Palestinian Jews

A Palestinian Jew is a Jewish inhabitant of Palestine throughout certain periods of Middle Eastern history.

Prior to the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, the population of what is now Israel and the Territories was not exclusively Muslim. About 20% of the Arab-speaking people there were Christian, and about 15-20% Jews (depending on whether we include both sides of the Jordan and/or Bedouin). After the modern State of Israel was born, nearly all native Palestinian Jews became citizens of Israel, and the term "Palestinian Jews" largely fell into disuse. The preferred term today in Israel is "The old Yishuv". It is still used in contexts where it is necessary to distinguish from Muslim or Christian Palestinians who are together termed "Palestinian Arabs". (See also Arab citizens of Israel). Jews from Arab lands are today typically not termed Arab Jews, so "Palestinian Arab" today also implies the exclusion of Palestinian Jews.

The Palestinian National Covenant in 1968 defined a Jew as a Palestinian only if their family (through the male line) had resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist migrations (considered to have started in 1917). While a number of Jews fall into this category, most tend to identify as Israelis.

Other religions among Palestinians include Sunni Islam, Druze, Baha'i, Christianity (Orthodox, Catholicism, Protestantism,) and Judaism (Samaritanism and Orthodox Judaism.)

Disputes over terminology

Part of the difficulty of describing the Jews of Palestine is the wave of renaming over the past few decades, both for the Palestinian Jew population and the Palestinian Arab population.

Today Palestinians are regarded to fall into 2 groups that are for the most part assumed to be mutually exclusive: Jews and Arabs. Arabs, however, may be of any religion, including most numerously Arab Muslims, then Arab Christians, and various others, including Arab Jews. Likewise, Israelis are also regarded to fall into the same 2 categories. Israeli Jews who comprise the majority of the country, however, hail from dozens of countries around the world and may be of any of the many Jewish ethnic backgrounds, including German Jews, Palestinian Jews, Iraqi Jews, Yemenite Jews, Indian Jews, Chinese Jews, Ethiopian Jews. Only the minority of Israelis that are both Arab and non-Jewish are deemed Arab citizens of Israel.

In the same fashion, many advocates wish the term "Palestinian" to be used exclusively for non-Jewish Palestinians, and then give Palestinian synonymity with Arab (that is, Arab as understood to the exclusion of Jews from Arab countries).

This creates a dichotomy between "Israelis" (excluding Arabs, and the term "Arab" itself excluding Arab Jews) vs. "Palestinians" (excluding Palestinian Jews). The best known usage is the "Israeli-Palestinian conflict".

During the times of the British Mandate of Palestine, all residents of the Mandate were referred to as 'Palestinian' officially. However, the Arab residents of the Mandate, who largely identified with the Arab cause, and saw themselves as having a different national identity, viewed the term "Palestinian" as a derogatory colonialist British term, designed to erase their Arab identity. This sentiment was especially strong during the 30s and early 40s, when the idea of Greater Syria was viewed positively by the Arab of the Levant, among them the Palestinian Arabs.

Examples of contemporary usage

Uri Davis, an Israeli citizen, who lives in the Arab town of Sakhnin, and is an observer-member in the Palestine National Council identifies himself as an "anti-Zionist Palestinian Jew".^[1]^[2]

Davis' use of the term is best exemplified by his explanation that: "I don’t describe myself as a Palestinian Jew, I actually happen to be a Palestinian Jew, I was born in Jerusalem in 1943 in a country called Palestine and the title of my birth certificate is ‘Government of Palestine’. That is neither here nor there, though. It is significant only in a political context in which I am situated, and the political context that is relevant to my work, my advocacy of a critique of Zionism. I’m an anti-Zionist Jew."^[2]

In an interview with Ari Shavit, Edward Said, whose religious background is actually Protestant said, "I'm a Jewish-Palestinian", explaining that he is the last and "only true follower of Adorno.^[3]

Reference to European Jews as "Palestinians" prior to 1948

European Jews were commonly considered an "Oriental" people in many of their home countries. Thus figures such as Emmanuel Kant could refer to European Jews as "Palestinians living among us."^[4] The British Mandate referred to native Palestinians and European Jewish settlers alike as "Palestinians," consistent with an Orientalist view of all Jews as Eastern people.^[5] This grouping of Jewish settlers with native Palestinians played a role in reinforcing confusion and dissimulation around questions of 'nativeness' to the region and rights to shape the future of Palestine.

References

^ Uri Davis. (1995.). Crossing the Border: an autobiography of an anti-Zionist Palestinian Jew. ISBN 1-86102-002-3. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
^ ^a ^b Kevin Spurgaitis (2004). "Palestinian Jew Speaks Out Against 'Apartheid State'". Catholic New Times.
^ Matthew Abraham (June 2005). "Tracing the Discourse of Defiance" (PDF). Nebula. Retrieved 07.13.2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
^ Kant, Immanuel (1974): Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. Translated by Mary J. Gregor. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, cited in Chad Alan Goldberg, Politicide Revisited. University of Wisconsin-Madison
^ Kalmar, Ivan Davidson & Penslar, Derek. Orientalism and the Jews; Brandeis 2005