TRUE GLOBAL HISTORY: A Reversal of Fortune Part 2

Nubian Pyramids

The Pyramids at Nuri. Located west of the Nile in Upper Nubia. This cemetery contained 21 kings, together with 52 queens and princes. Taharqa, the king of the 25th Dynasty was the first king to build his tomb at Nuri (Tomb no. 1), and it is the biggest pyramid ever built at the site. Queen Amanishakheto was buried in Nuri. View the Lion Temples. King Senkamanisken (Tomb no. 3). Treasures of King Aspelta (Tomb no. 8).

The Pyramids of Meroe. Between the 5th and 6th cataracts. During the Meroitic Period over forty kings and queens were buried at Meroe. Forty generations of Nubian royalty are buried in Meroe, and every royal Nubian tomb is housed within a pyramid. The Meroitic South cemetery contained the tombs of three kings, Arikakaman, Yesruwaman, and Kaltaly, as well as six queens. Several hundred yards to the north, the Meroitic North cemetery held an additional 30 kings and 6 queens, successors of the South cemetery group. Their tombs, built under steep pyramids, were all badly plundered in ancient times, but pictures preserved in the tomb chapels tell us that the rulers were mummified and covered with jewelry and laid in wooden mummy cases. The larger tombs still contained remains of weapons, bows, quivers of arrows, archer's thumb rings, horse harnesses, wooden boxes and furniture, pottery, colored glass and metal vessels, and other things, many of them imported from Egypt and the Greek and Roman worlds. Meroe belongs to the most important monuments of the beginning of civilization on the African continent.
Queen Bartare (260-250 B.C.) was the last monarch to be buried in Meroe. Tomb of Amanikhabale, and Queen Amanitore were also buried in Meroe.

The Pyramids of el-Kurru. The first Nubian pyramids were built at the site of el-Kurru. The site at el-Kurru contains the tombs of King Kashta and his son Piye (Piankhi), five earlier generations, together with Piye's successors Shabaka, Shebitqo and Tanwetamani and 14 pyramids of the queens.
Ancient Map of Nubia

Nubian Pyramids
[Photo] Archaeological excavation of sites in Nubia (Sudan) confirmed human habitation in the river valley during the Paleolithic period that spanned more than 60,000 years of Sudanese history. Most of Sudan remains unexcavated, and archaeologists have little idea of its layout of ancient times.

To date we know of three successive kingdoms of Nubia (aka Kush), each with its own capital: the Kingdom of Kerma (2400-1500 BC), that of Napata (1000-300 BC) and finally that of Meroe (300 BC-300 AD). This is not including the elusive A-Group (3800-2800 BC) which little is known, but there is ongoing excavations. What is known as the A-group cemeteries found in Nubia represent its Neolithic culture, and extended along the whole length of Lower Nubia and even beyond the Second Cataract about 200 kilometres south of Aswan. Archaeologists found thousands of graves containing a wide variety of pottery, leather garments, ostrich-feather fans, copper weapons and palettes of quartz, all of which indicated the level of civilization reached by the Nubians. (Latest Findings)

The largest site of Nubian civilization burial pyramids lies north of Khartoum, along the Nile River in ancient Meroe. These pyramids were built by the Kushite people of ancient Sudan to house the bodies of departed kings. They were located in Meroe, the last significant Kushite state.

Eventually the old cultures of Nubia and Egypt changed radically due to the immigration of foreigners into the Nile Valley. Egypt was overpowered by Rome in 30 BC, falls to Persia in 619 AD, and taken over by Arabs in 640 AD.

In addition Meroe lost its advantageous trade position. Its trade was closely tied to the wealth of Roman Egypt, through it connections down the Nile or along the Red Sea. As Roman wealth declined, there was less demand for Meroe's luxury goods. At the same time Meroe's Red Sea trade to the Indian Ocean was lost to her better placed neighbor the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum. In about 350 AD the army of the Aksumite King Ezana invaded the island of Meroe. By then the capital had already been abandoned and the region was in the hands of a people whom the Aksumites referred to as the Noba. It is not known exactly who the Noba were. They may have been an invading group of pastorlists from the south or southwest. On the other hand they may have been a subject Nubian people who regained control of the region when the power of their Meroite rulers collapsed.

The end of Aksum as a capital was in 619 AD. For the people of Ethiopia, it is regarded as the ancient residence and capital city of the queen of Sheba, the second Jerusalem, and the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.

Note: Aswan High Dam:

With the finished construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1968, and the flooding of the Nubian homeland, the last of the Nubian people were forced to leave the area that extended south along the banks of the Nile from Aswan in the north to the Sudanese border 290 miles south.

Unfortunately, the likelihood of further archaeological study at any sites in Nubia, is all but impossible became many of the primary areas of investigation now lie under 250 feet of water, at the bottom of Lake Nasser. Over 150,000 Nubians and Sudanese were forced to relocate off the land their ancestors had called home for over 5,000 years. Over 45 Nubian villages were washed away along the banks of the Nile south of Aswan.

They were relocated between the cities of Esna and Kom Ombo. Across the border in Sudan, Nubians were relocated to the banks of the Arbara River, more than 600 miles from where their lived.

There is no way to estimate the total number of temples and tombs which now lie at the bottom of Lake Nasser, nor is there any way of knowing the many secrets these structures currently hold. Because of the creation of the Aswan Dam, the world will never have an opportunity to study the full impact Africans from the southern Nile Valley had on the development of ancient Egypt and subsequent civilizations.
Books:

Culture and Customs of Egypt, Molefi Kete Asante, Greenwood Press, 2002

The Black Pharaohs (Egypt's Nubian Rulers), Robert G. Morkot, Rubicon Press, 2000;

The African Origin of Civilization (Myth or Reality), Cheikh Anta Diop, Lawrence Hill Books, 1974

Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity, Stuart Munro-Hay, was first published in 1991
Nubia rivaled Egypt in wealth and power, and mutually influenced each other.
[Photo] Meroe, the ruins of the “Royal City” are located on the Nile banks.
Tomb of King Tarekeniwal at Meroe 100 A.D.
Nubian family tree of the Egypt's 25th Dynasty
[Photo] The Amun Temple served as a principle Kushite religious center near Shendi in what is now northern Sudan. This monumental statue is part of a group of twelve identical statues which form the alley leading to the Temple of Amon at Naga. The restoration of the ram's fleece, in spiral curls, is also found on the even larger statues which border the access to the Temple of Amon at Meroe.

[Photo] King Arnekhamani, Horus, and wife at the "Lion Temple" at Musawwarat es-Sufra.
Pyramids at Meroe, Sudan
The largest site of Kush civilization burial pyramids lies north of Khartoum, along the Nile River in ancient Meroe, Sudan.
[Photo] Meroe: northern cemetery; perspective drawing of the restored pyramid field (F.W. Hinkel)

From the book Sudan: Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile, Dietrich Wildung, 1997,
p. 414
Kerma - Black Africa's Oldest Civilization
[Photo] Timeline of Nubian Royalty
Gebel Barkal: Temple of Mut, Hathor & Bes
[Photo] About 1450 BCE, the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III extended his conquests to Gebel Barkal and established it as the southern border of his empire. The city he founded there was called Napata. The Egyptians remained only about 300 years. Later Napata became the seat of royal authority of an independent Nubian kingdom called Kush, and from about 720 to 660 BCE its kings conquered and ruled Egypt as the 25th Dynasty. Napata was the political capital of Upper Egypt (northward to Memphis) during the late-8th-century reign of Piyankhy (or Piye). After the Kushites were driven out of Egypt, Napata continued as an important royal residence and religious center until about 350 BCE, when the kingdom finally collapsed.

The temple was first excavated between February and April 1916 by George Reisner and his Boston team and again between March and April 1987 by the new Boston team led by Timothy Kendall. In 1989 Kendall and his staff resurveyed the monument.
[Photo] [Photo] Mut, Hathor, Bes are all represented in this unique temple. All can be identified in some regard with the myth of the "Eye of Re." It is possible that the colossal Bes images and the sistrum-headed Hathor images were included to soothe the anger of the goddess in the story, since Bes is a god of dance and the sistra makes rhythmic music.
[Photo] [Photo] Further, the goddesses represented here have important maternal roles in the myth of the divine origin of the king. According to Timothy Kendall, the pinnacle of the gebel (rising prominently above the Temple of Mut) was seen by the Kushites as phallic and a symbol of Amun's regenerative power. Thus, it is possible that this temple of Mut (mother) with its apotropaic symbolism (the line of Bes statues and the systra) could have been conceived of and constructed as a symbolic womb; a female counterpart to the pinnacle.

The temple could represent a birthing house or mythological passage of birth, playing a role in both royal birth rituals and coronation ceremonies (also a kind of rebirth). The king then may have come to the temple to perform ritual acts of rebirth.

Gebel Barkal, the Mythological Nubian Origin of Egyptian Kingship, and the Formation of the Napatan State
by Timothy Kendall

Excerpts:

Excavations at many Napatan sanctuaries, especially at Gebel Barkal, reveal that the Napatan temples were generally built directly over the foundations of ruined New Kingdom temples. This indicates that the Napatan rulers of the eighth century BC deliberately restored cults and cult places that had been abandoned by the pharaohs when they evacuated Nubia some three centuries earlier. Other than the Barkal Temples, the best known Napatan temples with New Kingdom antecedents are those of Kawa, Tabo, and Doukki Gel/Kerma, to which we must now add Usli and Hugeir. New Kingdom remains have not yet actually been found at Sanam temple, but Taharqa's inscriptions there allude to its foundation by the "ancestors", by which he seems always to have meant the pharaohs (Griffith 1922, p. 102). Such data reveal that the Kushites, in the early Napatan Period, undertook a program of reviving long dormant Egyptian cults throughout Nubia. Somehow they had acquired a passionate belief in the Amun cult, where previously they had possessed none. Somehow they had recovered - or learned - a memory of the cults of these old Egyptian centers in order to restore them, even though within Nubia the cult had apparently been absent for three centuries and the temples had fallen to ruin. Somehow, by restoring the old Egyptian cult places, especially Gebel Barkal, they were able to present themselves both within Nubia and especially at Thebes, as the true successors of the pharaohs of the New Kingdom and the direct heirs to their throne. What exactly happened here? How did an obscure dynasty of Nubian chiefs from a village near ancient Napata rise within two or three generations to become the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt? This would seem to be one of the major unsolved issues of our discipline as well as of Egyptology.

