Answers to Quora Questions by Yair Davidiy
If Israel including the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights were all originally parts of Israel before the Muslim conquest, then why do many Muslims believe that Palestine belongs to them?
https://www.quora.com/If-Israel-including-the-West-Bank-the-Gaza-Strip-and-Golan-Heights-were-all-originally-parts-of-Israel-before-the-Muslim-conquest-then-why-do-many-Muslims-believe-that-Palestine-belongs-to-them/answer/Yair-Davidiy
(21 March, 2018, 5 Nisan, 5778)
I cannot, and should not, answer on behalf of the Muslims. My impression is that the Muslims do not really care who was there before them. What difference would it make for them? They are here now or waiting to come in.
The powers that be in the Muslim World have decided that the State of Israel and all the Jews in it need to be obliterated. Some of them (e.g. Hamas in announcements by its officials) have said that not only in Israel but everywhere in the world must the Jews be all killed.
Do you think an academic discussion concerning historical niceties is going to affect them? The Muslims say their belief is true. To their mind, they have the first priority in everything. Nothing else makes any difference. They have also decided that the Palestinians must sacrifice themselves in order to help destroy the Jewish State of Israel.
As far as I understand,
First Semites dwelt in the land, then Canaanites, then mainly Hebrews with some Canaanites, then Assyrians, and Babylonians, and non-Israelite Samaritans. Later the Jews from Judah who were part of the original Hebrews came back in part from Babylon in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Through wars, increased immigration of Jews from the Babylonian Diaspora, and natural increase, Judah came once again to dominate much of the land. Then the Macedonian Greeks came and Hellenized all the non-Jews. Then the Romans came and eventually drove out the Jews but some came back. Then came the Byzantines who were Christian Romans but spoke Greek, liked fancy clothing, and disliked Jews. The Jews rebelled and almost got the land back but were betrayed by their pagan Persian allies. Then came the Arabs. The Arabs made many of the pagans become Muslim. The Land changed hands several times. The Ottoman Turks took it over. Its Muslim inhabitants considered themselves Syrians. The area deteriorated drastically and most of the Muslims left. There were not that many of them who stayed. Then the Jews started coming back. The British took control. Jewish and British investment and rebuilding of the Land attracted Muslims from all over the place. Jews employed them often preferring Arab workers to Jewish ones, as they still do in some places. Jews also returned in large numbers having been killed and persecuted nearly everywhere else. Then came the War of Independence, the War of 1967, and the Yom Kippur War.
That is about it in short BUT a more detailed account would have a lot more permutations inserted within it.
Can you make sense out of all that?
Decide who was first and who was not?
God gave the Land to the Jewish People. The Jews have a duty to dwell in the land and not to let non-Jews permanently dwell in it. End of story.
The Muslims have a similar attitude but God spoke to the Israelite Nation at Mount Sinai and not to the Ishmaelite (Arab) peoples.