Israel, Palestine, and Our Timeline
According to Jewish literature, in 3761 BCE (Before Common Era), the god created the world with the Sun, moon, Adam, and Eva.
In 1813 BCE, a person called Abraham was born.
Abraham was in a view that the entire universe was the work of a single creator.
He settled in Hebron in Canaan. In today's context, it is - Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, and the southern portions of Syria and Lebanon.
So, we can say Abraham was the father of many nations.
With this name and his covenant or his view, Abraham became the patriarch of three of the world's major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Jews were always very clever people, especially in Agriculture, new innovations, etc. So, Canaan was a prosperous nation.
Egyptian rulers didn’t like this progress and they invaded Canaan in 1456 BCE. It was King Pharaoh Thutmoses III who won a decisive battle against a coalition of Canaanite rulers at Megiddo (about 29 km southeast of Haifa in northern Israel)
Most of the Jews were taken away as slaves by Egyptian rulers.
Jewish slaves were expecting another savior for them.
In 1250 BCE, a group of Canaanite refugees fled slavery in Egypt, led by Moses. Moses is considered the most important prophet in Judaism and among the most important prophets in Christianity, Islam, the Druze faith, and other Abrahamic religions.
Canaanite refugees were jubilant about this success. Unfortunately, Moses died before entering Canaan.
Then, Joshua - the leader of the Israelite tribes after the death of Moses.
Joshua - a charismatic warrior who led Israel in the conquest of Canaan after the Exodus from Egypt. Again, we can see a prosperous Jewish establishment period.
After the death of Joshua, in 875 BCE Samuel chose Jerusalem as the capital.
The first temple started in 832 BCE.
There is no historical evidence that exists today to prove this construction.
With this timeline, We can see the record of the Chinese scholar Confucious. He was born in 571 BCE and his birthplace is Shandong, China.
In 546 BCE, Siddhartha Gautama was born in Lumbini in Nepal. A couple of centuries after his death, he came to be known by the title Buddha.
At that time, the Assyrian Empire was building up.
Assyria was located in the northern part of Mesopotamia, which corresponds to most parts of modern-day Iraq as well as parts of Iran, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey.
In 556 BCE, the king of Assyria invaded Judea and besieged Jerusalem.
This prosperous nation was again invaded by Babylonians (modern southern Iraq from around Baghdad to the Persian Gulf).
They destroyed the first temple approximately in 423 BC. Jews were used as slaves by Babylonians as well.
So, now Jews were expecting a potential Messiah again. They were thinking that Messiah could guide them to a prosperous, independent nation again.
After the collapse of the Babylonian empire, Jews were building their dream country again.
They built a second temple as well.
At that time (353 BCE) Alexander the Great was ruling the Roman empire.
With this timeline, in 247 BCE Venerable Mahinda Thero from India visited Sri Lanka and established Buddhism here. Venerable Mahinda was considered "the father of Sinhalese literature" as he had translated and written commentary for the Tripitaka in Sinhala, turning it into a literary language. He was also credited with introducing the culture of the Mauryan empire to the island, along with its architecture.
In 152 BCE, we can notice the rise of the Roman Empire.
With this timeline, Sri Lanka was ruled by the very famous king Dutugamunu the Great. He was ruling from 161 BCE to 137 BCE.
With the mighty power of Romans, Israel joined the Roman Empire in 62 BCE. So, the invited Romans were in the land of Israel. Actually, Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem.
The Jewish state also had to submit to the rule of Rome and become a sub-state.
At this time, the Roman Empire became very powerful and spread its power in Europe and the Mediterranean region.
With this timeline, Sri Lanka also had another good king Vattagamani Abhaya - also called Walagamba. His ruling period was recorded as 103 BCE to 77 BCE.
In the year of Christ (that is Year 1), a person named Jesus was born to a Jewish family in the Jewish land.
Some of the Jews believe that this birth would be the Messiah or the savior of Israel. Another part opposed this idea. This young man was a gifted speaker with very revolutionary ideas.
