Monday, June 30, 2014

The True Origin of 'Allah': The Archaeological Record Speaks

At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus. G.S.

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The True Origin of 'Allah':
The Archaeological Record Speaks
https://sites.google.com/site/islamrkntv/09-a-the-true-origin-of-allah-the-archaeological-record-speaks
A. The Name of God in the Bible

The God of the Old Testament is known as YHWH ()or, when pointed with the correct vowels, Yahweh. This translates as "The Self-Existent One", being derived from the Hebrew háwáh, meaning "to exist". As Allah is the name of God on the Muslim Koran (or Quran), so Yahweh is the Name of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Bible. What is particularly interesting and significant is the fact that Yahweh never appears as the name of of any deity outside the Bible. There is no record anywhere of any other tribe or religion which worhipped Yahweh. The Hebrew Name of God is unique to the Bible and its chosen people. From this alone we may deduce that the Name "Yahweh" was not borrowed from some other culture or religion. It emerged unquely within the Bible revelation.

It is claimed by Muslims that Allah is the God of the Bible and that he is mentioned in the sacred texts. This is absolutely not true. The name "Allah" does not appear once in either the Old or New Testaments. The only time God is referred to by name in the Old Testament is either as YAHWEH (meaning "He (who) is") or as a contraction, YAH. [Please note that the name "Jehovah" is not a biblical name of God but was especially 'created' by Jews afraid to pronounce the Sacred Name by combining the consonants YHWH with the vowels from adonai, meaning "Lord"].

The word alah does exist in Hebrew but it is not a proper name and it never refers to God. It has three principal meanings: (a) to curse, swear, or adjure; (b) to lament (weep); and (c) to arise, ascend, climb, go away, leap, etc.. It is an indisputable fact that ALLAH does not appear even once as the Name of God, or even of a man, in the Hebrew Scriptures. There is no word 'alah' or 'allah' in the Greek New Testament at all. It was, quite simply, unknown in the Bible world. To therefore claim that 'Allah' was the name of God in the Bible is without one single shred of evidence. God has always been known as Yahweh, or (much less frequently) by the contraction Yah.

B. Origin of the Name Allah

The word "Allah" comes from the compound Arabic word, al-ilah. Al is the definite article "the" and ilah is an Arabic word for "god", i.e. the god. We see immediately that (a) this is not a proper name but a generic name rather like the Hebrew El (which as we have seen was used of any deity; and (b) that Allah is not a foreign word (as it would have been if it had been borrowed from the Hebrew Bible) but a purely Arabic one. It would also be wrong to compare "Allah" with the Hebrew or Greek for God (El and Theos, respectively), because "Allah" is purely an Arabic term used exclusively in reference to an Arabic deity.

The Encyclopedia of Religion says: "'Allah' is a pre-Islamic name ... corresponding to the Baylonian Bel" (ed. James Hastings, Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1908, I:326).

I know that Muslims will find this hard to believe so I am now going to make many citations and present the archaeological evidence to prove conclusively that is true. Though this data will be painful for many of our readers, it is necessary to face the truth. Facts are facts, and unless you are willing to desert all logic, reason and common sense, and the evidence of your eyes, they must be faced.

C. Archaeology of the Moon-God

Pre-Islamic and Islamic Crescent-and-Star Glyphs Anatolian (left), Islamic (centre), Ancient Persian Moon-goddess (right)

Muslims worship a deity called Allah and claim that the Allah in pre-Islamic times was the biblical God, Yahweh, of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles.

Ahmed Deedat, well-known Muslim apologist, argues that Allah is a biblical name for God on the basis of "Allelujah" which he convolutes into "Allah-lujah" (What is His Name?, Durban, SA: IPCI, 1990, p.37). This only reveals that he does not understand Hebrew, for haleluyah is the contracted form of Yahweh, YAH, preceeded by the verb "to praise" (literally, Praise Yah(weh)!). His other "biblical" arguments are equally absurd. He also claims that the word "Allah" was never corrupted by paganism. "Allah is a unique word for the only God ... you cannot make a feminine of Allah", says Deedat. But what he does not tell his readers is that one of Allah's daughters was named "Al-Lat", which is the feminine form of "Allah"!

The issue here is therefore seen to be one of CONTINUITY for the Muslim's claim of continuity (from Judaism to Christianity to Islam) is essential in their attempt to convert Jews and Christians. If "Allah" is part of the flow of divine revelation in Scripture, then it is the next step in biblical religion. Thus we should all become Muslims. But, on the other hand, if Allah was a pre-Islamic pagan deity, then its core claim is refuted.

Religious claims often come to grief as a result of solid scientific, archaeological evidence. So, instead of endlessly speculating about the past, we can look to science to see what the evidence reveals. As we shall see, the hard evidence demonstrates that the god Allah was a pagan deity. In fact, he was the moon-god who was married to the sun-goddess and the stars were his daughters.

Archaeologists have uncovered temples to the moon-god throughout the Middle East. From the mountains of Turkey to the banks of the Nile, the most widespread religion of the ancient world was the worship of the moon-god. It was even the religion of the patriarch Abraham before Yahweh revealed Himself and commanded him to leave his home in Ur of the Chaldees and migrate to Canaan.

