Who Are the Occupiers?

It is becoming commonplace and almost accepted to refer to Israelis as “occupiers,” people who are living on someone else’s land. Bob Dylan, in his song from the early 1980s entitled Neighborhood Bully sang, “His enemies say he’s on their land.” The false claim against Israelis, and Jews in general, is as old as written history.

Abraham was concerned about being called an occupier. It was for that reason that he overpaid for the cave of Machpelah so that no one would ever say that he buried his dead on the land of another without permission.

Perhaps the definitive testimony on the subject of the right of Jews to live on their land was given by Morton A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). Klein testified at a hearing before the United States House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee (119^th Congress) on December 10, 2025. He noted that,

John Adams, in a letter to Mordecai M. Noah, March 15, 1819, wrote:

 ….I could find it in my heart to wish that you had been at the head of 100,000               Israelites indeed as well discipline’d as a French army – & marching with them into Judea & making a conquest of that country & restoring your nation to the dominion of it-For I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation….

At the time, Israel was illegally occupied by the Muslim Ottoman Empire, based in Turkey.

What some call the West Bank was an area illegally occupied by Jordan between 1948 and 1967. It is properly known as Judea and Samaria, which is the historic Jewish homeland.  This is the land where Abraham purchased the burial place for his family.  It is where King David was anointed and ruled. Virtually all of the patriarchs and their families lived in Judea and Samaria. It was the land of the Maccabees.  Judea and Samaria were also the heart of the Kingdoms of King David and King Solomon.

A Jewish nation existed as an independent state until crushed by the Romans in the early Second Century of the Common Era. The Romans did not just destroy the state, but they killed over a period of 75 years, no less than 1.25 million Jews. That would be 64 million people, at least, in today’s numbers. It was truly a Holocaust.

In modern times, international binding agreements were entered into between 1919 through 1945 including the areas of Judea and Samaria. Those agreements are well known to Israel’s friends and enemies:

1. The League of Nations Covenant, Article 22 (1919). This was a binding international treaty affirming that the Ottoman Empire’s 400-year sovereignty over the territory had ceased. The Jewish people were the trust beneficiary of the British Mandate which was established for Palestine after the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I. The Arabs were to be beneficiaries of mandates in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon.

2. The British Mandate for Palestine (1922) made Britain responsible to establish a “secure…Jewish national home.” Britain was to assure that “no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, in any way placed under control of, the Government of any foreign Power.” At that time, “Palestine” specifically referred to the Jewish National Homeland. The name has since been improperly appropriated by those who wish to see the destruction of Israel.

The British Mandate specifically stated that, “Recognition has…been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstructing their national home.” The Mandate included Judea and Samaria.

3. The Lodge-Fish Resolution (1922) was signed into law by United States President Warren G. Harding. It approved the establishment of the Jewish Homeland in mandatory Palestine.

4. 1924 Anglo-American Convention (Treaty) signed by the United States and ratified by the United States Senate in 1925 making a binding United States treaty obligation. It recognized the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and specifically designated the area including Judea and Samaria as a “sacred trust” for “reconstructing” the Jewish homeland.

5. United Nations Charter, Article 80 (1945). This was known as the “Jewish People’s Clause.” It preserved intact all rights granted to Jewish people under the Mandate given to Britain, even after the Mandate’s expiration. Article 80 prohibited the United Nations from transferring rights over any part of Palestine to any non-Jewish entity.

6. 1947 “United States Partition Resolution” (UN Resolution 191) contained a non-binding recommendation of partition. However, the Arabs rejected the recommendation and went to war to annihilate the Jewish State and people. A large number of Israel Jews were killed. The United States, while recognizing Israel, embargoed weapons so that Israel could not fight back. This resulted in Israel losing Judea and Samaria as well as old Jerusalem to the Jordanians.  Thereafter, the Jordanians illegally occupied Judea, Samaria, and the Old City of Jerusalem.

7. In 1949, ceasefire lines, which were non-binding, were recognized. This is where the fighting stopped in 1949 after the six Arab nations invaded Israel, and Jordan illegally seized Judea and Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem. Israel had been defenseless except for a small amount of smuggled weapons.

8. 1967 Six Day War. UN Security Council Resolution 242 was passed calling for Israel to have “recognized and secured closed borders.” It did not call for Israel to surrender lands recaptured by Israel in 1967. President Lyndon Johnson stated: “It is clear…. that a return to the situation of June 4, 1967, will not bring peace.”

9. The Oslo Accords 1993-1995. The Oslo Accords were entered into by and between Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, President Clinton, and terrorist leader Yasser Arafat. It was anticipated that the State of Israel would include in the land of Israel, that land which was under the rule of the British Mandate. Rabin reaffirmed that Israel would not return to the 1949 Armistice Lines which were indefensible and illegal.

The statement by the UN and hard left United States politicians that Israel is illegally occupying any part of the Middle East is absurd, and complete abdication of the facts and is simply a tool with which to bludgeon Israel.

Another frequent canard against Israel and the Jewish people is the term “settlers.”  Jews and Israelis living in the area given to Israel for its national homeland are referred to as “settlers,” invoking the allegedly evil White man who came to North America from Europe and settled on Native American lands. The opposite is actually true. It is other peoples who have settled on Jewish and Israeli land, not only given to the Jewish people in antiquity and in modern times, but which was specifically set aside for a Jewish State.

Today, more than 500,000 Jews live in Judea and Samaria. Judea and Samaria includes Jerusalem suburbs and Israel Central Mountain range. Judea and Samaria are 4 miles from Israel’s only international airport, 9 miles from the Mediterranean Sea in the center of the country, and 11 miles from Tel Aviv.

During the war with Iran, commentators would routinely show a map of the Middle East. It was always impossible to even see Israel, so small was the country next to Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq, just to name a few. Israel is approximately half the size of New Jersey and even with Judea and Samaria, is still miniscule.

Jews lived in North Africa including Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, and other Middle Eastern locations for approximately 2,000 years.  They were in those nations far longer than the Muslims who came between the 6^th and 8^th Century. Jews were living in Germany prior to the Germany Tribes.  Jews came to Britain with the armies of Julius Caeser and lived on the island nation before the Angles or the Saxons and 1,000 years before the Norman Conquest. In all those countries, where the Jews had lived for upwards of two millennia, they never complained about “settlers” invading and occupying their land. Jews have always longed for and prayed for a national homeland that for most of recorded history has been known as the Land of Israel.