The Middle East is an area situated between Europe and Eastern Asia that has been inhabited by mankind for aeons. The earliest signs of habitation can be seen in cave paintings from 10,000 BC in Jebel Acacus, Libya (Lonely Planet,1). After the change from nomadic to sedentary societies, the first civilization emerged out of Mesopotamia in 5000 BC. A culture known as Al-Ubaid swept across the Gulf Coast in the Middle East. In addition to this, other stone age artifacts were found in Israel, Egypt, and the West Bank. Under the Era of Sumner, Mesopotamia became one of the first major civilizations to exist and rose to power in 4000 BC. By 3100 BC, Egypt was unified under Pharaonic rule and the Levant (modern-day Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey) showed clear signs of habitation and civilization. Notable ethnic groups that settled the ‘Holy Land’ or the Levant at this time were the Canaanites and Amorites. Around 2300 BC, Sargon of Akkad conquered most of the Middle East including the Levant and Mesopotamia.
In 550 BC, the Persian Empire began with the rule and conquest of Cyrus the Great. Over the next several hundred years, the Persian Empire successfully conquered most of the Middle East. This rule would be relatively unchecked until approximately 330 BC when Alexander the Great conquered the Middle East, parts of Asia Minor, Persia, and Northern India (Lonely Planet,1). After the death of Alexander the Great, the empire was divided up and ruled by different groups. Subsequently, the Roman Empire gained majority control of Asia Minor in 188 BC and proceeded to gain control of Syria, Palestine, and Libya in 63 BC. By 31 BC, the Roman Empire had spread and secured the entire Mediterranean world (Lonely Planet, 2). While under Roman rule, the Levant and Middle East were home to various rebellions and feuding factions. Various Jewish uprisings occurred, which increased racial and ethnic tension.
With the rise of Emperor Constantine in 331 AD, the Roman Empire was renamed the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ and all territory under Roman control was consequently Christianized. Later in 570 AD, Prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia (PBS,1). Muhammad spoke out against Paganism in Mecca and later began an Islamic conquest. Despite the death of Prophet Muhammad, Islamic conquest and warfare continued under Caliphs. Twelve years after the death of Muhammad, disputes over leadership within Islam began (PBS,1). These disputes ultimately resulted in a civil war and split Islam into two, often feuding, factions: the Sunni and the Shiite (Ward, 1). The Sunni believed Abu Baker, a friend of Muhammad, should rule, whereas the Shiite believed Muhammad’s son-in-law Ali was entitled to rule. However, this dispute was won by the Sunni and the two groups remain separate to this day (Ward,1). For the next several hundred years much of the Middle East was under Islamic control, with various Islamic leaders and factions rising to power. Despite Islamic control, Jewish and Christian populations were still considerably present in the Middle East (Ward,1).
In 1095 AD, Pope Urban II launched the Crusades through the Middle East and the Levant. The Crusaders, sent by the Pope, were instructed to free the ‘Holy Land’ and various other holy places in Jerusalem. The Crusaders were partly sent to protect Christians from Muslim persecution when voyaging to the Levant, but also represented the necessary force to establish Roman superiority and control (Lonely Planet, 3). After enduring a long battle against 15,000 crusaders, Muslim controlled Jerusalem fell in 1099 AD. After the battle, many Jerusalem inhabitants were massacred and all non-Christian religious sites were sacked. After 50 years of Christian rule, the tides began to shift in favor of the Islamic fighting force, who eventually lost control of Jerusalem only 200 years after its capture (Lonely Planet, 3). Muslim leader Saladin was able to remove the crusaders from the ‘Holy Land’ after 60 years of fighting, only to be overthrown and ruled by the Mamluks, who already ruled Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Western Arabia, for roughly 300 years (Lonely Planet). In 1258, the Mamluks conquered Cairo, Egypt where a boy named Osman converted to Islam and then began hiring mercenaries for conquest of the Byzantine Empire. This marked the beginning of the Ottoman Empire. Osman’s successors began conquering Byzantine territory that proved difficult for them to control. This lead up to the peak of the Ottoman Empire in 1520, which included conquering many Slavic countries in Eastern Europe and the majority of the Middle East and the Levant. By the late 1700’s, European powers began campaigning against the Ottoman Empire and by 1798, Napoleon had conquered Egypt, but lost control shortly after. During this time the Middle East grew more and more dependent on Europe for help.
