Short answer
No. At its root it is a conflict between two peoples over one land. It began only about a hundred years ago. For centuries before that, Muslims, Jews and Christians lived side by side in the Holy Land under Muslim rule. There were hard times, but no endless holy war. When Caliph Umar took Jerusalem in the 630s, he let Jews live there again. The Christian Roman rulers before him had kept them out. In 1492, when Spain drove out its Jews, the Ottoman Sultan took them in. In the Second World War, Muslim Albania saved almost all the Jews within its borders. The modern quarrel grew out of European nationalism. Zionism, the movement for a Jewish state, was founded by a secular journalist, Theodor Herzl. In 1948 about 750,000 Palestinians lost their homes. Some on each side use religious language. But the quarrel is over land and rights. Islam commands justice for everyone, even towards those one hates.
Full explanation
Jews back in Jerusalem under Umar
Under the Christian Roman rulers, Jews were not allowed to live in Jerusalem. The city fell to the Muslims in the 630s, under Caliph Umar. A Jewish chronicle tells what happened next. It was found in the Cairo Geniza, a store of old papers in a Cairo synagogue. Jewish leaders asked Umar for leave to settle in the city. He allowed seventy families to come. An Israeli historian of the Geniza, Moshe Gil, confirms that it was Umar who let them back.
A history of Palestine under Muslim rule by an Israeli historian of the Cairo Geniza. Gil records that under Byzantine rule Jews were not allowed to live in Jerusalem, and that a Geniza fragment confirms it was Umar who gave the Jews permission to settle there, after bargaining with the patriarch in his presence, so that seventy families came from Tiberias.
A Jewish chronicle, in Arabic written in Hebrew letters, about the Jews' return to Jerusalem after the Muslim conquest. It tells that Jewish leaders asked Umar ibn al-Khattab for leave to settle in the city. The Christian patriarch offered fifty households and the Jews asked for at least two hundred. Umar settled on seventy, and seventy households came from Tiberias and its region and settled in the south of the city, near the waters of Silwan.
A refuge in 1492
In 1492 Spain's Christian king and queen expelled every Jew who would not be baptised. Many found refuge in the Ottoman Empire, a Muslim state. Sultan Bayezid II welcomed them. They settled in Istanbul, Salonica and other cities. Their Spanish-speaking communities lived on there for centuries.
A history of the Jews under Ottoman and Turkish rule. It describes how Sultan Bayezid II welcomed the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, how they settled in Istanbul, Salonica and other Ottoman cities, and how their Spanish-speaking community lived on in Turkey into modern times.
A history of the Sephardic Jews: their life in Muslim and Christian Spain, the expulsion of 1492, and the refuge many of them found in the Ottoman Empire, where Spanish-speaking Jewish communities lived on for centuries.
Muslims who saved Jews from the Holocaust
In the Second World War, Albania was Europe's only Muslim-majority country. When Germany occupied it, Albanians hid Jews in their homes. They acted on besa, their code of keeping a promise. They refused to hand over lists of Jews. Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, says almost all Jews within Albania's borders were saved. It says there were more Jews in Albania at the end of the war than before it.
Yad Vashem's exhibition on Albania, Europe's only Muslim-majority country, says Albanians sheltered Jews under besa, their code of keeping a promise, and refused to hand over lists of Jews. It says almost all Jews within Albania's borders under German occupation were saved, and that there were more Jews in Albania at the end of the war than before it.
A modern quarrel over land
Political Zionism, the movement for a Jewish state, began in 1896 with Theodor Herzl, a secular journalist. It grew from European nationalism and from the hatred Jews faced in Europe. In 1917 Britain promised "a national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. The same letter said nothing should harm "the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities". In 1922 Palestine had about 590,000 Muslims, 84,000 Jews and 73,000 Christians. In the 1948 war, about 750,000 Palestinians, Muslims and Christians, lost their homes. These are disputes over land, homes and rights.
Modern political Zionism, the movement for a Jewish state, was founded by Theodor Herzl, a secular Austrian Jewish journalist, with his book The Jewish State (1896). It grew from European nationalism and the antisemitism Jews faced in Europe.