With his massive constructions at Napata, his epic literary chronicles, and his exquisite bas-reliefs, Piye set a high standard for his successors to follow. Although Shabaqo and Shebitqo were too preoccupied with events in Egypt to expend their energies in their homeland, Piye was even outdone by his son Taharqa, who put the ultimate stamp on the Gebel Barkal site. Exhibiting a rich knowledge of mythology and a bold imagination, he erected monuments here that complemented one another as well as the natural setting in ingenious ways and seemed to create a vivid fusion of the real world and the mythological. Under Taharqa's care the Barkal site became an elaborate stage set for the celebration of past, present, and eternal monarchy, and the perpetual recreation of the world.

Taharqa seems to have felt that the mountain, which was inhabited by all the great goddesses, required more explicit female expression, so he undertook the construction or complete renewal of the temples of the goddesses Hathor and Mut, B200 and 300. He was probably also the sponsor of the temples of the royal uraeus goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet, Pr-wr and Pr-nsr (B1100 and 1150), which appear to have been part of the same series. Today the only well-preserved temple among these is B 300, which was built just west (left) of the base of the pinnacle. In the New Kingdom, this temple had been free-standing, but in his reign Taharqa rebuilt it as a deep rock cut shrine with a built outer structure and pylon. The columns along its axis took the form of sistra and colossal Bes images. These were apotropaic and obviously had the purpose of pacifying the goddess in her form as the leonine “Eye of Re” before she emerged from the sanctuary (Robisek 1989, p. 77). On the unpublished rear wall the goddess is shown lion-headed on the right ("south") together with the ram-headed Amun of Napata, while on the left ("north") she is human-headed as she stands with the anthropomorphic Amun of Karnak. The Bes columns, however, can also be understood as the amuletic symbols of childbirth (Malaise 2001, p. 180).

In his building inscription, Taharqa says that he found the temple built by the "ancestors" in "humble work" (k3t nds), and that he rebuilt it as "splendid work" (k3t mnh). Here again there seems to be a word-play, for k3t also means "vagina, birth passage" (the feminine of k3=ka="phallus") (Faulkner 1964, p. 283). Taharqa, in other words, rebuilt this temple "for his mother Mut . . . as a splendid birth passage".

Due to the reverse direction of the Nile here, Taharqa's tomb [Nuri], still on the "west" bank, paradoxically lay to the east, the place of sunrise and rebirth. Gebel Barkal, on the "east" bank, lay paradoxically to the west, the place of sunset and death. The tomb and the mountain, thus, symbolized Creation, death and rebirth simultaneously. They were opposites, yet they were also the same. All of the opposites, in fact, were perceived to be united in Gebel Barkal and its pinnacle and became synonyms: present and past, upperworld and underworld, living and dead, east and west, north and south, male and female, god and goddess, father and mother, parent and child, god and king, etc. It was the spectacular realization of Egyptian theological speculation. It also created a perfect convergence of another pair of opposites (at least to our way of thinking): mythology and reality.

Gebel Barkal, under Taharqa, was designed - with obvious optimism - to be the ultimate and permanent center of kingship in the Nile Valley. It was to be the eternal link between the Creator god and mankind, and between the eternal king and the living king.
References:

The first link is a Word file:

Kendall, T.K., 2002. Napatan Temples: a Case Study from Gebel Barkal. The Mythological Nubian Origin of Egyptian Kingship and the Formation of the Napatan State. Tenth International Conference of Nubian Studies. Rome, September 9–14, 2002 (Privately distributed).

http://www.arkamani.org/arkamani-library/napatan/barkal_ancient_nubia.htm

http://www.learningsites.com/GebelBarkal-2/GB-index.htm

Meroe and Sudanic Kingdoms, by David Edwards, Journal of African History, 1998

Kushite Buildings at Kawa, by Derek Welsby, The British Museum

Fragments Lost and Found: Two Kushite Objects Augmented, Timothy Kendall

Chapter from: Derek A. Welsby (ed.), Recent Research in Kushite History and Archaeology. Proceedings of
the 8th International Conference for Meroitic Studies. British Museum Occasional Paper No. 131. London:
British Museum Press, 1999
[Photo]

Nubian Royal Statue Head Found
Video: Prof. Friedrich Hinkel, an architect from Berlin on how the Pyramids were built in Meroe [view here]
[Photo] [Photo] [Photo] Pyramids of Nuri, Nubia
[Photo] Meroe Pyramids

These pyramids in northern Sudan were built from the 4th century BC to 3d century AD. They belong to Nubian kings.

Nubia rivaled Egypt in wealth and power, and mutually influenced each other.

TRUE GLOBAL HISTORY: A Reversal of Fortune Part 1

Many people, some of color but, mostly non blacks would ask why is it so important to research the past and find out the truth about our past. 'Our' being those of color whose common ancestry is more than likely the continent now known as Africa.
Whether you come from the so called West Indies, the Caribbean, or have strong North, Central, or South American Native ancestry, you have somewhere in your genetic code ties to that place you have been taught to hate called Africa.
First let us examine why many of us hate the dark continent now called Africa. For many years, here in the USA we were not taught much about the truth concerning Africa.
Much of what we knew about Africa came by way of the media. Tarzan movies depicted Africa as being inhabited by savage like people who ran about barely dressed. They portrayed us as weaklings compared to the mighty Tarzan (a white man) who was raised by apes. Though he was raised by animals this white man was more intelligent & stronger than the black natives of Africa.
On T.V. most of the shows and movies at one time only showed blacks as servants, slaves, junkies, prostitutes, or other stereotypical roles which were usually insulting to us as a people. When it came to whites they always seemed to be much smarter and better off than us.
In school we were lied to and told that the white Greeks were the first civilized humans. We now know that this was false.
Egypt has always been talked of as if it was not a part of Africa. It's greatness I guess was too rich & high to attribute to blacks so Egyptians have always been looked upon and depicted as white.
They left out the many contributions that blacks, whether from Africa or not, have made concerning global history. They made us believe that we came from nothing, gave nothing and therefore were nothing. They lied to do this.
Just imagine if whenever it came to the sciences, mathematics, medicine we had nothing to do with any advances of humanity you would feel concerning your self worth. Of course this might mean nothing to a Jew, Italian, Irish, or any non African American. Can you blame any of them for not caring?
What really counts is how we feel about our selves. If you believe that your kind amounts to nothing then you will feel inferior to all others.
Malcolm X once said that if you hate the roots then how could you like the tree. He said that because we had been taught, trained, and programed to view Africa as a dark, backwards continent we as well hated it and therefore we hated our own kind and our selves.
If you believe the Bible it makes our civilized time on this planet very short. It places about 6000 years on us. We now know this to not be true.
Because of racism many truths had been suppressed. The great structures of Egypt were built by true Africans. Yet, all kinds of theories have been put forth to negate the greatness of Africans. You really have to hate your kind to believe that aliens from outer space created the Pyramids even though you have never seen an alien in your entire life.
When it comes to medicine you believe that the Europeans began that. Well, guess what? YOU ARE ONCE AGAIN WRONG!
I recently heard an Indian brother say 'that it is very important that all black children should be be taught that the beginnings of medicine began in Africa'. From Africa to India and from India to Europe is the proper order.
Please listen to the following: http://archive.wbai.org/files/mp3/090928_120001shhealing.MP3 and read what follows to fully understand where I am coming.

Ancient African Medicine, Egypt (Khemit) and the World

Genetics

Interestingly, certain remedies prescribed by Egyptian physicians were way ahead of modern anticipation. For instance, celery and saffron which were used for rheumatism, are currently hot topics of pharmaceutical research, and pomegranate was used to eradicate tapeworms, a remedy that remained in clinical use until 50 years ago. Acacia is still used in cough remedies while aloes forms a basis to soothe and heal skin conditions. The knowledge and the uses of essential oils and resins were introduced to the world by the ancient Egyptians.”

By Jide Uwechia (June 8, 2007)

It is now official! The western propaganda press and its scholarly co-conspirators in the academia have finally admitted that African Kemit gave the world the gift of medical sciences as opposed to previously peddled lies which identify Greece as the origin of medicine. Imhotep, the Prince of Peace, the Egyptian inventor of medicine and healing was a real historical African genius who received the book of healing from the mysterious forces of ancestral Africa.

This book was later given to the world and it forms the basis of modern medicine and surgery.

The entire ancient world, including the ancient Greeks celebrated this venerable old man of wisdom who was synonymous with ingenuity. Even Hippocrates so called Greek Father of modern medicine was a devotee of Imhotep the Prince of Peace.

Scientists examining documents dating back more than 3,500 years have confirmed that the origins of modern medicine lie in ancient Egypt and not with Hippocrates and the Greeks. The medical papyri was written in 2,500BC – 1,000, thousands of years before Hippocrates was born.

The medical documents were first discovered in the mid-19th century but then suppressed because it demonstrated facts which were antithetical to the official but hypocritical racist attitudes which then prevailed.

According to one of the scientists, Dr Jackie Campbell:

“Classical scholars have always considered the ancient Greeks, particularly Hippocrates, as being the fathers of medicine but our findings suggest that the ancient Egyptians were practicing a credible form of pharmacy and medicine much earlier,”.

“When we compared the ancient remedies against modern pharmaceutical protocols and standards, we found the prescriptions in the ancient documents not only compared with pharmaceutical preparations of today but that many of the remedies had therapeutic merit.”

“Many of the ancient remedies we discovered survived into the 20th century and, indeed, some remain in use today, albeit that the active component is now produced synthetically.”

Imhotep

Imhotep was the world’s first named physician, and the architect who built Egypt’s first pyramid. He is indisputably the world’s first doctor, a priest, scribe, sage, poet, astrologer, a vizier and chief minister, to Djoser (reigned 2630–2611 BC), the second king of Egypt’s third dynasty.

An inscription on one of that king’s statues gives us Imhotep’s titles as the “the prince of peace,” “chancellor of the king of lower Egypt,” the “first one under the king,” the “administrator of the great mansion,” the “hereditary Noble,” the “high priest of Heliopolis,” the “chief sculptor,” and finally the “chief carpenter”.

As a builder, Imhotep is the first recorded master architects. He was the first pyramid architect and builder, and among his works one counts the Djoser’s Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara, Sekhemkhet’s unfinished pyramid, and possibly the Edfu Temple. The Step Pyramid remains today one of the most brilliant architecture wonders of the ancient world and is recognized as the first monumental stone structure.

Imhotep was also the first known physician, medical professor and a prodigous writer of medical books. As the first medical professor, Imhotep is believed to have been the author of the Edwin Smith Papyrus in which more than 90 anatomical terms and 48 injuries are described. He also founded a school of medicine in Memphis, possibly known as “Asklepion, which remained famous for two thousand years. All of this occurred some 2,200 years before the Western Father of Medicine Hippocrates was born.

