Do Jews Have a Moral Right to the Land of Israel?
The Torah’s Promise, History’s Proof, and a Surprising Provision
If the Torah is meant to represent the highest standards of morality, how can it justify giving the Land of Israel to the Jewish people if others lived there before them? What gives the Jewish people the right to claim the land as their own? And under what conditions is that right valid?
“The Bible Is Our Mandate”
In 1937, David Ben-Gurion testified before the British Peel Commission. When one commission member referred to the British Mandate as the “Bible” of Zionism, Ben-Gurion replied: “The Mandate is not our Bible. On the contrary, the Bible is our mandate.”
The Torah, which is accepted even by religious Muslims as Divine, is our foundational document, and it records God’s promise that the Land of Israel is His gift to the Jewish people.
Not a New Accusation
The claim that Jews are “occupiers” is nothing new. It was made over 2,000 years ago during the time of the Hasmoneans (circa 140 BCE). When the Greek King Antiochus demanded territorial concessions, Shimon the Hasmonean replied: “We have not taken a foreign land, nor have we seized the property of strangers. This is the inheritance of our ancestors, which was unjustly taken from us for a time by our enemies. Now that we have the opportunity, we are reclaiming our ancestral heritage” (I Maccabees 15).
God’s Eternal Promise
God first promised the Land of Israel to Avraham nearly 4,000 years ago: “For all the land that you see I will give it to you and your offspring forever…Arise and walk through the land, its length and breadth, for to you I will give it” (Bereishit 13:14—17).
This promise was repeated to Yitzchak and Yaakov, and became central to the exodus from Egypt.
Exile and Unbreakable Longing
The first Jewish exile began in 586 BCE. Even after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the connection never died. This longing is embedded in our prayers, recited three times a day for almost two thousand years: “Sound the great shofar for our freedom…and gather us together from the four corners of the earth to our land.”
Even the blessing after eating pastries includes: “Rebuild Jerusalem, the holy city, speedily in our days.” In other words, when a Jew eats a donut, he prays for Jerusalem.
Not on a Silver Platter
Ben-Gurion was right: the Torah is our mandate. But there’s a catch. The Torah makes it clear that living in the Land of Israel comes with conditions. Moshe repeatedly ties the right to inherit the land with following God’s laws.
The message is unmistakable: the Land is ours, but only if we live up to our side of the agreement.
A Holy Land with Holy Expectations
The Torah goes further. The land itself cannot tolerate sustained immorality. Just as it “vomited out” previous nations for their corruption, it can do the same to us.
We are not foreign conquerors or colonialists. We are children returning home after a long and painful exile. But we must remember: the Land of Israel is not like other lands. It is “the palace of the King,” and it demands a higher standard of behavior.
The Torah doesn’t only give us the right to return. It endows us with responsibility to live in a way that makes us worthy of the promise.
In the Galilean village of Peki’in, a Jewish presence has endured unbroken for 2,000 years
In the village of Peki’in in the Galilee, a vibrant Jewish community once thrived, tracing its roots back to families of kohanim (priests) who fled Jerusalem after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. From then until today, a continuous Jewish presence has been maintained in the village.
Margalit Zinati, a descendant of one of the original families, is the last surviving member of the Jewish community in Peki’in. In her home, she established the Peki’in Jewish Heritage Center. One quote displayed there captures the community’s unique identity: “I did not come from Ashkenaz, nor did I dwell in Spain. I am a son of the land, always have been. I never went into exile.”
Why Lord Balfour believed the Jewish claim to Israel was unlike any other
Following the publication of the Balfour Declaration, a member of the British Parliament questioned the moral and legal justification for it, arguing that Jews represented only a small minority of the population in the Land of Israel.
Lord Balfour’s response was both bold and historic: “The condition of the Jews is unique. For them, questions of peoplehood, religion, and land are so deeply intertwined that they cannot be separated, unlike any other nation. The millions of Jews around the world, all rightful heirs to that Divine promise, far outnumber the followers of other religions who happened to be living in the land at that time.”
With this statement, Lord Balfour affirmed that the Jewish claim to the Land of Israel is not based on numbers or politics alone, but on ancient faith, identity, and covenant.
Centuries before the establishment of political Zionism, Jews never ceased returning to the Land of Israel
The deep bond between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel has found expression in waves of aliyah (immigration to Israel) that continued throughout the centuries. In 1165, the Rambam (Maimonides) arrived in the Land of Israel with his family from Spain.
Other waves of aliyah followed: the “Aliyah of the Baalei HaTosafot,” some 300 rabbis from France and Germany in the 13th century; the aliyah of Rabbi Yehuda HeChasid in 1700, which included about 1,000 people; the “Aliyah of the Chassidim” in 1774 with over 300 people; and the aliyah of the disciples of the Vilna Gaon at the beginning of the 19th century.
All of these preceded the waves of modern Zionist immigration that only began in the late 19th century.
The eternal Jewish bond to Zion and the belated Islamic claim
Jerusalem is mentioned in the Tanach (Hebrew Bible) more than any other city—641 times. How many times is it mentioned in the Quran? Not even once.
Throughout history, the Jews lived as a sovereign entity in the Land of Israel on three occasions. By contrast, there has never been a single independent Arab or Muslim state in this territory.
Even during the Babylonian exile in 586 BCE, Jewish longing for Jerusalem was already deeply ingrained. The psalm sung under every Jewish wedding canopy was composed at that time: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill” (Tehillim 137).
When did Islam begin to claim a connection to Jerusalem? Much later, over 1,500 years after the Jewish people had already expressed their deep love for Zion. For Jews, Jerusalem was never a political tool. It was, and remains, the beating heart of their faith, hope, and identity.
