Israel established by colonial West, claims PA daily
Excerpt of op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: "Netanyahu and the sin of ethnic origin”
"The colonialist West used the Zionist Jews to achieve a series of colonialist goals at the expense of the peoples of the Arab nation in general and the Palestinian people in particular.I do not want to return to Jewish Professor Shlomo Sand (i.e., a Tel Aviv University history professor who claims Jews are an invented people and have no historical right to the Land of Israel) or to the other Jews of our time who vehemently deny the existence of any mention of the so-called 'Jewish' people, or to the Neturei Karta Jews (i.e., extremist, anti-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox Jews who deny Israel's right to exist until the Messiah comes), or to the Samaritan members of the Palestinian people (i.e., a small ethno-religious group that claims ancestry from the ancient Israelites and adhere to the religious law of Samaritanism; see note below), or even to the Jews of Europe whose origins are in the Khazar kingdom, which existed in central Asia between the 9th and 12th centuries (sic., genetic research has debunked claims that Ashkenazi Jews originate in the Khazars). I will return to the Campbell-Bannerman Conference in 1905-1907 that emphasized that there is a need for a 'foreign people' in the midst of the peoples of the Arab nation, which would divide between west and east, in order to steal the Arab peoples’ resources, and more importantly – to eliminate the pan-Arab revival project (apparently referring to the 1907 Imperial Conference led by former British Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the minutes of which disprove claims of a conspiracy theory to undermine the Middle East –Ed.)…
Regarding [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and the origin of the Palestinians (referring to tweets by Netanyahu on research proving the ancient Philistines hailed from Europe, showing the Palestinians have no genetic connection to them; see note below –Ed.)… I will return to the recent past, to what has been happening for the last two weeks (since the end of June) [parentheses in source] and until now; in other words, since the outbreak of the Falash Mura uprising against the racial discrimination following the death of young Solomon Teka. He was murdered by a white police officer with no justification, just because of his Ethiopian ethnic color and background (refers to protests by Ethiopian Jews after Ethiopian Jew Solomon Teka threw rocks at an off-duty police officer and his family and the officer responded by shooting at the ground, killing Teka with the ricochet. After investigation the police officer faces no convictions –Ed.), which reflects the racist character of Israeli society…
Previously there was the conflict between the western Ashkenazi [Jews] and the eastern Sephardi [Jews], and the crisis of integrating the Russian nationals… into the complicated fabric of Israeli society. Much can be said about the many contrasts – and I am not saying differences – betweenthe elements of the fabricated and artificial Israeli society, which has no anthropological roots in the Arab Palestinian land."
Samaritans – A small ethno-religious group residing primarily in Holon (in Israel) and in the Samaritan village Kiryat Luza (near Nablus in the West Bank). The Samaritans claim ancestry from the ancient Israelites and adhere to the religious law of Samaritanism. While Samaritanism is closely related to Judaism, there are some fundamental differences. Samaritans refer to the Bible as their sole religious scripture, do not celebrate any Jewish festival that took place after the writing of the Bible (i.e., Channukah, Purim), and consider Mt. Gerizim near Nablus their holiest place (believing this is where Abraham bound Isaac and God instructed them to build the Temple), as opposed to Jews who consider Mt. Moriah (the Temple Mount) in Jerusalem their holiest place. No Jewish community today recognizes the Samaritans as an expression of Judaism, and for Samaritans to wed Jewish partners in a traditional ceremony they are required to undergo a full conversion to Judaism. The Samaritan community numbers roughly 800 members today.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted three tweets on July 7, 2019, two of them linking to articles on DNA research proving the ancient Philistines were not native to the Middle East, and therefore the Palestinians have no genetic connection to them.
Tweet 1: "A new study of DNA recovered from an ancient Philistine site in the Israeli city of Ashkelon confirms what we know from the Bible – that the origin of the Philistines is in southern Europe."
The article it links to: "Biblical Philistines – archenemies of ancient Israelites – hailed from Europe, DNA reveals"
Tweet 2: "The Bible mentions a place called Caphtor, which is probably modern-day Crete. There's no connection between the ancient Philistines and & the modern Palestinians, whose ancestors came from the Arabian Peninsula to the Land of Israel thousands of years later."
The article it links to: "Ancient DNA may reveal origin of the Philistines"
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/07/ancient-dna-reveal-philistine-origins/
Tweet 3: "The Palestinians' connection to the Land of Israel is nothing compared to the 4,000 year connection that the Jewish people have with the land."
The Falash Mura are descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity. In 2003, the Israeli government passed resolution 2948 that grants Ethiopian descendants of Jewish mothers the right to immigrate to Israel. Since then Israel has helped bring most of the Falash Mura to Israel.
Sources: http://www.knesset.gov.il/mmm/data/pdf/m01875.pdf http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/falashmura.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Israel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falash_Mura