The angry fundamentalist Jews demanded that the Roman government execute Jesus. As a result of this, a local leader named Pontius Pilate tried and crucified Jesus. The crucifixion of Jesus occurred in Judaea, most likely in 30 CE (Common Era) 30 or 33 CE.
With this event, the people of the Jewish land are divided into two parts, Jewish and Christian.
While the part that accepted Jesus as the son of God and the savior of Israel was Christian, the part that did not accept that view remains as Jews.
Both of these groups now live in the Jewish land under Roman rule. The famous Roman amphitheater, the Colosseum, was built between 70 CE and 72 CE and was enjoyed by Roman citizens during the height of the Roman Empire.
It is not easy to bear the high taxes in Rome. The people of the Jewish land of Israel are working hard... cultivating... creating new innovations.
The Jewish land or Judea is once again trying to build its identity in the midst of various divisions.
These people rebelled against heavy taxation and Roman rule.
The result was the complete conquest of the Jewish land by Rome.
In 70 CE, the Roman army led by the emperor Titus besieged Jerusalem.
Following a five-month siege, the Romans destroyed the city and the Second Jewish Temple.
2,000,000 people were killed. There were a lot of stories about cruelty, slavery, and exile.
Romans wanted to get rid of Israel and Jewish. So, they named the new country Syria Palaestina or Roman Palaestina.
Simply, Jews were grounded now.
Jews, Christians, Cilician pirates, and Arabs belonging to different local religions lived in Palestine, which was destroyed by the Roman invasion.
While the Jews continue to consider Jerusalem as the capital of their religion, the Christian branches born through Jesus claim that Jerusalem belongs to them as well.
At this time, the Roman rulers took the teachings of Jesus to Rome and gave birth to the Roman Catholic religion. Actually, the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (306–337 CE), Christianity began to transition to the dominant religion of the Roman Empire.
With this timeline, The world heritage Elahera Anicut was constructed by King Vasaba of Anuradhapura (67 - 111 A.C). He is considered to be the pioneer of the construction of large-scale irrigation works and underground waterways in Sri Lanka to support paddy cultivation. 11 reservoirs and 12 canals were constructed during his reign.
Sri Lanka was also ruled by a few great kings. Sri Sangha Bodi (247 CE to 249 CE). King Mahasena (274 CE to 301 CE), and King Buddhadasa (337 CE to 365 CE). It seems that we have established the Buddha’s teaching firmly here.
Why Arabs were worried? Because, Abraham, who was born in their area a long time ago, gradually became a Jew.
So, other communities were expecting a savior for them. Actually savior of their land.
Mohammed was born at a time when the Arabs were thinking about their own leader, who witnessed the teachings of Jesus to be taken to Rome.
Mohammed confirmed the monotheistic (meaning "oneness of God in Islam) teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. His teachings and practices form the basis of Islamic religious belief. He died at the age of 62.
Gradually, Muslims became more powerful, and Jerusalem's Islamic history began with the city's conquest by Caliph Umar in 635 CE(or 638 CE).
With the Muslim invasion, a large number of people in Judea, Syria, and Palestine were forced to embrace Islam. However, some Jews and Christians who did not want to change their religion remained in Judea and Jerusalem.
During this time, various conflicts and wars occurred between Byzantines (the Eastern Roman Empire), Arab Muslims, Jews, and Christians for the sake of Jerusalem, or the City of God.
The Muslim conquest of the city solidified Arab control over Palestine, which would not again be threatened until the First Crusade in 1099.
On 27 November 1095, Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade to retake Jerusalem.
March 1096 – The people’s army led by Peter the Hermit heads to Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey).
On 15 July 1099 – Jerusalem was captured during the First Crusade.
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was created.
With this timeline, the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa was established due to the Chola conquest of Anuradhapura.
King Vijayabahu I ruled the country. The year 1055 to the year 1111
On 1 December 1145 – Pope Eugenius III called for the Second Crusade.
On 7 January 1148 - the Crusader army was defeated by Muslim forces led by Seljuk during the crossing of the
Cadmus Mountains (now called Madran Mountain in Aydın Province, Turkey).