Archaeologists have uncovered temples to the moon-god throughout the Middle East (see the artistic reconstruction above based on museum artifacts, wall paintings found in ruined cities, etc. in ancient Mesopotamia). From the mountains of Turkey to the banks of the Nile, the most widespread religion of the ancient world was the worship of the moon-god.

Conclusion

The pagan Arabs worshipped the moon god Allah by praying toward Mecca several times a day; making a pilgrimage to Mecca; running around the temple of the moon-god called the Kabah; kissing the black stone; killing an animal in sacrifice to the moon-god; throwing stones at the devil; fasting for the month that begins and ends with the crescent moon; giving alms to the poor, and so on.

The fact that the Muslims worship only one god - are monotheists - does not prove that the god they worship is the True God.

LINK for the full article: https://sites.google.com/site/islamrkntv/09-a-the-true-origin-of-allah-the-archaeological-record-speaks

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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

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Monday, June 9, 2014

Opinion: Research shows that global warming isn’t natural - By Shaun Lovejoy, Special to The Gazette June 9, 2014

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Opinion: Research shows that global warming isn’t natural

By Shaun Lovejoy, Special to The Gazette June 9, 2014

https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/editorials/opinion-research-shows-that-global-warming-isnt-natural

Photograph by: Tony Gutierrez , AP

In this Aug. 3, 2011, photo, Texas State Park police officer Thomas Bigham walks across the cracked lake bed of O.C. Fisher Lake in San Angelo, Tex. Global warming is rapidly turning America the beautiful into America the stormy, sneezy and dangerous, according to a federal scientific report. Climate change’s assorted harms “are expected to become increasingly disruptive across the nation throughout this century and beyond,” the National Climate Assessment concluded. The report emphasizes how warming and its all-too-wild weather are changing daily lives, even using the phrase “climate disruption” as another way of saying global warming.

Last year, the Quebec Skeptics Society laid down a challenge: “If anthropogenic global warming is as strong as scientists claim, then why do they need supercomputers to demonstrate it?”

My immediate response was: “They don’t.”

Indeed, in 1896 — before the warming was perceptible — Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius, toiling for a year, predicted that doubling CO2 would increase global temperatures by five to six degrees C. This turns out to be close to modern estimates of how much temperatures would rise in that scenario.

Yet the skeptics’ question resonated.

For decades, scientists have done their best to prove the hypothesis that the warming is human-made. In September’s fifth Assessment Report (AR5), the International Panel on Climate Change concluded that it is “extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century” — thus strengthening its 2007 assessment, which said it was “likely.”

But this consensus among scientists hasn’t stopped climate skeptics from insisting that the computer models are wrong, and that the warming is simply a natural turn of events.

So I decided to tackle the Quebec Skeptics Society challenge by taking a new approach.

Rather than trying to prove that anthropogenic warming is correct, I believe I have conclusively proven, in a study recently published in Climate Dynamics, that natural warming is incorrect: that it has such a tiny probability — less than one per cent; probably less than 0.1 per cent — that it can be dismissed.

The demonstration has two parts: the first uses instrumental data since 1880 to estimate the industrial-period global warming, while the second uses tree rings, ices cores and other proxies to estimate the probability of large temperature changes — on the order of 0.9 degrees C — over 125-year periods during the pre-industrial era. The beauty here is that whereas no scientific theory can ever be proved to be true beyond reasonable doubt, a single decisive experiment can disprove a theory, in this case that the warming is natural. Even better, the disproof doesn’t need supercomputers — only data and a little non-linear geophysics (my field of research).

Within hours of the paper’s findings being disseminated online, one leading contrarian, Lord Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, had deliciously dignified it as “a mephiticly ectoplasmic emanation of the forces of darkness.” A few days later, a Calgary-based group with the Orwellian name of Friends of Science dismissed my study’s conclusion and called on McGill University’s chancellor to retract the university’s press release about it. Their argument: that between January 1663 and December 1762, records show that the temperatures in central England also experienced a changed of 0.9 degrees C, so that my conclusions must be mistaken. However, since all of England is only 0.04 per cent of the globe, this is hardly a global-scale change: the actual global value is only about 0.2 degrees C.

In contrast, much more favourable reactions came from such media as LiveScience, Epoch Times, TheStreet and Radio Canada International.

Without natural variability to fall back on, the only way to avoid the conclusion that the warming is human-made is to invoke a third alternative, a miracle-type hypothesis of the sort “let’s temporarily suspend the laws of physics.”

Where does this leave us in Canada? The axing of the Canadian Fund for Climate and Atmospheric Science (CFCAS) in 2011, which undermined Canadian climate research, is symptomatic of our government’s priorities. Rather than trying to better understand and protect our fragile boreal environment, northern investment has focused on new military installations. Rather than making bold initiatives in carbon-free energies, the government has shamelessly promoted the dirtiest fuels for the richest multinationals. Rather than supporting international efforts to limit climate damage, no matter how imperfect, it has reneged on its Kyoto accord responsibilities and has sabotaged international cooperation.

Here in Quebec, the situation is only a little better. Our enormous hydroelectric capacity enables us (in principle, at least) to decarbonize our economy much more easily. Yet the former Parti Québécois government — now followed by the Liberal government — has blessed the Enbridge pipeline project that will bring us dirty oil, and the government is leaving open the possibility that Anticosti Island may be exploited for petroleum.

