One cannot make the argument that Israel is "colonial" in good faith. It can only be made by deciding, in advance, that certain people — namely Jews — do not count.
Jews predated Islam. Close to a million Jews were expelled from MENA where they lived for centuries, Israel absorbed most. Diarna, Our Homes is a digital library of Jewish history and culture. Since 2010 some 3 thousand sites have been identified so far. Today, you cannot find Jews in this vast area, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and the other nations. The forced removal of Jews from the Arab and Muslim world is the true Apartheid.
You cannot find Jews in this vast area, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and the other nations where they lived for centuries were forcibly removed, this is Apartheid. Islam represents the largest in human history imperialistic invasion, political, military and religious. The Islamic conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries were brutal military campaigns, ripped through Persia, the Levant, India and North Africa, Spain from about mid-7th century, a conquest lasting some 7 centuries. "The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise", Muslims, Christians and Jews under the Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain by Dario Fernández-Morera. Book based on archival records. Non-Muslims were not granted liberty and tolerance. Christians and Jews had to convert to Islam or pay a protection tax the jizya.
Non-Muslims were Dhimmi, subservient. Christians and Jews had to wear recognizable markings, for Jews it was a yellow belt and a pointy head. Later adapted by Nazism. Christian churches were turned into mosques, a standard feature of Muslim conquest.
Jews in their native land lived under occupation, in the early 1920s pogroms by Arabs against the Native Jews are on record in Jaffa, Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and across Palestine, Jews were killed with the most horrific massacres in Hebron, the medical officers reported mutilations of the dead.
Please save it with the history lessons (I have a degree in Arabic & Middle East history and am about to start a Masters), or at least get them right.
My comment was about Apartheid - an Afrikaner (Dutch) word used for the racial segregation system applied legally - effectively keeping the people in place but under a different set of laws. And a black person could never become a white person.
What you are talking about is expulsion, whether legal or simply social.
Apartheid. Afghanistan: slavery and the education of women. Mohammad Zahir Shah was the last king of Afghanistan, from 1933 until he was toppled in 1973. Slavery was banned late in Afghanistan, but what the Taliban Tribes most strongly objected to was for women being allowed at universities, studying next to men. For wanting to educate women King Mohammad Zahir Shah had to flee his country. Today they are forced to completely cover themselves head to toe by a black tent.
Please look up Apartheid in a dictionary. It’s nothing to do with women or slavery or Islam or misogyny. It was white European racism codified in a segregationist legal system.
The concept of apartheid is not exclusive to the historical policy challenges faced by South Africa; rather, its implications and similar systemic issues have far larger reaches globally.
An excellent article Matt that is well-written and well-argued using historical evidence! This is the story of the OTHER Nakba, the one that almost no one talks about. The idea Israel is white settler colony is downright absurd. First off, the Jewish people are the indigenous people of the land of Eretz-Israel. They are no different from the Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Inuits, Aboriginal Australians, Torres Straight Islanders, Māoris, Ainu, Aleuts, and Saami. Second, Ashkenazi Jews are NOT white Europeans! Jews were never accepted by Europeans as part of their society. They were always seen as an alien other who could never really be part of mainstream European society. Furthermore, Ashkenazi Jews are descended from the Ancient Hebrews. Plus, there were 300,000 Jews still living in Israel when the first Arab settlers arrived.
Ashkenazi Jews are NOT white either! Some are light-skinned enough they can pass as white but they are technically not. This argument also ignores the majority of Israel’s population, Mizrahi Jews. Jews from the Middle East and North Africa. Don’t call them Arab Jews. That would be lumping them in with their colonizers. The Jews were colonial subjects of the Arabs NOT the other way around! Mizrahi Jews faced discrimination, persecution, pogroms, expulsions, and the theft of their property and assets. Many did not have the money or resources to go to America or Europe, so Israel was their only choice. Ashkenazi history is pretty well known. Mizrahi history is very much not. Did you know that Iraq was the second most important place in the Jewish faith behind Israel?
Did you Iraq’s Jewish population was there before the Arabs came? Did you know Jews and Arabs once lived together in Middle Eastern countries in relative peace at one time? Vibrant Jewish communities some dating back to ancient times, existed throughout the Arab and Islamic worlds in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Iran, and Yemen. But they were expelled or pressured into leaving by the government of their countries in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Did you also know that the Holocaust wasn’t just in Europe, it also extended into North Africa? Many Arabs gladly assisted the Afrika Korps and their SS and Italian allies in rounding up North African Jews and sending them to concentration camps. There was also the Free Arabian Legion of the Wehrmacht which consisted of Arab and black African volunteers who joined up because they saw the Nazis as anti-colonial liberators and shared their hatred for the Jews.
