Beyond Israel and Palestine: Reclaiming the Biblical "Land of Surrender"
By Ohad Pele 2025
What do we call the stretch of land between the Jordan River and the sea — is it the "Land of Israel" or perhaps "Palestine"? What do we really call this bleeding piece of earth?
Those who follow my writings are aware that for years now, I have avoided using both of these names. I do not call this land “The Land of Israel” nor do I call it “Palestine”. I call it by its ancient biblical name — "the Land of Canaan."
You might not be aware that the Torah itself never refers to this stretch of land as “The Land of Israel." Every time the Torah refers to this land, from the days of Abraham to the days of Moses, it always calls it the "Land of Canaan."
When the Divine called Abraham in the book of Genesis to leave his homeland and go to the unknown — “Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house to the land that I will show you" — he goes out and travels to the land of Canaan: "And Abram took Sarai his wife... and they went forth to go to the land of Canaan."
Moses redeems the people from slavery in Egypt and promises to bring them to the land of their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (who is also called ‘Israel’) but he never calls the land by the name "Israel." He gives the people laws that they shall observe in the land once they reach it, and the land is called Canaan: "When you come to the land of Canaan, which I am giving you..." (Leviticus 14). And when Moses and the people arrive close enough to their destination, he sends spies to scout it: "And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan" (Numbers 13).
The Land of Canaan. The Torah never called this stretch of land by any other name.
And why do I insist on using this biblical name? Not because I am so devout and attached to biblical verses, but because the name Canaan comes from the Hebrew root of SURRENDER.
I am aware that the concept of surrender might be perceived negatively by many people, especially those who grew up in a militant or chauvinistic society. To surrender? No way. It sounds terrible. ‘Surrender’ sounds to many Israelis and Palestinians alike as surrendering to the enemy. But that's far from what we're talking about here. The surrender implied by the name ‘Canaan’ is the surrender of the arrogant and domineering human ego to the divine. The great Hindu mystic Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) explained this beautifully when he said: “Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one's being.”
Try to possess her — and you will be destroyed
The land between the river and the sea is not “Israel” and not "Palestine," rather it is the Land of Surrender.
Anyone who presumes to claim ownership of this holy land is destined to fail. This holy land does not agree to belong to any people who live on it from possessive arrogance: "Beware lest you forget... lest you eat and be satisfied and build good houses and dwell in them... and your heart becomes arrogant and you forget... and you say in your heart: 'My power and the might of my hand have made me this wealth'... I warn you today that you shall surely perish.” (Deuteronomy 8)
The land of Canaan challenges us to surrender, not be arrogant and not seek ownership. Canaan is not a land for conquest. It is not a land to be redeemed "with blood and fire" or possessed through settlements.
Like a liberated woman who knows her worth, Canaan does not respond to the chauvinistic ownership claims of any nation. The Jews, the Crusaders, and the Muslims have all tried to claim ownership of her, but it didn't work, and it will never do.
This land wants us to understand something very basic about human-land relationships — human beings are never owners of the land. Of any land, and especially not of the Land of Canaan. At most, we are permitted to live on it as residents, who must remember that the land belongs to the Great Spirit: "For the land is Mine (says the Divine), for you are residents with Me" (Leviticus 25:23).
It would be good if all the Abrahamic nations that fervently hold on to the holy scriptures would humbly bow their heads a little and listen very carefully to the words of the indigenous wise men of America: "We do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us? Every part of this land is sacred to my people" (Chief Seattle, 1854). Notice — "Every part of this land is sacred to my people," says Chief Seattle, but we do not own it. We cannot sell something that was never ours.
These are exactly the teachings that the Torah apparently wanted to by with the laws of the Sabbatical and Jubilee when it said: "And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is Mine, for you are residents with Me.” (Leviticus 25:23).
Between the river and the sea lies the Land of Canaan. The Land of Surrender. The land that will not agree to Israeli or Palestinian, Crusader or Ottoman occupation and ownership. The land that waits for us to understand that the earth does not belong to anyone. It does not belong to any nation, even if it sees this land as holy.
The Holy Land is God's land. The Holy City is God's city. Not a city of Jews, not a city of Muslims, and not of Christians. It is not a city of the Roman emperor, who, in order to erase the name "Judea" from the pages of history, cleverly called the land "Palestine," after the Philistines who had already been extinct for 600 years prior.
One day, a generation will arise that will understand that "we do not inherit the earth from our fathers — we borrow it from our children," in the words of Chief Black Elk of the Lakota tribe.
A day will come when a generation will arise that will understand that in order to live in the Land of Canaan, one must walk it with great humility, and not from ethnocentric possessiveness. A day will come when we will understand together that in order to live in the Land of Surrender, we must live together. Not only Arabs and Jews, but also humans with birds and jackals, deer and eagles, fig trees and vines.
As long as we do not get it, the Land of Canaan will continue to be "a land that devours its inhabitants," as reported by the spies that Moses sent (Numbers 13).
We must humbly free the land from all narratives of ownership — both Jewish and Muslim alike. We must stop quarreling like toddlers holding a toy and screaming bitterly. We must start listening to the land itself, which is not consenting to be owned by any nation, and asks us to remember that we are all only “residents" who are privileged to live on it, The only way to live on it in peace is through the surrender of every narrative of national ego, while at the same time developing the consciousness of humble stewardship to "tend it and guard it" (Genesis 2) for the benefit of all its inhabitants, humans and non humans alike.
Then the Land of Canaan, as a part of the whole Middle East, will flourish and blossom beyond and above what we can now imagine, returning to being "the Garden of Eden from the east" (Genesis 2) — true paradise on earth.
