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Indigeneity in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict - Wikipedia

Indigeneity in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict - Wikipedia

Indigeneity in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

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The notion of indigeneity—the quality of being descended from the native or autochthonous inhabitants of a territory, especially a territory that has been colonized—has been central to debates about political legitimacy in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. These debates have centered on whether or not Israeli Jews, Palestinians, or both peoples are to be defined as indigenous peoples to the region of Palestine. During the 21st century, many Zionists have advocated the view that Jews are the indigenous people of the Land of Israel. Advocates of the Palestinian cause often advocate the view that Palestinians are an occupied indigenous people and that Zionism is a form of settler colonialism. Some observers consider both Jews and Palestinians to be indigenous.

Background

This section is an excerpt from Demographic history of Palestine (region).[edit]
Palestine demographics, 1st century through the Mandate.
Figures in thousands, i.e. 100 represents 100,000, 1,000 represents 1,000,000.
See also the detailed timeline
YearJewsChristiansMuslimsTotal
1st c.Majority––~1,250
4th c.MajorityMinority–>1st c.[1][2]
5th c.MinorityMajority–>1st c.
End 12th c.MinorityMinorityMajority>225
14th c.MinorityMinorityMajority150
1533–153956145156
1553–155479188205
1690–1691211219232
1800722246275
18904357432532
19149470525689
19228471589752
1931175897601,033
19476301431,1811,970
Estimates by Sergio DellaPergola (2001), drawing on the work of Bachi (1975). Figures in thousands.[3]

The population of the region of Palestine, which approximately corresponds to modern Israel and Palestine, has varied in both size and ethnic composition throughout its history.

Studies of Palestine's demographic changes over the millennia have shown that a Jewish majority in the first century AD had changed to a Christian majority by the 3rd century AD,[4] and later to a Muslim majority, which is thought to have existed in Mandatory Palestine (1920-1948) since at least the 12th century AD, during which the total shift to Arabic language was completed.[5]

Jews as indigenous

The Zionist claim to Palestine, over other proposals for a Jewish state, was based on the notion that Jews had a hereditary right to the land that outweighed the equivalent nationalist claims of the local Arabs.[6] According to Mahmood Mamdani, the Knesset unanimously codified the notion of Jewish indigeneity in Israel legally with the 1950 Law of Return, which grants any Jewish person in the world citizenship upon entering the territory, whereas Palestinian Arabs, even if born in the recently established State of Israel to parents who had never left the territory, had to meet the criteria of the 1952 Citizenship Law.[7]

Part of that claim is based on the length of Jewish settlement in Palestine, so debates on Palestinian archaeology and Biblical archaeology have often focused on establishing or refuting Jewish indigeneity in the land.[8] Archaeologist Brett Kaufman notes that archaeological and epigraphic evidence corroborates Jewish indigeneity in ancient Israel comes from multiple independent ancient sources outside the Hebrew Bible. Examples he cites include a 9th-century Aramaic inscription known as the Tel Dan Stele, excavated in northern Israel, which references both a "King of Israel" and the "House of David," providing non-biblical attestations of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah as well as the Davidic dynasty.[9] A Neo-Assyrian royal inscription dating to 701 BC names Hezekiah, king of Judah, and describes Jerusalem as his royal seat, corroborating the biblical account.[9] Inscriptions excavated in Jerusalem name people who also appear in the biblical Book of Jeremiah as officials in the 6th-century BC royal court of Judah.[9] He notes that Hebrew, the national language of the Jewish people, is an Iron Age development of Bronze Age Canaanite belonging to the Northwest Semitic language family native to the Levant, with documented continuous use spanning over three millenia. Finally, he notes that two passages in the Quran describe the Holy Land as promised to the Children of Israel and the people of Moses, an early Islamic acknowledgement of Jewish connection to the region.[9]

In her 2012 book The Genealogical Science: The Search for Jewish Origins and the Politics of Epistemology, American anthropologist Nadia Abu El Haj traces the history of genetic studies of Jewish origins and the role of such studies in the construction of "cultural imaginations and political commitments" in relation to Zionism in the 1950s and 1960s,[10][11] noting that in the early work of Israeli researchers, there was "a struggle to reconcile their belief in the biological unity-qua-shared historical origins of the Jews with the 'fact' of phenotypic evidence to the contrary." According to Abu El Haj, "Jews were presumed to be 'a people' descended from the Israelites who were exiled from ancient Palestine," a view she considers "crucial to the ideology of settler-nationhood—to an understanding of Jewish settlement in Palestine as a project of return—that formed the bedrock of the Israeli state."[11][10][better source needed]