According to Sir William Osler, Imhotep was the:

“..first figure of a physician to stand out clearly from the mists of antiquity.” Imhotep diagnosed and treated over 200 diseases, 15 diseases of the abdomen, 11 of the bladder, 10 of the rectum, 29 of the eyes, and 18 of the skin, hair, nails and tongue. Imhotep treated tuberculosis, gallstones, appendicitis, gout and arthritis. He also performed surgery and practiced some dentistry. Imhotep extracted medicine from plants. He also knew the position and function of the vital organs and circulation of the blood system. The Encyclopedia Britannica says, “The evidence afforded by Egyptian and Greek texts support the view that Imhotep’s reputation was very respected in early times. His prestige increased with the lapse of centuries and his temples in Greek times were the centers of medical teachings.”

Along with medicine, he was also a patron of architects, knowledge and scribes. James Henry Breasted says of Imhotep:

“In priestly wisdom, in magic, in the formulation of wise proverbs; in medicine and architecture; this remarkable figure of Zoser’s reign left so notable a reputation that his name was never forgotten. He was the patron spirit of the later scribes, to whom they regularly poured out a libation..”

Imhotep was, together with Amenhotep, the only mortal Egyptians that ever reached the position of full gods. He was also associated with Thoth, the god of wisdom, writing and learning, and with the Ibises, which was also associated with Thoth.

Devotees bought offerings to his medical and spiritual school in Saqqara, including mummified Ibises and sometimes, in the hope of being healed.

He was later even worshipped by the early Christians as one with Christ who was made to adopt one of the titles of Imhotep, “the Prince of Peace”. The early Christians, often appropriated those pagan forms and persons whose influence through the ages had woven itself so powerfully into tradition that they could not omit them.

He was worshiped in Greece where he was identified with their god of medicine, Aslepius. . He was honored by the Romans and inscriptions praising Imhotep were placed on the walls of Roman temples. Most surprisingly, he even managed to find a place in Arab traditions, especially at Saqqara where his tomb is thought to be located.

Materia Medica

The ancient Egyptian physicians treated wounds with honey, resins (including cannabis resin) and elemental metals known to be antimicrobial. This practice is still a valid medical protocol even today.

Again, just like in this modern times, the prescriptions for laxatives included castor oil and colocynth and bulk bran and figs were used to promote regularity.

Other references show that colic was treated with hyoscyamus, which is still used today, and that cumin and coriander were used as intestinal carminatives.

Musculo-skeletal disorders were treated with rubefacients to stimulate blood flow and poultices to warm and soothe similar to the practices of modern practitioners of sports medicine .

Interestingly, certain remedies prescribed by Egyptian physicians were way ahead of modern anticipation. For instance, celery and saffron which were used for rheumatism, are currently hot topics of pharmaceutical research, and pomegranate was used to eradicate tapeworms, a remedy that remained in clinical use until 50 years ago.

Acacia is still used in cough remedies while aloes forms a basis to soothe and heal skin conditions. The knowledge and the uses of essential oils and resins were introduced to the world by the ancient Egyptians.”

The early Egyptians appear to have been the first to recognize that stress could contribute to illness. They established sanitariums where people would undergo “dream therapy” and treatments with “healing waters.

Altogether, around 50 percent of the plants used in ancient Egypt remain in clinical use today. Many of the medical and surgical instruments such as knives and forceps have not changed their design since the ancient Africans first sent out this knowledge to the world. Today, researchers are still discovering “new” cures based on old Egyptian remedies, such as eating celery to help curb inflammation associated with arthritis.

Roots of Khemitic Knowledge

The study further conducted genetic and chemical analysis on plant remains and resins, with the goal of identifying trade routes, which species were used and how these plants might have been cultivated outside their natural growing ranges.

After detailed facts gathering and analysis the scientists proposed that the African Egyptians obtained their medical knowledge from nomadic African tribes that united to form ancient Egypt, as well as from neighboring African people in Kush and beyond.

Current medical practices by the living African societies and traditions still show similarities to Pharaonic medicine. The continued use by African natural Doctors of medicinal herbs and animal products, and practices such as cosmetic dental filing, brain trepanning, orthopedic procedures, known to ancient Egyptians suggest sustained scientific and religious interaction in the past.

Alas, current studies are revealing that the knowledge of medicine was transferred from central west Africa to Egypt, just like everything else that was gifted from Kush to Khemet.

This is very significant since it is widely known that the foundations of modern western medicine came from Egypt. Around 50 percent of the plants used in ancient Egypt remained in clinical use. Medical tools like forceps, scissors and surgical blades, were lifted unchanged from ancient Egyptian medical science into modern western medicine. Medical practices, and knowledge of human anatomy, also found their way into the body of scientific knowledge underlying western medicine.

Since the knowledge of Egyptian medical science was from inner Africa, more precisely central and western Africa, the world owes this continent and its children a belated tribute, a sound recognition for having bequeathed the science of healing and hygiene to later cultures and civilizations who still owe the unrequited debt of appreciation for Africa’s beneficence.

Sources:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/uom-eng050907.php

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/28/egyptiandrug_arc.html?category=animals&guid
=20070228104530

Chronicle of the Pharaohs (The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt) Clayton, Peter A. 1994 Thames and Hudson Ltd ISBN 0-500-05074-0.

Complete Pyramids, The (Solving the Ancient Mysteries) Lehner, Mark 1997 Thames and Hudson, Ltd ISBN 0-500-05084-8.

Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, The Shaw, Ian; Nicholson, Paul 1995 Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers ISBN 0-8109-3225-3.

History of Ancient Egypt, A Grimal, Nicolas 1988 Blackwell None Stated.

Monarchs of the Nile Dodson, Aidan 1995 Rubicon Press ISBN 0-948695-20-x.

Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, The Shaw, Ian 2000 Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-815034-2.