So, the second crusade was failed.
While they were killing each other, with this timeline Sri Lanka was ruled by one of the great kings. He was
Parakramabahu the Great. He oversaw the expansion and beautification of his capital, constructed extensive
irrigation systems, reorganized the country's army, reformed Buddhist practices, encouraged the arts,
and undertook military campaigns in South India and Burma. He was a king from 1153 to 1186.
On 29 October 1187, Pope Gregory VIII called for the Third Crusade to recapture Jerusalem.
Three European monarchs comprised of Richard I of England, Philip II of France, and the Holy Roman
Emperor Frederick I led the charge to capture the Holy City, for this reason, the Third Crusade is also
known as the King’s Crusade.
The Massacre of Ayyadieh occurred during the Third Crusade after the fall of Acre (a port city in northwest Israel)
when King Richard I had more than two thousand Muslim Prisoners of war from the captured city beheaded
in front of the Ayyubid armies of Sultan Saladin on 20 August 1191. Saladin subsequently ordered various Crusader
prisoners of war to be executed in retaliation.
The Third Crusade was a failure and ended in a peace treaty.
August 1198 – Pope Innocent III calls for the Fourth Crusade to liberate Jerusalem from Muslim rule.
The Fourth Crusade was a failure again.
1215 – Pope Innocent III calls for the Fifth Crusade.
The Fifth Crusade was a failure again. The war ends and the Crusaders return to
Europe having achieved nothing for their efforts.
With this timeline, Sri Lanka also faced a South Indian invasion. After Kalinga Magha invaded, with the intent
of ruling the whole island, the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa was sacked. This caused massive Sinhalese migration
to the south and west of the island. Unable to capture the whole island Kalinga Magha established the Jaffna
kingdom becoming its first monarch. The Jaffna kingdom is situated in modern northern Sri Lanka while the
Kingdom of Dambadeniya was established by Vijayabahu III on the rest of the island in around 1220.
The Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Crusades were also failures. By 1291, the last remaining Christian territory fell into
Islamic hands.
For centuries they fought to establish their religious belief and cultural differences over others killing millions of
people and adding suffering and agony for the living.
Some estimates recorded 9,000,000 total dead for the crusades to the East covering the period from 1095 to 1291.
In the attempts to recover and hold the Holy Land, nine million human beings, at least half of them Christians
were killed. Freed from Muslim rule, the Jewish people lived in Europe, North America, and Asia while maintaining
their beliefs and faith in the same way.
But, Jews had many challenges. If we consider England, merchants had a special status in the system, as did Jews.
Jews were declared to be direct subjects of the king, unlike the rest of the population. This was an ambivalent legal
position for the Jewish population, in that they were not tied to any particular lord but were subject to the
whims of the king. Every successive king formally reviewed a royal charter, granting Jews the right to remain in
England.
Economically, Jews played a key role in the country. The Church then strictly forbade the lending of money for profit,
creating a vacuum in the economy of Europe that Jews filled because of extreme discrimination in every other
economic area, as Jews were prohibited from practicing any art or craft, which was under the monopoly
of Christian guilds.
Judaism does not forbid loans with interest between Jews and non-Jews. Taking advantage of their unique status as
his direct subjects, the King could appropriate Jewish assets in the form of taxation. He levied heavy taxes on Jews
at will, without having to summon Parliament.
The reputation of Jews as extortionate money-lenders arose, making them extremely unpopular with the Church
and the general public. While an anti-Jewish attitude was widespread in Europe, medieval England was particularly
anti-Jewish. An image of the Jew as a diabolical figure who hated Christ started to become widespread, and myths
such as the tale of the Wandering Jews and allegations of ritual murders originated and spread throughout England
as well as in Scotland and Wales.
In frequent cases of blood libel (the first libel reported in 1144), Jews were said to hunt for children to murder
before Passover (which means God rescued His people Israel from Egyptian slavery) so that they could use their
blood to make the unleavened matzah ( a cracker-like food made of flour and water eaten to commemorate the
Jewish slaves' exodus from Egypt). Anti-Jewish attitudes sparked numerous riots in which many Jews were murdered,
most notably in 1190, when over 100 Jews were massacred in York.
