Emperor Hadrian and the Jews

Hadrian

     Hadranus Publius Aelinus was emperor of Rome from 117 to 138. It was during his reign that the Jews of Israel revolted for a second time against the Roman occupation of their country. The first revolt led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the holy Temple in the year 70. That revolt was crushed by the Emperor  Vespasian and his son Titus. Nevertheless, a considerable number of Jews continued to live in Israel.

     Among these Jews was Simon Bar Kochba, who believed that he could overthrow the Roman rule over the Jewish land. Incensed by the building of a pagan temple in Jerusalem, the Jews revolted against the Roman occupation a second time under the leadership of Bar Kochba. For a short time the revolt succeeded, but was finally crushed when a large Roman army arrived and slaughtered 250,000 Jews and destroyed almost all Jewish towns.

     The revolt ended in 136, after four years of fighting. The Jews, having lost the war for their independence, were then scattered all over the Roman Empire, finally ending up in Europe.

     The Emperor Hadrian prohibited Jews from ever entering Israel again and renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina. The first part of the name referred to the Emperor’s family name. The second part of that name was used in connection with honor devolving upon three Roman gods, i.e., Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Hadrian then renamed the land of Israel, Palaestina or the land of the Philistines. Of course, in Hadrian’s day there were no Philistines anywhere, as they had all assimilated into the surrounding peoples in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip, which had once been Philistine territory. Hadrian wanted to the erase the memory of the Jews and therefore revived that ancient name.

     In short there was never a country called Palestine. Calling Israel Palestine depicts hostility and hatred against Jews, but is unrelated to any facts.

     The Arabs who today live in Israel are in no sense the descendants of the Philistines. Labeling themselves Palestinians is nothing more than the promotion of anti-Jewish hate. The truth is that Palestine never existed and that there are no Palestinians. Instead there are Arab immigrants into Israel who label themselves Philistines for the sake of murdering the 6 million Jews living there. The Arabs are the new Nazis, whose  purpose is to kill anyone believing in Judaism, as instructed by the Koran, the holy book of all Muslims.

     There is no real dispute concerning the land of Israel. It is entirely Jewish and none of it belongs to the Arabs. Yet the Arabs have the audacity to demand that all Jews be driven out of Israel or murdered. They also demand that the American taxpayer support them forever, as they have no intention of going to work. The Arabs living in Israel should recognize what a few Jews have accomplished in only 70 years, while the Arabs have done nothing but complain and murder.

     Every shot that has ever been fired between the Arabs and the Jewish population of Israel is entirely the fault of the Arabs, who attacked the Jewish community in Israel repeatedly in the hope of killing all Jews and profiting by seizing the property of the dead Jews, as the Europeans did between 1933 and 1945.

     There is only one dispute between the Jewish population of 13 million in the world and the 1.5 billion Muslims. Muslims and the Arabs among them believe that no person who is Jewish has a right to live in this world and that they, the Muslims, have the right to murder all Jews. Jews, however, are human beings, which the Muslims deny. Like all others, Jews seek to stay alive. The dispute between the so-called Palestinians and the Israelis has nothing to do with Jerusalem, or the West Bank of the Jordan River, or refugees. The dispute is solely religious and could end whenever Muslims and the Arabs among them are willing to grant that Jews are human beings too and have a right to live.

Shalom u’vracha.

Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including The American Drug Culture (with Dr. Thomas S. Weinberg & Dr. Ursula A. Falk, 2018).

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