When will we take advantage of our unique situation in the world to carve out a role at the forefront of green technologies?

We need to change course, quickly.

Now is the time to invest in a sustainable future.

Shaun Lovejoy is a professor of physics at McGill University. He is also president of the Nonlinear Processes Division of the European Geosciences Union.

https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/editorials/opinion-research-shows-that-global-warming-isnt-natural

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NASA Earth Observatory

Is Current Warming Natural?

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/GlobalWarming/page4.php

In Earth’s history before the Industrial Revolution, Earth’s climate changed due to natural causes not related to human activity. Most often, global climate has changed because of variations in sunlight. Tiny wobbles in Earth’s orbit altered when and where sunlight falls on Earth’s surface. Variations in the Sun itself have alternately increased and decreased the amount of solar energy reaching Earth. Volcanic eruptions have generated particles that reflect sunlight, brightening the planet and cooling the climate. Volcanic activity has also, in the deep past, increased greenhouse gases over millions of years, contributing to episodes of global warming.

A biographical sketch of Milutin Milankovitch describes how changes in Earth’s orbit affects its climate.

These natural causes are still in play today, but their influence is too small or they occur too slowly to explain the rapid warming seen in recent decades. We know this because scientists closely monitor the natural and human activities that influence climate with a fleet of satellites and surface instruments.

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Saturday, March 8, 2014

Can There Ever Be Peace in the Middle East?

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Can There Ever Be Peace in the Middle East?

What is the current situation?

Jerusalem is divided. There are Israeli settlements on the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, which is considered occupied territory along with the Gaza Strip, which is isolated from the rest of the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. There are Palestinian enclaves on Israeli territory, neighbourhoods that consist primarily if not exclusively of Palestinians who for the most part are Israeli citizens.

Israel exercises control of movement in and out of Palestinian territory, causing severe restrictions of movement on Palestinians in the occupied territories; while Palestinians who are Israeli citizens enjoy more freedom of movement and activity.

The Israeli economy is fairly robust while that of the occupied territories is anaemic if not in dire straits. The State of Israel ensures very good to excellent infrastructure support and civil services; while the Palestinian authority can do fairly little for its own and the State of Israel seems rather disinterested about extending these services to the occupied territory.

What do the parties want and need?

The People and the State of Israel need a secure and recognized homeland for the Jewish People, particularly in view of what Jews suffered during the Second World War when some six million Jews were wiped out in the Holocaust and for the first time in their history of several thousand years a serious attempt was made to annihilate them as a people

The State of Israel needs to have its capital in Jerusalem, or at least certain elements and functions of its capital city, given that other elements are already established in Tel Aviv. In addition, both the State and the People of Israel need to live in security on their own territory, without constant fear of attack or terrorist activity.

The Israelis who now live and work in settlements in the West Bank need to maintain their Israeli citizenship, their sense of belonging to the State of Israel, and the responsibilities and benefits they currently enjoy as Israeli citizens.

For their part, the Palestinian People and Palestinian Authority also need a secure and recognized homeland for Palestinian People, given their millennial history of existence as the People of Palestine. Not unlike the Jews – with all due respect for the insufferably severe losses sustained in the Holocaust – the Palestinians in the last almost century have had many of their own people displaced and reduced to the status and sorry lot of refugees.

These refugees need to have their situation resolved, one way or another. Their desire and hope is that they might return to their homeland in Palestine. Practically speaking, it is not likely that they could return to the vineyards and lands, homes and towns they lost. However, they need to be given a place of their own where they might finally land and put down roots and be free at last to leave their refugee camps.

The Palestinians also need to have their capital in Jerusalem, or at least certain elements and functions of their capital, given that like the Israelis, other elements of their capital could exist in another city or town. Again, like the Israelis, Palestinians need to live in security on their own territory, without constant fear of attack or military control, with freedom of movement, work, and freedom to enjoy all the normal activities of life in a civilized society.

What would two neighbouring states look like?

Jerusalem would continue to be a city with international status in view of its value and interest as a religious capital of the world, but also in being the single unified city consisting of capital city elements of the governments and other central public institutions of both Israel and Palestine as two separate sovereign states with unique histories intricately interwoven and entwined with the same land, the same Holy Land. As each state would exercise responsibility for its part of Jerusalem, they would collaborate through a joint mechanism for overall planning and management of the city as a whole.

Dual citizenship could be offered by both Israel and Palestine to those citizens currently living in the other state – Israelis living in Occupied Territory settlements and Palestinians living in Israel – and under certain conditions to other citizens of both countries.

Israelis living in the Jewish settlements in Palestine would become primary citizens of the new sovereign State of Palestine to which they would owe their primary taxes and from which they could expect civil services. Palestine will need time and assistance to bring its infrastructures and public services up to the standard currently offered and enjoyed in Israel.

Palestinians living in Israel, outside the West Bank, Gaza Strip, or East Jerusalem, would continue to be Israeli citizens first, with the same responsibilities and rights as any other Israeli citizen. In addition, they could partake in the new responsibilities and rights of dual citizenship of the State of Palestine.

While each sovereign state would keep and maintain its own military force, there could be a joint and shared military force for the maintenance of peace and order in the shared City of Jerusalem, along their shared borders, and perhaps even along their collective borders with other nations. This would be of particular interest given the relatively small size of the shared lands referred to internationally as “The Holy Land” but also in view of their respective people’s connection with the peoples of the nations of the world. It would be of mutual benefit for these two states to collaborate in assuring together the security of their respective territories. Their partnership could then serve to defuse potential extremist outlooks, demands, or activity.

