"Human societies are built not merely upon facts, but upon stories." — Yuval Noah Harari

Making up stories is an ancient human art.

Making millions believe them as truth is an even greater craft.

Nations, religions and states are held together not only by facts but also by myths and stories that people choose to believe. History is rarely a simple record of events. It is shaped by memories, interpretations and competing narratives about the past.

Few modern conflicts illustrate this better than the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians.

For many Jews, the creation of Israel in 1948 was the return of an ancient people to their ancestral homeland after nearly two thousand years of exile. For Palestinians, it was the arrival of European settlers who displaced a native population with the support of powerful imperial states.

Both sides draw upon history. Both seek legitimacy from the past. Yet neither story can be fully understood without looking at the long and complex journey of the Jewish people.

That journey began in ancient Judea and stretched across continents. It passed through centuries of migration, persecution and survival before leading to the rise of Zionism and the creation of the State of Israel.

One of the central questions in this debate is whether the Jews who founded Israel in the twentieth century were the direct descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Judea, or whether centuries of migration, intermarriage and conversion had transformed them into a very different people.

The Romans brought Judea under their control in 63 BC. The relationship that followed was turbulent and often violent. Contrary to popular belief, the Romans did not expel all Jews from Palestine in a single act. Jewish communities remained in the region for centuries. But repeated wars, economic hardship and political repression encouraged many to leave.

Jewish migration into Europe and other parts of the Roman Empire happened gradually. In many places, Jewish communities already existed long before the destruction of Jerusalem. Over time, the Jewish world spread far beyond Judea and became a vast diaspora stretching across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Violent pogroms in Eastern Europe and events such as the Dreyfus Affair in France convinced many Jews that assimilation alone could not guarantee their safety

Violent pogroms in Eastern Europe and events such as the Dreyfus Affair in France convinced many Jews that assimilation alone could not guarantee their safety

Though separated by great distances, these communities remained connected by religion, tradition and a shared memory of their ancestral homeland. At the same time, they were shaped by the societies in which they lived.

By the modern era, Jews had developed into several distinct communities. The........

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