“Muslim” refers to a practitioner of Islam, not ethnic descent. Muhammad founded Islam in the late sixth to early seventh centuries. Muslims have existed for only about 1,400 years, whereas Israel entered the Promised Land around 1400 BC, roughly 3,400 years ago. If “first” defines possession, the land belongs to Israel. Many Middle Eastern peoples identify as Muslim and trace their ancestry to various biblical groups, such as Ishmaelites and Canaanites. Tracing specific origins is difficult because of limited records and centuries of migration and integration, but some today may have descended from the Canaanites, the people who inhabited the land before Israel, or the Philistines in the Gaza region. However, “first” does not define ownership. God created the world (Genesis 1)—all land belongs to Him (Psalm 24:1), and He gives it to whomever He wishes. He gave the land to Abraham’s descendants through Isaac (Genesis 17:19–21; 26:3–4), set its boundaries (Genesis 15:18–21), and brought them there (Deuteronomy 8:7–9). Regardless of who was “first,” the land is Israel’s as an eternal possession (Genesis 17:8). At the same time, regardless of theological or geopolitical position, we are not to hate either side but uphold God's promises with winsome conviction.
The Middle East region has always been a hotbed of controversy, but recently, even Christians have taken different sides in the debate over Israel’s existence. One argument often used is that Israel occupies stolen land.
Israel is not perfect, and Christians do not need to agree about everything she, as a nation, does. Additionally, while Scripture anticipates Israel’s return (Ezekiel 37:21–22) and eventual national salvation (Romans 11:25–27), that doesn’t mean that Israel today is the completed fulfillment. So, Christians should be careful not to unquestioningly accept everything the nation does.
However, because God gave Israel the land as an everlasting possession, Christians would do well to avoid accusing Israel of not belonging there. Such arguments ignore God's right to place them where He wishes. It also forgets that even the “first” people in an area were there only because God originally placed them there.
What, then, of the Muslim claim to the land? Or, more specifically, since “Muslim” is a religion, what of the Palestinian and Arab (who are generally Muslim, but also sometimes Christian) claims on the land?
Theologically, it’s complicated. Since Israel began, many have hated her just for existing (Exodus 1:8–10; Esther 3:8–9; Psalm 83:2–5). The extraordinary persistence of antisemitism throughout history is difficult to explain as merely political. Because of this, Christians need to be aware that desires to remove or supplant Israel may have a spiritual dimension and, unfortunately, claims to the land are sometimes a disguise for that hatred.
Politically, we must understand that the modern political dispute over the land did not begin with the creation of Israel in 1948. For centuries, the land was part of the Ottoman Empire, which controlled Palestine until World War I. In 1917, British forces captured Jerusalem and much of the region from the Ottomans, and Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, expressing support for a Jewish national home in Palestine while also promising to protect the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish population. In 1922, the League of Nations formally granted Britain the Mandate for Palestine, which incorporated the Balfour Declaration; during the Mandate (1922–1947), Jewish immigration increased significantly, particularly as Jews fled persecution and later the Holocaust, while Palestinian Arabs increasingly opposed Jewish immigration and demands for a Jewish national home.
Violence between Jewish and Arab communities and against the British escalated throughout the 1930s and 1940s. In 1947, Britain turned the problem over to the newly formed United Nations, which proposed dividing the territory into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under an international regime. The Jewish leadership accepted the plan in principle, while Palestinian Arab leadership and surrounding Arab states rejected it. On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel, and neighboring Arab states entered the ensuing war. By the end of the 1948–49 Arab-Israeli War, Israel controlled more territory than the UN partition plan had originally allotted to the proposed Jewish state; Jordan controlled the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians became refugees during the war, an event Palestinians call the Nakba (“catastrophe”).
In 1967, Israel fought Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in the Six-Day War and captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, Sinai Peninsula, and Golan Heights. Israel later returned Sinai to Egypt under the 1979 peace treaty, withdrew its permanent ground forces and settlements from Gaza in 2005, and has continued to control or occupy varying territories and exercise different levels of authority over the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The result is a history in which Jews have a profound ancient and biblical connection to the land, Palestinian Arabs have longstanding roots and experienced displacement and loss, and modern governments and international bodies have repeatedly changed the political boundaries and administration of the territory. It's complicated.
Regardless of your theological position on modern Israel, take care that you don’t fall into the hatred-trap. Everyone was created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26–27), and He sets the boundaries of everyone (Acts 17:26). Hatred of any person or people group is sin (1 John 2:9–11), and believers should tread carefully not to allow contemporary geopolitics to lead them to deny God’s promises.
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