AFRICA: THE MOTHER OF MEDICINE Majid Ali, M.D. I have heard that history belongs to the victors. This may be true but only on a small time scale. Truth finally catches up. Hippocrates, the Greek physician, is considered to be the father of medicine. This falsehood persists worldwide in spite of growing evidence to the contrary. If medicine does have a parent, it is East Africa. In 2009, I published an article in the Townsend Letter entitled "The Eastern Track of Medicine: From East Africa to South India—and Beyond" to put forth my hypothesis concerning the African origin of the earlier healing traditions. European and African historians agree that the knowledge of healing traditions traveled north from the Nubian and Egyptian regions to Greece-the "Northern Track" seems an appropriate designation for it-and then to the rest of Europe. I hypothesize that there was also an "Eastern Track"-from east Africa to south India, the Far East, and on to China-of greater significance in the spread of those traditions from the pre-Nubian and Nubian civilizations. The Eastern Track hypothesis offers the tantalizing possibility of integrating the ancient Indian and Chinese advances with the African enlightened philosophy and practice of medicine. I support the Eastern Track hypothesis by explaining how the earlier African observations about the human conditions (revealed in mythological beliefs), medical thoughts, and therapeutics influenced the evolution of the same in India and China. Specifically, I present a comparative review of available information concerning: (1) the knowledge of the structure and function of the human frame (anatomy, physiology); (2) ideas about the cause of disease (pathology); (3) diet and holism; (4) genetic influences; (5) therapeutic interventions; (6) advances in other lines of inquiry into natural phenomena; and (7) mythology and spiritual beliefs. Before that, below are comments about the Northern Track to provide a context for presenting the Eastern Track hypothesis. Who Is the Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, Imhotep, or...? Recently, I asked five young doctors on our staff who they considered to be the father of medicine. They all named Hippocrates (460-370 B.C.) Later I posed the same question to Bernard White, program director of non-commercial WBAI radio in New York. He named Imhotep (2650 B.C), the chief minister and royal physician to Pharaoh Djoser (2686-2613). This summarizes the prevailing Eurocentric and Afrocentric perspectives on the beginnings of the healing arts and sciences. Below is a revealing excerpt from National Geographic 1: Even famed Harvard Egyptologist George Riesner-whose discoveries between 1916 and 1919 offered the first archaeological evidence of Nubian kings who ruled over Egypt-besmirched his own findings by insisting that black Africans could not possibly have constructed the monuments he was excavating. He believed that Nubia's leaders, including Piye, were light-skinned Egypto-Libyans who ruled over the primitive Africans. That their moment of greatness was so fleeting, he suggested, must be a consequence of the same leaders intermarrying with the "negroid elements. " Black Africans could not possibly have constructed the monuments! What could be the basis of this statement? Reisner's prejudice is easily discerned in the last part of the quote: it must be a consequence of the same leaders intermarrying with the "negroid elements." African Attention to Anatomy and Physiology When the early African and Nubian healing traditions are compared with those in ancient India and China, a striking difference is inescapable: the Africans were drawn to observable phenomena while the Indians and Chinese were preoccupied with symbols, such as chakras and meridians. Specifically, the former learned human anatomy and based their treatment strategies on demonstrable elements; the latter, by contrast, developed "energetic concepts" that could not be validated by physical evidence. The Africans' interest in anatomy and physiology is objectively documented in the Edwin Smith Papyrus written in the hieratic script of the ancient Nubian/Egyptian language around the 16th to 19th centuries B.C.-considered to be based on conditions that prevailed a thousand years earlier (2,900 to 2,600 B.C.), a period that predates the earliest Hebrew records on the subject by a millennium. The Edwin Smith Papyrus is the only surviving copy of part of an ancient Egyptian/Nubian textbook on trauma surgery,2 and is the world's earliest known medical text. The papyrus is kept at the Rare Book Room, New York Academy of Medicine. This document-the entire translation is available online-comprises 48 case studies, each with a description of the physical examination, treatment and prognosis. Below is an excerpt from Ivan Sertima's Blacks in Science3Cadmirably succinct and telling-that illustrates the African focus on objectivity in clinical observations: In fact, the Edwin Smith papyrus (2,600 B.C.) proved the existence of an objective and scientific medicine, devoid of theories and magic, except in one case, and based on the attentive and repeated observation of the patient, on bedside experience, and on a hitherto unsuspected knowledge of anatomy. Kahun Papyrus (also called Gynecological Papyrus) is dated to about 1800 B.C. and is sometimes designated as the oldest known medical text.4,5 It deals with female conditions-gynecological diseases, fertility, pregnancy, contraception, and others-and remarkably refers to the womb as the source of problems in other body parts. African interest in anatomy, however, clearly predates the Edwin Smith Papyrus. Some Old Stone Age drawings in Africa depict animal bones, hearts, and other organs.6 In the Eastern Track hypothesis, I see the evolution of the Chinese medical tradition taking place in the shadow of the Indian tradition. It is noteworthy that the Chinese medicine was not inclined to a diligent study of anatomy until nearly 2,000 years later. As for medical ethics, professional conduct, and negligence, the Code of Hammurabi (2200 B.C.) is given the distinction of being the oldest. The Code includes references to incest, adultery, rape, and diseases of slaves. Notwithstanding its historical importance, the priority claim of the Code is suspect-the Edwin papyrus pre-dates the Code by 300 to 600 years-since Nubian physicians were held accountable for their clinical work. African Notions of Pathology As for the pathogenesis of disease, again the Africans showed deeper insights than the Indians. They recognized the essential roles of diet and environment. They held that diseases were caused by the substances people fed on. The Indians and Chinese, by contrast, developed systems of chakras, meridians, and humors. If one were to enlarge the concept of disease being caused by what was fed on-oxygen, in my view, is the single most important nutrient-Africans can be seen as forerunners of integrative medicine to which I devote Darwin and Dysox Trilogy, the 10th, 11th, and 12th volumes of The Principles and Practice of Integrative Medicine.7-9 African Therapeutics The Africans were astute observers of natural phenomena. While the Indians and Chinese were trying to treat illness with their non-anatomic notions of chakras and meridians, the Nubians based a significant part of their therapeutics on the knowledge of anatomy and their understanding of how anatomic structures functioned. Even if the Indian claims of the repair of amputated noses in antiquity are confirmed, such work was rudimentary compared with the Nubian surgical advances, as is abundantly evident from the study of the Edwin papyrus. The Indians and Chinese advanced herbology by investigating the clinical benefits of indigenous phytofactors. The Indians also developed their five-element system in which the occurrence of disease was related to earth (for stability), water (for fluidity), air (for motility), fire (for heat) and wood (for life). The Chinese concept of yin-yang was a significant advance since it focused on homeostatic balance in the body. However, neither the Ayurvedic clinicians can explain why and how they use their five elements to treat disease, nor can the practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine relate their theory of heat and cold in terms of measurable temperature-related phenomena. For instance, the Chinese assign important digestive functions to the spleen, an organ that does not secrete any digestive factors and has no direct and demonstrable communication with the alimentary tract.10 The practitioners of Siddha medicine in India claim their discipline is 8,000 years old. However, such claims are not well supported by objective evidence. One Siddha practitioner told me that 80 different types of arthritis are taught in his school and one of the remedies includes 250 different natural elements. He was unable to name even five of them. A Genetic Perspective I conceived the idea of the Eastern Track hypothesis during a conversation with a patient that went something like this: "Which part of south India do you come from?" I asked. "I'm not an Indian. I'm an Ethiopian," the patient replied. "Ethiopian of Indian descent?" "No. An Ethiopian of Ethiopian descent." "But you don't look like an African." "I'm an Ethiopian and I look like an Ethiopian." She smiled. "Somalia is to the south of Ethiopia and Sudan to the north. Further south and to the west are Kenya and Uganda. Across the Red Sea, there is Arabia. You don't look like the peoples of those regions." "Yes, we Ethiopians don't look like the people of any of those countries. We are Ethiopians and we look like Ethiopians," she chuckled. Some weeks later, a patient from Sri Lanka told me that he has seen some people in the remote villages of that country whose facial features and hair are exactly African, distinctly different from those of the general population of the country. The available genetic evidence points to human origin in the Rift Valley of East Africa and human migration from there to Europe and Asia in stages about 70,000 years ago.11 French archaeologists discovered ceramic figurines, bowls and funerary objects at Nubian sites (present day Ethiopia and Sudan) that date from at least 8000 B.C.12Ca period that is as old as any in Neolithic sites in Africa and elsewhere, and predate prehistoric finds in Egypt by a staggering 3,000 years and in India by two millennia. These findings support the view that the early Nubians formed the foundation of the Proto Dravidians in the southern regions of the Indian subcontinent and the earlier peoples of the Far East, including China. It seems safe to predict that future studies in genetics and linguistics will validate this view of the spread of enlightenment from east Africa along the Eastern Track to India, China, and beyond in addition to the recognized Northern Track to Egypt, Greece, and Europe. African Inquiry Into Natural Phenomena In any civilization, questions about the nature of illness and remedies arise only within the larger context of an inquiry into other natural phenomena. Archaeological evidence clearly establishes advances in tool-making, agriculture, metallurgy, and architecture in Africa before progress in these fields was made in Mesopotamia, India, China, and Europe. Such knowledge clearly supports the Eastern Track hypothesis. In southern Africa, mining took place as early as 42,000 years ago.13 There is evidence for a cultural flow that diffused the pottery and related microlithic advances from the southeast of Subsaharan Africa to the present-day Sahara and through to West Africa. Such evidence has been found in Cameroon at Shum Laka (30,600 29,000 B.C.), in the Ivory Coast in Bingerville (14,100 13,400 B.C.), in Nigeria in Iwo Eleru (11,460 11,050 B.C.), and finally in Ounjougou (9,000 B.C.).14 Mesopotamia continues to be considered by some as the birthplace of tool-making and agriculture (7,000 to 8,000 B.C.). However, grain-harvesting occurred at Wadi Tushka (Nubia) and Wadi Kubbaniya (Egypt) at least 10,000 years earlier.14,15 Even in northern Africa (present Sahara) impressive agricultural developments preceded those in Mesopotamia-the Kiffian and Tenerian cultures began 10,000 years ago-and archaeological evidence reveals well developed ideas of diet and health.16 Some knowledge in these fields must have been developed de novo in Mesopotamia, India, Far East, and China, but the general direction of the spread undoubtedly was from Africa to the East, along the Eastern Track. Humankind spread medical knowledge as it spread knowledge in other physical sciences. If we accept that, then why didn't the ancient Indians and Chinese focus on observable facts of anatomy, physiology, and pathology in their healing traditions? I address this question in a later section. As for medical ethics, professional conduct, and negligence, the Code of Hammurabi (2200 B.C.) is given the distinction of being the oldest. The Code includes references to incest, adultery, rape, and diseases of slaves. Notwithstanding its historical importance, the priority claim of the Code is suspect-the Edwin papyrus, for instance, pre-dates the Code by 300 to 600 years and Nubian physicians were held accountable for their clinical work. Africans in South India There is remarkable convergence of evidence of the Nubian rule over India-and, by extension, of the Eastern Track hypothesis-from historical records of diverse regions of the world. Before summarizing the salient aspects of this evidence, below I describe one major source of the prevailing and mistaken beliefs on the subject. An important player in my story is Friedrich Max Müller (1823 B 1900), the German philologist and Orientalist who is credited with virtually creating the discipline of comparative religion.18,19 In 1846, he went to England and joined Christ Church, Oxford in 1851. Later he was appointed as the Taylorian Professor of Modern European Languages at Oxford University. Based on linguistic work, professor Müller proposed that the people of Indo European languages descended from Japheth-a favored son of Noah-while those who spoke Hebrew were descendents of Shem. In his version, peoples of African and Indian Dravidian languages were the progeny of Ham, Noah's least favored son. Mueller asserted that: (1) Noah's Flood can be dated from Biblical genealogy to approximately 2500 B.C.; (2) ancient Indian Vedas were written before the time of the Buddha (around 1,200 500 B.C.); and (3) the Aryans defeated the Dravidian descendants of Ham around 1500 B.C. He went on to speculate that the Israeli descendants of Shem defeated other descendants of Ham, the Canaanites. Specifically, the invaders were "virile people-blue eyed and fair skinned warriors-who subdued the "short and black" locals. The ancient Harappan civilization was annihilated. Furthermore, the invaders vigorously shunned their subjects in order to prevent mixing of bloods and accordingly established themselves as the superior caste. Mueller's legacy is uncritical acceptance by generations of scholars who perpetuated his story: Aryans invaded India in 1500 B.C. and conquered the indigenous people commonly designated as the Dravidians. Below is a revealing quote from a letter Müller wrote to his wife20: The translation of the Veda will hereafter tell to a great extent on the fate of India and on the growth of millions of souls in that country. It is the root of their religion, and to show them what the root is, I feel sure, is the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last 3000 years. Fortunately, all of this can be readily dismissed in light of mitochondrial genetic studies of migrations of populations.17-19 Mitochondrial genetics strongly point to a single dispersal of modern humans from east Africa. More importantly, such dispersal first occurred through southern India. Many generations of such Africans lived in India until the climate improved allowing them to migrate North and West out of India about 45000 years ago.21 More pertinent to the Eastern Track hypothesis are the later African influences on India, the Far East, and China. The Naga were early indigenous people of India.22 They are mentioned in the ancient Indian classics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. The Dravidian classic, the Chilappathikaran, indicates that the first great kingdom of India was Naganadu. The Naga appear to have been the descendents of the pre-Nubian and Nubian (Kush Punt/Ethiopia) peoples. Among them were the Puntites, the great sailors of ancient times. Egyptian inscriptions refer to the Puntite ports of Outculit, Hamesu and Tekaru (corresponding to Adulis, Hamasen, and Tigre port of Massawa) on the Red Sea coast of the Ethiopian/Eritrean region. Mahabharata also informs us that the Naga had their capital city in the Deccan (a region in south India), and other cities spread between the Jummna and Ganga rivers before the Aryan invasion of India. Outside India, some Sumerian texts indicate that the Puntites traded with the people of the Indus Valley,23 not surprising since later sailers, such as Arabs, also sailed up the Indus river in their conquests. In the Greek tradition, Kushites ruled India up to the Ganga. The Aryan traditions of Mlechchas-the Sanskrit name for some of the non Aryan people-refers to Kushites/Puntites as one of the aboriginal groups of India. The accounts of Naga kings of Sri Lanka described the Dravidians as having descended from the mixed Indian aboriginal and the visiting Kushites/Puntites peoples. Equally important, on the African side the ancient Ethiopian traditions refer to the rule of Puntites/Ethiopians in India.24 The Kebra Nagast (the Book of the Glory of Kings, kept at Bodleian Library at Oxford University) is an account written in Ge'ez of the Solomonic line of the Ethiopian Emperors.25 The present text is at least seven hundred years old. The Kebra mentions the Ethiopian king Arwe who ruled India. The dynasty was founded around 1370 B.C. by Za Besi Angabo. Kerba also calls the Ethiopia-Indian kings Nagas. Their dynasty began around 1370 BC. To lend further weight to the account, the Kebra gives accounts of Queen Makeda and her son Menelik I. The Queen Ahad servants and merchants who traded for her at sea and on land in the Indies and Aswan.