Archaeologist Brett Kauffman listed several attempts within the Israeli–Palestinian conflict to deny Jewish indigeneity. One of these is "Temple Denial," the rejection of any historical Jewish connection to Jerusalem and of the existence of the Temples there. He also refers to the Khazar Myth, a theory invoked to deny Jewish indigeneity by claiming that Ashkenazi Jews are not descended from the ancient Israelites but from the medieval Khazars of the Caucasus region, despite its being a widely debunked conspiracy theory that has also been disconfirmed by genetic studies.[12] Lastly, he identified the work of anthropologist Nadia Abu El-Haj as a notable example of academic denial of Jewish indigeneity. He argued that, when confronted with evidence she could not refute, the author dismissed the concept of objective facts. Her work later turned to Jewish genetics as another avenue for disputing Jewish ancestral connections to the region.[12]

In his 2011 article "The Myth of Israel as a Colonialist Entity: An Instrument of Political Warfare to Delegitimize the Jewish State" Israeli statesman and political scientist Dore Gold, citing Moshe Gil's A History of Palestine: 634-1099, wrote that Jews (along with Samaritans) comprised a majority in the Southern Levant from the Roman period (63 BCE – 324 CE) until the Muslim conquest (c. 636–7 CE) and only began to diminish due to the institution of persecutions, such as the Jizya tax. Jews continued to live in the land without interruption, and those who left maintained cultural and religious ties with the land. In his view, Jews have "deep, indigenous roots" to the Land of Israel. As such, he says, the idea of Zionism as a colonial project should be rejected.[13]

Ilan and Carol Troen say that Jews were considered to be indigenous by themselves and the international community until relatively recently. The "indigeneity argument" was taken up by Palestinian Arabs in 1990s to cast themselves as the sole legitimate indigenous population, re-framing of Jews as being recent foreign invaders by adopting a colonial-settler paradigm. The argument that modern Jews from around the world have no connection to historical Jews who lived in the region is not based in fact, but is a product of a political supersessionism to deny legitimacy of Israel.[14][15]

According to anthropologists Rachel Z Feldman and Ian McGonigle, "Israeli settler organizations and allied American-Jewish lobbyists have responded to international condemnation of the occupation by mobilizing narratives of indigeneity, claiming sovereign and divine rights to the land."[16] Major Zionist organizations including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the American Jewish Committee, and the Israel Action Network of the Jewish Federations of North America have stated that Jews are Indigenous to the Land of Israel.[17][18]

In 2015, a proposal titled "Recognition of the Jewish People as Indigenous to the Land of Israel" was submitted and approved by a 51% vote in favor at the World Zionist Congress. The bill's author stated that the bill rejects "the core anti-Israel accusation that Jews are foreign colonialists in the country and instead affirms that the Jewish people have indigenous rights to live in their ancestral home." The proposal was opposed by the liberal Zionist organization J Street, the Reform movement's ARZA, and the Conservative movement's Mercaz USA, among other organizations.[19][why?]

Writing on the blog of the New Zealand Jewish Council in 2024, Ben Kepes has argued that "Indigeneity and colonialism" are "not useful metaphors for Israel", citing Jewish presence in the land for thousands of years.[20][undue weight? – discuss]

Palestinians as indigenous

Scholars who discuss Zionism as settler colonialism contend that Zionism involves processes of dispossession and displacement of the indigenous Palestinian Arab population,[21] akin to other settler colonial contexts, such as those of to the creation and expansion of the United States, accomplished through the displacement or elimination of various Native American communities.[22]: 91 

Palestinians represented the vast majority of the population of Palestine at the time of the imposiiton of the British Mandate.[21]: xx  According to M. T. Samuel, because the Jewish community in Palestine, or the Yishuv, constituted only 10% of the population at the time of the 1923 implementation of the mandate under the authority of the League of Nations, Britain was legally obligated to provisionally recognize the right to national self-determination of the indigenous Palestinian population throughout the entirety of the territory, according to Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations.[23] By incorporating the call to "establish in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people" into the mandate document, the League of Nations codified the clause from the Balfour Declaration into international law.[23] It thereby facilitated Zionist colonization, which Samuel argues represented a violation of this legal obligation under Article 22.[23]

The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs defines the Palestinian Bedouin as the Indigenous people of Palestine.[24][25] The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) have stated that "[W]e strongly protest the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and the legal structures of the Israeli state that systematically discriminate against Palestinians and other Indigenous peoples...We reaffirm this sentiment that recognizes the rights of Indigenous Palestinians when we demand an end to the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and a free Palestine.[26]

