Greg Bouwer
IINZ
A persistent myth circulates in academic circles, activist campaigns, and social media echo chambers: that prior to the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948, Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together in the land of Israel – then often referred to as “Palestine” – in a utopia of peaceful coexistence. According to this narrative, it was the rise of Zionism and the birth of Israel that fractured this supposed interfaith harmony.
This is a seductive story. It flatters the modern imagination with nostalgia for a lost age of tolerance. It is also demonstrably false.
The historical record paints a far more complex and often harrowing picture, especially for the Jewish and Christian minorities who lived under centuries of Islamic rule. Far from a golden age of equality and mutual respect, life for non-Muslims in the Holy Land was, at best, precarious – and at worst, brutal.
Dhimmitude: Institutionalised Subjugation
From the seventh century Arab conquest onward, the Jewish and Christian communities in the land became dhimmis – a status that afforded them limited protection in exchange for heavy restrictions. Under Islamic law, dhimmis were subject to systemic discrimination: they could not bear arms, testify against Muslims in court, build new places of worship, or ride horses. They were required to pay the jizya tax simply for being non-Muslim and were often required to wear distinctive clothing.
This was not coexistence – it was subjugation. While the severity of enforcement varied by ruler and era, the legal and social inferiority of Jews and Christians was an enduring reality for over a millennium.
As historian Bernard Lewis noted in The Jews of Islam, while Jews in Muslim lands were not treated with the genocidal fanaticism of Christendom at its worst, they “were never free from discrimination, never sure of their lives or possessions, never secure from the outbreak of fanatical violence.”
Pogroms and Massacres Long Before 1948
Even before political Zionism emerged in the late 19th century, Jews in Palestine were subject to mob violence and persecution:
- In 1834, during Egyptian rule, Arab rebels looted and burned Jewish homes in Safed and murdered residents.
- In 1838, a mob of Muslims and Druze attacked Jews and Jewish sites in Safed.
- In 1920, incited by Arab nationalists and Islamic leaders, riots broke out in Jerusalem during the Nebi Musa festival. Arab mobs attacked Jewish neighborhoods: five Jews were killed, and hundreds were wounded.
- The 1929 Hebron massacre remains one of the darkest chapters: Arabs massacred 67 Jews – many of whom had lived there peacefully for generations – while British police failed to intervene. Survivors were forced to flee, ending centuries of continuous Jewish presence.
- From 1936 to 1939, the Arab Revolt claimed hundreds of Jewish lives. It targeted both Jewish civilians and British officials and was driven by a rejection of Jewish immigration and presence in the land.
This list is far from complete, with other incidents occurring prior to the foundation of the modern State of Israel. For more reading, try camera or cija.
This violence was not a reaction to a modern Jewish state – it preceded it. Nor was it merely political – it was often cloaked in religious hatred.
Christians Fared No Better
Christians too suffered under Islamic rule in the region. While often overlooked in contemporary discussions, Christian holy sites were frequently defiled or restricted under Ottoman authorities. Christian communities in Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem lived with the same legal and social disabilities as Jews.
European consuls in the 19th century reported frequent abuses: forced conversions, harassment, and violent reprisals against Christian pilgrims and clergy. In times of social upheaval, Christians — seen as linked to foreign colonial powers — became scapegoats. The 1860 massacre of Christians in Damascus, in which over 3,000 were murdered, illustrates how fragile Christian life in the region was.
Even into the 20th and 21st centuries, Christians have continued to face discrimination and persecution across the Middle East. Bethlehem – once a Christian-majority city – has seen its Christian population dwindle, not because of Israel, but due to systemic harassment under Palestinian Authority rule and the rise of Islamist extremism. This pattern of persecution extends beyond the Holy Land: Christian communities in Nigeria and Syria have also suffered violent attacks, including incidents as recent as last month.
The Mufti and the Rise of Islamic Nationalism
By the 1920s and ’30s, anti-Jewish incitement was no longer sporadic – it had become institutionalised, with the ascent of Haj Amin al-Husseini, the British-appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Al-Husseini combined Islamic revivalism with Arab nationalism and imported antisemitic tropes from Europe. He orchestrated pogroms, opposed Jewish immigration, and later aligned himself with Adolf Hitler, broadcasting Nazi propaganda to the Arab world and recruiting Muslims for the SS.
His leadership marked a dangerous shift. Jews were no longer merely second-class subjects under Islamic rule; they were now cast as existential enemies in both a nationalist and cosmic struggle. That legacy endures: copies of Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion have been found in Gazan homes, evidence of an ideology that still frames Jews not just as rivals, but as targets of holy war.
What Changed with Zionism?
Zionism did not introduce conflict to the region – it introduced liberation. For the first time in centuries, Jews could return not as subjugated minorities but as free people in their ancestral homeland.
The modern Jewish state enshrined equal rights for all its citizens — Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze. It dismantled the dhimmi system and created opportunities for all. In Israel today, Arab citizens vote, serve in parliament, access world-class healthcare, and attend university at higher rates than their counterparts in surrounding Arab countries.
Yes, the journey has not been without friction. The establishment of Israel disrupted power structures that had long privileged Muslim majorities. Some resisted change with violence. But it is ahistorical – and unjust – to blame the Jewish desire for sovereignty for tensions that were long present and frequently bloody.
Conclusion: Peace Built on Truth, Not Myth
Peaceful coexistence cannot be built on falsehoods. The idea that Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived in peace before Israel’s founding is a politically convenient fiction that ignores centuries of oppression and violence. It shifts blame from aggressors to the victims, and worse, it erases the monumental progress that Zionism and Israel have made for human dignity, religious freedom, and minority rights.
If we want to move forward, we must first be honest about the past. The establishment of Israel was not the beginning of conflict – it was the beginning of Jewish freedom in a land where, for centuries, they had been little more than tolerated outsiders.
That is a truth worth defending.
This article was originally published by the Israel Institute of New Zealand.