@ Menelik I campaigned in the Indian Ocean and accepted gifts from the King of India. He ruled an empire extending from the Blue Nile to the west to south Shoa to eastern India (see The African Presence in India by runoko rashidi). Taken together, these diverse historical accounts conjured a picture, as incomplete as it might be, that provided tenable historical case for genomic mixing of pre-Nubia and Nubian people with aboriginal groups of India. A look at the world map and the proximity of the Ethiopian coast to Yemen and Oman-then on to the valleys of the Indus River and India-adds a supportive geographic perspective to this picture. Together the historical and geographic perspective fully explains the unmistakeable similarities in facial features of the peoples of the two continents-and establishes the primacy of the Africans over the Indians-and strongly supports the Eastern Track hypothesis What were the healing traditions in Neanderthal Europe before the Afro-Indian treatment methods reached Europe via the Eastern Track? They must have had some. However, no data are available on the subject. Genetic studies show that the lineage of Euroasian Neanderthal diverged from that of modern humans about 370,000 years ago. The last of the Neanderthals appear to have lived in Gibralter about 28,000 years ago. By contrast, the earliest modern humans reached Euroasia from Africa and the Middle East about 40,000 years ago. The Neanderthals were short and stocky-the average males were five feet and weighed 180 pounds)Cand engaged in cannabalism. The reasons for their extinction was a mystery until recently. Recent DNA studies reveal that they succumbed to climatic changes. They were not pushed to oblivion by the newcomers from the south. In any case, they left no evidence of how they cared for the sick. Stonehenge is a prehistoric burial place in England. Composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of massive iconic stones, it is believed to have been erected around 3,000 B.C.Cabout the time the Edwin Smith papyrus was penned. Recent studies have added a new dimension to Stonehenge. A high proportion of skeletons recovered from the area show signs of serious diseases, and the analysis of their teeth reveals that about half were from outside the Stonehenge area. It seems probable that the stone icons were thought to possess healing properties. Mythology and the Eastern Track Hypothesis Early African and Nubian cultures were matriarchal. So were the early peoples of southeast Asia. Ancient Greece, by contrast, had a patriarchal tradition. Does this difference support the Eastern Track hypothesis? I think it does. Mythology reveals what was authentic about ancient civilizations of the world-and, how imagined, life ought to have been. In the structures and functions of their goddesses and gods, the ancients revealed what was true in their lives-food, dwellings, tools, fears, and imagination. Four conclusions can be drawn from the study of the mythologies of the world: (1) African mythologies predate those of other lands; (2) there is a remarkable universality of mythic themes; (3) female deities were assigned crucial roles of life-givers, life-sustainers, and nurturers while male deities were often warriors and destroyers; and (4) the transition from primarily matriarchal to patriarchal social mores occurred in Egypt and Greece long after the evolution of far more insightful, humane, just, and enlightened thought in earlier African times. African mythology is considered too large a swath to allow a meaningful synopsis.26 I believe it is possible to do a broad survey of deities and their assigned roles to draw some conclusions that shed light on the Eastern Track hypothesis. African gods are excitable and love fireworks (lightning and storms) and utterly delinquent in their obligations to mortals. Male deities are not sympathetic to thier mortal subjects. They want humans to become independent and stand on their own. The accounts of humans building mythological heavenly ladders for direct audience with gods are revealing. Such ladder always collapse, crushing the limbs of climbers and dashing their hopes. African goddesses, by contrast, are deeply supportive of humansCloving, nurturing, and forever sustaining hope. Specifically, Yemoja is the African "mother of gods." She is a nurturer and directs the all-important portfolio of water management (as the goddess of rivers). The god Sango is interested in big bangs and huge flames (as the god of thunder and lightning). Yemoja and Sango are the forerunnersCessentially prototypes for the planetary evolution of gender-related mythologyCfor generations of loving and nurturing female deities and mean-spirited and violent male deities ever ready to torture the hapless mortals.27 The essential attributes of male gods are best exemplified by the Greek supergod, Zeus, who was precocious and violent. He made love to everything that moved and incinerated mortals without provocation with his lightning rod. Hades ruled the underworld with other ill-tempered gods. In the Mesopotamian pantheon, the trio of Ishtar, Nuntura, and Dumuza were designated as the mother goddess, fertility goddess, and sea goddess respectively. In pre-Islamic Arabia, Allat, Menat, and Al-Uza were the three principal goddesses. Allat was the mother goddess of Nabataean, the Queen of Heaven, a morning star (of war) as well as the evening star (of love). In Indian mythology, the trio of Durga Kali, Saraswati, and Lakshami comprise the primary deities. Durga Kali's rank is revealed by her titles of "Great Goddess" and "Universal Goddess." Saraswati is the goddess of education and Lakshami is the goddess of earth. Kali is also the goddess of consciousness and has the rare distinction among deities of the world of carrying a prayer book. She is also the goddess of life and is widely celebrated in fertility festivals in India today. The word kali in Punjabi and Urdu languages means black. Kali is also the name of the female Indian deity considered to be black and a fierce goddess of death, as well as the destroyer of the "Power of Eternal Time." Animal and human sacrifices were done to escape her wrath. One wonders if Kali indeed was a female African deity of fertility and goodness and her dark side was the creation of some early South Indian religious cults, as was done in other religions of the world. Did early Indians add the evil trio to the African deity of fertility and life? In patriarchal Greece, the male-dominant Greek pantheon was inhabited by many nefarious and testosterone-ticked characters, including Hades, Posiedon, and Haphestus. Like Zeus, they amused themselves by unleashing storms of death and destruction. Apollo was the god of medicine. Goddess Psyche was an illusion. Athena, the goddess of wisdom, was the only diety of note, perhaps because she emerged from Zeus's head. To understand the place of women in the ancient healing traditions, the case of Moses's wife and sister may be cited here. Zipporah, a Nubian/Ethiopian princess and the wife of Moses, had medical skills. In the Book of Exodus (4:24 27), there is a reference to an incident in which Moses and Zipporah reach an inn and something (or somebody) attempted to kill Moses, until (in the opinion of some scholars) Zipporah carried out a circumcision. Miriam, Moses's sister, served as the physician for his flock. The Master Latrine Builder I need not romanticize African mythology to make my larger point. Africa has-always did and , most likely, willCits shame. History does not acknowledge romaticizing. I cite the cases of a master latrine builder and joyous wife-buying African king to bring out the profound irony of the sublime coexisting with the absurd. Once Ethiopians were master pyramid builders. Recently, though they had to import a master latrine builderCa president of the United States. Ethiopia has one of the highest prevalence rates of blindness caused by trachoma in the world. Jimmy Carter thought he could help by improving the hygiene. He faced a significant hurdle. There was a strong taboo against women relieving themselves during the day, a standard of modesty vigorously imposed by the pious men of Ethiopia. Parenthetically, I might add, that growing up in Pakistan I also observed this standard enforced on the women of my village by their pious men. Carter planned to build 10,000 latrines in the country to address the problem of trachoma due to poor hygiene. Eventually, he built more than 340,000 latrines and rightfully earned the distinction of being a master latrine builder.28 Swaziland's King Mswati III symbolizes Africa's insensitive and cruel rulers. Mswati collects wives and BMWs-thirteen human beauties and untold four-wheelers at the last count.29 His father, Sobhuza II, took 70 wivesC110, by some accounts. The country is ravaged by H.I.V. infection. Life expectancy fell from 60 years in 1997 to half that number. Nearly a third of all children have lost a parent. In 2001, the king invoked an ancient chastity rite, telling his country's maidens to refrain from sex for five years. When he violated that rite himself-by bedding his 17 year old ninth wife-he atoned by fining himself one cow-Mswati personal wealth equals one-eighth of the country's total annual budget. Undoubtedly, many ancient kings in various regions of Africa were true ancestors of King Mswati in their thirst for young women and oppression of their people. Notwithstanding the dark side of African history exemplified by Mswati III , my view of ancient African enlightenment and philosophy of human rights, social justice, and primacy of women in mythological traditions stands on solid historical and archaeological evidence. Discarding of the Scientific Method Early Africa used the scientific methods by focusing on the observable-the sciences of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and metallurgy.30-35 I return to the question raised earlier: If the Eastern Track did bring the African influence to India and China, why didn't the healers of these lands pursue the African method? Why did they limit themselves to non-anatomic models of chakras and meridians? I offer a speculative answer: India developed a rigid caste system with oppressive and cruel customs-sati (burning of young wives in the funerary fires of their old husbands) is just one example-that required relentless enforcement with unyielding structures of oppression. Science, by contrast, is liberating. It is a matter of the observation of natural phenomenon. Science neither owns anyone nor accepts ownership. The liberating attribute of scientific knowledge could not have been acceptable to powers that be in India. Superstition is a sworn enemy of science. Once entrenched in a civilization, it relentlessly suppresses reason and openness. One wonders if the need for objectivity and openness in healing traditions was a victim of those structures of superstition in India. The Chinese, it seems to me, simply followed the Indians. Unlike India, Africa did not have oppressive customs and traditions that endured for millennia and over large areas. Certainly, Africa could not have had a caste system based on the color of skin. There may have been yet other factors in the loss of African spirituality in the healing traditions in India. Superstition is not only a sworn enemy of science but also of spirituality-of compassion that is authentic and universal, as well as of understanding that is liberating. My comments is the preceding paragraph may not be considered derisive to the healing methods based on the concepts of prana (Indian word for breath energy), chi (Chinese word for flowing energy), chakras (Indian energy circles), and acupuncture meridians. Indeed, I visualize the words prana, chi, chakras, and meridian of energy as I do oxygen signaling and oxygen-driven mitochondrial energetics. All of them represent mechanism for assuring homeostasis-harmony among diverse cellular populations of the body-for preserving optimal health. There is, however, one crucial difference: the phenomena of oxygen signaling and oxygen-driven mitochondrial energetics are observable and demonstrable. Closing Comments History, like science, is never a complete story. History, like biology, is race-neutral. It does not recognize any intrinsic superiority of some peoples over others. It simply reflects human nature and sheds light on the deepest recesses of the human condition. Time will tell whether future archaeological and genetic findings will support or invalidate the proposed Eastern Track hypothesis. As it stands now, I offer it as a synthesis of diverse and disparate archaeological and historical records concerning the spread of the arts and sciences of healing traditions worldwide. It seems to offer a unifying model of integration of a large body of information-connects mythological, archaeological, historical, and genetic dots, so to speak-that has a strong explanatory power for questions that remained unanswered in the past. As for the priority claim, it seems more appropriate to consider Africa as the "mother of medicine" rather than continue to accept Hippocrates as the father of medicine. References 1. Draper R. Black pharoahs. National Geographic. 2008;213: 35-59 ( page 39). 2. James Henry Breasted, The Edwin Smith Papyrus. 1922. New York. New York Historical Society. 3. Sertima IV. Blacks in Science. 1994. Transaction Publishers. New Brunswick, New Jersey. page 132. 4. Michael J. O'Dowd, Elliot Philipp, The History of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Informa Health Care 2000, p.43. 5. Laurinda S. Dixon. Perilous Chastity: Women and Illness in Pre Enlightenment Art and Medicine, Cornell University Press 1995. 6. Weatherwax JM. The African Contribution. 1964. Los Angeles. Aquarian Spiritual Center Bookshop. 7. Ali M. The Principles and Practice of Integrative Medicine Volume III: Darwin, Oxygen Homeostasis, and Oxystatic Therapies. 3 rd. Edi. New York. Insitute of Integrative Medicine Press. New York. 8. Ali M. The Principles and Practice of Integrative Medicine Volume XI: Darwin, Dysox, and Disease. 2000. 3rd. Edi. 2008. New York. Insitute of Integrative Medicine Press. 9. Ali M. The Principles and Practice of Integrative Medicine Volume XI: Darwin, Dysox, and Integrative Protocols. 2008. New York. Insitute of Integrative Medicine Press. 10. The Yellow Emperor=s Classic of Internal Medicine. (Nei Jing ). Written about 1000 B.C. 11. Bisson MS, Childs ST, Voge JO. Ancient African Metallurgy: The Sociocultural Context. 2000. Rowman Altamira. By Michael S. Bisson, S. Terry Childs, Joseph O. Vogel, Philip De Barros, Augustin F. C. Holl. Published by Rowman Altamira, 2000. ISBN 0742502619, 9780742502611. 12. Mali relics recovered in France. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6314481.stm 13. Wilford JN. Graves found from Sahara's green period. The New York Times. August 15, 2008. 14. Mutunhu T. Africa: The Birthplace of Iron Mining. Negro History Bulletin. 1981;44:p5,20. 15. http://www.forumcityusa.com/viewtopic.php?t =334&mforum =africa for further information). 16. Jon R. Stone (ed.), The Essential Max Müller: On Language, Mythology, and Religion, New York: Palgrave, 2002. 17. Brahm Datt Bharti, Max Muller, a lifelong masquerade: The inside story of a secular Christian missionary who masqueraded all his lifetime from behind the mask of literature ... intellect, and scholarship to wreck Hinduism, Erabooks, 1992. 18. Müller, Georgina, The Life and Letters of Right Honorable Friedrich Max Müller, 2 vols. London: Longman, 1902. 19. Macaulay et al., "Single Rapid Costal Settlement of Asia Revealed by Analysis of Complete Mitochondrial Genomes," Science 308 (2005), 1034 1036. 20. Bamshad et al., "Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste Populations," Genome Research 11 (2001), 994 1004. 21. Padma Manian, "Harappans and Aryans: Old and New Perspectives of Ancient Indian History," The History Teacher 32:1 (November 1998), 17 32. 22. Joseph JE. In: T. R. Trautmann: Languages and Nations: The Dravidian Proof in Colonial Madras. Applied Linguistics 2008;29:518 521. 23. Diodorus S. (the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote: AFrom Ethiopia he (Osiris) passed through Arabia, bordering upon the Red Sea as far as IndiaY. He built many cities in India, one of which he called Nysa, willing to have remembrance of that (Nysa) in Egypt, where he was brought up.@ Also: Itinerarium Alexandri wrote: AIndia, taken as a whole, beginning from the north and embracing what of it is subject to Persia, is a continuation of Egypt and the Ethiopians.@ 24. Ullendorff E. Ethiopia and the Bible. 1968. Oxford. Oxford University Press. p. 75. 25. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kebra_Nagast. (As of September 8, 2008). 26. Turner P, Coulter CH. Dictionary of Ancient Deities. 2000. Oxford. Oxford University Press. 27. Aguwa J. Diety in Igbo Religion. 1995. Nigerai. Fourth Dimension Publishing Company. 28. Time magazine. October 8, 2007. p 10 29. Bearak B. In destitute Swaziland, leader lives royally. The New York Times. September 5, 2008. 30. Finch CS. The African background of medical sciences. In: Sertima IV. Blacks in Science. 1994. Transaction Publishers. New Brunswick, New Jersey. pp 140-156. 31. Newsome F. Black contributions to the early history of western medicine. In: Sertima IV. Blacks in Science. 1994. Transaction Publishers. New Brunswick, New Jersey. pp 127-139. 32. Ivan Van Sertima, Editor. Journal of African Civilization. African Studies Department. Beck Hall. Rutgers University. New Brunswick, NJ 08903. 33. Cogan L. Negros for Medicine: Report of A Macy Conference. 1968. Baltimore. The John Hopkins Press. 34. Haber L. Black Poineers of Science and Invention. 1970. New York. Harcourt. Brace, and World, Inc. 35. Sandra Blakely. Myth, ritual, and metallurgy in ancient Greece and recent Africa. www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.

