'The modern state of Israel was set-up in May 1948 as a homeland for Jewish people - a haven from the persecution and dispossession so many of them had suffered over so many centuries.'

Helen Bailey offers a personal reflection about the issues of identity and land as Israel marks its 60th anniversary

How do you define yourself? By your creed, your colour? What about your background?

Ultimately we are all children of God. Perhaps nowhere else are these issues at the forefront than in the place we call the Holy Land. So who are the people that live there today and where have they come from?

The modern state of Israel was set-up in May 1948 as a homeland for Jewish people - a haven from the persecution and dispossession so many of them had suffered over so many centuries.

It was seen as the ingathering of the exiles and any Jew today still has the right to ‘return’ or settle in Israel. Jews can be defined by their ethnicity and/or their religion.

The word Jew derives from Judah, one of the 12 ancient Hebrew tribes and the name of their southern kingdom. Their forefather was Abraham and they descend from his son Isaac. Israel was the name given by God to Jacob.

Attachment

For Jews their historical attachment to the area arises from God’s promises that he would give the land to Abraham and his descendants as an everlasting possession and that through them all on earth would be blessed.

‘Go to the land I will show you... I will make you into a great nation.’ (Genesis 12) Biblical Zion is the city of Jerusalem, Judaism’s holy city where the temple once stood.

But the holy city and the land are not only sacred to the Jews. Christians of course know the place to be hallowed by Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Spiritually we are also Abraham’s descendants.

We believe the Old Testament covenants of God with his people have now been fulfilled in Christ, from the line of King David, and so through Israel indeed all nations have been blessed. Indigenous Christians there today claim descent from the first believers.

Jerusalem is also the third holiest site of Islam. Not all Muslims are Arabs and indeed not all Arabs are Muslims! However, both Jews and Arabs are Semitic peoples, with Hebrew and Arabic being Semitic languages from the same origins in that region. Arabs are descended from Abraham’s other son Ishmael.

Palestinian Arabs also live in the land and have done so for centuries. ( Palestine comes from the word Philistine). Most Palestinians are Muslims although about 2% of them are Christians – mainly Greek Orthodox.

Price

Palestinians retain just as deep a historical attachment to the land and suffered dispossession and dispersal at the hands of Jewish forces in 1948. It was a heavy price for them to pay for the new Israeli state.

The Arabs and indeed most Muslims remain angered and shamed at the oppression and humiliation the Palestinians continue to suffer at the hands of the Israeli military. The establishment of Israel was for them quite simply a catastrophe.

And how do Palestinian Christians interpret their reality? Most remain very challenged by the Old Testament stories. They feel they are seen to be excluded from God’s plan and promises.

But they believe they still have a place and a purpose as the ‘living stones’ of the land. Some of them through prayer, reflection and action have developed a way of understanding their desperate situation in its real context.

Based on kingdom values of justice, mercy and reconciliation they work for this end, following Jesus’ command to love - and living in sure and certain hope.

Israel’s biggest dilemma and ultimate existence lies in attempting to define the Jewish state and reconciling that with the reality. One-fifth of its citizens are non-Jews and it is a democracy, so it cannot truly be modelled solely on one race or religion.

Concoction

Some Palestinians are Israeli citizens, some also define themselves as Christian. This explosive concoction of race, religion and roots must remain a challenge to all Christians particularly concerned for God’s world and its people.

Unless the land we call holy is built on kingdom values, with injustice tackled and wrongs righted, the next 60 years and beyond will continue to be filled with images of suffering and persecution, rather than images of the new Jerusalem.

• For Christian Aid’s view about Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, click here

• Helen Bailey is a member of Holy Trinity and St Matthias church, Tulse Hill in London. She originally trained as a journalist and now teaches English to speakers of other languages. She has contributed to a Canterbury Press book to be published in 2008 about Christians working with other faiths. She writes in a personal capacity.