Littlewood's Little Knowledge

Sometimes, an opportunity presents itself to show how stupid and ignorant some people are.

Take Stuart Littlewood who has been engaged in campaigning against Christian Zionism.  And thinks Hamas is a resistance "demonised".  More here.

In this article, he writes:

My reading of history is that the Jews were expelled from Palestine by the Roman occupation in 70 AD, when the second temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. They were expelled again in 135 AD.

Nowadays return is regarded as an inalienable right. But it must be exercised as soon as the reason for expulsion (e.g. foreign occupation) ceases. In the Jews’ case an opportunity would have occurred in the 4th century AD as the Roman Empire collapsed. But they didn’t take it. They can hardly expect to change their mind 16 centuries later. Their right expired a very long time ago.

So, "soon" is a condition?  And an opportunity would have been the 4th century, he asserts.  "But they didn't take it", he claims.

Feeble-minded knowledge of history.

First of all, the Jews didn't need to exercise the right because they were there, living on their land, their homeland.

There are academic books but let's quote from the Wikipedia entry just to show that the information which contradicts Littlewood is readily available and he not only ignores it but also doesn't even try to devalue it:

Early in the 4th century, Roman Empire split and Constantinople became the capital of the East Roman Empire known as the Byzantine Empire...Jerusalem became a Christian city and Jews were still banned from living there. In 351–2, there was another Jewish revolt against a corrupt Roman governor.^[42] The Jewish population in Sepphoris rebelled under the leadership of Patricius against the rule of Constantius Gallus. The revolt was eventually subdued by Ursicinus. According to tradition, in 359 CE Hillel II created the Hebrew calendar based on the lunar year...The ancient synagogue at Nabratein was destroyed in the Galilee earthquake of 363.

During his short reign, Emperor Julian (361-363) abolished the special taxes paid by the Jews to the Roman government and also sought to ease the burden of mandatory Jewish financial support of the Jewish patriarchate.^[43] He also gave permission for the Jews to rebuild and populate Jerusalem.^[44] In one of his most remarkable endeavours, he initiated the restoration of the Jewish Temple which had been demolished in 70 CE. A contingent of thousands of Jews from Persian districts hoping to assist in the construction effort were killed en-route by Persian soldiers.^[45] The great earthquake together with Julian's death put an end to Jewish hopes of rebuilding the Third Temple.^[46] Had the attempt been successful, it is likely that the re-establishment of the Jewish state with its sacrifices, priests and Sanhedrin or Senate would have occurred.^[43]
Jews probably constituted the majority of the population of Palestine until the 4th-century, when Constantine converted to Christianity.^[47]
Jews lived in at least forty-three Jewish communities in Palestine: twelve towns on the coast, in the Negev, and east of the Jordan, and thirty-one villages in Galilee and in the Jordan valley. The persecuted Jews of Palestine revolted twice against their Christian rulers. In the 5th century, the Western Roman Empire collapsed leading to Christian migration into Palestine and development of a Christian majority. Jews numbered 10–15% of the population. Judaism was the only non-Christian religion tolerated, but there were bans on Jews building new places of worship, holding public office or owning slaves. There were also two Samaritan revolts in this period.^[48]

1. 42. ^ Anti-Semitism: Its History and Causes‏ by Bernard Lazare 1894 see http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/lazare-anti.html accessed January 2009
2. 43^ ^{a b} "Julian and the Jews 361–363 CE" (Fordham Universitiy, The Jesuit University of New York).
3. 44^ Andrew Cain; Noel Emmanuel Lenski (2009). The power of religion in late antiquity. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. pp. 245–246. ISBN 978-0-7546-6725-4. Retrieved 22 December 2011.
4. 45^ Abraham Malamat; Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson (1976). A History of the Jewish people. Harvard University Press. p. 353. ISBN 978-0-674-39731-6. Retrieved 22 December 2011.
5. 46^ Günter Stemberger (2000). Jews and Christians in the Holy Land: Palestine in the fourth century. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-567-08699-0. Retrieved 22 December 2011.
6. 47^ Edward Kessler (31 March 2010). An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations. Cambridge University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-521-70562-2. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
7. 48^ M. Avi-Yonah, The Jews under Roman and Byzantine Rule, Jerusalem 1984 chapters XI–XII

Secondly, we can't we change our minds (we didn;t, but still)?

If you read that, paying attention to the highlighted sections, you must come to the conclusion that Littlewood has little grasp of his subject.

He also wrote there this:

Zionists claim Jerusalem is theirs by heavenly decree. But this holiest of cities was already 2,000 years old when King David captured it. Historians say that Jerusalem, in its “City of David” form, lasted only 73 years. In 928 BC the kingdom divided into Israel and Judah, and in 597 BC the Babylonians conquered the city and destroyed Solomon’s temple. The Jews recaptured it in 164 BC but finally lost it to the Roman Empire in 63 BC. Before the present-day illegal occupation the Jews controlled Jerusalem for some 500 years, whereas it was subsequently ruled by Muslims for 1,277 years.

a) which "historians"?
b) how did the Muslims come to rule it if not by an illegal occupation?

His whole theory is punctured by such inanities.

Does he get paid for this propaganda effort?

^