Ethics-in-Medicine, Inc. was organized to advocate and promote access to compassionate, ethical, and effective health care, with an unrelenting focus on health preservation and disease reversal—preferring, when safely possible, nutritional and nondrug approaches. For those purposes, it is necessary to strongly oppose the pernicious influences of the Medical-Industrial Complex over all aspects of the art and science of healing practices.America's extreme health problems cannot be addressed without a radically new way of thinking about health and the absence of health. The three core problems of American medicine are: The 21st-century health problems caused by poisoned foods, polluted environment, and perverted life circumstances are addressed with 19th-century notions of disease and drugs; Generations of physicians believe that all nondrug, nonscalpel therapies are unscientific; and Ethics in medicine—truth and integrity in the work of practitioners—has been endemically and perniciously compromised by the "Medical-Industrial Complex (the "Complex"), which, in 2008, controlled the $2.4 trillion disease- maintenance system in the U.S. There is no end in sight for the deepening health care crisis with the prevailing medical model—Americans continue to become sicker as enormous sums are stolen from them by the Complex. Read the entire Mission Statement

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You Decide For Yourself!

Despite the fact that we must constantly hear & read about the Palestinian/Israel conflict, many of us do not know of what actually started it.
In order for us to fully understand the complete situation we must have the facts concerning why, where, & how this all began.
Israel was formed as a modern state in 1948. The nation was founded as the result of the Zionist movement, an effort to establish an independent Jewish homeland, which began in the 1890s. Zionists sought a solution for diaspora (dispersion of Jews around the world) and anti-Semitism (the hatred of Jews). After World War II (1939–45), the United Nations (an organization that promotes international peace and democracy) created a special committee to address British control of Palestine. Palestine is the region in the Middle East (southwest Asia) that borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Lebanon to the north, Syria and Jordan to the east, and Egypt (the Sinai Peninsula) to the southwest; the narrow piece of land comes to a point in the south, where it fronts the Gulf of Aqaba. In November 1947, the United Nations carved Israel out of the Palestine region; areas of Palestine not designated as Israel were left to the Palestinians.
According to Biblical records, the nation of Israel takes its name from one of its ancestors, Israel (a.k.a. Jacob), son of Isaac, son of Abraham. The family groups of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were essentially nomadic people in the land in and around the area now known as Israel beginning about 1900 years BC. Jacob's descendants lived in Egypt for many years, but returned to the area to stay about 1400 BC (I expect there is some variation in the computed dates). Despite being conquered and dominated by several empires along the way, some descendants of Jacob have occupied parts of the region pretty much ever since.

The current boundaries of the nation of Israel were mostly established after wars (just like most every other country) in the mid 20th century (much more recently than most).

According to http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk... "From 1920 to 1947, Palestinians and Jews had been clashing in British governed Palestine. In 1947, Britain asked the UN to take over."

On May 14, 1948 the Jewish inhabitants proclaimed a "Declaration of Independence" immediately following the expiration of a British mandate for Palestine. On the same date, the USA provisionally recognized the new state of Israel. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photos/israel.jpg

On May 15, 1948, "British leave Palestine; Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia declared war on Israel. Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian invasion began." ( http://www.mideastweb.org/timeline.htm ) Israel survived the invasions and ensuing war and won additional territory.

A permanent government took office in January of 1949 after elections were held.
The British force occupied Palestine during the first world war, 1917 to 1920: Britain put Palestine under Military rule 1920 to May 15, 1948: Britain ruled Palestine under the mandate awarded to them at the end of World War I. The government was called "government of Palestine." The mandate government was under the British crown. On November 2, 1917, the British foreign minister Arthur James Belfour with the consent of the British crown promised the Jews to give them the land of the Palestinians as a Jewish national homeland. This promise became known as the "Belfour declaration." France and Italy accepted the declaration in 1918. America accepted it in 1919. Japan accepted it in 1920. The Belfour declaration was a clear violation of the Palestinian people's right to their land and government.

Britain had a moral and legal obligation under international law to protect the people of Palestine and the Sovereign and territorial integrity of the country they occupied. With the arrogance of the victor Britain has violated every international law that gave them responsibility to protect people under occupation.

By May 15, 1948, the British mandate ended. The British force withdrew from Palestine and handed control over to the armed Jewish gangs who went on massacring Palestinian people and blowing up Palestinian homes. They changed the name of Palestine to Israel and announced the creation of a Jewish State on 77% of the land of Palestine. By the end of 1948 the Israeli Jews massacred thousands of Palestinian civilians, destroyed their homes, made 750,000 Palestinian civilians flee for safety in the neighboring countries. To this date Israel still refuses to allow these refugees and their descendents to go back to their homes and towns.

*In 1967 Israel occupied by military force the remaining 23% of the area of Palestine which puts all Palestine under Israeli Jewish control.

But on a more ancient historical note, the people that was promised in the book of the Old Testament. The Books of Moses, who sometimes are mentioned as the People of the Book who has become an "astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations". In most recently times was took captive and taken into boundage by force and scattered to North America, South and Central America (and now they exist throughout the globe) in an event known as the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. They, the True Ones, soon will be delivered back to the land of topic the land of their Fathers.

