from Israel has been rejected. They don’t want peace, they want Jews gone, no matter how much land we give them or how nice we are. Please wake up to the lies and fantasy. The Arabs are lying to you daily. THEY want ethnic cleansing and Apartheid. Why then they don’t want Jews with them? I doubt this will change your mind, but it’s the Truth.
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January 8, 2020 at 12:07 pm
PureJudaism
Oh and one last thing. The Arabs here in Israel proper who love Israel and consider themselves Israeli Arabs love it here because they know they have it better here than if they were under the PA where there is rampant abuse and corruption. They get educated, good health care, and pensions while the PA Arabs can only look forward to low wages, unemployment which turns them to want to commit terror attacks which pays them and their family. So who are the REAL oppressers again?
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January 8, 2020 at 1:49 pm
craignielsen
Yes indeed there are some Arabs in Israel who like living in Israel but there are many who don’t like the discrimination they also face. I have met many Israeli Palestinians like that. Its just like how there are many Aboriginal people here in Australia who have done very well for themselves, but that in no way excuses the dispossession and genocide that white settlement perpetrated on them. I’m sure that many slaves in the Old South in America were actually better off than their African brothers and sisters who managed to avoid slavery, but this in no way justifies slavery.
I am religious myself and I have listened to many Palestinian Christians who tell me that it is not their fellow Arab Muslims who cause them the most suffering but the zionist state of Israel that is the root cause of their hardship.
I know that the Oaths of the Talmud have indeed been taken extremely serious for some 1800 years by Orthodox Jews and so your rejection of them seems somewhat convenient.
Some how you seem to think that if you can convince the world that Muslims are evil then Israel is free to treat them as less than human. I reject this idea outright. The prophets of old did criticise the nations outside of Israel for their godlessness but they never hesitated to condemn godless behaviour from Jews in Israel regardless of what other nations got up to. Israel was never allowed to hide behind the sins of the gentiles.
This blog is mainly focused on the issue of Christian Zionism and Zionism in general. I have been to many demonstrations and spoken out against oppression regardless of who perpetrates it, Arab nations, Asian nations or my own country, Australia.
I think that you also have missed the point about the West Bank and Gaza. While indeed they had no self governance at the time of the 67 war, the simple fact is that the overwhelming majority of people living in those areas did not want to be living in a Zionist state. The spirit of the United Nations is about self determination of peoples and the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by means of force regardless of who starts a conflict. The state of Israel took the occupied territories by force and imposed its rule on a people, the vast majority of which did not want to be part of the Zionist State. It is this fact that causes me to protest against the Israeli occupation. I have spent a lot of time in the West Bank interviewing Palestinians and in Israel talking to Israelis about the situation. I have spoken to ex Israeli soldiers who have admitted to using Palestinian youth as human shields and the use of torture by the IDF. They are no angels. this is not to say that they are evil either. My own father fought the Japanese in the second world war and saw many examples of cruelty inflicted by Australian troops. Let alone the atrocious treatment of our indigenous folk by white settlers. Growing up in Australia I was indoctrinated in the idea that white settlement was all about bravery and long suffering settlers bringing civilisation to savages. All of the massacres and atrocities that the indigenous people suffered was written out of the history books. My country has yet to face up to the bloody history that inevitably follows when people think that they are entitled to march into a country and take it for themselves like heaven above commanded it. Please read those books that I mentioned before and I’m sure that at the very least you will see where I am coming from. Regards, Craig Nielsen
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January 8, 2020 at 3:12 pm
PureJudaism
This discussion is going in circles. Do you think Israeli Arabs are slaves?! Yes, I am aware of some discrimination. Like Ashkenazi discriminate against Sephardi or Mizrahi Jews. Like born Jews discriminate against converts. Like Israeli sabra’s discriminate against immigrants. There are some valid and invalid reasons for this, but this is a minor thing mainly due to severe mistrust because of terrorism. They should be blaming the terrorism, not Israel. We have a valid reason for our mistrust. This is not racism. My blog deals with corruption of Torah by the Rabbis, so this is not out of convenience. It is widespread throughout the Talmud. I’m sure you didn’t talk to any Christians from Bethlehem who have been systematically forced out after the PA was put in control while under Israeli control Christians were the majority and had religious freedom. Also while Jordan was in control of the Old City there was no religious freedom and even now the Arabs systematically destroy Jewish excavations in and around the Temple Mount. Again, Israel never controlled the West bank. They could have decided in 1947 to have their own state. They wanted it all and that has never changed. I have never heard of such a thing as IDF using children as human shields. I DO here EVERY Friday along the Gaza border ARABS using children as human shields. Now, I also hear the IDF torturing JEWS including minors who they think are part of the “hilltop youth”. So I can believe there is on both sides. The “settlers” do not get off with preferencial treatment.
Again, you still want to equate the Arabs with indigenous people of which I told you they are not. This is not about hating Muslims. Believe me, I have the same feelings for the Israeli Left who think just like you. You are thouroughly brainwashed and refuse to see the Truth about your failed ideology. Based on your thinking, The US should give back America to the Native Americans because they stole the land. Every country that has ever gone to war should surrender back to the indigenous people. How far back should we go? I just told you Israel did not take the land by force. Israel was attacked. It was not the one who attacked the Arabs. It was given to them by the British who took it from the Muslim Turks who took it from the Byzantines, who took it from the Romans, then the Greeks, then the Persians then the Babylonians then the JEWS. We win. Now they want to not only claim they are descended from the Philistines, but ALSO the Canaanites a totally different people. If they would just accept us as brothers or cousins descended from Abraham, there would be peace. Period.
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January 8, 2020 at 1:59 pm
craignielsen
By the way, I know that this might sound very patronising, but I really do appreciate your input. Most of the people who leave comments on my blog just make vile abusive comments and call me an anti-semite or worse! They never even try to make a point worth talking about. Thanks
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January 8, 2020 at 6:21 pm
craignielsen
Yes this is indeed going in circles. I’m sorry but I simply disagree with you on many points. All I can say is please read the books that I mentioned. I obviously feel that it is you who have been brainwashed but only time will tell. I think that the historical documentation of the points that you mention contradict what you say. but you will never know unless you have the courage to read some material that you disagree with. Both Miko Peled and Ilan Pappe grew up in Israel and were indoctrinated like you have been and like I was about our Aboriginal people here in Australia. Both men went through a painful process of unpacking the things they had been told as young men. I wish you well.
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