So with what has been going on in the world with the Israel, Gaza, Palestinians, and Israelis situation, I felt it was very necessary to shed some light on the Palestinian ethnicity because there is SO MUCH ignorance, disinformation and misinformation about it.
And one thing that I feel brings a lot of confusion is how people conflate the Palestinian identity and history with the identity and history of Arabs.So let us jump right into it.
Yes, like the title said Palestinians are not arabs. I know, I know, it is a seemingly controversial statement to make, but it is accurate and you will come to understand why.To explain this statement, let us start with the history of Jewish people.
So there were actually 2 Jewish nations in antiquity: Israel and Judah. I will not go into how they split and became 2 nations, but you can read up about it in the Bible Old Testament book of 1 Kings 12.
These 2 nations were conquered and destroyed. The Assyrian empire conquered the nation of Israel and forcibly relocated some of the Jewish people out of their homeland. And resttled other people from their empire in the land of Israel. These new people and the remaining Israelites intermarried producing the Samaritan ethnicity. The samaritans still exist today in Israel/Palestine.
Some time after the Assyrian annexation of Israel, the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, conquered the nation of Judah. So now both the Israelites and Judeans were kicked out/exiled out of their land and taken as captive to other nations, spreading the Jewish people around the world. This is how the Jewish diaspora came about.
Now according to the Bible, God always leaves a remnant of Jewish people in the land. In Nehemiah 1:2 -3, Nehemiah, a Jewish man serving as cupbearer to a Medo-Persian king asked his brother how the Jewish people who had survived the destruction and exile were doing in their homeland formerly known as Judah:
Nehemiah 1:2 -3″Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire”
From the verses, you can see that there was a small remnant of Jewish people that were not exiled (just like with the Israelites from Israel) and there were others who came back. So you have 2 groups of people. Those who survive the exile and those who come back.
Now, the nations of Israel and Judah were no more. Their lands were now owned by the state that conquered them, in this case the Assyrians. The Assyrians then got conquered by the Babylonians. So that land mass formerly known as Israel and Judah passed into their hands.But Babylon gets conquered by the Medo-Persians, who get conquered by the Greeks under Alexander the Great. When he died, his empire was divided and different Greek generals got different parts.
The Ptolemys got Egypt, that’s why Cleopatra, who was a Ptolemy, was Greek, not North African or Black African.
And the Seleucids got the lands of Judah and the surrounding region. However, due to religious oppression by the Greek ruler Antiochus, a Jewish family, the Hasmoneans, under their father Mattathias and his sons like Judah Maccabee rose up, revolted and got autonomy from the Seleucid rule and eventually got independence from them.
However, after many years under the Hasmonean rule, there was a civil war. Rome intervened and made Judea a tributary state and later a province. They put an Idumean king, Herod, as ruler.
The Idumeans are the brothers of the Jewish people, their ancestor being Edom/Esau (who was the twin brother of Jacob/Israel), and under the Hasmonean rule the Idumeans were forcibly converted to Judaism and merged with the Jewish nation of Judea.
So just before the birth of Jesus Christ, the Romans were in charge of that land mass formerly known as Israel and Judah.
Now, after some time the Jewish people in the land wanted their independence from Roman occupation, and for their statehood to be restored. This was when they remembered the prophecy by their prophet Moses in Deuteronomy 18: 15Where Moses prophesied:
“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.”
This promised prophet became known as the Messiah, meaning saviour. And right then they needed a saviour to deliver them from the Romans and restore the nation of Israel to its glory days.
Then comes this stone mason named Yeshua or Jesus. And He starts doing a lot of miraculous things: healing the sick and the lame, multiplying food, preaching and teaching, even raising the dead.
Now before Jesus died and ressurected, He gave a prophecy that Jerusalem would be surrounded by armies and destroyed, including their beautiful temple .
Luke 2:20-2220 “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. 22 For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written.”
So Jesus gave this prophecy, but He also gave a warning to His followers of what to do when Jerusalem got surrounded which was to flee to the mountains and get out of Jerusalem to preserve their lives.Then Jesus dies, ressurects, and ascends to heaven and life goes on.
Then comes the three big Jewish-Roman Wars. The Jewish rebels lost each one. In the first war, Jerusalem is surrounded like Jesus prophesied and is destroyed. But remember there were some people hiding in the mountains, people who had heeded Jesus’ warning to flee to there. People like Jesus’ family, the families of the Apostle Peter, James, Matthew, Jewish followers of Jesus otherwise known as Christians. Jewish Christians. In fact it is recorded that Jewish Christians fled to Pella and other cities North of Jerusalem before the war outbreak and the siege. Pella is located in present day Jordan.
