The Jerusalem Post reports that, according to research done by an Israeli historian, Tsvi Misinai, nearly 90 percent of all Palestinians are descended from the Jews.
"And what's more, about half of them know it," Misinai says.
Contrary to the common belief that Palestinians are a "motley collection of Arabs from various parts of the Middle East," Misinai says that most of today's Palestinians come from remnants of Jewish families who either staved off deportation by the Romans or returned to their homeland after exile. Many of the Jews, however, were forced out of fear to convert to Islam, and many remain publicly so today.
Many Palestinians retain Jewish customs from their partly Jewish heritage, which include "mourning rituals, lighting Shabbat or memorial candles and even wearing tefillin," a pair of leather boxes containing Holy Scripture. Furthermore, according to the studies cited in his book, "Brother Shall Not Lift Sword Against Brother," "Palestinians are genetically much closer to Ashkenazi Jews than they are to the Arabs."
Misinai, a hi-tech entrepreneur turned Israeli historian, is far from the first to know this secret.
The first prime minister of Israeli, David Ben-Gurion, wrote extensively on the subject, according to the Jerusalem Post. In fact, Ben-Gurion actually set up a task force to develop ways to "Judaize" the Arabs by teaching them about modern Jewish life and tradition to integrate them with the Israelis. In the end, Ben-Gurion feared that the idea would upset "the Islamic world," and the program was cancelled.
If so many Palestinians know of their Jewish heritage, why don't they "come out of the Jewish closet"? One reason, says Misinai, is the fear of the "bullying elements in Palestinian and Arab leadership."
In addition to publishing a book, Misinai is enlisting an increasing number of Israelis and Palestinians, including some unlikely supporters, from a Fatah official to the secretary of the Sanhedrin, a council of 200 rabbis. However, the political implications of the shared heritage is complicated.
Although Dov Stein, secretary of the Sanhedrin, supports Misinai's theory, he rules out accepting professing Muslims into the country because that would violate the Jewish people's covenant with God, established according to the Torah.
"It's obvious that we want [the Muslims] back, but also obvious, not at any price," he says. "If the price should be that they see themselves as Muslims, we won't receive them. And they remain enemies. They have to give up Islam."
He adds that the reason why the country belongs to the Jews is because "we hold the Torah - if not, we don't have the right to the country. That's why we can't receive [professing Muslims], even a Jew who is not believing, it will be a disaster."
Now Misinai has gathered a group of Arabs and Israelis to spread the word, grassroots-style. But the work of re-identification will be long and hard, and not without risk.
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How is fear of the Arab conquerors in the seventh and eighth centuries relevant today? Have these people been scared to be publicly Jewish for over a millennium? And as per his statement about not letting them into Israel, would this guy prefer that all the secular Jews leave Israel as well? The Jewish state is tenuous enough as it is.