Jamal Nabulsi, a PhD candidate at the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland, argues that Palestinian indigeneity is a "resistant identity" that is fundamentally defined as the "embodiment of the land of Palestine," meaning the land and the Palestinian body are ontologically inseparable. He contends that this indigeneity is a political relationship to the structure of settler colonialism rather than a measure of "cultural authenticity," maintaining that the connection to the land remains inextinguishable even for those outside Palestine. Nabulsi asserts that this collective indigeneity serves to unify a fragmented population against Zionist efforts to "erase" Palestinian presence. Ultimately, he frames this as the basis for an "Indigenous sovereignty" that rejects liberal state-building projects in favor of a radical decolonial future.[27]

Historian Nur Masalha says, "The Palestinians share common experiences with other indigenous peoples who have had their narrative denied, their material culture destroyed and their histories erased or reinvented by European white settlers and colonisers."[28]

The United Nations has referred to Palestinians as the "indigenous people of Palestine".[29][30]

Jews and Palestinians as indigenous

Some organizations, including the ADL and Center for World Indigenous Studies, have referred to both Jews and Palestinians as Indigenous to the Palestine region.[17][31]

Criticism of indigeneity rhetoric

AIJAC—the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council—has stated that "the claim Palestinians are indigenous in the same way Aboriginal Australians are indigenous is beyond ridiculous" and that "Jews are also not indigenous to the Land of Israel in the same prehistoric way that Aboriginal Australians are to Australia".[32]

See also

References

  1.  An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations by Edward Kessler P72
  2.  The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period By William David Davies, Louis Finkelstein, P:409
  3.  Pergola, Sergio della (2001). "Demography in Israel/Palestine: Trends, Prospects, Policy Implications" (PDF). Semantic Scholar. S2CID 45782452. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-08-20.
  4.  David Goodblatt (2006). "The political and social history of the Jewish community in the Land of Israel, c. 235–638". In Steven Katz (ed.). The Cambridge History of Judaism. Vol. IV. Cambridge University Press. pp. 404–430. ISBN 978-0-521-77248-8.
  5.  Estakhri quoted by Le Strange, G. (1890). Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. pp. 25–30. OCLC 1004386.
    • Gorny 1987, p. 210: "This set of assumptions was intended to stress the equal status of the Jews vis-à-vis the rest of the world, and to provide the basis for their superior right to Palestine."
    • Shapira 1992, pp. 41–42: "The basic assumption regarding the right of Jews to Palestine—a right that required no proof—was a fundamental component of all Zionist programs. In contrast with other prospective areas for Jewish settlement, such as Argentina or East Africa, it was generally believed that no one could deny the right of the Jews to their ancestral land... The slogan 'A land without a people for a people without a land' was common among Zionists at the end of the nineteenth, and the beginning of the twentieth, century. It contained a legitimation of the Jewish claim to the land and did away with any sense of uneasiness that a competitor to this claim might appear."
    • Slater 2020: "According to the standard Zionist and then the Israeli narrative, for a number of reasons the land of Palestine rightfully belongs to the Jewish people—and no others, including today's Palestinians."
    • Khalidi 2006: "[T]he Zionist claim to Palestine, which since even before the establishment of the state of Israel had depended in some measure on arguing that there was no legitimacy to the competing Arab claim"
    • Alam 2009: "Zionism was a messianic movement to restore Palestine to its divinely appointed Jewish owners... Conversely, the Palestinian, whether his ancestors were the ancient Canaanites or Hebrews, would forfeit all rights to his lands; he had become a usurper."
    • Sternhell 1999: "Like all Zionists, Gordon did not recognize the principle of majority rule, and he refused to acknowledge the right of the majority to 'take from us what we have acquired through our work and creativity.' Moreover, he had confidence in the spiritual vitality of the Yishuv, its energy and motivation, and believed it was supported by the entire Jewish people. In 1921, he spoke in much stronger terms than he had between 1909 and 1918: 'For Eretz Israel, we have a charter that has been valid until now and that will always be valid, and that is the Bible, and not only the Bible.'... And now came the decisive argument: 'And what did the Arabs produce in all the years they lived in the country? Such creations, or even the creation of the Bible alone, give us a perpetual right over the land in which we were so creative, especially since the people that came after us did not create such works in this country, or did not create anything at all.' The founders accepted this point of view. This was the ultimate Zionist argument."
  7.  Mamdani, Mahmood (2020). Neither settler nor native: the making and unmaking of permanent minorities. Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-24999-8. Jewish indigeneity in Israel is embodied in the Law of Return, which the Knesset passed unanimously in 1950. Under the Law of Return, any Jew is entitled to citizenship upon entering the territory. The person in question need never have set foot there previously; he is effectively native from birth by virtue of being a Jew. In contrast, a Palestinian Arab, even one born in Israel of ancestors who never left the territory, is not considered indigenous. To be counted as citizens, Arabs have to meet legal requirements set out in the Entry into Israel Law of 1952. According to the law, they must have been residents of Mandate Palestine and registered as such by March 1, 1952. They must also have been in Israel during the first years of statehood—that is, they must have been residents "in Israel, or in an area which became Israeli territory after the establishment of the state, from the day of the establishment of the state to the day of the coming into force of this law, or entered Israel lawfully during that period."
  8.  Sayej, Ghattas Jeries (2013). "Can archaeologists intervene in public debate on urgent questions of a social, cultural or political nature? A reflection on the Israeli–Palestinian Archaeology Working Group (IPAWG)". Archaeological Dialogues. 20 (1): 47–58. doi:10.1017/S1380203813000093. ISSN 1380-2038. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  9.  Kaufman, Brett (2024). "Ancient Historians Embrace Debunked Conspiracy Theories Denying that Jews Are Indigenous to Israel". In Freedman, Rosa; Hirsh, David (eds.). Responses to 7 October: Universities. Routledge. p. 97.
  10.  "New scientific study rekindles the debate about Jewish genetic history". Verso. Retrieved 2026-03-01.
  11.  Egorova, Yulia (June 2012). "The Genealogical Science: The Search for Jewish Origins and the Politics of Epistemology (review)". Anthropological Quarterly. 85 (3): 967–971. doi:10.1353/anq.2012.0041. ISSN 1534-1518.
  12.  Kaufman, Brett (2024). "Ancient Historians Embrace Debunked Conspiracy Theories Denying that Jews Are Indigenous to Israel". In Freedman, Rosa; Hirsh, David (eds.). Responses to 7 October: Universities. Routledge. p. 97.
  13.  Gold, Dore (2011). "The Myth of Israel as a Colonialist Entity: An Instrument of Political Warfare to Delegitimize the Jewish State". Jewish Political Studies Review. 23 (3/4): 84–90. ISSN 0792-335X.
  14.  Troen, Ilan; Troen, Carol (2019). Indigeneity. pp. 17–32.
  15.  Troen, Ilan; Rabineau, Shay (2014). "Competing Concepts of Land in Eretz Israel". Israel Studies. 19 (2): 162–186. doi:10.2979/israelstudies.19.2.162. ISSN 1084-9513.
  16.  Feldman, Rachel Z.; McGONIGLE, Ian, eds. (2023-10-15). Settler-Indigeneity in the West Bank. McGill-Queen's University Press. doi:10.2307/jj.8085217. ISBN 978-0-2280-1953-4.
  17.  "Responding to False Claims About Israel". American Jewish Committee. 2 August 2023. Retrieved 2025-10-10.
  18.  "Allegation: Israel is a Settler Colonialist Enterprise". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 2025-10-10.
  19.  "J Street says Jews not indigenous to Israel". Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 2025-10-10.
  20.  "Indigeneity and colonialism not useful metaphors for Israel". New Zealand Jewish Council. Retrieved 2025-10-10.
  21.  Khalidi, Rashid (2006). The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0-8070-0309-1.
  22.  Massad, Joseph Andoni (2006-09-27). The Persistence of the Palestinian Question. doi:10.4324/9780203965351.
  23.  Samuel, M.T. (December 2023). "The Israel‐Hamas War: Historical Context and International Law". Middle East Policy. 30 (4): 3–9. doi:10.1111/mepo.12723. ISSN 1061-1924.
  24.  "Indigenous peoples in Palestine". International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. Retrieved 2025-10-10.
  25.  "Jewish Voice for Peace's Stance on Zionism". Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven. Retrieved 2025-10-10.
  26.  "NAISA Council Statement on Palestine". Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. Retrieved 2025-10-10.
  27.  Nabulsi, Jamal (2023-04-03). "Reclaiming Palestinian Indigenous Sovereignty". Journal of Palestine Studies. 52 (2): 24–42. doi:10.1080/0377919X.2023.2203830. ISSN 0377-919X.
  28.  Masalha 2012, p. 88.
  29.  "History & Background". United Nations. Retrieved 2025-10-10.
  30.  "The International Status of the Palestinian People". United Nations. Retrieved 2025-10-10.
  31.  "Indigenous Israelis and Palestinians". Center for World Indigenous Studies. 27 September 2014. Retrieved 2025-10-10.
  32.  "Scribblings: The "Indigenous" Palestinians?". AIJAC. 2 July 2024. Retrieved 2025-10-10.
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