The Farhud in 1941 when Arabs rampaged through the Jewish community bringing death and destruction with them wherever they went, is also an important historical event that has been forgotten from Mizrahi history. This is the ethnic cleansing that no one tells you about. The Palestinians on the other hand, were not real victims of ethnic cleansing. Why did Palestinians flee their villages in 1948? For three main reasons. 1) They wanted to get themselves and their families out of the crossfire and to safety. 2) The Arab governments or Arab military commanders told them leave. 3) They were expelled by the IDF or fled in fear of living under Jewish rule after the Deir Yassin Massacre. On the third point, let’s explore that further. The IDF usually would allow any Arabs who remained in the area to stay as long as they put up no resistance or gave aid to the invading Arab armies.
It was only in situations where the local population put up resistance or helped the Arab forces that they were expelled. This by the way, was not ethnic cleansing, but a population exchange. Ethnic cleansing is when the partial or full destruction of a people is sought. A population exchange is when you separate two populations because they can’t coexist peacefully. This was most certainly the latter NOT the former. After the war, the 250,000 Arabs who remained inside the borders of the new Jewish state became citizens and received the right to vote and representation in the Knesset. The Palestinian refugees who fled during the war could not be allowed back for demographic and national security reasons. On the first point, had they been allowed back the state wouldn’t have been a majority Jewish state and the Jews would’ve been right back where they started before Israel existed, a persecuted minority. Second, they would be taking a massive hostile populace into their borders.
The Arab expulsion of Jews on the other hand, was definitely done because of that community’s religion and ethnicity and a desire to destroy this community. Mizrahi Jews deserve reparations from the countries that ethnically cleansed them. They also deserve an officially apology. The UN should have a special day in order to commemorate the ethnic cleansing of Mizrahi Jews from Arab lands as well. The Arab countries also owe reparations to another party as well, the Palestinians. The Palestinians would never have had to leave their homes and would have a state today if not for the bigotry of their own leaders and the actions of the Arab countries in invading Israel. Israel doesn’t owe the Palestinians a dime. But Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Yemen owe millions to Mizrahi Jews.
and unlike Israel which absorbed that mass of refugees... the Arab countries kept the Palestinian Arabs in squalor in camps without the possibility of studies or work in many professions... until today...
This is incredibly powerful. You take something that’s usually treated as an abstract argument and root it in lived reality, in place, in memory, in loss you can actually see. The opening alone reframes the entire conversation in a way that’s hard to ignore, and then you build from there with clarity and force without losing control of the tone.
What really stands out is how you expose the cost of simplifying the story. You don’t just argue against the “colonial” frame, you show what has to be erased for that frame to hold. That shift from debate to erasure is where this becomes compelling rather than just persuasive.
The historical grounding on Mizrahi Jews is especially strong. It’s precise, confident, and it quietly overturns assumptions without sounding defensive. Lines like “they were not arriving as colonizers; they were returning” land because you’ve done the work leading up to them.
This reads like something that will stick with people after they put it down.
This essay is beautifully put together, Matt, and makes compelling reading. It completely shoots in the foot the dishonest ideology that has been created with 'Palestine' and the Palestinians in mind. That so many are prepared to ignore the truth, ignore the history you give us here, is so palpably distressing and dangerous insofar as where it's leading, that currently I'm without a solution as to quite what to do about it. How to get people interested in truth again? In real justice? In honest intellectual exercise? I'm afraid the digital world is contributing and exacerbating all of this as so many succumb to the quick excitement of judging without research and contemplation. Then join the gang.
Matt, thank you for the well researched and concise history lesson. Because it does not fit with the false narrative of the “Nakhba”, the actual history is suppressed. I will share your essay in an effort to increase its visibility. I hope you submit it to mainstream newspapers for wider circulation.