When World War I began in 1914, the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany and Austria-Hungary and urged Muslims to rise up against their enemies: the British, French, and Russians. At their loss at the hands of the Allies, the Ottoman Empire kept control of their dwindling empire. With the outbreak of World War II, the Ottomans once again sided with Germany and the Axis powers, only to be defeated at the hands of the Allies. After this loss, the Ottoman Empire was stripped of its Arab territory and the Turkish Republic was founded in its place (Lonely Planet, 4). This new Middle Eastern rule was more secular and less focused on Islamic tradition and law. Similarly, in Persia, secular rule took hold in 1934, subsequently renaming Persia to Iran (Lonely Planet, 4).
After World War II and the Holocaust, many leaders pushed for unrestricted Jewish migration to the Middle East and the Levant. This information was brought to the attention of the British government, who controlled a vast amount of this territory. Instead of handling the issue alone, Britain called upon the newly-formed United Nations to rectify the situation. In 1947, the UN voted to divide Palestine. However, this decision was met with immediate outrage and war broke out with major powers, like Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, supporting the Palestinian Arabs in this conflict (Lonely Planet, 5). Nonetheless ‘The disastrous performance of the combined Arab armies in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War had far-reaching consequences for the region’ (Lonely Planet, 5). The war resulted in the establishment of the State of Israel and further division of the Middle East and, more specifically, the Levant.
The divide between the State of Israel and Arabs in the region grew, leading to the Arab-Israeli wars. These wars involved various incursions into Israel and assaults of certain cities like Jerusalem. These wars resulted in Israel still being established, and internationally recognized, as a state. Despite this, tensions between ethnic groups over the ‘Holy Land’ remained. The first attempt at peace was made by Anwar Sadat, who visited Jerusalem in 1977. His visit and subsequent negotiations resulted in a treaty between the two nations. This peace process was short lived because Iran’s Islamic Revolution had began to spread through the Middle East and other Muslim majority nations. This revolution resulted in increased regional tensions and international tensions. In 1979, Islamic militants overran the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran, holding all those captured as hostages. Shortly after, Turkey was overthrown in a military coup and Iraq invaded Iran. This led to a long and bloody conflict between Iraq and Iran which ended with a cease fire in 1988 (Lonely Planet, 6). In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait which triggered the U.S. to launch an attack against Iraqi military personnel and equipment. At the time, Iraq was ruled by the infamous Sadam Hussien. The ‘Oslo Accord’ was signed in 1993 and symbolized peace between Palestinians and Israel. After this, Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel and Lebanon held its first democratic elections. The trend toward peace was ultimately derailed when Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was elected and held a tough stance in relation to Palestinian affairs. After a failed peace talk with the Israelis, the Palestinians launched an intifada, which continues to this day (Lonely Planet, 6). Unfortunately, numerous Palestinian suicide bombings and terrorist attacks were launched against Israel citizens. This further increased ethnic tensions in the Levant and the ‘Holy Land,’ which are still present (Lonely Planet, 7).
The Middle East has been rife with war for thousands of years, which entails being constantly conquered by faction after faction. Ultimately, the majority of the Middle East is dominated by Islamic culture while other religious groups, like Christians and Jews, are far fewer in number. All three Abrahamic Religions, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, share many of the same early scriptures, colloquially known as the Old Testament or Torah. Despite this, the three religions fueled often and ethnically-based violence against Jews and Christians has become extremely prevalent (Hughes, 48). In Aaron Hughes’ book Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History, he demonstrates what is shared amongst these beliefs and why they are known as the ‘Abrahamic’ religions.
The ‘Abrahamic covenant’ is often referred to as the origin of monotheism. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all developed strong theological notions of covenant and all three make connections between their prophetic figures-Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, respectively-and Abraham. In the broadest of terms: for Jews, Abraham’s willingness to enter into a covenant with God, marked by the act of circumcision, established his chosenness, something that was handed down from Abraham to Isaac, from Isaac to Jacob, and from Jacob to his twelve sons and, from them, to the ancient Israelites and then to the Jewish people. For Christians, the relationship between God and Jesus in the New Testament is modeled on that of Abraham and Isaac in the Old, further legitimating the giving of the new covenant to Jesus’s followers. And in Islam, the relationship between Abraham and Muhammad is also crucial since, as a lineal descendant of Abraham, the latter becomes genealogically privy to the institution of prophecy (Hughes, 3).
