In my article yesterday about the book “The invention of the Jews”, I concluded with the first few verses of the poem written by Poet Mahmoud Darwish which the book's author Shlomo Sand mentions; before I carry on with my review and criticism, I want to write down a few more verses from that poem, which an entire generation of Palestinians knew by heart: Write down! I am an Arab Employed with fellow workers at a quarry I have eight children I get them bread Garments and books From the rocks… I do not supplicate charity at your doors Nor do I belittle myself at the footsteps of your chamber So will you be angry? And the end of the poem: Write down on the top of the first page: I do not hate people Nor do I encroach But if I become hungry The usurper's flesh will be my food Beware… Beware… Of my hunger And my anger! Shlomo Sand mentioned the poem “Write Down I am an Arab” in the beginning of this book. In the last chapter, the author tackles the issue of identity politics and says that the 1948 Declaration of Independence states that the state of Israel will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants and that it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel. However, the Knesset's Basic Law issued in 1985 prohibits the candidature of anyone who negates the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, and secondly, anyone who negates the democratic character of the state and thirdly, anyone who engages in incitement to racism. Sand then says that the Jews who live in Western democracies cannot tolerate the discrimination and exclusion that is being practiced against Palestinian Jews (the Palestinians of 1948), and adds that establishing a state on an ethnic basis is an obstacle to its democratic evolution. He believes, therefore, that what unites the Jews is their religion, not their ethnicity. This is especially valid given the information I mentioned yesterday regarding the book's analysis, that the Jews were not expelled in the year 70 AD, did not disperse into a Diaspora to return two thousand years later; rather, they remained [in Palestine] without ever becoming a dominant majority. Then there are also the Khazari Jews and their origins in the Caucasus, of whom the Eastern and Central European Jews descend. The book “The Invention of the Jews” shares a lot of information and conclusions with another book, “The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts” – written by Israel Finkelstein, an Israeli archaeologist, and Neil Asher Silberman, a contributing editor for Archaeology Magazine. Very briefly, both books maintain that archaeological findings do not prove the biblical account, and that there is nothing in Jerusalem that demonstrates the history of the kingdoms of [ancient] Israel, so perhaps the latter was a small village in some other place, if it existed at all. I will personally add something here in response to some extremist Likudnik websites that frequently publish anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim materials, especially against God's Prophet [Mohammad]. I argue thus that disproving the biblical historical narrative exonerates the Jews from the stigma of their Prophets as they were described in the books of the Torah. For instance, there is Joshua who enters Palestine and practices genocide, and David who sent an officer from his army to be killed at the front after having slept with his wife, with David's fear that she might have become with child as a result, and then there is Solomon who became preoccupied with concubines and women. Even if we were to return to ancient times, there is Noah, who was chosen by the Jewish god to survive the flood; Genesis mentions that his son Ham saw his father's nakedness when he was drunk and fell, and that the latter became angry with Ham, the father of the Canaanites, and cast a curse on him and his descendents to become slaves for Ham's brother for a crime that he – Noah – committed. As for Lot, the best man among the people of Sodom, he offered his two daughters to the city's inhabitants to do whatever they wanted with them, when the inhabitants asked him to give them the two angels whom God sent to warn Lot, and tell him that the Jewish god will destroy the city. We also read that Lot survived and fled to the mountain, and slept with his two daughters after they got him drunk and after he became completely unconscious. The above is only a drop in the sea of biblical stories, and I would not have mentioned any of them had it not been for the ongoing campaigns against Islam and Muslims. Going back to the book “The Invention of the Jews”, the book is the last in a series of books written by Israel archaeologists, experts, and academics who found that there is no proof in history and archeology of any of these known biblical myths, whether in Egypt, Sinai or the land of Canaan. In fact, these Israeli scientists find it likely that the ancient Jews had Canaanite, Philistine, or Khazari origins. Today, the current Knesset is the most extremist for decades, and has passed a number of racist laws regarding the Jewish identity of the state, and the prevention of the Palestinians, the country's native inhabitants, and 20 percent of the population, from remembering the Nakbah [the catastrophe]. When the foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, an immigrant from Moldova, spoke about transfer, our brother Dr. Ahmad Al-Tibi told him in the Knesset session, whoever arrived last, leaves first. This is what we all believe. [email protected]