With this timeline, the Kingdom of Dambadeniya (1220 - 1345) was established in Sri Lanka.
During this period, a series of large-scale crises struck Europe and the Middle East. The Great Famine was the
first one. The time period was 1315 - 1322.
The Great Famine started with bad weather in the spring of 1315. Crop failures lasted from 1316 until the
summer harvest in 1317, and Europe did not fully recover until 1322. Crop failures were not the only problem;
cattle disease caused sheep and cattle numbers to fall as much as 80%. The period was marked by extreme levels
of crime, disease, and mass death.
The second crisis was the most serious.
The Black Death or the Black Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and
North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the deaths
of 75–200 million people, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. Bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium
Yersinia pestis was spread by fleas, but during the Black Death it probably also took a secondary form,
spread by person-to-person contact via aerosols, causing pneumonic plague.
With this timeline, Sri Lankan rulers changed the Dambadeniya kingdom to Gampola(1345 - 1412) and
Kotte (1412 - 1597). Parakramabahu VI was the first king of Kotte, ruling from 1410 until his death in 1467.
He is the last great king in Sri Lanka who managed to unite the island under one flag. His rule is famous for
the Renaissance in Sinhalese literature, (especially poetry) due to the patronage of the king himself.
Classical literature (prose and verse) as well as many rock inscriptions and royal grant letters
(patent letters, sannas) have been found, rendering much information pertaining to this period.
For Europe, the Inquisition period was also very unfortunate.
In 1478 Pope Sixtus IV issued a papal decree, authorizing the Catholic Monarchs to name inquisitors in order to enforce religious uniformity and to expel Jews from Spain.
Beginning in the 12th century and continuing for hundreds of years, the Inquisition is infamous for the severity of
its tortures and its persecution of Jews and Muslims. Its worst manifestation was in Spain, where the
Spanish Inquisition was a dominant force for more than 200 years, resulting in some 32,000 executions.
Over half of Spain's Jews had converted to Catholicism as a result of the Massacre of 1391.
Due to continuing attacks, around 50,000 more had converted by 1415. Those who remained decided to convert
to avoid expulsion.
Over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism and between 40,000 and 100,000 were expelled.
In 2014, the government of Spain passed a law allowing dual citizenship to Jewish descendants,
to "compensate for shameful events in the country's past”.
In 2015, the Spanish Parliament passed a law recognizing the descendants of Jews expelled in 1492 as Spanish
citizens.
At the start of the 16th century, many events led to the Protestant Reformation (1517-1648). It was a religious reform movement that swept through Europe in the 1500s. Clergy abuse caused people to begin criticizing the Catholic Church. The greed and scandalous lives of the clergy had created a split between them and the peasants. This reformation process allowed for the development of personal interpretations of the Christian message and led to the development of modern nation-states.
With this timeline, the Portuguese arrived in Sri Lanka. Their presence on the island lasted from 1505 to 1658. Rajasinha I (He was a king of Sitawaka, known for his patriotism and fight against the Portuguese invasion of Sri Lanka. Born as Tikiri Bandara to King Mayadunne, he received the name "Rajasimha" (meaning the Lion King) after the fierce Battle of Mulleriyawa.) attempted to expel the Portuguese from the island but was repulsed with heavy losses at the siege of Colombo in 1587–8.
Seeking to subdue the last major kingdom in Sri Lanka, the Portuguese launched a military invasion of Kandy in the Campaign of Danture of 1594. The invasion was a disaster for the Portuguese, with their entire army, wiped out by Kandyan forces.
With this timeline, the Dutch were used by the Sinhalese king to take revenge on the Portuguese who wanted to expand their rule. The coming of the Dutch ensured that the Portuguese had two enemies to deal with so finally the Portuguese were forced to sign a treaty with the Dutch and come to terms with their enemies.