What would such peaceful cooperation and coexistence cost?

Israel needs to recognize that, despite its right to sovereign existence, international recognition, and security, peace and justice can only come to their land by acknowledging that Palestine also has a legitimate claim to sovereign existence, international recognition, and security. Practically speaking, Israel needs to renounce its demand for sovereignty over the entire territory west of the Jordan River.

Individual sovereignty over the whole territory by only one of the two peoples is not feasible or even just. Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims along with Christians, are all originally Semites and have a shared history on the land. Israel believes that the God of their ancestors gave them the land and led them to occupy it. Nonetheless, many of the original peoples continued to live in the land and coexisted with the Jews.

When the Romans destroyed the Second Temple and crushed that ultimate rebellion, many Jews left the land and increased the population of the Diaspora. It is their descendants who survived the atrocity of the Holocaust and claimed their right of return to the Holy Land. Due to the urgency of their situation, they took measures which in effect displaced thousands of Palestinians for whom this had also been their land for millennia.

The cost to Palestinians is just as high as it is for Israelis. As for Israelis, so Palestinians too must recognize that, despite their right to sovereign existence, international recognition, and security, peace and justice can only come to their land by acknowledging that Israel also has a legitimate claim to sovereign existence, international recognition, and security. Practically speaking, Palestinians and all Arabic peoples supporting their cause and demands must also renounce their claim of sovereignty over the entire territory west of the Jordan River.

It is time that the two brothers made peace with one another.

To put this situation in biblical terms, it is time that the two brothers made peace. The time has come for Jacob to be reconciled with his brother Esau and for Esau to be reconciled with his brother Jacob. It is only human and therefore understandable that they came to be estranged, but now that estrangement has lasted far too long and has become far too costly for it to continue unabated.

Out of respect for the many strands and layers of this most complex of demographic situations, one could also say that the time has come for Sara to be reconciled with Hagar, and for Hagar to be reconciled with Sara; that Abraham may finally have peace between the two mothers of his only sons. The time has come for Isaac to be reconciled with his estranged and only brother Ishmael, and for Ishmael to rediscover and be reconciled with is long lost brother Isaac. They were estranged due to the human frailty and insecurity of their mothers and also the inability of Abraham to settle the matter amicably without alienating his two women.

Their descendants have suffered long enough and they have forgotten their shared history for far too long. The time has come for everyone to remember – not only the parts of our history that we favour and that we use to repel one another – but to remember the whole history that has bound us inextricably and irrevocably together.

While there are irreducible differences stemming from our respective faiths with their religious ramifications, requirements, and practices; nevertheless, it is possible to venture into a common space and time of peace in which each can summon the noblest and best of human attitudes and dispositions of will to at long last find deep within a capacity and willingness to show the other sufficient respect to grant their need for existence, freedom, and respect.

Though our respective claims relating us to the one Godhead may diverge and even at times contradict or exclude one another’s beliefs and claims, could we not out of respect for the One True God at the very least acknowledge one another and allow one another to exist, if not actually go further and collaborate for a mutually shared and supportive existence for our respective peoples?

Written in no one’s name but my own and out of shared reverence for the God of the Jews – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Christians – Jesus the Lord, Son of God the Father and made man by the Holy Spirit, and the God of the Muslims – Allah who called and sent his prophet Mohammad; given, after all, that these peoples all lay claim to belief in the One True God and that there can only be One True God – and that there can be no other god.

Fr Gilles A. Surprenant
Roman Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Montreal
1071 Rue de la Cathédrale, Montréal QC CANADA

abbagilles@gmail.com

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Thursday, February 27, 2014

Israel Palestine Joint History – Links

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Israel Palestine Joint History – Links

PRIME – Peace Research Institute in the Middle East joint history school text project

Crossing the Border – Interview of the late Israeli Professor Dan Bar-On, social psychologist, and educator Palestinian Professor Sami Adwan, both 2007 Fulbright Scholars-in-Residence at Monmouth University, NJ, by Dr Saliba Sarsar of Monmouth University

RESOURCES at PRIME – News, Projects, Essays, Summaries, Early Studies – links

Learning Each Other’s Historical Narrative

Israel-Palestine: Creative Regional Initiatives (IPCRI), formerly known as Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information is a nonprofit think tank that combines research with peace-building actions and advocacy across Israel and Palestine. Our mission is to engage policymakers and the public at large in ending the occupation and promoting a just and sustainable end to the conflict.

Israeli-Palestinian schoolbook Project

The “Portrayal of the Other” in Palestinian and Israeli school books

This project was initiated by the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land in Jerusalem, in August 2009.

Joint Israeli-Palestinian Research Group Endorses Concept Behind New Israeli-Arab Textbook

Meeting today in Braunschweig, the Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (PRIME) and the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) expressed strong support for Israeli Education Minister Yuli Tamir`s approval of a new approach for the teaching of history in Israeli Arab schools. The new approach, according to Minister Tamir, presents "both the Israeli and Palestinian versions" of Israel`s creation in 1948, providing for the first time some space for Israeli-Arabs to give expression to the conflicts that exist in their identity as Palestinian Arabs who are citizens of Israel.