As demonstrated in the passage above, all three religions share much of the same history and all have ancient roots. Each group sees themselves as descending from divine lineage and being chosen by God/Yahweh/Allah (Hughes, 3). Consequently, these religions share many holy sites and religious artifacts, with each of the three factions feeling as if the Levant or the ‘Holy Land’ was theirs. After the UN created the State of Israel, tensions amid the Levant and the Middle East grew exponentially, as Muslims felt their ‘Holy Land’ was stolen from them by Israel. This feeling emits through the majority of Middle Eastern nations (Falk 138). Christians in the Middle East represent a minority and are far less involved with tensions in the Levant, but are typically on the receiving end of genocide or persecution. The main division is between the Jews (Zionists) and Islamists, both of which hold firm religious beliefs about who the ‘Holy Land’ belongs to. Islamists see the State of Israel in a state of structural violence. This, along with the religious significance of the ‘Holy Land,’ serve as a motivating factor for violence in both factions as an attempt to free, or protect, what is viewed as theirs (Falk, 142).
For the Islamic fighter, the freeing of Israel from ‘infidels’ is a jihad and is required of them. They believe that what they are doing is morally righteous and necessary. The overarching theme found in these Islamic attacks is that the ends justify the means. Allah permits this, which serves to further motivate Islamists towards violence as a means of change, not peace. This belief is seen in both Sunni and Shiite Muslims, but is more prevalent in Sunni extremists groups (Falk, 138). On the other side of the conflict are Zionists, or those who want to preserve the State of Israel. Many view Israel as their land given to them by Yahweh, and therefore have no intent of relinquishing Israel. Although religion is still a present motivator among Zionists, many Zionists are fighting to maintain sovereignty as nation, regardless of affiliations. Both sides fundamentally see the other as undeserving of the ‘Holy Land’ (Falk, 143).
Additionally, resource stress and poverty are contributing factors to the violent environment in the Middle East. According to UNICEF, ‘poverty continues to impact at least 29 million children ‘ one in four children in the region.’ These children are deprived of two or more of the most basic life necessities including basic education, decent housing, nutritious food, quality health care, safe water, sanitation and access to information. These children are oftentimes deprived of education and, consequently, have limited upward mobility in the local job market. In addition to this, many children lack access to medical care. Clean water is a valuable and limited resource in the Middle East (UNICEF,1). As global temperatures increase, water scarcity in the Middle East only escalates. According to E. Bou-Zeid1 and M. El-Fadel in Climate Change and Water Resources in Lebanon and the Middle East, "The Middle East and North Africa, with water resources of less than 1,000 m per capita in nine out of 14 countries, is the part of the world where water scarcity is the most severe and precarious. Water shortage and uneven distribution of the water supply are exacerbated by the rapid demographic and economic development in the region’ (Bou-Zeid1 and El-Fadel, 4). Water scarcity, in conjunction with the high poverty rates, drastically increases violence in the Middle East. Repeatedly, extremists groups prey off the impoverished community around them, using the desperation of the poor for their own benefit. Although many countries in the Middle East have some sort of central government, the Middle East is full of revolutionary and extremists factions, independent of the state. The war-torn nature of the Middle East prevents the establishment of a strong central government. These feuds can be seen between various ethnic groups, specifically the Sunni and the Shiite. Although some of the violence is directed toward minorities like Jews or Christians, the majority of violence is between other Muslims. Unfortunately, due to repeated failures of diplomatic relations, all factions have result to using physical force to achieve their antithetical goals, as each faction sees the land as being only theirs (Falk, 140).
The Middle East and the ‘Holy Land’ are the most contested territories in the world, with each ethnic group holding deep lineage and history in the region. All three Abrahamic religions emanate from the same area and share many foundational beliefs. Despite shared beliefs and history, all peace talk and diplomatic relations have ultimately failed. Both sides hold strong religious beliefs and feel the land is sequestered by the highest authority for only them. The Middle East has rich history on conquest from all groups, a trend that continues to this day. From the Crusades to the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East has been claimed and conquered by many. This is demonstrative of the universal denial of peace when attempting to resolve the conflict of the ‘Holy Land.’ Factors such as widespread poverty and resource scarcity only serve to exacerbate the religious and ethnic tensions already present. These contributing factors are expected to increase as the global temperature increases. Currently the State of Israel stands where Islamists feel their people belong. Tensions among different ethnic groups and Islamic sects are at a record high. The Levant and the ‘Holy Land’ have been highly contested regions for thousands of years and this trend shows no signs of decreasing or reversing.