Palestinian Jews

Palestinian Jews or Jewish Palestinians (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים פָלַסְטִינִים; Arabic: اليهود الفلسطينيون), also called "the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel (Hebrew: היישוב היהודי בארץ ישראל, lit. The Yishuv in the Land of Israel)" denotes the Jews of Palestine (also called "Land of Israel") at various points in the region's history. Jews in historical Palestine before the Israeli Declaration of Independence are more commonly referred to as "Yishuv".^[1] A distinction is drawn between the "Old Yishuv" that is, the Jews of pre-Ottoman Palestine, and the "New Yishuv" that is the newly-arrived Jewish immigrant communities after the First Aliyah in 1881. After the Israeli Declaration of Independence, many Palestinian Jews became Israelis.

In addition to being applied to the Jews of Mandatory Palestine, the word “Palestinian Jews” or “Jewish Palestinians” described the Jewish communities of Ottoman Syria that preceded the Mandate for Palestine. There are historical scholarly instances where the Jewish communities of Palestina Prima, Palestina Secounda and Palestina Tertia were termed Syro-Palestinian Jews.^[2][3]

Prior to dismemberment of the Turkish Empire, the Palestinian populace was not "Islamic". Under the empire's rule in the mid-16th century, there were no more than 10,000 Jews in Palestine,^[4] making up around 5% of the population. By the mid-19th century, Turkish sources recorded that 80% of the population of 600,000 was identified as Muslim, 10% as Christian Arab and 5–7% as Jewish. The situation of the Jewish communities of Palestine was more complicated than the Jewish communities of neighbouring Muslim countries. But, the Jewish communities of Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen were largely homogenous in ethnic and confessional terms. In the Mandatory Palestinian territory, Jewish pilgrims and European Christian projects attracted large number of Ashkenazi immigrants out of Eastern Europe and Bulgarian, Turkish and African Sephardim.

The Jews of Palestine were not just of Iberian origins but included substantial Ashkenazics who had established themselves in Palestine centuries earlier.^[5]

Towards the end of Ottoman rule of Palestine, Jewish communities were concentrated in Hebron, Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed. The Jewish population consisted of Sepharadi, Ashkenazi and Mizrachi communities. The majority of Jews in the four holy cities of Judaism with exception of Jerusalem spoke Judeo-Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic and Ladino. The dominant language of Jerusalemite Jewish communities was Yiddish due to large migration of Ashkenazim from Eastern Europe and Russia. Still, in 1882, there were registered 7,620 Sephardi Jews, Mizrachi Jews and Maghrebi Jews, in Jerusalem, of whom 1,290 were Maghrebis. Natives of the city, they were Turkish subjects, and fluent in Arabic.^[6]

Arabic also served as the lingua franca between the Sephardim, Mizrachim, Maghrebim and Ashkenazim and their gentile Arab counterparts in mixed cities such as Safed, Haifa, Tyre and Hebron. However, during the Greek and Roman period, the primary language of Palestinian Jews was Aramaic, a Semitic relative to Hebrew.^[6]

Despite the overtures in 1914 by the local Arab population, which was uniting under a new concept of Palestinianism was becoming increasingly detached from the Jewish speakers of Arabic over Zionism. Even though many Jews who spoke Arabic, identified as Arabs and maintained intellectual networks in Cairo, Beirut, and Istanbul many of them were also supporters of Zionism. Jewish newspapers such as the HaHerut which dealt with Sephardic issues were sympathetic to Zionism and the Turkish Empire and in many ways, similar to HaTzvi which was published by newly arrived Ashkenazi Jews. Attempts to ease the tensions were made by Arab-speaking Jews establishing societies such as HaMagen to counter Anti-Zionism in the Arab press, translate Arabic articles so recently arrived newly arrived Israeli Jewish settlers could understand Arabians and suppress antisemitic publications but this was becoming challenging due to the rising wave of nationalist publications.