“His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
The census of 23 October 1922 counted 757,182 people in Palestine: 590,890 Muslims, 83,794 Jews and 73,024 Christians, with smaller groups such as the Druze.
When UNRWA began work in 1950, it was responding to the needs of about 750,000 Palestine refugees, people who lost their homes and livelihoods in the 1948 war.
- 630s
Umar lets Jews back into Jerusalem
The Christian Roman rulers had kept them out.
- 1492
A refuge in the Ottoman Empire
The Sultan takes in the Jews Spain expelled.
- 1896
Political Zionism begins
Theodor Herzl, a secular journalist, calls for a Jewish state.
- 1917
The Balfour Declaration
Britain promises a Jewish national home in Palestine.
- 1939-1945
Albania saves its Jews
Almost all Jews within its borders survive the Holocaust.
- 1948
About 750,000 Palestinians lose their homes
Muslims and Christians alike.
Religion is used, but it is not the root
Some on each side speak of the land in religious terms, and some have killed in God's (﷾) name. In 1994 a settler killed 29 Muslims at prayer in Hebron. But Palestinian Christians lost their homes alongside Muslims in 1948. The founders of Zionism wanted a nation, not a temple. Until the last century, Jews and Muslims shared the land for long ages. A quarrel that began with modern nationalism can be settled by justice, not by holy war.
On 25 February 1994 Baruch Goldstein, a settler from Kiryat Arba and a follower of Rabbi Meir Kahane, opened fire on Muslims at prayer in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. He killed 29 worshippers and wounded about 125 before he was overpowered and killed. Israel condemned the attack.
When UNRWA began work in 1950, it was responding to the needs of about 750,000 Palestine refugees, people who lost their homes and livelihoods in the 1948 war.
Modern political Zionism, the movement for a Jewish state, was founded by Theodor Herzl, a secular Austrian Jewish journalist, with his book The Jewish State (1896). It grew from European nationalism and the antisemitism Jews faced in Europe.
What Islam asks of Muslims
The Qur'an says: "let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice." It allows Muslims to eat the food of Jews and Christians and to marry their women. It allows kindness and justice to all who do not fight Muslims for their faith. The Prophet (ﷺ) said whoever kills a non-Muslim living under a treaty will not smell Paradise. So Islam asks Muslims to stand for justice, for Palestinians and for everyone, without hating a people.
“O ye who believe! stand out firmly for Allah, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to piety: and fear Allah. For Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do.”
“This day are (all) things good and pure made lawful unto you. The food of the People of the Book is lawful unto you and yours is lawful unto them. (Lawful unto you in marriage) are (not only) chaste women who are believers, but chaste women among the People of the Book, revealed before your time,- when ye give them their due dowers, and desire chastity, not lewdness, nor secret intrigues if any one rejects faith, fruitless is his work, and in the Hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have lost (all spiritual good).”
“Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just.”
Abdullah ibn Amr reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said that whoever kills a person who has a treaty with the Muslims will not smell the fragrance of Paradise, though its fragrance reaches a distance of forty years.
Perspectives
A war of Islam against the Jews
Some say the conflict is at heart a religious war, because Islam teaches hatred of Jews.
Islam teaches Muslims to hate Jews, so the conflict can never end.
Rebuttal
The Qur'an lets Muslims eat Jews' food and marry Jewish women. No one is told to do that with a people they must hate. Caliph Umar let Jews back into Jerusalem. The Ottomans took in the Jews Spain expelled. Muslim Albania saved its Jews from the Holocaust.
Jews and Muslims have always been enemies over the Holy Land.
Rebuttal
For most of the last fourteen centuries they lived side by side there under Muslim rule. The modern conflict began with 20th-century nationalism and the struggle over land after 1917.
The Islamic perspective
The conflict is over land and rights, not a holy war between faiths. Islam commands justice for all, forbids hating a whole people, and has a long record of protecting Jews.
Caliph Umar let Jews live in Jerusalem again after the Christian Romans had kept them out.
The Ottoman Empire took in the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492.
Muslim Albania saved almost all the Jews within its borders in the Holocaust.
Political Zionism began as a secular national movement.
The Qur'an commands justice even towards those one hates.