I think that its important to understand what indigenous means and why its important.

I actually had an argument on my facebook page regarding the english, just Because the english do not completely fit the checklist, doesnt make them any less valid a people, they simply arent indigenous. they have rights of longstanding presence and as there are no indigenous people of the region left, thier rights would supercede any others. In Places where there are indigenous people, their rights supercede rights of longstanding presence.

Its also important to understand that almost every indigenous people were victims of a more "powerful" culture. and while "might makes right" was the most popular way to do things for centuries, we are supposed to be more enlightened now.

its very important to understand that indigenous status is granted by where you are physically from, if it was then the idiots quoting the bering strait landbridge and the africa genesis theories would be correct. its about where your people became a people as well as several other important factors.

Very good article, Ryan. You have studied the situation very well. And as far as the Palestinian claim that Jerusalem "is an Islamic holy site," Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Qu'ran on any page nor in any language.

Thank you, Ryan and hope to hear more from you!

The mosque that is in Jerusalem is mentioned in the quran.

No, not directly. There is a reference to the “furthest mosque” but it is only with some heavy interpretation that this is reckoned to be Jerusalem. Despite the fact that the name Jerusalem existed in many contemporary works to the Koran, that name is completely absent from it.

you guys are funny and you are shaming name of jew. plz stop.

And who are you to speak for us, exactly? We're not ashamed of surviving and we're not ashamed of regaining our ancestral lands. You think we should be ashamed because the sight of an independent Jewish state offends the national pride of the previous occupiers (i.e. you).

The strategy of all colonialist projects was to deny the legitimacy of the indigenous population in order to justify their ethnic cleansing and the theft of their land. This article will suite those who believe that the Jews settled "a land without a people for a people without a land", and to clear the conscience of the guilty. Palestinian culture like ALL Middle Eastern cultures has a distinct Arab/Islamic influence. Even the Jews of the Middle East prior the creation of the "state" Israel had (and still have) a distinct Arab/Islamic influence within their communities. Samarian Jews who still consider themselves Palestinian are so similar to their Muslim and Christian neighbours that you would be unable to tell the difference between them. What makes Middle Eastern peoples (i.e. Iraqi, Kurd, Palestinians etc...) different are the subtle differences in cultural dress, food, names, poetry, literature etc... accents. For example some Palestinian family names have Hebrew, Canaanite, and Christian roots, while others are distinctly Islamic. The Palestinian people were effectively Arabized during the 7th century, where many of the Christian and Jewish inhabitants converted to Islam over time, giving us a Muslim majority today. This is why recent DNA studies have shown that the Palestinians share a common gene with Middle Eastern Jews and that the Palestinians are indeed as indigenous to Palestine as the native Americans are to America. This article is a complete fraud, and a tool used by Zionists to justify the theft of another peoples land and culture. Why is it when we speak of "Israeli culture" what we find is a distinctly Palestinian/Arab culture? Why would Israel need to steal Arab food, music and other elements of their culture and claim it to be "Israeli" or "Jewish"? Since when has Humus and Falafel become a Israeli food? Since when has Arab sounding Music become "Israeli music"? Until Zionists can accept responsibility of the cultural and ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the Palestinians, there will never be peace. It is a disgrace that articles like this exist and it is a disgrace and pretty sad that people believe this shameless propaganda.

You apparently didn't read the article. Blood quantum alone isn't enough to make the Palestinians native. Their language, culture, and religion is not from the Levant, therefore, they CAN'T be indigenous. In fact, the Palestinians weren't "Arabized" in the 7th century, because they didn't even exist back then. Name me one Palestinian leader before 1900

So the twisted definition dictates. I don't see how anyone could believe either Israelis or Palestinians to have a mutually exclusive right to this region and this is where the problem begins. When we start talking about who is indigenous and who is not, we are basically starting to justify the cleansing of the party who is not, in this case the Palestinians.

I will never root for any party which claims exclusive rights to a region that is home to millions of human beings who are to be denied the right to their Heimat.

This should have never been about WHO is right and who is wrong, who can stay and who can leave, it should have always been about HOW they can all live together in peace and enrichen one another's lives and cultures.

The bloodshed over fictitious man-made rights to soil will never find an end until either all Palestinians and Israelis are wiped from this planet or they start working on living by the rules and values their respective religions dictate them, so eventually future generations can live without grudges and practive love and understanding towards each other. That is what man must strive towards.

