So, Who Are Really the "Arabs" of 'Palestine'?

After circulating the article "Arabs of Jewish Descent in Israel", my friend received an interesting response from his friend in Israel who served in the IDF during the 1967 Six Day War. The story and comments are important and others may know of similar cases of people of Jewish descent living in the so-called “occupied territories” who were forcibly converted to Islam.

My friend writes:

"From childhood we’ve all been taught about the Spanish Inquisition and the Marranos or secret Jews who were forced to adopt Christianity. And of course today there are numerous Jewish organizations around the world searching for “lost” Jews and/or seeking to “bring back” the less observant. But what about the Jews who were forced to adopt Islam?

After reading "Arabs of Jewish Descent in Israel" I couldn’t help but wonder whether anyone has focussed on the descendants of Jews who now call themselves Moslems and, in particular, those who now seek their national self-expression as “Palestinians”. Considering the degree to which religion and nationalism are for the most part related to one’s state of mind, one might ask whether anyone has attempted to appeal to the minds of even a segment of the “Palestinian” population on the basis that they consider returning to their Jewish roots. And if they do wish to return, are we prepared to accept them?

I was, therefore, pleasantly surprised to learn today that considerable effort has in fact already gone into examining some of these very issues. Much of this is described on a website – “The Engagement” – which contains some rather interesting material, including: articles, videos, presentations & the full text of an intriguing book written by Israeli physicist Tsvi Misinai entitled “The Roots and Solution to the Problem in the Holy Land”.

In theory, Misinai’s proposed solution includes some very attractive elements. Of course, as is so often the case, progressing from the theoretical to the practical achievement of the desired ultimate outcome is undoubtedly a major challenge. Nevertheless, his overall approach to addressing the issues concerning the Land of Israel and its inhabitants turns much of the debate about Israel and the Palestinian Arabs on its head and points to new directions that have for the most part been totally ignored.

Sheldon

PS - To protect their identities, I deleted David’s surname & e-mail address and the name of the Arab village from the following e-mail. Should you wish to contact David, send me an e-mail and I’ll be happy to forward it to him.

Here's the e-mail Sheldon received:

-----Original Message-----
From: David _________
Sent: August 11, 2009 3:55 AM
To: Sheldon
Subject: Re: Wishful thinking? Perhaps we should be reclaimimg the people as well as the land

Hi Sheldon,

Just after the 6 day war I was sent to a village by the name of ___________ to search for weapons and P.L.O. while there I was assigned to take the local school principal to the school to search for weapons. On the way he told me that the whole village was of Jewish descent and told me the exact day in 638 when they were all forced to convert to Islam. He then told me that he is not sucking up to me as today they are all Muslim emphasis on the Muslim. It always bothered me that I didn't write it down at the time, both the date and the name of the principal but I was a combat soldier on a mission and didn't exactly carry writing utensils with me nor was it on my mind then. I was more worried about not getting into some ambush or something. The problem is that our Rabbis have no historical vision they only know how to stand on kotzo shel yud. I have no doubt that had we immediately after the 6 day war made a concentrated effort to convince forcibly converted arabs to come back to the fold maybe today there would be no question of the territories. Even now it would be possible but not with our rabbis who over 2000 years of diaspora have lost the meaning of nationhood.

David _______