According to Reuven Firestone , " " Holy War " is a Western concept referring to war that is fought for religion , against adherents of other religions , often in order to promote religion through conversion , and with no specific geographic limitation . This concept does not occur in the Hebrew Bible , whose wars are not fought for religion or in order to promote it but , rather , in order to preserve religion and a religiously unique people in relation to a specific and limited geography . " The Israeli – Palestinian conflict can be viewed primarily as an ethnic conflict between two parties where one party is most often portrayed as a singular ethno-religious group consisting only of the Jewish majority and ignores non-Jewish minority Israeli citizens who at varying levels support a Zionist state , especially the Druze and Circassians who for example volunteer in higher numbers for IDF combat service and are represented in the Israeli parliament in greater percentages than Israeli Jews are as well as Israeli Arabs , Samaritans , various other Christians , and Negev Bedouin ; the other party is sometimes presented as an ethnic group which is multi-religious ( although most numerously consisting of Muslims , then Christians , then other religious groups up to and including Samaritans and even Jews ) . Yet despite the multi-religious composition of both of the parties in the conflict , elements on both sides often view it as a religious war between Jews and Muslims . In 1929 , religious tensions between Muslim and Jewish Palestinians over Jews praying at the Wailing Wall led to the 1929 Palestine riots including the Hebron and Safed ethnic cleansings of Jews
1929 Palestine riots
1929 Palestine riots
Religious war