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The Jews Are Not Colonizers in the Land of Israel
A friend recently forwarded a podcast, Environmentalists Against War, by the economist Jeffrey Sachs. While mainly about global geopolitics, Sachs also touches on the Middle East. He questions the Jewish connection to the Holy Land by pointing out that before the start of the modern Zionist movement in the late 1800s, Jews constituted only five percent of the population of Ottoman Palestine.
It occurred to me that today, Canada’s indigenous people, the First Nations, also represent about five percent of Canada’s total population (42 million). Yet, despite the small percentage of their numbers, nobody disputes their indigeneity and their connection to the land.
Why are the First Nations numbers low in relation to the total population of Canada? Well, after centuries of mistreatment by European colonialists, including genocidal conflict, outbreaks of European-introduced infectious diseases, policies of forced assimilation (for example, residential schools), and large-scale immigration from Europe and beyond, the wonder is that they and their culture and traditions still exist. Indeed, some, such as the Beothuk of Eastern Canada, no longer do.
I recently learned a new word: self-abnegation, which is, “The denial of one’s own interests in favour of the interests of others” (Collins English Dictionary). The comment by Sachs is a good example.
A prime instance in my mind would be a 2017 Haaretz article about Mark Twain’s 1869 book, The Innocents Abroad. The book describes a voyage that Twain (Samuel Clemens) took to Europe and the Levant in 1867, aboard the ship Quaker City.
The Haaretz author, Moshe Gilad, questions Twain’s description of the desolation and unpeopled nature of Palestine, “a hopeless, dreary, heart-broken land.” Heaven forbid that Twain’s description should provide support for the Zionist agenda by suggesting that Palestine was empty and desolate.
Gilad explains that Twain’s visit to the Holy Land coincided with a period of serious economic difficulty. Many residents were riding it out in neighboring countries such as Egypt. That is why, he said, it appeared to be so unpeopled. (The Palestinian site Palestine Remembered makes a similar argument in pointing out that Twain’s visit took place during a hot Mediterranean summer.)
What about the experiences of the Jews of the Holy Land in the mid-1800s? Most of them lived in urban centers: Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberius. Why were their numbers low?
In 1834, Jews represented half of the inhabitants of the town of Safed (Tzfat) in Galilee. That same year however, the land that is now Israel was caught between Egyptian and Ottoman rivalries — and local Arabs took it out on the Jews of Hebron and Safed.
The situation in Safed was particularly dire. Safed’s Jews experienced a month-long pogrom of looting, raping, and killing by local Arabs. Five hundred Jewish inhabitants were killed. (A second and equally devastating pogrom befell the Jewish community of Safed in 1838, this one instigated by Druze rebels.)
In 1837, a severe earthquake, with an epicenter near Safed, and felt strongly from Beirut to Jerusalem, destroyed the entire Jewish Quarter of Safed and many Jewish homes in Tiberius, killing and injuring many thousands. This was not only a Jewish calamity, but the effect on the Jewish community was especially devastating because Jewish areas were the quake’s primary foci.
Can it get worse? Yes. Cholera epidemics plagued the Holy land throughout the 1800s but especially after 1831, when steamships made it easier for Muslim pilgrims to travel back and forth to Mecca. While the disease affected all the inhabitants in the land, the densely populated urban Jewish centers were very vulnerable. Fear of cholera was a primary reason for building housing units beyond Jerusalem’s city walls during the 1860s.
The Jews in Palestine of the 19th century did not have to deal with the nightmare of residential schools, as did the First Nations of Canada. (Jews in Russia and Yemen did.) But they did face Ottoman immigration restrictions and this meant that the majority were elderly and not gainfully employed. Their impoverishment made them susceptible to the missionizing efforts of a variety of Protestant organizations, such as the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews.
So yes, Jewish population numbers were low in the Land of Israel during the mid-1800s. But there were extenuating circumstances. In the final analysis, the Jewish people never abandoned the Land of Israel, neither physically nor spiritually. They are not colonial settlers. They are indigenous. In 1939, Martin Buber wrote a letter to Mahatma Gandhi contesting Gandhi’s view that Palestine belongs to the Arabs. Buber said “By what means did the Arabs attain ownership in Palestine? Surely by conquest and, in fact, a conquest by settlement.” Who are the colonialists?
Jacob Sivak, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor, University of Waterloo.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.