The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks offered a profound explanation:
The Land of Israel sits at a strategic crossroads between three continents—Europe, Africa, and Asia. It has no vast fertile plains or massive oil fields. It lacks the natural resources to create an empire. But because of its location, empires have always coveted it.
The land is also environmentally fragile. Its water sources depend on rainfall, and rain is never guaranteed. Living in this land is never something to take for granted.
Only in the Land of Israel is God so close that you can feel Him in the air and the wind, sense His Presence beyond the next hill, hear His voice in the precision of daily speech, breathe His Shechinah in the crisp morning breeze, and live amid danger with faithful confidence in the shadow of His Presence.
In the Galilean village of Peki’in, a Jewish presence has endured unbroken for 2,000 years
In the village of Peki’in in the Galilee, a vibrant Jewish community once thrived, tracing its roots back to families of kohanim (priests) who fled Jerusalem after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. From then until today, a continuous Jewish presence has been maintained in the village.
Margalit Zinati, a descendant of one of the original families, is the last surviving member of the Jewish community in Peki’in. In her home, she established the Peki’in Jewish Heritage Center. One quote displayed there captures the community’s unique identity: “I did not come from Ashkenaz, nor did I dwell in Spain. I am a son of the land, always have been. I never went into exile.”
Centuries before the establishment of political Zionism, Jews never ceased returning to the Land of Israel
The deep bond between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel has found expression in waves of aliyah (immigration to Israel) that continued throughout the centuries. In 1165, the Rambam (Maimonides) arrived in the Land of Israel with his family from Spain.
Other waves of aliyah followed: the “Aliyah of the Baalei HaTosafot,” some 300 rabbis from France and Germany in the 13th century; the aliyah of Rabbi Yehuda HeChasid in 1700, which included about 1,000 people; the “Aliyah of the Chassidim” in 1774 with over 300 people; and the aliyah of the disciples of the Vilna Gaon at the beginning of the 19th century.
All of these preceded the waves of modern Zionist immigration that only began in the late 19th century.
The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks offered a profound explanation:
The Land of Israel sits at a strategic crossroads between three continents—Europe, Africa, and Asia. It has no vast fertile plains or massive oil fields. It lacks the natural resources to create an empire. But because of its location, empires have always coveted it.
The land is also environmentally fragile. Its water sources depend on rainfall, and rain is never guaranteed. Living in this land is never something to take for granted.
Only in the Land of Israel is God so close that you can feel Him in the air and the wind, sense His Presence beyond the next hill, hear His voice in the precision of daily speech, breathe His Shechinah in the crisp morning breeze, and live amid danger with faithful confidence in the shadow of His Presence.
Why Lord Balfour believed the Jewish claim to Israel was unlike any other
Following the publication of the Balfour Declaration, a member of the British Parliament questioned the moral and legal justification for it, arguing that Jews represented only a small minority of the population in the Land of Israel.
Lord Balfour’s response was both bold and historic: “The condition of the Jews is unique. For them, questions of peoplehood, religion, and land are so deeply intertwined that they cannot be separated, unlike any other nation. The millions of Jews around the world, all rightful heirs to that Divine promise, far outnumber the followers of other religions who happened to be living in the land at that time.”
With this statement, Lord Balfour affirmed that the Jewish claim to the Land of Israel is not based on numbers or politics alone, but on ancient faith, identity, and covenant.
The eternal Jewish bond to Zion and the belated Islamic claim
Jerusalem is mentioned in the Tanach (Hebrew Bible) more than any other city—641 times. How many times is it mentioned in the Quran? Not even once.
Throughout history, the Jews lived as a sovereign entity in the Land of Israel on three occasions. By contrast, there has never been a single independent Arab or Muslim state in this territory.
Even during the Babylonian exile in 586 BCE, Jewish longing for Jerusalem was already deeply ingrained. The psalm sung under every Jewish wedding canopy was composed at that time: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill” (Tehillim 137).
When did Islam begin to claim a connection to Jerusalem? Much later, over 1,500 years after the Jewish people had already expressed their deep love for Zion. For Jews, Jerusalem was never a political tool. It was, and remains, the beating heart of their faith, hope, and identity.
How a single moment in an Israeli prison reshaped the ideology of a senior PLO officer
Salah Tamari, a high-ranking Fatah officer and senior figure in the PLO, once reached a firm conclusion: there was no point in continuing the fight against Israel. He began encouraging Palestinians to surrender. But one event changed everything.
It happened on the morning of Pesach. In his prison cell, Tamari watched an Israeli guard eating a sandwich in pita bread. He called the guard over: “Are you Jewish? Then why are you eating chametz (leavened bread) on Pesach?”
The Israeli guard replied: “I’m not obligated by what happened to my people 2,000 years ago. It has nothing to do with me.”
Tamari recalled: “I sat back down and said to myself: a people whose individuals have no connection to their past and who can publicly scorn their own faith are a people who have severed their roots from their land. And if that’s the case, then we Palestinians can achieve our goals.”
“The next day, I gathered the Palestinian leadership within the prison. I told them what had happened and the conclusions I had drawn. From that morning on, we were on a new path. A path of total war. Not over scraps or a sliver of land, but over everything. Because across from us stood a people detached from its roots, uninterested in its past, and therefore lacking the will to fight.”
Tamari was later elected to the Palestinian Parliament. He retained his special status among Palestinians and continued to promote the worldview he adopted on that fateful Pesach.
Based on the Hebrew book Lalechet Shevi by Amalia and Aharon Barnea.
