The
Romans allowed the Jews considerable freedom. Religious affairs were
administered by a court called the Sanhedrin, made up of two distinctly
different parties, the Pharisees (rabbis and other scholars) and The Sadducees,
(priests and those belonging to the Jewish aristocracy).
Nevertheless,
heavy taxes still had to be paid to Rome
and most Jews absolutely hated the Romans. Certain underground organizations,
including the Zealots, worked continuously to make life as miserable for their Roman
conquerors as possible. But not all of the rebellion was done as subversive
sabotage. Public protests were also waged against governors like Pontus
Pilate. There were even formal complaints, seeking to go over Pilate’s head to
the Emperor. One such appeal achieved its desired effect when Emperor Tiberius
instructed Pilate to remove from his Jerusalem
palace, some shields which bore pagan inscriptions. 1
But
the day finally came when the Romans got fed up and decided they’d had enough.
Provoking this disintegration of Roman patience was a more formal, organized
revolt in the year AD 66. A series of battles followed and bit-by-bit the Jews
were crushed, even though many of them fought bravely. In 68 AD, General Josephus
(who was later to write a history of Israel
from Rome)
surrendered to General Vespassian.
The
most devastating defeat of all happened two years later when Prince Titus and
the Roman Legion defeated the protectors of Jerusalem,
laying waste to much of the city and completely destroying the temple. The
remaining “wailing wall” exists to this day.
In
73 AD, Jewish rebels held an Alamo
style last stand at Herod’s palaces on top of a rocky plateau overlooking the Dead
Sea. This place was known as “the fortress,” or Masada.
When the Romans finally breached its fortifications, they found every Jewish
soldier dead. They had decided that death was preferable to slavery under the
Romans.
Many
Jews from other areas of Judea did
become slaves. Others were massacred. Still others escaped the slaughter by
fleeing the country and spreading themselves all over the known world. And
finally, some Jews (a very few) were able to stay in their homes after the dust
settled and the Romans decided they’d done enough damage.
A second war against Rome took place in 135 AD under the leadership of Simon
Bar Kokhba. His revolution re-established a Jewish, independent state for over
two years, but a huge Roman army finally destroyed this stronghold as well.
After the Romans recaptured Jerusalem, Emperor Hadrian banned Jews from
entering it. A handful of Jews remained in the land however. This included a
rabbinic center at Jamnia, just west of Jerusalem on the coast. The famous Council of Jamnia was held
here and rabbis continued to govern their fellow Jews religiously even if they
had no more country of their own to speak of. It is important to remember that
despite the high majority of Jews who were killed, banished or enslaved, a
remnant remained in the Holy Land
and continued to live there all the way up to the Twentieth Century. One of
today’s historical revisionist myths teaches that Jews did not come into this
land until after the European Holocaust, displacing Palestine’s “original inhabitants.”
But
the greatest myth, the myth of the “indigenous Palestinians” is about to be
exposed and explained:
Emperor
Hadrian got so tired of Jewish resistance, he did everything he could to both
insult them and stifle any remaining ambitions toward rebellion or nationalism.
Hadian accomplished this by renaming the land, Syria-Palestinia. Palestinia
was a Latanized version of the word, Philistine. This ancient and
notorious enemy of the Jews had long since died off but the Grecian-Roman world
became reasonably familiar with Israel’s
history and that included knowledge of her old nemesis. Hadrian considered it
the ultimate indignity to rename this province of Judea, not with just any
name, but a despised name that he could rub the Jews’ faces in.
Prior
to 135 AD, the land
of Israel
was known solely as a Jewish land. It was first called Israel,
later Judah
and still later, Judea.
But it had never before been called Palestine!
Even after this new nickname, the people living in Palestine
were a handful of Jews and new colonies sent in from Rome.
When
did Arabs come into the land? Well, the term Arab literally means
“tent dweller.” During the time of the Roman occupation and five
following decades, most Arabs lived in Arabia.
(I’ll bet you were able to figure that one out for yourself.) But Arabs were
also known to be nomads and they could be found most anywhere, so undoubtedly
there were a few in Judea before
and after the land was renamed. Still, Arabs did not think of themselves as
Palestinians and very few lived in the newly dubbed Palestine.
That
all changed in the 600’s when Mohammad began to spread a new religious movement
called Islam. I will discuss the teachings of Islam with greater
detail later on. For now, suffices to say that Mohammad was eager to see Islam
spread. At first he tried to influence people peacefully. When this did
not work, he encouraged his loyal followers to take up the sword in the name of
Allah. This was not articulated as a mere opinion or idea. Indeed, Mohammad,
claimed that Allah himself had commanded this new practice, called, Jihad.
At first, Arabia was conquered
and taken over by Muslims. Afterwards, Islam reached its hand toward, Africa,
Europe and the Holy
Land under the auspices of Muslim leaders who were
teaching that Jerusalem
rightfully belonged to the Arabs.
Please
note: Arabs did not occupy Palestine
in any great number until the spreading of Islam and they did not rule the land
of Palestine
until the spreading of Islam. Prior to Arab rule, the land belonged first
to the Jews, then to the Romans and then to the new Byzantine
Church
which emerged from the rubble of a fallen Roman Empire.
The Arabs had to overthrow the Byzantines when they wanted the land for
themselves. Years later, a new form of the church, (now called Catholic) waged
a series of wars (the Crusades) to win back, not only the Holy
Land, but any land the Muslims had taken from
Christians. For the longest time, Jerusalem
changed landlords, alternating between Muslim rule and Catholic rule.
In
time, the land was taken over by Turkish Muslims. Jerusalem
became part of the Ottoman Empire
and remained a part of that empire until the British (with the help of
many Arab tribes) defeated the Turks during World War 1.
Now
the Holy Land was part of the British
Empire, a land containing both Jewish and Arab
populations who had been living there for many centuries.
When
the British decided to leave the Middle East,
some very controversial decisions were made about who would rule the land in their
absence. Obviously it would be turned over to both Arabs and Jews but in what
proportion? Great
Britain’s
decision created a chain reaction that formed the world you and I live in
today.
Read
Part Five in tomorrow’s blog.