Now, after this war, some Jewish people remained in Judea, the Jewish Christians came back, but Jerusalem was depopulated, and the Romans resettled some people from parts of their empire there.
The last Jewish -Roman war was the Bar Kokhba Revolt. In the other revolts, Jewish people were mainly exiled from Jerusalem, but in this last revolt, many Jewish people were exiled from Judea, and prohibited from entering Jerusalem. Their population in the land was really decimated through death, destruction, exile, and slavery.
There were heavy casualties on the Roman side as well, so the Romans had had enough. They decided to teach these rebellious Hebrews a lesson.
They renamed the land mass of Judea and the surrounding territories Syria Palestina meaning Palestinian Syria. Palestina was the Greek name of the famed arch-nemesis nation of Israel: Philistia. Goliath was a Philistine. As you can hear- Philistine, Palestine is basically the same word. So this is where the name Palestine comes from. Palestinians are not the ancient Philistines who are extinct. Nevertheless, there remained Jewish people, Samaritans, Idumeans, and other ethnicities in the land. There was also migration.
For example, the Ghassanids were an Arab christian tribe that migrated to the levant area, merged with the christians there and remained christian even after the Arab muslim conquest of the levant.
The Levant region comprises of Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey. The Jewish, Samaritans, and other indigenous ethnicities who lived in the land of Palestine are called Levant peoples. Like in Africa, we have the Niger-congo peoples, the Bantus, the Nilotic peoples, and in Europe we have the Scandinavians, etc.
Please also remember that even during the times of Ancient Israel in the days of King David, the land of Israel was not homogeneous, there were other non-jewish tribes living there. The ancient Jewish people themselves were of mixed ethnicity.In the centuries that followed, there were more conquests on the land. The Byzantine empire, the European Crusaders, the Arab muslim conquests, the Ottoman conquest, and finally the British.
Despite the different conquests of the land of Palestine, these new invaders did not resettle their populace into the area. Instead, they governed the area. In fact it is said that the European crusaders left almost no dna evidence of having conquered the area.
So when the Arab muslims conquered the land, they didn’t bring an Arab populace to settle in the land. Instead it was their warriors that began to rule over the indigenous Jewish, Samaritan, etc populace. Also you don’t conquer a place that is empty. The populace in Palestine remained the indigenous peoples of the land, the Levant people.
However, these people went through a process that other nations conquered by Arabs have gone through which is: Arabization and Islamization.When the Arab conquerors took over, they installed their language, just like the British and French did in the African countries they colonized. The Arabs would also only give positions to muslim converts who spoke arabic. And non-muslims were taxed, so it became economically beneficial to convert to Islam (Islamization) and to learn Arabic (Arabization). And also there were forced conversions to Islam.
And once they were all speaking Arabic and they had forgotten their indigenous languages, the indigenous people of Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt all lands that were conquered by Arabs, started to be called Arabs, even though they are not genetic Arabs. They are linguistic Arabs. This is why Palestinians are called Arabs, because they speak Arabic, not because they are genetic Arabs.
Palestinians are a multi-ethnic people, Levant people, indigenous to the land, with Jewish ancestry. Some of them may have some Arab blood because of migration, and Bedouins tribes being there, but they remain Levant people. They retain their Levant culture which is not Arabic culture. For example, their traditional clothes are not Arab traditional clothes.
Other North African countries were also arabized. North Africans are not arabs. They are Amazigh people, Copts, Nubians, etc. And a certain percentage of the Amazigh and Nubians continue to speak their language and retain their identity. A few of the Amazigh don’t even speak Arabic, or at least not very well.
Don’t let anyone fool you that your native language is not important. It is important to learn your native languages and to teach them to your children because people will identify you by the language you speak.
So who are the genetic Arabs? Well, the people from Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar and some other countries are genetic Arabs.
Arabization is similar to Judaization. Judaization is when people convert to Judaism and so become Jews.
For example, it has been said that Morrocan Jews who were brought to the newly formed country of Israel in 1948, are not actually genetic Jews. They are the descendants of converts to Judaism.