According to http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761575008/israel.html

The origins of the present-day struggle between Israel and Arab nations predate the creation of Israel. Throughout the early 20th century Palestine, as the birthplace of Judaism and site of the ancient Hebrew Kingdom of Israel, became a center of Jewish immigration, encouraged and organized by a movement known as Zionism. Jews clashed with the Palestinian Arab inhabitants of the region throughout the British administration of Palestine from 1918 to 1948. In the years after World War II (1939-1945) the United Nations (UN) developed a plan to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. The Arabs rejected the plan, but the Jews accepted it, and the independent nation of Israel was created in 1948. Five Arab nations—Egypt, Transjordan (now Jordan), Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq—immediately attacked Israel. In the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949 and subsequent wars with its Arab neighbors Israel acquired territory beyond its 1948 boundaries. As a result of the Six-Day War of 1967 Israel took and later annexed the Syrian territory of the Golan Heights, a claim not recognized by most nations. Israel also occupied the West Bank (formerly of Jordan) and the Gaza Strip (formerly of Egypt), areas now partially under Palestinian Arab administration. Even Jerusalem, the city Israel claims as its capital, remains an area of dispute. Predominantly Jewish West Jerusalem has been part of Israel since independence in 1948; Israel captured mostly Arab East Jerusalem in 1967. Israel has since claimed the entire city as its capital. However, the United Nations does not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

These territorial conflicts, combined with continued Jewish immigration, have caused major changes in population structure since Israel’s independence. Much of the Palestinian Arab population in the territory that became Israel fled or were expelled during the 1948-1949 war and became refugees in surrounding Arab countries. Still more Palestinians fled from the areas captured by Israel in 1967 (known collectively as the Occupied Territories; often referred to in Israel as “administered territories”), and thousands of Jews have settled in these areas. Meanwhile, Jewish immigration continued. By the late 1990s Israel had absorbed 2.1 million immigrants since 1948, four times the Jewish population before independence.

Economically, the twin challenges of national security and immigration have been very costly. The economic burden of the military fosters dependence on foreign economic aid, particularly from the United States . Further, political conflict has severely isolated Israel economically from much of the region. Meanwhile, although the absorption and integration of so many immigrants from all over the world is an immense financial undertaking, the constant influx of people with many different skills and backgrounds also contributes to Israel’s economic well-being. Both factors have stimulated the drive to create a successful industrial economy to help pay for necessary infrastructure and services.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia we find the following:

Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system and universal suffrage.^[16][17] The Prime Minister serves as head of government and the Knesset serves as Israel's legislative body. The economy, based on the nominal gross domestic product, is the 44th-largest in the world.^[18] Israel ranks highest among Middle Eastern countries on the UN human development index,^[19] freedom of the press,^[20][21] and economic competitiveness.^[22] Jerusalem is the country's capital, seat of government, and largest city, while Israel's main financial center is Tel Aviv.^[1]

Etymology

Over the past three thousand years, the name "Israel" has meant in common and religious usage both the Land of Israel and the entire Jewish nation.^[23] According to the Bible, Jacob is renamed Israel after successfully wrestling with an angel of God.^[24]

The earliest archaeological artifact to mention "Israel" (other than as a personal name) is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt (dated the late 13th century BCE) which refers to a people of that name.^[25] The modern country was named Medinat Yisrael, or the State of Israel, after other proposed names, including Eretz Israel ("the Land of Israel"), Zion, and Judea, were rejected.^[26] In the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term "Israeli" to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett.

Early roots

Further information: History of ancient Israel and Judah

Masada

The Land of Israel, known in Hebrew as Eretz Yisrael, has been sacred to the Jewish people since Biblical times. According to the Torah, the Land of Israel was promised to the three Patriarchs of the Jewish people, by God, as their homeland;^[28][29] scholars have placed this period in the early 2nd millennium BCE.^[30] According to the traditional view, around the 11th century BCE, the first of a series of Israelite kingdoms and states established rule over the region; these Israelite kingdoms and states ruled intermittently for the following one thousand years.^[31] The sites holiest to Judaism are located within Israel.

Between the time of the Israelite kingdoms and the 7th-century Muslim conquests, the Land of Israel fell under Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Sassanian, and Byzantine rule.^[32] Jewish presence in the region dwindled after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE and the resultant large-scale expulsion of Jews. In 628/9, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius conducted a massacre and expulsion of the Jews, at which point the Jewish population probably reached its lowest point. Nevertheless, a continuous Jewish presence in the Land of Israel remained. Although the main Jewish population shifted from the Judea region to the Galilee,^[33] the Mishnah and part of the Talmud, among Judaism's most important religious texts, were composed in Israel during this period.^[34] The Land of Israel was captured from the Byzantine Empire around 636 CE during the initial Muslim conquests. Control of the region transferred between the Umayyads,^[35] Abbasids,^[36] and Crusaders over the next six centuries, before falling in the hands of the Mamluk Sultanate, in 1260. In 1516, the Land of Israel became a part of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the region until the 20th century.^[37]

Zionism and the British Mandate

Jews living in the Diaspora have long aspired to return to Zion and the Land of Israel.^[38] That hope and yearning was articulated in the Bible,^[39] and is a central theme in the Jewish prayer book. Beginning in the 12th century, Catholic persecution of Jews led to a steady stream leaving Europe to settle in the Holy Land, increasing in numbers after Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492.^[40] During the 16th century large communities struck roots in the Four Holy Cities, and in the second half of the 18th century, entire Hasidic communities from eastern Europe settled in the Holy Land.^[41]

Theodor Herzl, visionary of the Jewish State, in 1901.

The first large wave of modern immigration, known as the First Aliyah (Hebrew: עלייה), began in 1881, as Jews fled pogroms in Eastern Europe.^[42] While the Zionist movement already existed in theory, Theodor Herzl is credited with founding political Zionism,^[43] a movement which sought to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, by elevating the Jewish Question to the international plane.^[44] In 1896, Herzl published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), offering his vision of a future state; the following year he presided over the first World Zionist Congress.^[45]

The Second Aliyah (1904–1914), began after the Kishinev pogrom. Some 40,000 Jews settled in Palestine.^[42] Both the first and second waves of migrants were mainly Orthodox Jews,^[46] but those in the Second Aliyah included socialist pioneers who established the kibbutz movement.^[47] During World War I, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued what became known as the Balfour Declaration, which "view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". At the request of Edwin Samuel Montagu and Lord Curzon, a line was also inserted stating "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".^[48] The Jewish Legion, a group of battalions composed primarily of Zionist volunteers, assisted in the British conquest of Palestine. Arab opposition to the plan led to the 1920 Palestine riots and the formation of the Jewish organization known as the Haganah (meaning "The Defense" in Hebrew), from which the Irgun and Lehi split off.^[49]

In 1922, the League of Nations granted the United Kingdom a mandate over Palestine under terms similar to the Balfour Declaration.^[50] The population of the area at this time was predominantly Muslim Arab, while the largest urban area in the region, Jerusalem, was predominantly Jewish.^[51]

The Third (1919–1923) and Fourth Aliyah (1924–1929) brought 100, 000 Jews to Palestine.^[42] From 1921 the British subjected Jewish immigration to quotas and most of the territory slated for the Jewish state was allocated to Transjordan.^[52]

The rise of Nazism in the 1930s led to the Fifth Aliyah, with an influx of a quarter of a million Jews. This caused the Arab revolt of 1936–1939 and led the British to cap immigration with the White Paper of 1939. With countries around the world turning away Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, a clandestine movement known as Aliyah Bet was organized to bring Jews to Palestine.^[42] By the end of World War II, Jews accounted for 33% of the population of Palestine, up from 11% in 1922.^[53][54]

Independence and first years

Main articles: 1948 Palestine war and Declaration of Independence (Israel)

After 1945 the United Kingdom became embroiled in an increasingly violent conflict with the Jews.^[55] In 1947, the British government withdrew from commitment to the Mandate of Palestine, stating it was unable to arrive at a solution acceptable to both Arabs and Jews.^[56] The newly created United Nations approved the UN Partition Plan (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181) on November 29, 1947, dividing the country into two states, one Arab and one Jewish. Jerusalem was to be designated an international city — a corpus separatum — administered by the UN to avoid conflict over its status.^[57] The Jewish community accepted the plan,^[58] but the Arab League and Arab Higher Committee rejected it.^[59] On December 1, 1947 the Arab Higher Committee proclaimed a three-day strike, and Arab bands began attacking Jewish targets. Civil war began with the Jews initially on the defensive but gradually moving into offence. The Palestinian-Arab economy collapsed and 250, 000 Palestinian-Arabs fled or were expelled.^[60]

David Ben-Gurion proclaiming Israeli independence from the United Kingdom on May 14, 1948 below a portrait of Theodor Herzl

On May 14, 1948, the day before the end of the British Mandate, the Jewish Agency proclaimed independence, naming the country Israel. The following day the armies of five Arab countries — Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq — attacked Israel, launching the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.^[61] Morocco, Sudan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia also sent troops to assist the invaders. After a year of fighting, a ceasefire was declared and temporary borders, known as the Green Line, were established. Jordan annexed what became known as the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip. Israel was admitted as a member of the United Nations on May 11, 1949.^[62] During the conflict 711, 000 Arabs, according to UN estimates, or about 80% of the previous Arab population, were expelled or fled the country.^[63] The fate of the Palestinian refugees today is a major point of contention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.^[64][65]

In the early years of the state, the Labor Zionist movement led by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion dominated Israeli politics.^[66][67] These years were marked by mass immigration of Holocaust survivors and an influx of Jews persecuted in Arab lands. The population of Israel rose from 800, 000 to two million between 1948 and 1958.^[68] Most arrived as refugees with no possessions and were housed in temporary camps known as ma'abarot. By 1952, over 200, 000 immigrants were living in these tent cities. The need to solve the crisis led Ben-Gurion to sign a reparations agreement with West Germany that triggered mass protests by Jews angered at the idea of Israel "doing business" with Germany.^[69]

During the 1950s, Israel was frequently attacked by Palestinian fedayeen, mainly from the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip.^[70] In 1956, Israel joined a secret alliance with The United Kingdom and France aimed at recapturing the Suez Canal, which the Egyptians had nationalized (see the Suez Crisis). Despite capturing the Sinai Peninsula, Israel was forced to retreat due to pressure from the United States and the Soviet Union in return for guarantees of Israeli shipping rights in the Red Sea and the Canal.^[71]

At the start of the following decade, Israel captured Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Final Solution hiding in Argentina, and brought him to trial.^[72] The trial had a major impact on public awareness of the Holocaust,^[73] and to date Eichmann remains the only person ever executed by civil authorities in Israel.^[74]

Conflicts and peace treaties

This article or section may be slanted towards recent events. Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective. (July 2009)

Main articles: Arab-Israeli conflict and Israeli-Palestinian conflict

See also: List of United Nations resolutions concerning Israel

Arab nationalists led by Nasser refused to recognize Israel or its right to exist, calling for its destruction.^[75] In 1967, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan massed troops close to Israeli borders, expelled UN peacekeepers and blocked Israel's access to the Red Sea. Israel saw these actions as a casus belli for a pre-emptive strike that launched the Six-Day War, Israel achieved a decisive victory in which it captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights.^[76] The 1949 Green Line became the administrative boundary between Israel and the occupied territories. Jerusalem's boundaries were enlarged, incorporating East Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Law, passed in 1980, reaffirmed this measure and reignited international controversy over the status of Jerusalem.

