Understanding Palestinian and Jewish History, Nationalism, and Antisemitism

I wrote this all out to help me understand the history behind the current conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis. I wanted to know the history that led to the current circumstances. I’m sharing in case this information could help others to understand more about the conflict as well.  I am not an expert in this matter so things in here could be wrong and I encourage you to fact check everything. 

In the beginning, there were people. Many populations of people used to occupy the land that is modern day “Israel” or “Palestine”. This included people such as the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Israelites, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arameans, etc. According to religious tradition, the story begins with Abraham roughly around 2000 BCE. 

Abraham entered into a covenant with God, and thus the beginnings of the Jewish religion was born. Abraham’s grandson was named Jacob, but was later renamed to Israel after an encounter with God himself. Israel had twelve sons, one of them being Judah. The future Israelites would split into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom named “Israel” and the southern “Judah”. The kingdom of Judah was the smaller of the two, however it had Jerusalem as its capital and controlled the Temple.

In 722 BCE, the Assyrians conquered and exiled the northern kingdom of Israel. Jerusalem and the First Temple were destroyed in 586 BCE by the Babylonians. After being conquered, the Jews were exiled. 

The conquering/ownership of this region continued to be passed from hand to hand, from the Persians to the Greeks, and then to the Romans. While the Persians ruled, they allowed the Jews to return and rebuild the Temple. During Greek rule, there was a lot of cultural tension due to the suppression of Jewish practices, which led to the  Maccabean Revolt from 167-160 BCE. When the Romans take over, the cultural strife does not end. In 70 CE, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple and in 135 CE the Jewish people were expelled from Jerusalem after another, less successful, revolt. The Jewish people were now scattered across the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.

Under Christian European rule, the Jews were a religious minority. They faced legal restrictions, forced conversion, and discrimination. They were banned from owning land and participating in many occupations. During this era, it was considered sinful for Christians to charge interest on loans and was banned. However, rulers still needed loans for things such as wars, infrastructures, palaces, etc. Rulers got around this ban by allowing Jews to lend with interest. When debts would pile up, rulers would cancel them, expel Jews, and confiscate property. Due to this structure, stereotypes formed. 

Under Islamic rule, Jews were treated better than in Europe but were still considered second-class citizens. They were given the freedom to practice Judaism, protection from forced conversion, and were allowed to participate in trade. However, they were given second-class legal status, social and political restrictions, and had to pay a special tax that was imposed on non-muslims of the time. In places such as Al-Andalus (the region that is now modern-day Spain and Portugal) Jews were given the opportunity to flourish culturally and intellectually. Stability allowed Hebrew poetry, philosophy, and science to thrive.

However, on March 31, 1492, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain issued the Alhambra Decree. This edict ordered all Jews to convert to Catholicism or leave, forcing the exile of people that had lived in this region for many years. Many Jews fled to the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, and Eastern Europe. As the population of Jewish people in Europe grew, pogroms (violent massacres) became increasingly more common.

During The Enlightenment, things changed a bit for the Jewish people. They were granted citizenship in some countries and were even able to enter universities, professions, and politics. This causes a split between the people. Some choose to assimilate while others choose to retain traditional life. Unfortunately, integration did not mean the end of discrimination against the Jewish people.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. During the Holocaust, many millions of people were murdered by the Germans, including 6 million Jews. For centuries, Jews were blamed for plagues, economic hardship, religious crimes, and social change. The Nazis took these ideas and rebranded them into modern language. They made Jewish people into a permanent enemy by defining Jews as a race, rather than just a religion.

The Nazis had several different talking points. They claimed that Jews caused Germany’s defeat in World War I’. They stated that Germany didn’t really lose and that Jews, socialists, and liberals betrayed the nation from within. In reality, Germany lost militarily. This myth helped avoid blaming generals or the Kaiser for their loss. 

They alleged, ‘Jews control banks, media, and politics’. They said that Jews secretly ran finance, newspapers, and governments. In reality, Jews had no collective power. Most of them were working class people living middle to lower class lives. This trope recycled the medieval moneylender stereotypes into modern conspiracy. 

They also said ‘Jews are parasites undermining society’. The assertion was that Jews didn’t create, they only exploited. In reality, Jews worked as doctors, teachers, soldiers, and artists. Equating Jewish people to parasites dehumanized them, making it easier for violence to be committed against them. 