The is a beautiful piece, unfortunately it relies on an increasingly common narrative that, while seeking to elucidate the ethnic cleansing of Mizrahi Jews from the Arabized word, unintentionally offers Ashkenazim up for sacrifice. When ppl point out that Israel is not a colonial state because “brown Jews” exists, this does not correct the bigger lie, it simply suggests that the slander doesn’t apply to ALL Israelis. It also subtly suggests that proximity to Arabs is some measure of Jewish authenticity. Never mind that there is just as much overlap in complexion btwn Arab Israelis and Jewish Israelis as there is btwn Jews from various diaspora groups. Nearly ALL jews around the world came to Israel as unarmed refugees and have been doing so since before the common era. Among the longest victims of European and the white supremacy are Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities and Jews displaced into Morocco or Iran are no more indigenous to Judea than Jews displaced into Italy or Latvia. All are indigenous to Israel and deserving of refuge. Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities spent centuries living as dhimmis under Islamic empires IN historic Israel and were among the disproportionate targets of pre state massacres by local Arabs. We must find a way to celebrate and highlight Mizrahi history without simply passing the lies and slander onto those who are not. The settler colonialism slander isn’t a lie because Mizrahim exist, it’s a lie across the board and seeks to whitewash the reasons behind the millenia of massacres and eventual industrial scale genocide Jews in Europe faced for not being accepted as European and returning to a place where Jews come from, have always remained and where many Ashkenazi and Sephardi (as well as some Yemenite) communities already existed. I am deeply grateful for the details on the many expulsions of Jews from Arabized countries, we simply must make sure the lie is corrected rather than side-stepped.
One of the great ironies of history: The mass persecutions, ethnic cleanings and genocides of Jews over the past few centuries are what made Israel the powerhouse it is today. Jew haters are too stupid to understand that they continue to make the case for a strong Jewish state better than any Zionist ever could.
On the one hand, it is every Jew’s responsibility to educate himself regarding the geographical and chronological details of each country’s expulsion of their Jewish populations throughout recorded history. That task is easier than memorizing math tables, liturgy, or the capitals of countries we are taught in grammar school.
On the other hand, those whose ears remain voluntarily closed will find their own “facts” to deny this truth. As it was, is now, and seemingly will always be. That makes no difference to me. I know what humans do to justify their views and actions. It remains all around me, as it always has.
What matters to me is that I know the truth of our history. That gives me the resolve to deal with whatever lies are voiced and written all around me. And I’ll deal with that ignorance in whatever manner I choose. For myself. Not for you, not for anyone else. And it’s up to everyone who calls himself a Jew to do the same, for his own dignity and in service of the truth.
No one will ever force me to pack a suitcase without suffering an inordinate consequence.
Matt, excellent article. You’re absolutely right that the colonial narrative conveniently erases Mizrahi Jews who were expelled from Arab countries because that history destroys the simplicity of their argument.
But even beyond that, why do we have to leave Israel to prove Jewish indigeneity? The archaeology is there. The history is there. The very word “Jew” comes from Judea. Jesus was Jewish. Jews were in that land long before Islam even existed.
Both sides may have had claims, which is why partition was proposed in the first place. One side accepted division. The other rejected it and chose war. And now people throw around words like “colonizer” while simply ignoring the facts that don’t fit their narrative.
Yeah! Exactly! How did 57 Nation States become Muslim? And what happened to thier non-muslim population 🤔, ah yeah! The violence of Shariah laws and its, forced conversations , Jizya tax system, murder of citizens who resisted Islam, mass expansion of all non-muslim and the looting of wealth owned non-muslims .. That's largely 🤔 how those 57 countries became Muslim.
So much untold Jewish history that too many people are afraid to acknowledge. Great article Matt. Thanks for informing me of our past footprint in history.
The story of the Jewish communities in each country is different (who knew there was a thriving synagogue in Teheran for Israel to bomb a few weeks ago?), but the fact that North Africa's's Jewish and Arab populations were predominantly Judaised and Arabised/Islamicised Berber (Amazigh) groups, the product of a combination of intermarriage and proselytisation and conversion, rather than the thoroughbred descendants of "immigrating Jews from Israel" and "invading Arab conquerors from the Arabian peninsula" rather undermines the simplistic thesis you present here of Mizrahi Jews being the "true inhabitants of Israel" who simply took a 2,500 year break.
Jews predated Islam. Close to a million Jews were expelled from MENA where they lived for centuries, Israel absorbed most. Diarna, Our Homes is a digital library of Jewish history and culture. Since 2010 some 3 thousand sites have been identified so far. Today, you cannot find Jews in this vast area, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and the other nations. The forced removal of Jews from the Arab and Muslim world is the true Apartheid.