Um maybe if you learnt how to read, then you would notice this article says nothing you accuse it of, maybe English isn't your first language if so you may want to stop commenting on English material it just makes you look stupid, you made up what you thought the article was about without actually understanding it or maybe without reading it you should be embarrassed at your stupidity here.

You should go to explain this to the English people in London.

Maxime Rodinson:

“The Arab population of Palestine were native in all the usual senses of that word. Ignorance, sometimes backed up by hypocritical propaganda, has spread a number of misconceptions on this subject, unfortunately very widely held. It has been said that since the Arabs took the country by military conquest in the seventh century, they are occupiers like any other, like the Romans, the Crusaders and the Turks. Why therefore should they be regarded as any more native than the others, and in particular than the Jews, who were native to that country in ancient times, or at least occupiers of longer standing? To the historian the answer is obvious. A small contingent of Arabs from Arabia did indeed conquer the country in the seventh century. But as a result of factors which were briefly outlined in the first chapter of this book, the Palestinian population soon became Arabized under Arab domination, just as earlier it had been Hebraicized, Aramaicized, to some degree even Hellenized. It became Arab in a way that it was never to become Latinized or Ottomanized. The invaded melted with the invaders. It is ridiculous to call the English of today invaders and occupiers, on the grounds that England was conquered from Celtic peoples by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in the fifth and sixth centuries. The population was “Anglicized” and nobody suggests that the peoples which have more or less preserved the Celtic tongues – the Irish, the Welsh or the Bretons – should be regarded as the true natives of Kent or Suffolk, with greater titles to these territories than the English who live in those counties.”

Maybe it would help you to actually read the article, yeah? Because the point you are raising has already been addressed.

As I say in my own comments, the Torah tells us that the Jews were not the original inhabitants of the land. Also, ever heard of Aramaic? It predates Hebrew. So either people are truly ignorant of Jewish culture or they are determined to justify in any way they can an unjust situation.

I am Jewish, and I was born and raised in the US. My grandparents were born in Lithuania, what is now Belarus, and possibly Poland or Asian Georgia. In elementary school (5th grade?) we were once assigned to do a family tree including the nationalities of our grandparents. So I asked my only surviving grandmother what was her nationality, and she said "Jewish" and that my other grandparents were Jewish, too. EVERYONE of her generation who had been lucky enough to escape Europe, to whom I asked that question invariably said "Jewish". I asked a Greek Jew, a Turkish Jew, a Moroccan Jew, various Ashkenazi Jews, and Jews who weren't sure where their forebears were from, but the answer was NEVER anything other than "Jewish".

Before my parents' generation's attempts to assimilate, there was a very distinct Jewish culture, and it was NOT Arabic or Muslim. There was music, dance, a language of home and street usage, a language for prayer and teaching of the holy books (there are many, not just one), there were culturally distinct foods, which I could easily ascertain by looking at Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, etc. cookbooks. NOT anywhere near Arabic/Muslim. There was also a distinct way of dress, which, again is nowhere near either European or Arab/Muslim.

Many of those differences have been preserved by the Ultra-Orthodox of Brooklyn and of Israel; the tragedy is that the culture was very nearly wiped out by the Holocaust, and further destroyed by American-born Jews who wanted not to be discriminated against, so they assimilated their lives and customs -- even gave their babies English names, and changed their Yiddish last names (which were forced on them by the Russian Tsar -- if you delve earlier, people used patronymics) -- if you knew that, you might not make your ill-conceived claims.

Nowadays, in Israel, the culture is changing, as culture always does, but is still very recognizable. The Arab elements come from the Jews from Arab countries, but also because the music, and food are fun! That doesn't make Israeli Jews into Arabs, nor does it constitute ethnic cleansing. It doesn't make Arabs indigenous, either. Just because I have a pair of beaded earrings which were made to honor me by the Oglala Dakota grandmother of one of my students in Nebraska for teaching her beloved grandchild doesn't make me Native American (or First Nations). It just means that I feel honored that she took the time to make them for me. People all over the world are eating Hummus by now, so your argument in no way holds us or any other people whose cultures have been (depending on your politics) appropriated from or borrowed, as having any less right to our land, language and history.

Whack-a-troll-time..

Palestinians are as indigenous to Israel and its surrounding territories as Obama is indigenous to Hawaii. Muslims are always looking to move in and take over areas developed by someone else. Once Israel developed that area, created jobs and a higher standard of living, the buzzards swooped in for the kill. This is one Goy (with a splash of Ashkenazi) who is wise to the Palestinian lying game. Muslims are the best liars in the world, so let's give credit where credit is due.

What does Mr. Bellerose believe about Jews in Canada - are your citizens or occupiers? Do Jews in Canada have rights in his view or are they merely part of the colonial oppressors?

I am Jewish American, and no, I do NOT have indigenous rights in the US. However, I'm not a colonial oppressor either -- it's not an either/or choice. I do have the right to be treated fairly under the law, which is not true for many (but not all) indigenous peoples in the US and also in other parts of the world. Brazil is working VERY hard to preserve the rights of the Amazonian indigenes, although with hardly any money to pay people to do the work. So without much success, but you have to credit them for trying. Several African countries are trying to preserve native wildlife while also preserving the lifestyle and languages of their indigenous people. We, as a planet, have a lot of work to do.

Agree. And using the same perspective, how can a claim be made that Palestinians are being treated fairly under the law? They were kicked off their land, their houses and villages bulldozed and planted over, forced into refugee camps for generations and with Israel having absolute control over their lives.

There is a difference between being kicked off one's land, and land that never legally belonged to one in the first place. Arabs are NOT indigenous to the Levant, whereas Jews, Samaritan, and Druze are. And if the Arab countries, with lots of land and resources had chosen to take care of their people, there would not be a refugee problem. Indians and Pakistanis took care of refugees, and Israel took in more Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa (850,000) than Arab refugees who left (600,000), but we never hear any moaning and crying about that. Jewish refugees lost everything, and I don't see the Arab countries making any offer of restitution to them. And no, Israel does not have absolute control over refugees' descendants' lives, or it would have prevented the massacres of descendants in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Egypt, just to name a few countries. It pains me to see so much misinformational propaganda spread by people who don't know what they're talking about.

You seem to believe that the so called "Palestinians" were innocent passive bystanders... They were no such thing... In fact, roughly half of the "Palestinian refugees" left the area when it was still under British rule... The vast majority of the balance upped and left without ever seeing an IDF soldier...

As for refugee camps, blame the Arab host countries... BTW, exactly how does Israel have "control" (let alone "complete control") over refugees in camps that are located in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Jordan?!...

do individuals not have right over all for any place in the promise land called earth.
for that is our real country, the planet earth.

full stop.

Full stop?!... I don't think so... History has shown that Jews need their own designated place...

Monsieur Bellerose,

Merci. Great read. Looking forward to more. Now following you on Twitter. :)

Hey There. I discovered your weblog the usage of msn. That is an extremely neatly written article. I will make sure to bookmark it and come back to learn more of your helpful info. Thank you for the post. I’ll definitely comeback.

Thank you, Ryan, for taking the time and making the effort to learn about the issues of a people that is not your own but with whom you can empathize. Your article was excellent, well-written, and approached an old issue from a fresh angle. I will look forward to reading more of your articles in the future.

Very compelling argument with world wide applications. I do agree with Ron corrections. If you look at old painting of the holy land it is very clear that the Arab increase in numbers due the British who start developing the are plus the early, new Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe who start building new villages and needed labor. The word was out and many Arabs move to the land of Israel because that where the work/money was. The Turks who occupied the area for 400 prior to the Brit did very very little in land developing or other source of income.

In parts of Islam-conquered areas of the Middle East, the concept of the wheel disappeared. No one even had carts. Kafirs learned to own nothing a Muslim could take.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, Copts (the word meant "Egyptian") survived the same way oppressed Jews in Europe did: by education, literacy and business acumen.Keeping a low profile Today in Egypt Copts own telecommunications while Muslims stand in line for bread. When there is bread.

Prior to the Arab pirates of the 7th and 8th centuries, Egypt was the breadbasket of the Mediterranean. Arab sheepherders allowed their flocks to destroy hundreds of years of careful cultivation along the Nile. Papyrus disappeared and so did literacy in the Med. Islam makes its followers memorize because they're illiterate.

If they can't shoot with it, blow stuff up, or otherwise destroy, Arabs aren't interested. Look at what they've done with all their oil wealth. The non-Israel Middle East will never ever manage a Nobel science prize and they don't care.

Indigenous is fine, but how about some consideration for what a people does with natural resources? Jews took a miserable desert and made it a garden. Now the envious want the garden back, though when given all those greenhouses, they ripped them apart to make better weapons.

While there are some historical inaccuracies in the post (see below), the idea is original and compelling, and should be embraced.

* "Their lands were occupied, first by the Romans, then by the Arabs in the seventh century." The Land of Israel was occupied by many more, though indeed the Romans and Arabs are the most important to the argument.
* "it still has lands that are occupied by foreigners in Judea and Samaria." depending on where in history one looks, arguments can be made for Lands on the East bank of the Jordan river, as well as on the Golan.
* "Approximately 50% percent of Palestinian Arabs can track their ancestors back farther than their great-grandparents." this is probably a typo and the _can_ should have been _cannot_
* "but in the city of Mecca" should be but in the cities of Mecca and Medina (with Jerusalem a later invention as a holy place subsequent to intra-Islamic political struggles).
* "prior to that, the majority identified as “greater Syrians.”" should read "prior to that, the majority identified as just “Arabs.” and were offended to be called Palestinians."

I wasn't writing a novel ron, and in point of fact I needed to simplify this for the readers who have not studied the history. the article would be quite ponderous if I included every occupation and revolt in the levant. I did not say that the lands in Judeah and Samaria were the only occupied lands, so im not sure how thats an inaccuracy so much as a non essential point. The city of Mecca is the primary holy site which was my point, I wasn't going to list all of Islams holy sites because then someone would have asked me "why not jerusalem, when everyone knows Jerusalem was added later on and isnt considered to be as important. as for the "greater Syrians" quote, thats actually straight from an Arab source.

I am ok with criticism, but I am Metis, my area of study in school wasn't Middle eastern history I have largely self educated.

either way feel free to write an article with similiar points, the crux of the article is that the palestinians are pushing a false Narrative. and I haven't seen too many non jews call them out for doing so.
regards
Ryan

Islam generates holy sites at will. One day, probably soon, there will be Mosques in Paris, London and Rome designated the 4th, 5th & 6th holiest sites in Islam. It’s just their method of operation.

Look at the beautiful Church of St Sophia in Constantinople. Oh wait, it’s not a Church any more. And it’s not Constantinople any more. They made a huge mistake not managing to rename Jerusalem properly. I think we should change the English spelling now though: Jewrusalem.

Actually they did try to rename Jerusalem. They call it al-Quds

They call it al-Quds

Which means "the holy" (cognate of HaKodesh).

Why did Constantinople get the works? That's nobody's business but the Turks!

Most of your points are well taken. I don’t think they change the thrust of Ryan’s article and I feel its important to see his approach as a non-Israel expert. The broader historical point is well made and that the deliberate inversion of Arab and Jew to make the Arab the indigenous people is the issue.

Ron, while I agree from the perspective of presenting an argument "Approximately 50% percent of Palestinian Arabs cannot track... " is stronger than "Approximately 50% percent of Palestinian Arabs can track..." from a factual perspective it's pretty much the same, since 100 - 50 = 50

:)

IN the 1990s my family emigrated to Canada & I recall my son telling me of an incident in his class (in French Canada). The teacher asked the pupils who were 'native Canadians' to put up their hands. He then asked each child where their grandparents were from & if they answered Canada asked about their great grandparents until every child came up with a country that was not Canada. He then asked those who were native Canadians to put up their hands at which point of course no one could. The point was well made. BTW the teacher was a Jew who had come to Canada from Morocco!

French Canadians are French first. As are the Cajuns in Louisiana and those French-speaking 6th generation "Americans" in Maine and Massachusetts.

Ryan, Your points were all well made.

Sources are needed. "50% of Palestinians can trace their ancestors to... " - source? We can't convince people who are on the fence just based on our word.

I looked up census figures from 1920 and 1930...they clearly show that the growth of Arab populations could only come from immigration and not natural growth

Yea it always helps to have sources, especially on this, which is actually fairly easily proven.

Amazing read
thanks

Superb piece. One of the most important pieces I have read in a while. Great stuff.