In fact, several white south Africans of Dutch ancestry, converted to Judaism after the end of Apartheid and moved to Israel. These white South Africans are not of Jewish descent, but Dutch.
While Palestinians who are of Levant Jewish ancestry and who are indigenous to the land of Ancient Israel and Palestine and whose ancestors lived in the land of Palestine/ancient Israel for thousands of years, are denied access and legitimacy to their homeland.
And people erase this Palestinian historical, indigenous identity by giving them the historical and genetic identity of Arabs.
Let us now remember the early Jewish christians in that area.The Bible states that God always preserves a remnant. During the time of Prophet Elijah, Elijah lamented that he was the only Israelite who still worshipped God, but God told him that he had reserved for Himself 7000 Israelites who still believed in Him. A remnant.
In Romans 11:5 Paul who had been lamenting that Jewish people had not believed in Jesus Christ, states that there was still a remnant who did believe:
Romans 11:5″So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.”
So where is that remnant of Jewish christians today?
Well, Palestinian christians will tell you that they are the descendants of the first christians, The first Christians were Jewish.
In the documentary (linked below) Holy Orthodoxy: The Ancient Church of Acts in the 21st century, a Palestinian christian man, named Richard Zakka (at around 15th minute) recounted how due to meticulous Palestinian Church family records his family traced their ancestry to Zachaeous the tax collector, a follower of Jesus found in the Bible New Testament book Luke 19: 1-10.
https://youtu.be/laHcgdE55Mo?si=QIg0jgVmmLuyNW8T
I have heard a Palestinian woman recount how her family became Christians on the day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost it is recorded in Acts 2 that 3000 Jewish people accepted Jesus as Messiah.
Linked below is a reading of the article: In support of the Palestinians by Elizabeth Elliot by Palestinian -Lebanese pastor Marwan Aboulzelof. Before he reads the article, he recounts how his family have always been in the northern part of Palestine and have always been christians.
In this video linked below, Alex Awad, a Palestinian christian missionary states (at around the 30 -32 min) that many Palestinians have ancestry in Palestine/Israel going back at least six thousand years.
https://youtu.be/LMwEu_CQP2U?si=_707mDHqbCKk0lSu
Palestinian christians are the remnant of Jewish believers. They are the descendants of the Jewish Christians: Jesus’ disciples, followers, and Jesus’ family.
Now I want to talk about the Arab identity before I close. So while Palestinians, other Levant peoples, and North Africans are not genetic Arabs and have their own history, indigenous lands, and cultures, due of Arabization, they fall under the umbrella of the Arab identity, which comprises of them and genetic Arabs.This Arab dentity is embraced by much of the Levant and North African peoples and is a uniting force which brings solidarity and has many good benefits.
The reason why I felt it was necessary to explain that Palestinians are not Arabs is because most people don’t know the complexity of the Arab identity and so strip Palestinians, Levant peoples and North Africans of their histories and rights to their indigenous lands.
For example, before I found out that North Africans were not Arabs, I was of the opinion that North Africans were not indigenous to the African continent since Arabs came into Africa in 642 AD. It wasn’t until I watched a dna results video by a Tunisian woman explaining that North Africans were not arabs that my opinion changed.Ascribing Arab history to Palestinians is the same thing as ascribing British history to Nigerians.
Just because Nigeria was colonized by Britain and are now anglophone aka english speakers, does not mean that Nigerians now descend from the English, originate from London or Essex, and King Arthur and Queen Elizabeth are now our ancestors. Not at all.
Nigerians were colonized by Britain, we are english speakers, but we retain our ethnic identities, indigenous lands, and cultures. It is the same with the Palestinians.
I hope that this article has now cleared up the misconception that Palestinians are genetic Arabs.I felt it was important to show that Palestinians are not genetic Arabs because many people state that God gave the land of Israel/Palestine to Jewish people, not to Arabs who descend from Ishmael, a son of Abraham, According to the Bible, Abraham was the father of Issac and Ishmael, but God gave the land of Canaan, Present day Palestine-Israel to Issac not to Ishmael. Therefore, people like to claim that Palestinians, as supposed Arabs, don’t have any claim to the land of Israel/Palestine and that they should move to Arabs nations and leave Israel/Palestine. This is like telling the Zulus in South Africa to leave their ancestral lands and move to Zimbabwe since they are all Africans. Any African who hears that knows how utterly ridiculous that sounds.