Apartheid and forced removal are two completely different things. In fact they are almost opposites.
You cannot find Jews in this vast area, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and the other nations where they lived for centuries were forcibly removed, this is Apartheid. Islam represents the largest in human history imperialistic invasion, political, military and religious. The Islamic conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries were brutal military campaigns, ripped through Persia, the Levant, India and North Africa, Spain from about mid-7th century, a conquest lasting some 7 centuries. "The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise", Muslims, Christians and Jews under the Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain by Dario Fernández-Morera. Book based on archival records. Non-Muslims were not granted liberty and tolerance. Christians and Jews had to convert to Islam or pay a protection tax the jizya.
Non-Muslims were Dhimmi, subservient. Christians and Jews had to wear recognizable markings, for Jews it was a yellow belt and a pointy head. Later adapted by Nazism. Christian churches were turned into mosques, a standard feature of Muslim conquest.
Jews in their native land lived under occupation, in the early 1920s pogroms by Arabs against the Native Jews are on record in Jaffa, Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and across Palestine, Jews were killed with the most horrific massacres in Hebron, the medical officers reported mutilations of the dead.
I’ll correct you on your factual historical errors when I have spare hour or two.
Please save it with the history lessons (I have a degree in Arabic & Middle East history and am about to start a Masters), or at least get them right.
My comment was about Apartheid - an Afrikaner (Dutch) word used for the racial segregation system applied legally - effectively keeping the people in place but under a different set of laws. And a black person could never become a white person.
What you are talking about is expulsion, whether legal or simply social.
Apartheid. Afghanistan: slavery and the education of women. Mohammad Zahir Shah was the last king of Afghanistan, from 1933 until he was toppled in 1973. Slavery was banned late in Afghanistan, but what the Taliban Tribes most strongly objected to was for women being allowed at universities, studying next to men. For wanting to educate women King Mohammad Zahir Shah had to flee his country. Today they are forced to completely cover themselves head to toe by a black tent.
Please look up Apartheid in a dictionary. It’s nothing to do with women or slavery or Islam or misogyny. It was white European racism codified in a segregationist legal system.
The concept of apartheid is not exclusive to the historical policy challenges faced by South Africa; rather, its implications and similar systemic issues have far larger reaches globally.
Please stop.
An excellent article Matt that is well-written and well-argued using historical evidence! This is the story of the OTHER Nakba, the one that almost no one talks about. The idea Israel is white settler colony is downright absurd. First off, the Jewish people are the indigenous people of the land of Eretz-Israel. They are no different from the Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Inuits, Aboriginal Australians, Torres Straight Islanders, Māoris, Ainu, Aleuts, and Saami. Second, Ashkenazi Jews are NOT white Europeans! Jews were never accepted by Europeans as part of their society. They were always seen as an alien other who could never really be part of mainstream European society. Furthermore, Ashkenazi Jews are descended from the Ancient Hebrews. Plus, there were 300,000 Jews still living in Israel when the first Arab settlers arrived.
Ashkenazi Jews are NOT white either! Some are light-skinned enough they can pass as white but they are technically not. This argument also ignores the majority of Israel’s population, Mizrahi Jews. Jews from the Middle East and North Africa. Don’t call them Arab Jews. That would be lumping them in with their colonizers. The Jews were colonial subjects of the Arabs NOT the other way around! Mizrahi Jews faced discrimination, persecution, pogroms, expulsions, and the theft of their property and assets. Many did not have the money or resources to go to America or Europe, so Israel was their only choice. Ashkenazi history is pretty well known. Mizrahi history is very much not. Did you know that Iraq was the second most important place in the Jewish faith behind Israel?
Did you Iraq’s Jewish population was there before the Arabs came? Did you know Jews and Arabs once lived together in Middle Eastern countries in relative peace at one time? Vibrant Jewish communities some dating back to ancient times, existed throughout the Arab and Islamic worlds in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Iran, and Yemen. But they were expelled or pressured into leaving by the government of their countries in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Did you also know that the Holocaust wasn’t just in Europe, it also extended into North Africa? Many Arabs gladly assisted the Afrika Korps and their SS and Italian allies in rounding up North African Jews and sending them to concentration camps. There was also the Free Arabian Legion of the Wehrmacht which consisted of Arab and black African volunteers who joined up because they saw the Nazis as anti-colonial liberators and shared their hatred for the Jews.
The Farhud in 1941 when Arabs rampaged through the Jewish community bringing death and destruction with them wherever they went, is also an important historical event that has been forgotten from Mizrahi history. This is the ethnic cleansing that no one tells you about. The Palestinians on the other hand, were not real victims of ethnic cleansing. Why did Palestinians flee their villages in 1948? For three main reasons. 1) They wanted to get themselves and their families out of the crossfire and to safety. 2) The Arab governments or Arab military commanders told them leave. 3) They were expelled by the IDF or fled in fear of living under Jewish rule after the Deir Yassin Massacre. On the third point, let’s explore that further. The IDF usually would allow any Arabs who remained in the area to stay as long as they put up no resistance or gave aid to the invading Arab armies.
It was only in situations where the local population put up resistance or helped the Arab forces that they were expelled. This by the way, was not ethnic cleansing, but a population exchange. Ethnic cleansing is when the partial or full destruction of a people is sought. A population exchange is when you separate two populations because they can’t coexist peacefully. This was most certainly the latter NOT the former. After the war, the 250,000 Arabs who remained inside the borders of the new Jewish state became citizens and received the right to vote and representation in the Knesset. The Palestinian refugees who fled during the war could not be allowed back for demographic and national security reasons. On the first point, had they been allowed back the state wouldn’t have been a majority Jewish state and the Jews would’ve been right back where they started before Israel existed, a persecuted minority. Second, they would be taking a massive hostile populace into their borders.
The Arab expulsion of Jews on the other hand, was definitely done because of that community’s religion and ethnicity and a desire to destroy this community. Mizrahi Jews deserve reparations from the countries that ethnically cleansed them. They also deserve an officially apology. The UN should have a special day in order to commemorate the ethnic cleansing of Mizrahi Jews from Arab lands as well. The Arab countries also owe reparations to another party as well, the Palestinians. The Palestinians would never have had to leave their homes and would have a state today if not for the bigotry of their own leaders and the actions of the Arab countries in invading Israel. Israel doesn’t owe the Palestinians a dime. But Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Yemen owe millions to Mizrahi Jews.
and unlike Israel which absorbed that mass of refugees... the Arab countries kept the Palestinian Arabs in squalor in camps without the possibility of studies or work in many professions... until today...
This is incredibly powerful. You take something that’s usually treated as an abstract argument and root it in lived reality, in place, in memory, in loss you can actually see. The opening alone reframes the entire conversation in a way that’s hard to ignore, and then you build from there with clarity and force without losing control of the tone.
What really stands out is how you expose the cost of simplifying the story. You don’t just argue against the “colonial” frame, you show what has to be erased for that frame to hold. That shift from debate to erasure is where this becomes compelling rather than just persuasive.
The historical grounding on Mizrahi Jews is especially strong. It’s precise, confident, and it quietly overturns assumptions without sounding defensive. Lines like “they were not arriving as colonizers; they were returning” land because you’ve done the work leading up to them.
This reads like something that will stick with people after they put it down.
Thank you.
I’m grateful for your kind feedback.
Thank you for posting this data.
You forgot to mention the position that Haj Amin Al Husseini played in the extermination of the Jews in Europe and Iraq during the Farhud.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/02/07/the-nazi-roots-of-arab-antisemitism-must-not-be-denied/
This essay is beautifully put together, Matt, and makes compelling reading. It completely shoots in the foot the dishonest ideology that has been created with 'Palestine' and the Palestinians in mind. That so many are prepared to ignore the truth, ignore the history you give us here, is so palpably distressing and dangerous insofar as where it's leading, that currently I'm without a solution as to quite what to do about it. How to get people interested in truth again? In real justice? In honest intellectual exercise? I'm afraid the digital world is contributing and exacerbating all of this as so many succumb to the quick excitement of judging without research and contemplation. Then join the gang.
Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts.
Am Yisrael Chai!!!
Matt, thank you for the well researched and concise history lesson. Because it does not fit with the false narrative of the “Nakhba”, the actual history is suppressed. I will share your essay in an effort to increase its visibility. I hope you submit it to mainstream newspapers for wider circulation.
Thank you for your kind words.
