Ground of Israel

The Ground of Israel (Hebrew: RTL He ארץישראל Eretz Israel ) is the ground which included/understood the old kingdoms of Israel and of Juda.

It is in the Bible:

  • a religious term, because returning to one supposed divine promise;
  • a geographical term. The geographical definition given by the Bible is fuzzy besides: in certain biblical texts, one speaks about the Promised land like energy of the “river of Egypt to the large river, with the river of Euphrate” (of the Egypt to current the Iraq), others are limited to a zone ranging between the sea and the river the Jordan;
  • a political term: it is the ground given to the Jews to settle there, then starting from the King Saül to build a State there.

This term was used as well by the Juif S as the Chrétiens during the history (for the etymology of this name, to see Israel). This Eretz Israel is also called Promised land by the Juifs which point out the promise thus that would have made God with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give this country in heritage to their descent. The name of Holy Land is used by the Christians in reference to the life of Jesus which lived there.

Starting from the beginning of the Zionism, the term will take a less religious dimension and more policy: it is the territory asserted for the re-creation of a Jewish State.

After the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, old the Palestine agent was found separated between a Jewish state and zones under Arab control. Eretz Israel was then used more and more by the most nationalist factions of the movement Zionist within the meaning of Grand Israel , claim of the enlarging of the State of Israel (such as definite with its borders recognized by the agreements of cease-fire of 1949) to the whole of old the Palestine agent, to see beyond (Jordan).

The question of the borders and the interpretation of the Bible like a Alliance of God with the Jews, since Abraham until Josué are recipient of an important ideological stake since the birth of the State of Israel: certain biblical texts give limits much wider than those of the State of current Israel and are used in the internal debates with the country, in particular in the form of the idea of a " Large Israël" who would legitimate, with the eyes of part of the Israelis, the occupation of the Palestinian Territoires. The conquest of the Country of Canaan by the Tribes of Israel, left the slavery of Egypt, is told in the Livre of Josué.

Discussed uses

The expression has several discussed uses which sometimes are recut.

It is used by the Jews which make them Aliyah to indicate Israel. The addition of the term Eretz (the " terre") refers to the religious and cultural characters which the Promised land with the eyes of the Jews represents. The use is mainly symbolic system. It refers also to the roots of the Zionism whose first members were farmers who came cultier the ground . The use wants to be in this context " positif".

Often a nationalist claim accompanies the use term and the expression Eretz Israel is used to indicate the territories asserted like having to belong to Israel. Historically, the Zionists revisionists asserted the possibility for the Jews of being installed on the whole of the territories which were allocated with the British Mandat of Palestine, being based on political arguments related to the Déclaration Balfour and on religious arguments related to the historical limits of the Royaume of Israel and Promised land. This use is always of topicality. It constitutes the official line of the Likoud, left heir to the Zionists révisionnites, to assert the the West Bank and the Gaza Strip like having to form integral part of Israel. It is also used by the Jewish mediums orthodoxe Zionists to justify their presence in the Occupied territories. One of their argument, with the characters policy and history, is to say that the Jews already gave up is of the Jordan to the Palestinians and that thus west their cost in all justice. Others more radical and minority advance the religious argument and see in Eretz Israel the whole of the promised lands by God to his people, without however that the Bible does not define these limits precisely.

Generally, the movements antisionists use the term Eretz Israel with a pejorative character: denouncing in the chief of Israel a will to increase (they speak then about Grand Israel which underlines a potentially expansionist will compared to Ground of Israel which underlines potential legitimacy). Generally, they are opposed to the policy colonization occupied territories and place the polemic at the political level. Others criticize the religious character of the claim, according to which a ground would have been promised by god and they denounce what they consider being of the Intégrisme religious. Among the latter, some take again an interpretation of the biblical texts which puts the limits of Eretz Israel of the the Nile at the Euphrate, which depicts Israel like having disproportionate expansionist aimings. This last use of Eretz Israel is sometimes regarded as anti-semite because it is based on an interpretation of the biblical texts which is taken again by no current of the Judaïsme but only in the movements most radical antisionists.

In a more political context, David Ben Gourion considered that south-Lebanon to the Litani river was to belong to Eretz Israel . This vision was taken again by several Israeli leaders. The motivations are that Litani constitutes a clear natural border and that this area of south-Lebanon controls part of the sources out of water of the Israeli territory and constitutes itself of it an important reserve.

Biblical passages

Several verses of the Torah, a verse of the Book of Josué, and a passage of the Livre of Ézéchiel define the borders of the Promised land.

  • Genesis 15:18 - 21

    • has your posterity I give this country, of the Fleuve of Egypt to the Large River, the river of Euphrate, Qénéens, Qenizzéens, Qadmonéens, Hittites, Perizzéens, the Rephaïm, Amoréens, Cananéens, Girgashites and Jébuséens .

