The Land of the Bible Cleansed of the People of the Bible

November 7, 2024

by: Ilse Strauss, News Bureau Chief

 

When Hitler implemented the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question,” the Nazis coined a term to describe regions after the entire Jewish population had been deported to extermination camps. They proudly called these locations Judenrein, or “cleansed of Jews.”

On September 18, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) took a page from the Nazi playbook to pass a Palestinian-drafted resolution demanding a Judenrein Old City of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. The world body didn’t use that term, of course. Instead, a two-thirds majority of the UN member states insisted Israel “end without delay its unlawful presence” in “occupied Palestinian territory” and deport the entire Jewish population within 12 months.

UNGA’s motion isn’t a stand-alone. It endorses a July 19 advisory opinion by the UN principal judicial organ, the International Court of Justice, declaring Israel’s presence in the “occupied Palestinian territory” illegal.

The world body lauded the resolution as “historic.” Perhaps the UN should remember it isn’t the first to attempt something as “historic” as rendering locations Judenrein. Still, there’s a marked difference between the UN’s effort and the Nazis’ endeavour.

Can Owners Occupy?

The UN’s “occupied Palestinian territory” refers primarily to the “West Bank,” including eastern Jerusalem with the Old City, City of David and Mount of Olives. It nestles in central Israel along its eastern border with Jordan, comprises 3,438 square miles (5,500 square km.) and is home to just over 3 million people, approximately 2,780,000 Palestinians and 510,000 Jews.

The term was coined 76 years ago. During Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, neighboring Jordan invaded, annexed the area, purged it of its Jewish inhabitants and renamed it the “West Bank,” a name chosen to indicate its location on the western, as opposed to the eastern bank of the Jordan River. Israel regained the territory during the 1967 Six Day War, and after a 19-year absence, the Jewish people returned to what would become the world’s most controversial piece of real estate.

Given the urgency of the Palestinian appeal for a state—and the world’s vehement demand that Israel grants this request—one would wonder why the people living under Jordanian rule for nearly two decades didn’t make a similar request to their Jordanian overlords, why the Hashemite Kingdom never offered such a state and why the world never demanded it. Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid, who was born in Jordanian occupied Jerusalem, summarizes the answer best: “No Jews, no news.”

The Title Deed to the Promised Land

Could Jew and Arab finally coexist side-by-side in harmony if Israel compromises, part with the “West Bank” and give the Palestinians what they’ve told the world they want: a sovereign state in the borders of the West Bank with eastern Jerusalem as capital?

Israel already tried the “land-for-peace” solution when withdrawing from Gaza in 2005, leaving it under sovereign Palestinian rule. Instead of peace, Israel’s concession resulted in an Iranian terror proxy on its doorstep, thousands of missiles, the most vicious attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust and the second longest war in its modern history.

Then there’s the fact that Israel already made “West Bank” land-for-peace proposals. For instance, at Camp David in 2000, Israel granted 94% of the Palestinian demands, including parts of eastern Jerusalem—only to be shot down by the Palestinians.

Yet perhaps the most pertinent reason why Israel holds onto this area despite the world’s censure is astonishingly simple: the “West Bank” bears no witness to the history of a Palestinian people, ancient or otherwise. Instead, this particular parcel of land and the Jewish people are inextricably woven into one another, with the former serving as the stage on which the story of the latter unfolded. The fingerprints of Israel’s history—and that of Christianity—are etched into the very rock and soil of what the UN calls “occupied Palestinian territory.”

Centuries before the Jordanians came and generations before “West Bank” formed part of our vocabulary, the area was known as Judea and Samaria, the spot where Abraham received God’s title deed to the land, “To your descendants I will give this land” (Gen. 12:7).

A Stage for the Events of Scripture

Judea and Samaria is considered the cradle of the Jewish people, the backdrop against which two barren individuals grew into a nation. That’s where Abraham pitched his tents and purchased the land that would became the final resting place for the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs. That’s where Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, only to leave years later for Egypt in search of grain. Then, under Joshua, Israel returned through the Jordan River into Judea and Samaria, burying Joseph’s remains there.

In Shiloh, Israel’s first spiritual capital, God answered the prayer of a barren woman with Samuel’s birth. In the fields of Bethlehem, Boaz noticed a Moabite widow, and two generations later, their grandson, David, was born. In Judea, this ruddy youth rose from shepherd’s field to battlefield and later to the throne. After reigning from Hebron, David chose Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and there, in the Judean hills, Solomon built a Temple to the Almighty.

Years later, Judah heard and shunned the warnings of destruction from Isaiah and Jeremiah, while Samaria served as the podium for Amos and Hosea. When Babylon came, Judah went into exile, and 70 years later, Ezra, Nehemiah and a handful of countrymen returned to the city in the Judean hills to rebuild the ruins and the Temple—only to be dispersed a second time after the Romans sacked Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70.

Despite the exile, a Jewish presence lingered in Judea and Samaria throughout the ages. History documents Jewish communities from Susya in the south to Ein Ganim (now known as Jenin) in the north. A vibrant society of priests thrived in the area between the 4th and the 8th century, and the Jewish community in Hebron flourished throughout the centuries of Ottoman rule. At the end of the nineteenth century, 19,000 Jews called the Old City of Jerusalem home. And before 1948, Jewish communities dotted the area until the Jordanian army either murdered or expelled the inhabitants.

Judea and Samaria’s biblical significance isn’t limited to the Jewish people alone. The formative events of our faith as Christians also played out against the backdrop of what the world demands become Palestinian. The baptismal spot, the temptation in the wilderness, Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives, Golgotha, the empty grave and the upper room are all located in the so-called West Bank.

Every nook and cranny of what the UN calls “occupied Palestinian territory” echoes with the memory of biblical events. That’s where some 80% of the Old Testament—and many in the New Testament—occurred. To the people of Israel, Judea and Samaria is the bedrock of their living history, the building blocks of their DNA that continue to reverberate into the present.

Eighty odd years ago, Hitler and his henchmen sought a Judenrein Europe. Today, taking a politically correct page from the Nazi’s playbook, the UN seeks a Judenrein Promised Land, a land of the Bible cleansed from the people of the Bible.

Posted on November 7, 2024

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