The Invention of the Land of Israel Quotes

“the term “Land of Israel” was a later Christian and rabbinical invention that was theological, and by no means political in nature. Indeed, we can cautiously posit that the name first appeared in the New Testament in the Gospel of Matthew.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“To the dismay of anti-Semites, the Jews were never a foreign “ethnos” of invaders from afar but rather an autochthonous population whose ancestors, for the most part, converted to Judaism before the arrival of Christianity or Islam.17”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“History can be ironic, particularly with regard to the invention of traditions in general and traditions of language in particular. Few people have noticed, or are willing to acknowledge, that the Land of Israel of biblical texts did not include Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem, or their surrounding areas, but rather only Samaria and a number of adjacent areas—in other words, the land of the northern kingdom of Israel. Because”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“I believe neither in the past existence of a Jewish people, exiled from its land, nor in the premise that the Jews are originally descended from the ancient land of Judea.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“I concluded that the Zionist “return” was, above all, an invention meant to arouse the sympathy of the West—particularly the Protestant Christian community, which preceded the Zionists in proposing the idea—in order to justify a new settlement enterprise, and that it had proven its effectiveness.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“Die Abgrenzung Jahwes als einzigem Gott von seiner vormaligen, bunten Familie - seiner Frau Aschera, selbst eine Göttin des Bodens, und ihren begabten Kindern, dem wilden Baal, der promisken Astarte, der Jägerin Anat und dem Meeresgott Jam - erscheint als Sysiphosarbeit.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“Canaan, therefore, would serve as a spiritual bridge between the faith born in the northern Fertile Crescent and the cultures of the Mediterranean region. Jerusalem would become the first stop in the mighty theological (Jewish-Christian-Muslim) campaign that would eventually conquer a large portion of the earth.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“It is an irony of history that, had it not been for the 1948 war, which truly was initiated by Arab leaders, the newly established State of Israel would have to have included a large Arab minority that would have gained strength with the passage of time, ultimately counteracting the state’s Jewish isolationist nature and possibly even its very existence.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“The person residing in the Land of Israel must always remember the name Canaan, indicating slavery and submission”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“My main goal in this book is to deconstruct the concept of the Jewish “historical right” to the Land of Israel and its associated nationalist narratives, whose only purpose was to establish moral legitimacy for the appropriation of territory.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“Only in the early twentieth century, after years in the Protestant melting pot, was the theological concept of “Land of Israel” finally converted and refined into a clearly geonational concept. Settlement Zionism borrowed the term from the rabbinical tradition in part to displace the term “Palestine,”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“Names of regions and countries change over time, and it is sometimes common to refer to ancient lands using names assigned to them later in history. However, this linguistic custom has typically been practiced only in the absence of other known and acceptable names for the places in question.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“In no text or archaeological finding do we find the term “Land of Israel” used to refer to a defined geographic region. This”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“culture. The charismatic rabbi did not hide his fear that one day a “Judaism with cannons and bayonets would reverse the roles of David and Goliath to constitute a ridiculous contradiction of itself.”17 However, because”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

“Absolute power not only corrupts absolutely, as attested to by Lord Acton, but brings with it an intolerable sense of possession over other people and, ultimately, over place.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland