One of the largest claims that the Jewish people have to the land of Israel is the ancestral line of most Jews that leads back to the very same place, Israel. On a personal note, I would argue that the creation of a Jewish state, military and thriving economy despite the adversity and enemies Jews have faced, should be the only factor Zionists need for claiming Israel.
However, noticing that inhabiting and developing a strip of land is not seen as a just claim specifically for the land of Israel, I would like to go down the other route of ancestral lineage. Thankfully, Israel is a land filled with ancient ruins and archeological digs, burial sites being among the most abundant of them. The theory that is being conveyed in this piece focuses on not only how well-established the Jewish ancestral claim is, but how archeology and history disprove any “Palestinian” ancestral claim modern public figures have used.
Jews are from Judea‼️ With a 3000 year plus deep connection to our indigenous land (Canaan/Yisrael/Judea/Palestine/Israel) corroborated by history, science (genetics) and of course, ARCHEOLOGY 🇮🇱 #INDIGENOUS #Israel https://t.co/dlut0vDFjR
— Micha Danzig (@DanzigMD) September 13, 2022
In order to quickly establish a Jewish presence that is over 3000 years old in the Southern Levant, The tombs of Benei Hezir (sons of Hezir in Hebrew) are a perfect and easy location to start with. The site dates back to the 2nd century BC, that is 2,200 years ago, and according to all that is currently known served as the burial site of a specific Jewish family named 'Hezir.'
According to the records, the Hezir family was a wealthy Jerusalem family that served as high priests during the Second Temple period. The tomb is literally carved into the side of a mountain just outside the walls of the ancient old city of Jerusalem and went through multiple stages of construction and growth based on the family’s needs and descendants of the originally buried. So it is not simply the written records that can confirm the existence of these Jews, thousands of years ago, it is carbon dating and geological surveys which confirm it. Can any 'Palestinian' show the same?
It is written that the Christian apostle James hid from the Romans inside the Benei Hezir complex and was even buried there upon his death in the year 62 AD, which is why it is also known by its Christian name “Saint James' Tomb”. The tomb contains a Hebrew written inscription that can easily be read by any modern Hebrew speaker that says the following: “This is the grave and the burial monument of Eliezer Hania Yoazar Yehuda Shimon Yochanan sons of Yosef son of Oved Yosef and Elazar sons of Hania, priests of the Hezir family.”
(Matthew 2:1-2)
— GodsEndlessCare ✝️ (@GodsEndlessCare) September 13, 2022
1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. pic.twitter.com/L8hEoQuo2v
The reason for Benei Hezir being such a perfect example of the Jewish ancestral claim is due to the hundreds of years worth of generations buried there. Centuries worth of Jewish history lies in this one tomb, which is older than both religions practiced by Palestinians (Christianity and Islam), and of course, older than the actual term “Palestine” that was coined by Roman rulers in order to shame and supress Jewish residents.
The Benei Hezir site is only one of thousands of different graves with a similar story. All throughout The State of Israel, ancient tombs with Hebrew letters can be found, many of them ironically inside modern-day Arab villages.
Genome studies of skeletons throughout the Southern Levant have proven a similar lineage for virtually all DNA found throughout the Bronze and Iron ages. The studies are not exclusive to Jewish tombs, since researchers have little interest in that, but simply all graves in the general region that can be classified as the ancient land of Canaan. The DNA found plays a huge part in the Semite gene that most born Jews (and others) in the world carry today. In other words, genetic studies of these various burial sites are aligned with the Jewish narrative of being native to Israel as well as confirming that Jews are part of a race of people, not simply a religion.
Take a look at these cold hard facts. Arab population has INCREASED nearly TEN-FOLD in Israel since 1948.Yet,Ironically JEWISH population in the Arab countries has DECREASED by nearly TEN-FOLD since 1948. So, who are the real ethnic cleansers53 Muslim majority countries 1 Jewish! pic.twitter.com/AC9yhqwiQx
— proud_zionist_natalie 🇬🇧❤🇮🇱 (@luxurysassy) September 4, 2022
Now that the never-ending topic of Jewish ancestral claim to Israel has been firmly established, the Palestinian ancestral claim should be tackled. According to those who are considered Palestinian scholars, the people of Palestine are older than Islam and Christianity, going back to the Philistine people of the southern shores of modern Israel and Gaza. Essentially the narrative built in this case goes to affirm what the Roman conquerors of Judea wanted to accomplish. Initially, the land at the time of the Romans, and even under the Roman provincial rule, was called Judea, just as the locals had called their lands.
However, it was later changed to Syria-Palaestina, named after the northern part of the province, Syria, and also an ancient sea raiding people called philistines whose DNA is aligned to the Greek Aegean region and not the Levant. The Romans used the term associated with the Philistines to mock the rebellious Jews who historically were threatened by the sea raiders. In short, modern Palestinian scholars base their existence on an extinct people they have zero genetic relationships to, that according to all written accounts, were not native to the land, to begin with, but were invaders of the shores leading to the Israelite kingdoms, hilariously ironic!
To scientifically solidify the point in the previous paragraph, I will use the same study that was used to solidify Jewish genes in Canaan’s graves from a very elaborate report that can be found here: The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant - ScienceDirect.
As part of decades worth of archaeological and genetic testing, the report concluded that “one of the two Iron Age populations in the Philistine coastal city of Ashkelon (ASH_IA1) showed evidence of mobility of populations related to southern Europe around the Bronze Age to Iron Age transition.” Genetic testings from the burial sites of these sea raiders conclude they are of largely South-Eastern European decent.
To seal the deal, genome studies on early Muslim graves (Source: Bioarchaeological evidence of one of the earliest Islamic burials in the Levant | Communications Biology ) in Israel resulted in the finding of genes either similar to the ancient Canaanite graves (Semitic genes), or genes similar to modern-day Saudis likely part of the Muslim armies from the east who conquered the land. The meaning behind this is that the early Islamic graves either belonged to Semites, Jews among them, forced into Islam by the conquerors, or the conquerors themselves.
Jews are indigenous to Judaea; Palestinians are indigenous to Hejaz, Syria and Egypt.. Palestinians even stole their name from foreign settler colonials, the Philistines, ethnic Greeks. pic.twitter.com/5Z9Mt8FJsS
— PrometheusRex (@rex_prometheus) September 9, 2022
Jews are not only native to the land of Israel but are historically pushed out of the larger picture in the lands of Israel, while Palestinian heritage at best can claim to be of former Israelite decent. Back to a first personal note, all of this genetic and archaeological alignment is of little value to me as it is to most who live here, the real claim zionists worldwide have would be the modern state of Israel, the miraculous transformation from a barren, void land to an agricultural oasis in an unforgiving desert that only happened once the Jews returned, to me that is as real as it gets and we are not going anywhere.