They blamed Jews for both capitalism and communism. They caused capitalist exploitation but also caused the communist revolution. Totalitarian ideologies, like what the Nazis believed, blame one enemy for everything. This makes their one villain feel extremely powerful, but this is a facade. 

The Nazis argued that Jews threatened racial purity. They insisted Jews were biologically dangerous and intermarriage would ruin the nation. This justified the Nuremberg Laws, forced sterilization, and extermination. In reality, genetics could not distinguish a difference between a German Jew and other Germans.

In 1948, the state of Israel was established and Jews from around the world moved there. But in order to talk more about the modern era conflict in this region, we need to first go back to the beginning and discuss the history for another group of people in the region.

Palestinians are descended from populations of people that lived in the region known as Canaan. This included Canaanites, Philistines, Israelites/Judeans, Greeks, Romans, Arameans, and Arabs. After the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, the region was renamed “Syria Palaestina” and many Jews left or were expelled. However, there were many others that remained. Over centuries, these people gradually converted to Christianity or Islam, or remained Jewish, as other peoples conquered the area. In the 7th century, Arab Muslim armies conquered the region. For over 1200 years, the region was ruled by various Muslim empires, including the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire ruled from approximately 1299 to 1922. 

It’s important to note that the term “country” as we know it didn’t gain its modern meaning until after the Peace of Westphalia was signed in October 1648. The Peace of Westphalia was a series of treaties that established a new political order in Europe. This order was based on sovereign states and equality among nations. The American Revolution further introduced the idea of Nationalism by showing that the people can be one nation and a legitimate political authority. The French further popularized this idea in 1789 with their revolution. The French Revolution argued that borders should match people, not dynasties, and that loyalty should be to the nation and not to a monarch. This allowed nationalism to become a mass ideology. 

Before nationalism, people identified themselves as subjects of an empire, members of a religion, or members of a local village or clan. Land was ruled by people, not owned. This is important to know because during Ottoman rule, Palestine was not a separate country. Countries didn’t exist yet. People identified as villagers, city dwellers, Muslims, Christians, and/or subjects of the Ottoman Empire. They farmed the land, owned property, paid taxes, and developed towns, trade networks, and culture.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, nationalism became a mass ideology. Ottoman reforms and European colonialism allowed Palestinian national identity to form, just as it was everywhere else in the world.

After World War I, Britain took control of Palestine from the Ottoman Empire and issued the Balfour Declaration, which supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Jewish immigration to the area increases and Palestinians see land purchases, demographic change, and political decisions made without them. The Palestinians began to organize politically, fearing that a foreign power was reshaping their homeland without their consent.

In 1948, the Palestinians experienced a history defining trauma, the Nakba. War broke out and Israel declared independence. This caused the displacement of approximately 700,000 Palestinians. Hundreds of villages were destroyed or depopulated. Palestinians became refugees, oftentimes only a few miles away from their homes. 

After 1948, Palestinians were pushed into Gaza, the West Bank, or refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. They were placed under military occupation and denied return to their homes or citizenship in many other countries.

Now, Palestinians live under military law that restricts their movement or settlement expansion. They have been experiencing Israeli bombardment since the early 2000s, with the most recent conflict beginning in 2023. Since October 7th, 70,000+ people have been slaughtered in the Gaza Strip. Despite a ceasefire agreement being signed in October 2025, sources from the region say that airstrikes, attacks, and raids have continued in Gaza, causing more damage and casualties. 

Zionism framed Jews as a nation, rather than just a religion. In the late 19th century when other groups of people were claiming land as their own (i.e., the Greeks got Greece, Italians got Italy, etc), Zionists wanted the same for Jews. They wanted Palestine to be theirs because of a deep historical connection to the land and the existing small Jewish communities that lived there. However, historical connection doesn’t mean you get automatic ownership. Zionism has ignored that Palestinians were living, farming the land, owning homes, and burying their ancestors there.

There are two truths in this matter. The first is that Jews have a legitimate right to safety, dignity, and self-determination after being persecuted for centuries. The second is that Palestinians have a right to not be dispossessed of their homeland and to not be killed simply for living there. Historically, only one side has had their rights prioritized. I think it’s time this was changed.