Israel-Palestinian Negotiations: History & Overview from the Jewish Virtual Library

From Alternative News – 300 Palestinians, Israelis: yes to joint struggle, no to normalisation

Published on 12 January 2014 Written by Alternative Information Center (AIC)

Thoughts on a joint but unequal Palestinian-Israeli struggle By Noa Shaindlinger

Israeli activists have joined Palestinians in demonstrations throughout the West Bank for a decade, in what some have come to bill a ‘joint struggle.’ But the apparent disparity between the daily realities of Israelis and Palestinians beckons the question: What is the role of Israelis in the Palestinian struggle for liberation?

Noa Shaindlinger is a PhD student at the University of Toronto, a human rights activist and citizen journalist.

The Atkin Paper Series – Collaborating for Peace? Assessing the Work of Palestinian-Israeli Joint Organisations since the Oslo Accords by Oday Abukaresh June 2009

Peacebuilding: Israel and Palestine

This page provides links to selected organizations and services involved in peacebuilding in Israel and Palestine. There is also information about research resources including news sources and resource websites on Israel and Palestine. In keeping with a broad definition of "peacebuilding," this set of links includes both government and civil society organizations, agencies and individuals working in areas of conflict resolution, violence prevention, human rights, legal development and governance. Readers are invited to contribute information that will enhance the purposes and completeness of Israel and Palestine Peacebuilding Links.

PLEASE NOTE: Peacemakers Trust has created these links for research purposes only, and cannot take responsibility for content of third party websites. Inclusion of a link to a site does not imply endorsement of or association with Peacemakers Trust.

Issue 5 July 2013 – QUEST Issues in Contemporary Jewish History – Journal of Fondatione CDEC

Israelis and Palestinians Seeking, Building and Representing Peace. A Historical Appraisal edited by Marcella Simoni - Introduction - Civil Society - Historiography - The single thought - Organization of the volume – From the call for papers to the issue

See the links to each article at the bottom of the general page as linked above.

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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Population of Ottoman and Mandate Palestine - Statistical and Demographic Considerations - The Population of Palestine Prior to 1948

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Population of Ottoman and Mandate Palestine
Statistical and Demographic Considerations

The Population of Palestine Prior to 1948

Introduction

The population figures for mandatory and Turkish Palestine are of historical interest and figure in many historical debates. The Zionist claim that Palestine was "a land without a people" is challenged by pro-Palestinian historians who cite census figures showing a substantial Palestinian-Arab population by 1914. The Zionists note that most of this increase seems to have occurred after 1880, when Jews began developing Palestine. In particular, Joan Peters ("From Time Immemorial") claimed that a large proportion of the population increase among Arabs was due to immigration. Pro-Palestinian historians try to make a case that Zionist settlement had begun displacing Palestinians before 1948.

The goal of the present is to examine the claims in the light of the best available statistical data, without supporting the contentions of either side, and without any intention either to denigrate from the tragedy of Palestinian refugees or to use the data to question Jewish claims to Palestine. The moral claims of the sides should not depend on percentages of population. In practice, I am aware that the data on this page have been used to support various partisan claims. That is precisely the sort of abuse that this material is intended to fight. The major conclusion is "The nature of the data do not permit precise conclusions about the Arab population of Palestine in Ottoman and British times" Anyone who pretends otherwise is deliberately misleading you. We can reach some general conclusions - Palestine was not empty when Zionists started arriving, there was some Arab immigration as well etc. But we cannot give a precise number in any case, and even if we could, it would not constitute evidence to back any moral claims.

http://www.mideastweb.org/palpop.htm

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Israel Palestine and Human History

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Israel Palestine and Human History

Origin of the Human Species

More than one theory has arisen positing the origins of all human beings alive today in one particular place on the planet. For a time it was thought we originated in Asia, but now the growing consensus traces our origins back to the African subcontinent.

How the Cradle of Humankind came to be located in South Africa

PBS – Hominid Family Tree text version

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The New York Times May 5, 2008 The Human Family Tree: 10 Adams and 18 Eves

By NICHOLAS WADE Published: May 2, 2000

Neanderthal genomics and the evolution of modern humans by James P. Noonan

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Human Genes programmed by ET or by the CREATOR?

Analyzing human DNA and theorizing its origins and changes – we seem to contain in our DNA some dormant code that if activated would eliminate disease, heighten intellectual and perhaps spiritual activity and capability, and geometrically increase longevity.

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National Geographic Geno 2.0: The Greatest Journey Ever Told ONLINE VIDEO Introduction

ABOUT the project An offer to track your personal DNA origins on Earth US$199 + costs

Your Story. Our Story. The Human Story. Since its launch in 2005, National Geographic’s Genographic Project has used advanced DNA analysis and worked with indigenous communities to help answer fundamental questions about where humans originated and how we came to populate the Earth. Now, cutting-edge technology is enabling us to shine a powerful new light on our collective past. By participating in the latest phase of this real-time scientific project, you can learn more about yourself than you ever thought possible. You will also help support the Genographic Legacy Fund, which works to conserve and revitalize indigenous cultures around the world.

