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Around 4000 BC, the Canaanites, a Semitic people from the inner Arabian peninsula, settled in the land which became known as Canaan and later, Palestine. The Jebusites, one of the Canaanite peoples, built a settlement that they called Urusalim (Jerusalem), meaning ‘the city of peace’. The Egyptian Pharaohs occupied part of Canaan in 3200 BC, Abraham's tribe, passed through Palestine on their way south to Egypt. Seven centuries later, some tribes returned from Egypt, following Moses (when they told Moses "Go with your God and fight, here we will wait for you". ..) The Bible records that ‘The sons of Judah were unable to exterminate the Jebusites that dwell in Jerusalem’ (Joshua 15, 63). Four centuries later, Isaac's son David managed to defeat the Jebusites and the Jewish kingdom lasted for 70 years altogether after that it was split in to 2 states(north and south). |
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After the death of his son Solomon the Hebrews split into two states, Israel and Judah. These later fell into the hands of the Assyrians, in 721 BC, and Chaldeans, in 587 BC. It was in 587 that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and took the Jews into captivity in Babylon. In 332 BC, Alexander the Great conquered Palestine, but the territory returned to the Egyptian Empire of the Ptolemies soon after his death. The country was subdued by the Seleucids from Syria before a rebellion, headed by Judas Maccabeus, restored the Jewish state in 67 BC. In 63 BC, the Roman Empire seized Jerusalem, placing the city under its domination. Maccabeans. Solomon's temple was demolished around 70 AD, and the Jews were expelled from Jerusalem around 135 AD. The Romans gave Palestine its present name, and Roman domination was followed by that of the Byzantine Empire. |
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