Furthermore, if you do a search on youtube of Palestinian dna results, I am yet to come across any Palestinian that does not have some Jewish ancestry. In fact, I am yet to come across anyone from Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan who do not have some Jewish ancestry.
Not only so, but European Jews have so mixed with Europeans that all traces of their ancestors’ Levant Jewish ancestry is gone, talk less of those who converted to Judaism, and have no Jewish or Levant ancestry whatsoever, and are still considered indigenous to Israel and have more rights than Palestinians, and get to go on ‘birthright’ trips to Israel, while Palestinians of whom the land is truly their birthright are denied access to their lands and are told that their ancestor is Ishmael and that they should move to Arab nations.
Now that we know that Palestinians are actually of Jewish ancestry to Palestine/Israel and are very indigenous to the land, some with roots going back at least 6000 years, I pray this puts an end to the denial of Palestinian rights to their homeland of Palestine/Israel. And that people will stop saying things like God gave Jewish people the land as if Palestinians are not of indigenous Levant Jewish ancestry
This brings me to the end of the expose. Please like this article and share it. Thank you
Further reading
Assyria’s invasion of Israel
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/essentials/countries/israel/
Babylon’s invasion of Judah and exile
https://m.bibleodyssey.org/articles/babylonian-accounts-of-the-invasion-of-judah/
https://www.britannica.com/event/Babylonian-Captivity
King Cyrus frees Jewish captives in Babylon
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great_in_the_Bible
https://christiancourier.com/articles/the-cyrus-decree
About the Samaritans
https://www.evidenceunseen.com/theology/historical-theology/history-of-the-samaritans/
Cleopatra being a Ptolemy
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cleopatra-queen-of-Egypt
The history of how Judea passed into the hands of the Greeks, the Macabbees/Hasmoneans, Hanukkah and how the Idumeans merged with the Jewish nation of Judea
https://www.britannica.com/place/Palestine/From-Alexander-the-Great-to-70-ce
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Maccabees/Jewish-resistance
The Edomites/Idumeans
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edom#:~:text=Edom%20and%20Idumea%20are%20two,different%20periods%20of%20their%20history.
Origin of the term Palestine
https://www.hudson.org/node/44363#:~:text=In%20135%20CE%2C%20after%20stamping,the%20Hebrew%20name%20of%20which
https://www.worldhistory.org/palestine/
Jewish Christians fled to Pella
Eusebius, Church History, Book III, chapter 5, verse 3.
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm
The 3 Jewish-Roman Revolts
https://www.historyinthebible.com/supplementary_pages/jewish_roman_wars.html
https://www.thattheworldmayknow.com/the-jewish-revolts
The different conquests of Palestine
https://www.britannica.com/place/Palestine/The-Crusades
Arab Muslim conquests of Palestine
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquest_of_the_Levant
The Ghassanids
https://www.arabamerica.com/ghassanids-a-major-arab-tribal-conversion-to-early-christianity/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghassanids
The Levant
https://www.britannica.com/place/Levant
Facets of Arab Identity by Halim Barakat
https://teachmideast.org/articles/facets-of-arab-identity-halim-barakat/
Morrocan jews were greeks who converted (from 10th minute)
https://youtu.be/97O0z2fBJsU?si=AzOsVkaiRy1K1Lnt
North Africans/Levatine people are not arabs information:
Who are the Morrocans-
https://youtu.be/YV0uSDZM7dM?si=enHOxVEop6hGLnlo
The genetic origins of the Lebanese
https://youtu.be/kUtjtli12Lg?si=cX80EYNa7fNM4d5w
Palestinian genome
https://twitter.com/MiroCyo/status/1712259899760291883?t=gohJ7n3uid2a8TjI2Fu35Q&s=19
Genetic origins of Palestinians youtube video
https://youtu.be/bCn6v8X0Ebk?si=w9IgBH-zchQeFTS6
The genetic origins of the Syrians
https://youtu.be/nmMG6bmFdxE?si=PgF5mWd0rd3XPvFYP
Palestinian Christians
https://www.palestineportal.org/learn-teach/israelpalestine-the-basics/palestinian-christians/
White South Africans converting to Judaism
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2021-09-30/ty-article/.highlight/cleansed-by-the-torah-why-these-afrikaners-became-jews-and-moved-to-israel/0000017f-e2bb-d9aa-afff-fbfb151f0000
Converts to Judaism can make Aliyah to Israel
https://lawoffice.org.il/en/aliyah-based-on-conversion/
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