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How Stuff Works – Are we all descended from a common female ancestor? by Josh Clark

Research posit the theory that all humans alive today are descended from a single female – called Mitochondrial Eve thought to have lived ca 200,000 years ago, or in response to critiques about the timing of evolutionary changes, from 500,000 to 50,000 years ago.

The two distinct branches they discovered contained the mtDNA found in the five main populations on the planet: African, Asian, European, Australian and New Guinean. Researchers found that in the branch that was not exclusively African, racial populations often had more than one lineage. For example, one New Guinean lineage finds its closest relative in a lineage present in Asia, not New Guinea. All of the lineages and both of the two branches, however, can all be traced back to one theorized point: Mitochondrial Eve.

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Wikipedia – Mitrochondrial Eve Unlike her biblical namesake, she was not the only living human female of her time. However, her female contemporaries, except her mother, failed to produce a direct unbroken female line to any living woman in the present day.

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Wikipedia – Y-chromosomal Adam Theoretically, it is not necessary to believe that Y-chromosomal Adam and Mitochondrial Eve should have lived at the same time.^[9]^[10] However, latest findings in 2013 give the possibility that the two individuals could have been contemporaneous.

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Wikipedia – Human evolution is the evolutionary process leading up to the appearance of modern humans. While it began with the last common ancestor of all life, the topic usually covers only the evolutionary history of primates, in particular the genus Homo, and the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species of hominids (or "great apes"). The study of human evolution involves many scientific disciplines, including physical anthropology, primatology, archaeology, ethology, linguistics, evolutionary psychology, embryology and genetics.

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How Mitochondrial Eve connected all humanity and rewrote human evolution Examining Mitochondrial Eve and Y-Chromosomal Adam By Alasdair Wilkins

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Does Genetics Point to a Single Primal Couple? At present it appears not. April 5, 2010:

The Biologos Forum – Science and Faith in Dialogue Today's entry was written by Dennis Venema and Darrel Falk. You can read more about what we believe here.

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The Biologos Forum – Science and Faith in Dialogue Paul’s Adam, Part I March 9, 2010

Today's entry was written by Pete Enns. You can read more about what we believe here.

Paul’s Adam, Part II Paul’s Adam, Part III Paul’s Adam, Part IV

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University of Missouri-Kansas City The Two Stories of Creation

Migration and the Differentiation of Race

A cursory review of the literature and reports online shows that there is manifest among scientists of various disciplines a growing consensus that all human beings alive on Planet Earth today can trace our origins to the African subcontinent. Sufficient tens of thousands of years have elapsed to have allowed for migrations and the evolutionary process to differentiate us into the different major races: African, European, Asian, Australian, and New Guinean.

Where Science and Divine Revelation Meet

Lost Civilization beneath the Persian Gulf Confirms Genesis History of Humanity By Dr. Hugh Ross

Reasons to Believe February 28, 2011 The description of “The Garden” no longer fits geography because that fertile land where the four rivers met is now below the Persian Gulf.

Adam & Eve – Abel & Cain, Seth The Tower of Babel

Noah, his Ark and the Flood Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Esau

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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