The is a beautiful piece, unfortunately it relies on an increasingly common narrative that, while seeking to elucidate the ethnic cleansing of Mizrahi Jews from the Arabized word, unintentionally offers Ashkenazim up for sacrifice. When ppl point out that Israel is not a colonial state because “brown Jews” exists, this does not correct the bigger lie, it simply suggests that the slander doesn’t apply to ALL Israelis. It also subtly suggests that proximity to Arabs is some measure of Jewish authenticity. Never mind that there is just as much overlap in complexion btwn Arab Israelis and Jewish Israelis as there is btwn Jews from various diaspora groups. Nearly ALL jews around the world came to Israel as unarmed refugees and have been doing so since before the common era. Among the longest victims of European and the white supremacy are Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities and Jews displaced into Morocco or Iran are no more indigenous to Judea than Jews displaced into Italy or Latvia. All are indigenous to Israel and deserving of refuge. Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities spent centuries living as dhimmis under Islamic empires IN historic Israel and were among the disproportionate targets of pre state massacres by local Arabs. We must find a way to celebrate and highlight Mizrahi history without simply passing the lies and slander onto those who are not. The settler colonialism slander isn’t a lie because Mizrahim exist, it’s a lie across the board and seeks to whitewash the reasons behind the millenia of massacres and eventual industrial scale genocide Jews in Europe faced for not being accepted as European and returning to a place where Jews come from, have always remained and where many Ashkenazi and Sephardi (as well as some Yemenite) communities already existed. I am deeply grateful for the details on the many expulsions of Jews from Arabized countries, we simply must make sure the lie is corrected rather than side-stepped.
One of the great ironies of history: The mass persecutions, ethnic cleanings and genocides of Jews over the past few centuries are what made Israel the powerhouse it is today. Jew haters are too stupid to understand that they continue to make the case for a strong Jewish state better than any Zionist ever could.
On the one hand, it is every Jew’s responsibility to educate himself regarding the geographical and chronological details of each country’s expulsion of their Jewish populations throughout recorded history. That task is easier than memorizing math tables, liturgy, or the capitals of countries we are taught in grammar school.
On the other hand, those whose ears remain voluntarily closed will find their own “facts” to deny this truth. As it was, is now, and seemingly will always be. That makes no difference to me. I know what humans do to justify their views and actions. It remains all around me, as it always has.
What matters to me is that I know the truth of our history. That gives me the resolve to deal with whatever lies are voiced and written all around me. And I’ll deal with that ignorance in whatever manner I choose. For myself. Not for you, not for anyone else. And it’s up to everyone who calls himself a Jew to do the same, for his own dignity and in service of the truth.
No one will ever force me to pack a suitcase without suffering an inordinate consequence.
Thank you for an excellent column.
Matt, excellent article. You’re absolutely right that the colonial narrative conveniently erases Mizrahi Jews who were expelled from Arab countries because that history destroys the simplicity of their argument.
But even beyond that, why do we have to leave Israel to prove Jewish indigeneity? The archaeology is there. The history is there. The very word “Jew” comes from Judea. Jesus was Jewish. Jews were in that land long before Islam even existed.
Both sides may have had claims, which is why partition was proposed in the first place. One side accepted division. The other rejected it and chose war. And now people throw around words like “colonizer” while simply ignoring the facts that don’t fit their narrative.
Excellent article thank you.
Yeah! Exactly! How did 57 Nation States become Muslim? And what happened to thier non-muslim population 🤔, ah yeah! The violence of Shariah laws and its, forced conversations , Jizya tax system, murder of citizens who resisted Islam, mass expansion of all non-muslim and the looting of wealth owned non-muslims .. That's largely 🤔 how those 57 countries became Muslim.
So much untold Jewish history that too many people are afraid to acknowledge. Great article Matt. Thanks for informing me of our past footprint in history.
Thanks for reading!
Great historical summary! Didn’t know all of this, only a little.
The story of the Jewish communities in each country is different (who knew there was a thriving synagogue in Teheran for Israel to bomb a few weeks ago?), but the fact that North Africa's's Jewish and Arab populations were predominantly Judaised and Arabised/Islamicised Berber (Amazigh) groups, the product of a combination of intermarriage and proselytisation and conversion, rather than the thoroughbred descendants of "immigrating Jews from Israel" and "invading Arab conquerors from the Arabian peninsula" rather undermines the simplistic thesis you present here of Mizrahi Jews being the "true inhabitants of Israel" who simply took a 2,500 year break.