The failure of the Arab states in the 1967 war led to the rise of Arab non-state actors in the conflict, most importantly the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) which was committed to what it called "armed struggle as the only way to liberate the homeland".^[77][78] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Palestinian groups launched a wave of attacks^[79] against Israeli targets around the world,^[80] including a massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics. Israel responded with Operation Wrath of God, in which those responsible for the Munich massacre were tracked down and assassinated.^[81] From 1969 to 1970, Israel fought the War of Attrition against Egypt.^[82]

Prime Minister Golda Meir, who resigned following the Yom Kippur War

On October 6, 1973, Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, the Egyptian and Syrian armies launched a surprise attack against Israel. The war ended on October 26 with Israel successfully repelling Egyptian and Syrian forces but suffering great losses.^[83] An internal inquiry exonerated the government of responsibility for the war, but public anger forced Prime Minister Golda Meir to resign.

The 1977 Knesset elections marked a major turning point in Israeli political history as Menachem Begin's Likud party took control from the Labor Party.^[84] Later that year, Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat made a trip to Israel and spoke before the Knesset in what was the first recognition of Israel by an Arab head of state.^[85] In the two years that followed, Sadat and Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords and the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.^[86] Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula and agreed to enter negotiations over an autonomy for Palestinians across the Green Line, a plan which was never implemented. Begin's government encouraged Israelis to settle in the West Bank, leading to friction with the Palestinians in those areas.

On June 7, 1981, Israel heavily bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in Operation Opera, disabling it. Israeli intelligence had suspected Iraq was intending to use it for weapons development. In 1982, Israel intervened in the Lebanese Civil War to destroy the bases from which the Palestine Liberation Organization launched attacks and missiles at northern Israel. That move developed into the First Lebanon War.^[87] Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon in 1986, but maintained a borderland buffer zone until 2000. The First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule,^[88] broke out in 1987 with waves of violence occurring in the occupied territories. Over the following six years, more than a thousand people were killed in the ensuing violence, much of which was internal Palestinian violence.^[89] During the 1991 Gulf War, the PLO and many Palestinians supported Saddam Hussein and Iraqi missile attacks against Israel.^[90][91]

Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands, presided over by Bill Clinton, at the signing of the Oslo Accords, September 13, 1993

In 1992, Yitzhak Rabin became Prime Minister following an election in which his party promoted compromise with Israel's neighbors.^[92][93] The following year, Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas, on behalf of Israel and the PLO, signed the Oslo Accords, which gave the Palestinian National Authority the right to self-govern parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.^[94] A declared intent was recognition of Israel's right to exist and an end to terrorism.^[95] In 1994, the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace was signed, making Jordan the second Arab country to normalize relations with Israel.^[96]

Arab public support for the Accords was damaged by the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, continuation of settlements,^[97] and checkpoints, and the deterioration of economic conditions. Israeli public support for the Accords waned as Israel was struck by Palestinian suicide attacks. While leaving a peace rally in November 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a far-right-wing Jew who opposed the Accords. The country was shocked.

At the end of the 1990s, Israel, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, withdrew from Hebron,^[98] and signed the Wye River Memorandum, giving greater control to the Palestinian National Authority.^[99]

Ehud Barak, elected Prime Minister in 1999, began the new millennium by withdrawing forces from Southern Lebanon and conducting negotiations with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and U.S. President Bill Clinton at the July 2000 Camp David Summit. During the summit, Barak offered a plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state, but Yasser Arafat rejected it.^[100] After the collapse of the talks, the Second Intifada began.

Ariel Sharon became the new prime minister in a 2001 special election. During his tenure, Sharon carried out his plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip and also spearheaded the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier.^[101] In January 2006, after Ariel Sharon suffered a severe stroke which left him in a coma, the powers of office were transferred to Ehud Olmert.

In July 2006, a Hezbollah artillery assault on Israel's northern border communities and a cross border abduction of two Israeli soldiers sparked the Second Lebanon War.^[102][103] The clashes were brought to an end a month later by a ceasefire (United Nations Resolution 1701) brokered by the United Nations Security Council.

On November 27, 2007, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to negotiate on all issues and strive for an agreement by the end of 2008. On September 6, 2007, the Israeli Air Force launched Operation Orchard in Syria, bombing what it suspected to be a nuclear site.^[104] In April 2008, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad told a Qatari newspaper that Syria and Israel had been discussing a peace treaty for a year, with Turkey as a go-between. This was confirmed by Israel in May 2008.^[105]

In December 2008, a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel collapsed.^[106] Israel responded by launching Operation Cast Lead with a series of airstrikes.^[107] On 3 January 2009, Israeli Troops entered Gaza marking the start of a ground offensive.^[108] On Saturday, January 17, Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire, conditional on elimination of further rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza, and began withdrawing over the next several days.^[109] Hamas later announced its own ceasefire, with its own conditions of complete withdrawal and opening of border crossings. Despite neither the Qassam launchings nor Israeli retaliatory strikes having completely stopped, the fragile ceasefire remained in order.^[110]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} The Jerusalem Law states that "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel" and the city serves as the seat of the government, home to the President's residence, government offices, supreme court, and parliament. The United Nations and all member nations, in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 (Aug. 20, 1980; 14–0, U.S. abstaining) which declares the Jerusalem Law "null and void" and calls on member states to withdraw their diplomatic missions from Jerusalem, refuse to accept the Jerusalem Law (see Kellerman 1993, p. 140) and maintain their embassies in other cities such as Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, and Herzliya (see the [1] CIA Factbook and Map of Israel). The Palestinian Authority sees East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state and the city's final status awaits future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (see "Negotiating Jerusalem", University of Maryland). See Positions on Jerusalem for more information.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} "Israel". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. 2007-06-19. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/IS.html. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
3. ^ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1115060.html
4. ^ ^{a b c d} "Israel". International Monetary Fund. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2009/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2006&ey=2009&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=436&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC%2CLP&grp=0&a=&pr.x=55&pr.y=0. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
5. ^ HDI of Israel. The United Nations. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
6. ^ Skolnik 2007, pp. 132–232
7. ^ "Israel". Country Report. Freedom House. 2007. http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=363&year=2007&country=7199. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
8. ^ ^{a b} "Main Indicators". Central Bureau of Statistics. 2008-05-07. http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/mainind/indengnew.html. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
9. ^ "Time Series-DataBank". Central Bureau of Statistics. http://www.cbs.gov.il/ts/. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
10. ^ "Judaism". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/307197/Judaism/35241/Israel-the-Jewish-people. Retrieved 2008-12-30.
11. ^ See, for example, Genesis 12 and 13. Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary. Jewish Publication Society, 2001.
12. ^ "Dictionary.com - 'jew.'" Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. MICRA, Inc. 16 Feb. 2009.
13. ^ article 2 of http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/palmanda.asp
14. ^ "United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181". The Avalon Project. Yale University. 1947-11-29. http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/un/res181.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
15. ^ "Arab-Israeli wars". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/31439/Arab-Israeli-wars. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
16. ^ Rummel 1997, p. 257. "A current list of liberal democracies includes: Andorra, Argentina, ... , Cyprus, ... , Israel, ..."
17. ^ "Global Survey 2006: Middle East Progress Amid Global Gains in Freedom". Freedom House. 2005-12-19. http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&release=317. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
18. ^ "Total GDP 2006" (PDF). The World Bank. 2007-07-01. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/GDP.pdf. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
19. ^ "Human Development Report 2007/2008". United Nations Development Programme. http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_20072008_EN_Complete.pdf. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
20. ^ "Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007". Reporters Without Borders. http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24025. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
21. ^ See the 10 highest HDIs in Asia & Oceanea.
22. ^ ^{a b} "Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007". World Economic Forum. 2007-02-14. http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Global%20Competitiveness%20Report/index.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
23. ^ Levine, Robert A.. "See Israel as a Jewish Nation-State, More or Less Democratic". The International Herald Tribune. ISSN 0294-8052. http://www.iht.com/articles/2000/11/07/edlevine.t.php. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
24. ^ From the King James Version of the Bible: "And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." (Genesis, 32:28). See also Hosea 12:5.
25. ^ Barton & Bowden 2004, p. 126. "The Merneptah Stele... is arguably the oldest evidence outside the Bible for the existence of Israel as early as the 13th century BCE."
26. ^ "Popular Opinion". The Palestine Post. 1947-12-07. p. 1.
27. ^ "On the Move". TIME Magazine. 1948-05-31. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798687-2,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-06.
28. ^ From the King James Version of the Bible: "And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers." (Deuteronomy, 30:5)
29. ^ From the King James Version of the Bible: "But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there." (Nehemiah, 1:9)
30. ^ "Walking the Bible Timeline". Walking the Bible. Public Broadcast Television. http://www.pbs.org/walkingthebible/timeline.html. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
31. ^ Friedland & Hecht 2000, p. 8. "For a thousand years Jerusalem was the seat of Jewish sovereignty, the household site of kings, the location of its legislative councils and courts."
32. ^ "Ancient Palestine". Encarta. Microsoft. 2007. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_701844154_2/Palestine_Ancient.html. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
33. ^ "Palestine: History". The Online Encyclopedia of the Roman Provinces. The University of South Dakota. 2007-02-22. http://www.usd.edu/~clehmann/erp/Palestine/palestin.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-13.
34. ^ Morçöl 2006, p. 304
35. ^ "Palestine: The Rise of Islam". Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-45061/Palestine. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
36. ^ "Palestine: 'Abbasid rule". Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-45062/Palestine. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
37. ^ "Palestine: The Crusades". Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-45064/Palestine. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
38. ^ Rosenzweig, p. 1. "Zionism, the urge of the Jewish people to return to Palestine, is almost as ancient as the Jewish diaspora itself. Some Talmudic statements... Almost a millennium later, the poet and philosopher Yehuda Halevi... In the 19th century..."
39. ^ From the King James Version of the Bible: "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Isaiah, 2:3)
40. ^ Gilbert 2005, p. 2. "Jews sought a new homeland here after their expulsions from Spain (1492)..."
41. ^ Ausubel 1964, pp. 142–4
42. ^ ^{a b c d} "Immigration". Jewish Virtual Library. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Immigration/immigtoc.html. Retrieved 2007-07-12. The source provides information on the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Aliyot in their respective articles. The White Paper leading to Aliyah Bet is discussed [2].
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Please decide for yourself as to who you think deserves to be in Palestine and who does not. How do you think the violence could end?