History of the Middle East - Timelines

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History of the Middle East

c. 4000-2000 BC	-	Kingdoms in Egypt, Sumer, and Babylonia
New Kingdom in Egypt, Kingdoms in Phoenicia and Assyria. The first thoughts on monotheism emerge.	-	c. 1000 BC
500-400 BC	-	The Persian empire (Iran) conquers the Middle East.
Alexander the Great of Macedonia defeats the Persians and claims the Middle East.	-	334 BC
c. 200-300 BC	-	The Romans gain control over all of the Middle East except for Persia.
Life of Mohammed - founds the religion of Islam, and leads the beginning of an Arab-Islamic empire that will soon hold sway over the entire Middle East.	-	570-632 AD
661-750	-	Umayyad Dynasty gains control over Arab-Islamic empire and greatly expands its territories. The empire spreads westward throughout North Africa, north into Spain, and eastward to the borders of India and China.
The Abassid Dynasty, the second major one of the Arab-Islamic empire, gains control and moves the capital to Baghdad. Middle East enjoys a prosperous period of advances in science and technology.	-	759-1258
10th Century	-	decline in control of Abassids empire allows the Seljuks, a Turkish people, to gain control over much of Asia Minor and the Persian Empire to break free.
Tales of Middle East riches and desire to reclaim Holy Land for Christianity inspire European kingdoms to proclaim series of crusades against Muslim empires of the Middle East. Though crusades were to have some success in holding Holy Land territory, longest lasting effects - in Europe people exposed to many new ideas.	-	11-13th century
13th centuries	-	Mongol invasions in the Middle East devastate Iraq and Iran and end remains of the Arab-Islamic Empire.
Ottoman empire gains control over Constantinople renames Istanbul. Earlier Turkish success grew into Ottoman Empire which will continue to expand until it controls nearly all Middle East except for Iran.	-	1453
19th century	-	MEast Muslim empires decline. The Ottoman Empire loses territory & influence to Russia & Austria
Muhammed Ali westernizes Egypt, asserting some independence from the Ottoman Empire.	-	1805-1848
1914-1918	-	The Ottoman Empire sides with Germany during World War I. The resulting loss causes the empire to be broken up. Much of its territory is devided between France and Britain, but modern day Turkey successfully defends itself against Greek invasion.
The Sykes-Picot agreement between France and Britain secretly promises to divide Ottoman holdings in the Middle East between the nations.	-	1916
July 1915-March 1916	-	The McMahon Correspondences between Sir Hanry McMahon, British High Commisioner of Cairo, and the Sherif Hussein of Mecca apparently promise Arab independence in large portions of the Middle East, including Palestine, which is today Israel.
Balfour Declaration by the British clearly expresses support for a Jewish state in Palestine, clearly at odds with the earlier McMahon Correspondences.	-	November 2, 1917
Febuary 8, 1922	-	Egypt gains its independence.
Turkey gains its independence.	-	October 29, 1923
1929	-	White Paper, released by British, placed severe limits on Jewish immigration into Palestine and stated the British government did not plan Palestine to become a Jewish state. This proclamation was obviously in contradiction with the Balfour Declaration.
Iraq gains its independence.	-	1932
1932	-	Saudi Arabia gains its independence.
The Peel Commission from Britain reports that great tension exists between Jews and Muslims and suggests a plan of partition for the region.	-	1937
November 26, 1941	-	Lebanon gains its independence.
Jordan gains its independence.	-	1946
1947	-	With the British mandate, a right to administer over the region of Palestine soon expiring, the UN proposes a plan of partition for the region, which would create both a Jewish state and an Arab state when the British mandate runs out.
State of Israel declares its independence immediately following the end of the British mandate. Immediately after, the surrounding Arab nations invaded the new State of Israel. After the war the Arab League placed an embargo, or prohibition against trading, on Israel.	-	May 14, 1948
1948-1949	-	Following Israel's declaration of independence, forces from surrounding Arab nations, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, launched all out, but uncoordinated attack on vastly outnumbered Israel. However, Israel managed to avoid being driven into the sea and expanded their territory over the original UN partition plan before an armistice was signed.
After breakdowns in talks with Arab nations, Egypt closing Suez Canal and Strait of Tiran, Israel's Red Sea access, to Israeli shipping, Israel invaded Egypt, quickly took control of Gaza & Sinai Peninsula, and was aided by the French and the British angry with Egyptian President Abdel Nasser's handling of the Suez Canal. UN, backed by United States and Soviet Union, ended the war and forced the invading nations to leave Egypt, but Israel only abandoned Gaza when the US promised to help keep the Strait of Tiran open.	-	November-October 1956
September 29, 1961	-	Syria gains its independence.
Kuwait gains its independence.	-	1961
June 5-10, 1967	-	Six-Day War between Israel & alliance Egypt, Syria, and Jordan militarily began when Israel launched a pre-emptive air strike that decimated the air forces of opposing nations, but truly began weeks earlier when Egypt began declaring military superiority over Israel and its desire to destroy the nation. Egypt again closed the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships and ships carrying supplies for Israel = constituting legal grounds to go to war under international law. In the fierce fighting that followed Israel's air strike, the Arab armies were devastated, Israel gaining control of Sinai peninsula from Egypt, West Bank of Jordan River from Jordan, and the strategic Golan Heights from Syria. This short war clearly demonstrated that Isreal was preeminent military power in the Middle East and gained the nation much international attention. It also, however, further entrenched Arab hatred for the State of Israel.
UN Resolution 242 is passed by the United Nations Security Council, and calls for a return of the territory seized by Israel, recognition of Israel by Arab states, a reaffirmation of the principle of free navigation, and for future peace and stability in the region.	-	1967
September 1, 1969	-	Libya gains its independence.
Qatar and United Arab Emirates gain independence.	-	1971
August 14, 1971	-	Bahrain gains its independence.
Many Middle Eastern states placed an oil embargo on nations they saw as favoring Israel in their policies, including the United States. The embargo ended early 1974 and while it did not bring about great changes, it was detrimental to the economies of the nations it was placed upon and harmful to their citizens.	-	1973-1974
October 6, 1973	-	On Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, a day when large portions of the army were on leave to be with their families, the combined armies of Egypt and Syria entered Israel relatively unopposed. Within a week, Israel mobilized its reserve forces and drove the Arab armies back, but not before 2,700 Israeli soldiers were killed, four times the number that had died during the Yom Kippur war.
UN Resolutions 338 and 339 called for an immediate end to the Yom Kippur War, the enforcement of the articles of Resolution 242, and the dispatch of UN observers to oversee the cease fire.	-	October 22-23, 1972
