People hear “Palestine” or “Israel,” and the conversation usually jumps straight to today’s headlines, political arguments, and modern conflict. It all starts in the middle of the story, as if nothing existed before recent history. But when you slow down and look past the noise, a real question appears, one that most people never stop to ask: Where did this land actually begin? Long before borders, armies, and modern governments, this land already had a life of its own. Civilizations lived here, languages formed here, and cultures grew out of its soil. The names changed across eras, empires rose and collapsed, and yet the land kept its identity through the people who were rooted in it. Their ancestry, their DNA, and their traditions carried the memory of this land long before any modern political structure existed.
Today, most people only see the ending chapter. They debate the present without understanding the beginning, the history of the land itself and the history of the people who belong to it. That is where this series begins. Not with 1948. Not with the British Mandate. Not with the Ottomans or the Crusaders. It begins at the earliest point that historians and archaeologists can trace with credible evidence, the origin story of the land and the Indigenous communities whose identity is woven into it. Because once you understand what this land was, who lived here first, how old their roots are, and how their connection to the land developed over thousands of years, the later chapters like the Mandate, Zionism, the Nakba, the occupation, and everything that follows becomes clear instead of confusing. This is the beginning of the story.
This is Origins of the Land of Olives.
The Canaanites The First Recorded Civilization of the Land of Olives