Portugal was at war with its ruler, the King of Spain. Once Portugal obtained its freedom from Spain in 1640, the Netherlands settled for peace with Portugal. Then they divided the occupied areas of Ceylon amicably under a treaty signed in Goa. Slowly, the Dutch became the rulers of coastal and outer areas of Ceylon and Indonesia, and the Portuguese were left with smaller pieces of territory than those of the Dutch and the English.
Finally, the Portuguese left Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1658.
Khmelnytsky Uprising was also reported from 1648 to 1657.
Before the Khmelnytsky uprising, magnates had sold and leased certain privileges to arendators ((leaseholders), many of whom were Jewish, who earned money from the collections they made for the magnates by receiving a percentage of an estate's revenue. By not supervising their estates directly, the magnates left it to the leaseholders and collectors to become objects of hatred to the oppressed and long-suffering peasants. Khmelnytsky (He was a Ruthenian nobleman and military commander of Ukrainian Cossacks) told the people that the Poles had sold them as slaves "into the hands of the accursed Jews." With this as their battle cry, Cossacks and the peasantry massacred numerous Jewish and Polish–Lithuanian townsfolk, as well as szlachta (noble class) during the years 1648–1649.
Estimates of the death toll of the Khmelnytsky uprising are estimated as 4 million.
Jews were subject to a wide range of restrictions throughout most of European history. The practice of their religions was often restricted, and they had to swear special oaths. Jews were not allowed to vote, where voting existed, and some countries formally prohibited their entry, such as Norway, Sweden, and Spain after the expulsion in the late 15th century.
In 1790, in the United States, President George Washington gave them some rights including the right to practice their religion, with all other Americans. On September 28, 1791, revolutionary France emancipated its Jewish population. The 40,000 Jews living in France at the time were the first to confront the opportunities and challenges offered by emancipation.
With this timeline, a part of Sri Lanka was ruled by the Dutch. The Dutch presence in Sri Lanka lasted 150 years, officially from 1658 when the Dutch expelled the Portuguese, until 1796, the year of the British occupation. The other part of Sri Lanka was ruled by Kandyan monarchs, King Vimaladharmasuriya I and Rajasinghe II were the most prominent rulers.
Britain conquered Palestine from the Ottoman Empire during 1917-18. Following the Great War, British rule
in Palestine was administered under a League of Nations 'Mandate' until 1948. Unlike other colonies, this
mandate aimed to lead the native population to self-government and independence. In 1921, the
Country of Jordan was created by the British.
Under the rule of Adolf Hitler and after the Nazi Party achieved power in Germany in 1933, its state-sponsored
racism led to anti-Jewish legislation, economic boycotts, and violence. After the September 1939
German invasion of Poland (the beginning of World War II), and after the June 1941 German invasion of the
Soviet Union, these murderers began massive killing operations aimed at entire Jewish communities.
Six million Jewish men, women, and children were killed during the Holocaust—two-thirds of the Jews
living in Europe before World War II.
With this unfortunate event, Jews demanded full implementation of the Balfour Declaration.
The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during
the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people"
in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population.
Although the United States supported the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which favored the establishment of
a Jewish national home in Palestine, President Franklin D. Roosevelt assured the Arabs in 1945 that the
United States would not intervene without consulting both the Jews and the Arabs in that region.
The British, who held a colonial mandate for Palestine until May 1948, opposed both the creation of
a Jewish state and an Arab state in Palestine as well as unlimited immigration of Jewish refugees to the region.
Great Britain wanted to preserve good relations with the Arabs to protect its vital political and economic interests
in Palestine.
Throughout 1947, the United Nations Special Commission on Palestine examined the Palestinian question and
recommended the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations
adopted Resolution 181 (also known as the Partition Resolution) that would divide Great Britain’s former Palestinian
mandate into Jewish and Arab states in May 1948 when the British mandate was scheduled to end. Under the resolution,
the area of religious significance surrounding Jerusalem would remain a corpus separatum under international control
administered by the United Nations.
But, to date, this agreement has still not materialized. So, unfortunately, History Repeats.