September 17, 1978	-	Convinced by the 1973 Yom Kippur War that Egypt could never defeat Israel in a war, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat sought peace with Israel, the first Arab nation to do so. Sadat met with US President Jimmy Carter & Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin at Camp David. They drew up the Camp David accords which called for peace between Egypt and Israel.
In the Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel drawn up to finalize the actions at Camp David, the nations established normal relations with Israel completely withdrawing from the Sinai.	-	March 26, 1979
1979	-	Iran forms a new government under the leadership of the Ayatollah Khomeini.
June 1982	-	Operation Peace in the Galilee, an Israeli invasion of Lebanon, was Israel's longest and most controversial war. After Israeli ambassador to England wounded in terrorist attack in London, Israel began bombing bases of Palestine Liberation Organization(PLO) in southern Lebanon. PLO had long shelled north Israel and been responsible for various terrorist actions; also primarily based in Lebanon, having been forced out of Jordan in 1970. The PLO increased their shelling in response to the bombing, and Israel invaded Lebanon with hope of destroying the PLO and forming normal relations with the government of Lebanon. After long periods of fighting and the Israeli capture of Beirut, the PLO did leave Lebanon. The operation was not a success though, as the Lebanese president was assassinated, and, in rage, his followers massacred thousands of Palestinian refugees. Israel was held responsible for these massacres and withdrew from much of Lebanon, allowing the PLO to eventually return.
Following the upheaval in Iran, Iraq demanded a renegotiation of the treaty between them, demanding more access to the Persian Gulf and autonomy for the Arab minorities in Iran, a Persian, not Arab, nation. When talks broke down, Iraq invaded Iran making large gains. In 1981 Iran took the offensive and regained most of its territory. The war then continued for seven years as a stalemate with both sides ocurring horrible casualties and attacking neutral shiping in the Persian Gulf. When the war was finally ended by UN Resolution 598, there were an estimated 1 million dead and 1.7 million wounded.	-	1980-July 20, 1987
A popular uprising of Palestinian refugees living in Israel, known as the Intifada caused much distress for Israel. Intifada had no leaders that could be tracked down or bases that could be bombed, for it was made up primarily by young boys and their most common activity was throwing rocks. Intifada was a symbol of the plight of the Palestinian refugees in Israel.	-	1987-1989
May 23, 1990	-	A unified Yemen is formed.
After Iraq revived a dispute with Kuwait and declared that Kuwaiti overproduction of oil was damaging Iraq's economy, Iraq invaded and quickly took over Kuwait. There was international outcry, and the UN demanded that Iraq withdraw from Kuwait by January 15, 1991.	-	August 2, 1990
1991	-	After Iraq refused to comply with UN demands, a multi-national force of some 500,000 men from Arab and Western nations launched major air offensive against Iraq. The Persian Gulf War went badly for Iraq, and they were soon forced from Kuwait and lost large portions of their army. Following the war, Iraq's stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons were destroyed, UN observers were placed in the nation, and it was put under economic sanction.
After a long history of distrust and hatred between Israel and the PLO, the two groups finally made a breakthrough after nearly two years of negotiations when Yasser Arafat of the PLO sent his Declaration of Principles to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The declaration acknowledged the right of Israel to exist, accepted UN Resolution 242 and 338, renounced the use of terrorism, and promised to remove from the Palestinian National Covenant the clauses calling for the destruction of Israel.	-	September 13, 1993
May 4, 1994	-	The Gaza-Jericho Agreement signed between Israel and the PLO, followed up on the Declaration of Principles with a concrete agreement that would establish a Palestinian Authority and Police force with partial authority over Gaza and Jericho, and the withdrawal of the Israeli military from that region. The powers of the Authority were further spelled out in the Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities in August 29, 1994.
Washington Declaration was produced out of the first public meeting of Prime Minister Rabin of Israel and King Hussein of Jordan. This ended the state of hostility between them, affirmed a peace based upon UN Resolutions 242 and 338, and established more open borders between the two nations.	-	July 25, 1994
October 26, 1994	-	A Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty is signed following the Washington Declaration, making Jordan only the second Arab nation to sign a treaty with Israel.
The Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, is assasinated by a Jew who is opposed to his liberal policies on the peace process. Rabin is succeeded by Shimon Peres who promises to continue the work that Rabin had pioneered.	-	*November 5, 1995*
*May 21, 1996*	-	The UN agrees to allow Iraq to sell some oil, despite the embargo, so long as all of the profits go towards humanitarian purposes and to relieve the suffering that the economic strangulation has placed upon Iraq. Iraq opposed the clause in the resolution that required UN monitoring of the sales, but eventually submitted.
Benyamin Netanyahu is elected Prime Minister of Israel by a slim margin over Shimon Peres. Netanyahu promises a hard line towards future peace negotiations, and is less anxious to give up land than Peres and Rabin were. This promises to stall negotiations with Syria, who refuses to accept anything but the full return of the Golan, and the Palestinians who feel threatened by a return to Israeli settlement in the West Bank.	-	*May 31, 1996*

http://library.thinkquest.org/3526/facts/timeline.html

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Timeline for the History of Judaism
(Follow instructions to expand each section.)

History: Timeline for the History of Judaism

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/timeline-for-the-history-of-judaism

Dawn of History (3800-2001 BCE)

Ancient Israelite Religion (2000-587 BCE)

After the Babylonian Exile (538 BCE-70 CE)

Rule of Rome (230 BCE-400 CE)

Rabbinic Period of Talmud Development (70 BCE-500 CE)

Consolidation & Dominance of Christianity (325-590 CE)

Medieval Period in the West (600-1500 CE)

Development of Muhammad's Islamic Message (570-1258 CE)

The Crusades (1095-1258 CE)

Transition & Rebuilding of Political Islam (1258-1500 CE)

Mamluk Rule (1291-1516 CE)

Christian Reformation Period (1517-1569 CE)

Dominance of Ottoman Muslim Empire (1500-1920 CE)

Jewish Contemporary Period (1700-1917 CE)

Unrest & Realignment in the Middle East (1914-1918 CE)

British Rule in Palestine (1918-1947 CE)

Modern Israel & the Diaspora (1948-Present)

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Middle East Timeline - Oxford Art Online

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Timeline of Middle Eastern history - Wikipedia

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