Do all born Jewish ppl originate from Palestine? Cause i heard some ppl in the pro Palestine movement, reject the idea that European jews originate from there. Sorry if it's a stupid question I'm still learning i don't wanna offend anyone.
Judaism originates in Palestine. And since it's an ethnoreligion where you're either born into it or you jump through hoops to be adopted into it through our process of conversion, we maintained some genetic elements of that. Like genetic ties to the Canaanites, for example, which is something we have in common with Palestinians and other groups from here. For us it's... not as pronounced? Because of a couple of millennia in diaspora. Like, you'll be able to see in European Jews mostly genetics from around Europe, and then secondary to that, from the Levant. You could argue that it's so old that it doesn't matter anymore, Jews should see whatever countries they're in as their homes. I don't know that I'm very invested in that argument, beyond having a lot of love for diaspora cultures, because the answer to this doesn't change much for me materially. That's not the issue in my eyes, you know? The issue is weaponizing things like that to justify violence against Palestinian people and land.
What you might have seen, or what I think they probably tried to express, is opposition to the idea that we're indigenous to Palestine. Which, I talked about before. There are two possible definitions for indigeniety. One, we originated here. Second, the political situation in the relationship between colonizer and colonized - where the colonized is the indigenous population. The first can apply to us, and they use that to argue that the second isn't applicable to the situation. Because, in practice, in action, we are colonizers. We came here, conquered, killed, expelled, destroyed, we occupy, and we're still expanding all across the West Bank in pockets of settlements to make sure to steal as much Palestinian land as possible. Indigenous people around the world see themselves in the Palestinian struggle, for a reason. Historical colonizing forces are our biggest supporters, for a reason. Early Zionists relied on the British, an occupying force, for a headstart against the natives. If you study the history of Israel and the history of other colonialist projects around the world, you will see Israel repeating their patterns. Because that's what Israel is. It doesn't matter where we say we come from and how far back we trace it to, once we act as a colonizing force that's what we are, because that's the reality we're creating for Palestinian people to live through.
But if you say we're indigenous, using whatever history or genetics or cultural argument you want to make, you paint over that picture. It's no longer colonizer against colonized, it's a "conflict" between equally legitimate groups with equal claims to the land.
So, I just want to make it clear, when I say "we originated here" that's not what I'm talking about at all.
