Part One: The Origins of Terror in Palestine

In 1880, the residential courtyards of Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem were common. "We were like one family," recalled Yakov Yehoshua, a Jewish resident who would later become the father of a celebrated Israeli novelist. Muslim women drew extra water the day before the Sabbath so as not to disturb their Jewish neighbors. Children played together, and when outside bullies came, "our Muslim friends who lived in the courtyard came to defend us." This was Palestine under the Ottoman Empire — a multi-religious society where, as one historian put it, "religious identity embraced the other in its festivals and rituals." Easter and Passover were celebrated jointly. Purim costumes were worn by Christian and Muslim youth in Jewish neighborhoods. And yet, within sixty years, this world would be shattered by the Nakba, the establishment of Israel, and a cycle of violence that continues today. This episode of Behind the Bastards traces how that transformation began — not with ancient religious hatred, but with European nationalism, land purchases, and the arrival of immigrants who refused to integrate.

The Ottoman Era: A Shared Life Under Foreign Rule