The strategy of all colonialist projects was to deny the legitimacy of the indigenous population in order to justify their ethnic cleansing and the theft of their land. This article will suite those who believe that the Jews settled "a land without a people for a people without a land", and to clear the conscience of the guilty. Palestinian culture like ALL Middle Eastern cultures has a distinct Arab/Islamic influence. Even the Jews of the Middle East prior the creation of the "state" Israel had (and still have) a distinct Arab/Islamic influence within their communities. Samarian Jews who still consider themselves Palestinian are so similar to their Muslim and Christian neighbours that you would be unable to tell the difference between them. What makes Middle Eastern peoples (i.e. Iraqi, Kurd, Palestinians etc...) different are the subtle differences in cultural dress, food, names, poetry, literature etc... accents. For example some Palestinian family names have Hebrew, Canaanite, and Christian roots, while others are distinctly Islamic. The Palestinian people were effectively Arabized during the 7th century, where many of the Christian and Jewish inhabitants converted to Islam over time, giving us a Muslim majority today. This is why recent DNA studies have shown that the Palestinians share a common gene with Middle Eastern Jews and that the Palestinians are indeed as indigenous to Palestine as the the English are to England, the Fench to France and the German to Germany. This article is a complete fraud, and a tool used by Zionists to justify the theft of another peoples land and culture. Why is it when we speak of "Israeli culture" what we find is a distinctly Palestinian/Arab culture? Why would Israel need to steal Arab food, music and other elements of their culture and claim it to be "Israeli" or "Jewish"? Since when has Humus and Falafel become a Israeli food? Since when has Arab sounding Music become "Israeli music"? Until Zionists can accept responsibility of the cultural and ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the Palestinians, there will never be peace. It is a disgrace that articles like this exist and it is a disgrace and pretty sad that people believe this shameless propaganda. I am not saying that Jews have no religious claim to Palestine, but Christians also have a religious claim and so do Muslims. The land belongs to the people who have lived on that land for generations and who are rooted to the land. The damage Zionism has done is immense, and it is really sad that Zionists are unable to connect with their humanity, when it comes to the Palestinians.

Wow you are another with no reading comprehension, learn to read in English properly before putting your foot in your mouth, your comment has so many inaccuracies it's more than a joke lol. Maybe read and more importantly comprehend the words and you'd see 60-90% of your reply is straight out lies or with everything the articles says. Try not to be so ignorant. And just in case you actually read this : the article does acknowledge "rights of longstanding presence" so your toatally wrong and apparently need comprehension lessons.

Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria is Jewish territory - No annexation is required
If anything it may need to be re-incorporated or re-patriated.
Let me pose an interesting scenario. If you had a country and it was conquered by foreign powers over a period of time. After many years you have taken back you country and land in various defensive wars. Do you have to officially annex those territories? It was always your territory and by retaking control and possession of your territory it is again your original property and there is no need to annex it. The title to your property is valid today as it was many years before.
Annexation only applies when you are taking over territory that was never yours to begin with, just like some European countries annexed territories of other countries.
YJ Draiman

Jews hold title to the Land of Greater Israel even if outnumbered a million to one.
The fact that more foreigners than Jews occupied the Land of Israel during certain periods of time does not diminish true ownership. If my house is invaded by a family ten times larger that mine does that obviate my true ownership?

Jewish roots and rights to all the land of Greater Israel are stronger than ever!
“If I am turned out of hearth and home and remain outside one night, I am legally entitled to return the following day. If I suffer for ten, twenty, five thousand or fifty thousand nights, does my right of return stand in inverse relationship to the length of my exile? Quite the contrary; my right to return and recover my freedom becomes stronger in direct proportion to what I have endured, not by virtue of some abstract arithmetic, but because of the nights spent in exile, and because I want my children, to be spared a similar experience.”
YJ Draiman

The fundamentals are very simple.

The world is in an ideological war to the death !!!

Islam is using this ME conflict to maintain the focus of the world wide Jihad movement.

The goal of Islam is to have an Islam only world without Infidels.

Muslims are born and bred to revere Death and Martyrdom

We are born and bred to revere Life and Liberty

Never the twain shall meet, but on the field of war

indigenous is irrelevant.

because,

what is relevant, is a single individual each and every one.

if you do not know that, you cannot be a real jew.