Haaretz reports:
Four Palestinians from the Hebron Hills contacted a group of rabbis on Tuesday and claimed to be the descendents of Jews who were forced to convert to Islam.
The Palestinians were accompanied by Zvi Mesini, a researcher who wrote a book on the subject and assisted them in learning more about Judaism. According to the Palestinians, their families had removed mezuzahs from their doors in order to avoid harassment by their neighbors.
One of the Palestinians said he kept a tefillin he received from his father's uncle and another told the rabbis that his family had once secretly lit candles on the Sabbath and for Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights.
Mesini told the rabbis, members of a group called the New Sanhedrin, that he believes hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are descended from Jews.
"Such evidence renders the conflict redundant," Mesini said. "It proves that Judea and Samaria belongs to both the recognized Jews and the unrecognized Jews."
Mesini accused authorities of being indifferent to his findings.
The New Sanhedrin is known as a right-wing organization that claims to be the rightful successors of the supreme Jewish court of antiquity. Its goal is to create a state based upon Jewish law that will replace the current State of Israel.
Four Palestinians from the Hebron Hills contacted a group of rabbis on Tuesday and claimed to be the descendents of Jews who were forced to convert to Islam.
The Palestinians were accompanied by Zvi Mesini, a researcher who wrote a book on the subject and assisted them in learning more about Judaism. According to the Palestinians, their families had removed mezuzahs from their doors in order to avoid harassment by their neighbors.
One of the Palestinians said he kept a tefillin he received from his father's uncle and another told the rabbis that his family had once secretly lit candles on the Sabbath and for Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights.
Mesini told the rabbis, members of a group called the New Sanhedrin, that he believes hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are descended from Jews.
"Such evidence renders the conflict redundant," Mesini said. "It proves that Judea and Samaria belongs to both the recognized Jews and the unrecognized Jews."
Mesini accused authorities of being indifferent to his findings.
The New Sanhedrin is known as a right-wing organization that claims to be the rightful successors of the supreme Jewish court of antiquity. Its goal is to create a state based upon Jewish law that will replace the current State of Israel.
We often forget that under the "enlightened rule" of Islam, there were countless forced conversions that took place. How many Arabs are really descended from those Jews who were forced to Islamize?
ReplyDeleteAnd now, cue the JerseyGirl machine's automated reply...
These particular individuals, if they can prove they are already Jewish, or if they need to do a conversion l'humra if they cannot prove they are already Jewish, either way I welcome them with open arms.
ReplyDeleteBut to say that many of the Palestinians are Jewish and therefore have a title to parts of Eretz Yisrael, this is ridiculous. They are Muslims, are worse, they want to kill Jews and destroy Israel. You can't use technical Jewish status in this way, any more than a Jewish-born convert to Christianity ought to be availed by the Law of Return.
There's something to be said for the significance of meaning of apparent-Jewishness in the popular consciousness. For example, I've said that in the secular media, a person's Jewishness ought to be judged by whether they personally claim to be Jewish, and NOT by what halacha says. For the secular authority has no concern for whether technically, halachah says the individual is Jewish. Similarly, if Muslim law (sharia) says a given individual is Muslim, but the individual himself claims to be Jewish or Christian or Hindu, I'll go by the individual himself and not what sharia says.
"How many Arabs are really descended from those Jews who were forced to Islamize?"
ReplyDelete375 million is the estimated number of descendants of Jews who remained in the Biblical land of Israel after the Destruction of the Second Temple and who were eventually converted to Islam.
This has been supported by DNA testing which shows a definitive match between Sephardic Cohanim and Palestinian Arabs.
You heard it here first.
The reference is Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman pg 20.
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books?id=UNczHm67tjIC&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=cohanim+arabs+dna&source=web&ots=N1GPZUXKhi&sig=-vHsBzehOmPHSev-UKSoOhJoyjs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA20,M1
Sorry, I forgot to post it.
The reference is Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman pg 20.
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books?id=UNczHm67tjIC&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=cohanim+arabs+dna&source=web&ots=N1GPZUXKhi&sig=-vHsBzehOmPHSev-UKSoOhJoyjs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA20,M1
Sorry, I forgot to post it.