  • Exodus 23:20 - 33

    • Here, I send an angel in front of you, to protect you in way, and to make you arrive at the place which I prepared. Be held on your guards his involved, and listens to its voice; do not resist to him, because he will not forgive your sins, because My Name is in him. But if you listenings his voice, and if you do all that I will say to you, I will be the enemy of your enemies and the adversary of your adversaries. My angel will go in front of you, and will lead you at Amoréens, Héthéens, Phérézéens, Cananéens, Hévéens and Jébuséens, and I will exterminate them. You will not prosterneras yourself in front of their gods, and you will not serve them; you will not imitate these people in their control, but you will destroy them, and you will break their statues. You will serve the Eternal, your God, and He will bless your bread and your water, and I will move away the disease from the medium of you. There will be in your country neither woman who falls through, nor sterile woman. I will fill the number of your days. I will send My terror in front of you, I will put in rout all the people to whom you will arrive, and I will make turn the back in front of you to all your enemies. I will send the Frelons in front of you, and they will drive out far from your face Hévéens, Cananéens and Héthéens. I will not drive out them in only one year far from your face, for fear the country does not become a desert and that the animals of the fields do not multiply against you. I will drive out them little by little far from your face, until you increase of number and which you can take possession of the country. I will establish your limit since the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and since the desert to the river; because I will deliver between your hands the inhabitants of the country, and you will drive out them in front of you. You will not make alliance with them, nor with their gods. They will not live in your country, for fear they are not made sin against Me; because you would serve their gods, and it would be a trap for you .

  • Numbers 34:1 - 12

    • the Eternal spoke in Moïse, and known as: Give this order to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you enter the country of Canaan, this country will become your heritage, the country of Canaan, of which here limits. The side of midday will start with the desert of Tsin close to Édom. Thus, your southernmost limit will leave the end of the sea Salée, towards the East; it will turn to the south of the rise of Akrabbim, will pass by Tsin, and will extend until midday from Kadès Barnéa; it will continue by Hatsar Addar, and will pass towards Atsmon; since Atsmon, it will turn to the torrent of Egypt, to lead to the sea. Your Western limit will be the large sea: it will be your limit in the occident. Here which will be your septentrional limit: starting from the large sea, you will trace it to the mountain of Hor; since the mountain of Hor, you will make it pass by Hamath, and arrive at Tsedad; it will continue by Ziphron, to lead to Hatsar Énan: it will be your limit with north. You will trace your Eastern limit of Hatsar Énan in Schepham; it will go down from Schepham towards Ribla, with the East of Ain; it will go down, and will extend along the sea from Kinnéreth, with the East; it will still go down towards the Jordan, to lead to the sea Salée. Such will be your country with its limits around .

  • Deutéronome 1:7 11:24

    • you Turn, and leave, and go to the mountain of Amoréens and in all the close places, the plain, the mountain, and the flat country, and midday, and on the shore of the sea, with the country of Cananéens and Lebanon, to the large river, the river Euphrate .

  • Deutéronome 11:24

    • Any place which the plant of your foot will press will be with you: your limit will be from the desert and Lebanon, the river, the Euphrate river, to the sea of occident .

  • Josué 1:4

    • You will have as a territory from the desert and Lebanon to the large river, the river of Euphrate, all the country of Héthiens, and to the large sea towards the setting sun .

  • Ezéchiel 47:13 - 20

    • Ainsi speaks the Lord, the Eternal: Here limits of the country which you will distribute in heritage to the Twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph will have two shares. You will have of it the possession one like the other; because I swore, the raised hand, to give it to your fathers. This country will thus fall you in division. Here limits of the country. Septentrional side, since the large sea, the way of Hethlon until Tsedad, Hamath, Bérotha, Sibraïm, between the border of Damas and the border of Hamath, Hatzer-Hatthicon, towards the border of Havran; thus the limit will be, since the sea, Hatsar-Enon, the border of Damas, Tsaphon in north, and the border of Hamath: it will be the septentrional side. The Eastern side will be the Jordan, between Havran, Damas and Galaad, and the country of Israel; you will measure since the septentrional limit to the Eastern sea: it will be the Eastern side. The southernmost side, at midday, will go since Thamar to water of Meriba in Kadès, to the torrent towards the large sea: it will be the southernmost side. The Western side will be the large sea, from the limit with respect to Hamath: it will be the Western side. You will divide this country between you, according to the tribes of Israel. You will divide it into heritage by the fate for you and the foreigners who will remain in the middle of you, who will generate children in the middle of you; you will look them like natives among the children of Israel; they will divide with the fate the heritage with you among the tribes of Israel. You will give abroad his heritage in the tribe where it will remain, the Lord, the Eternal says.

Random links:Lake You Anau | Eric Rebière | Norddeutsche Bundesmarine | Salvinia molesta | Abbaye_de_Corvey