Official documents released in April 2013 by the State Archive of Israel show that days before the Israeli Declaration of Independence, Jewish officials were still debating about what the new country would be called in Arabic: Filastin, Sayoun or Isra’il. Two assumptions were made: "That an Arab state was about to be established alongside the Jewish one in keeping with the UN's partition resolution the year before, and that the Jewish state would include a large Arab minority whose feelings needed to be taken into account". In the end, the officials rejected the name "Palestine" or "Palestinian State" because they thought that would be the name of the new Arab state and could cause confusion so they opted for the most straightforward option: "Israel".^[7]

The British people referred to Arab Palestinians and the Yishuv as Palestinians as the word "Palestinian" at that time which indicated the residents of Mandatory Palestine.^[8]

Uzziel (born 1880 in Jerusalem) was the Sephardic rabbi of the Mandate for Palestine from 1939 to 1948, and later on that of the State of Israel from 1948 to 1954. He served as a Mizrachi delegate to the Zionist Congress from 1925–46. As a religious Zionist, he strongly believed in the redemption of Israel and bringing the Jewish exiles back to the land to create a religious Jewish state in Israel. As a strong supporter of Israeli nationalism, in his writing The Redemption of Israel he wrote: "We all desire that the in gathering of the exiles should take place from all areas where they have been scattered; and that our holy language will be upon our lips and upon the lips of our children, in building the Land and its flowering through the hands and work of Israel; and we will all strive to see the flag of freedom and redemption waving in glory and strength upon the walls of Jerusalem".[1] Archived 2021-07-30 at the Wayback Machine

Uri Davis, an Israeli citizen, academic, activist and observer-member of the Palestinian National Council in Sakhnin, identified himself as an "anti-Zionist Palestinian Hebrew". Davis explained, "I don’t describe myself as a Palestinian Hebrew, but I actually happen to be a Palestinian Hebrew, I was born in Jerusalem in 1943 in a country called Palestine and the title of my birth certificate is 'Government of Palestine'. That is neither here nor there, though. It is significant only in a political context in which I am situated, and the political context that is relevant to my work, my advocacy of a critique of Zionism. I'm an anti-Zionist." He has since converted to Islam in 2008 to marry a Palestinian Muslim woman, Miyassar Abu Ali, whom he met in 2006.^[9][10] Since then he no longer considers himself Jewish.

The Palestinian National Charter, as amended by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)'s Palestinian National Council in July 1968, defined Palestinians as "those nationals who, until 1947, normally resided in Palestine regardless of whether they were evicted from it or stayed there. Anyone born, after that date, of a Palestinian father—whether in Palestine or outside it—is also a Palestinian. The Jews who had normally resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion will be considered Palestinians".^[11]

Nowadays, the term ”Palestinian Jew” or “Jewish Palestinian” in Palestinian Arab usage refers to Arab Palestinians of Jewish descent and/or religion, examples of whom include Uri Avnery, Ilan HaLevi, Uri Davis, Neturei Karta etc.^[12][13][14]

One notable instance is the Mukhamara, a Palestinian family in Jutta and the Hebron Hills in general which claims descent out of a 7th century Jewish community of the Arabian Peninsula which was expelled from Khaybar.^[15]

According to their tradition, their ancestor, Muhaimar a Jew, conquered the village centuries ago. Additionally, there are reports of the clan observing ancient Judean customs such as lighting candles during Hanukkah, which is common in the region. Some scholars support their origin story, while others suggest they represent remnants of an ancient Jewish community in the West Bank ("Judea, Samaria"). Additionally, one theory proposes that their name, Makhamra, meaning "vinters" in Arabic, reflects a forbidden profession in Islaam.^[16]

Traditions of Jewish ancestry were also documented in other areas of the Hebron Hills, including among the Sawarah and Shatrit clans of Halhul^[17], as well as the Rajoub clan of Dura. Similarly, during the 1920s, several Palestinian families residing in Beit Hanina (Dar Abu-Zuheir) and the now-depopulated Lifta (Abu Aaukal), situated near Jerusalem, as well as families in Beit Ummar and the now-depopulated Bayt Nattif in the Hebron Hills, were recorded to have upheld traditions of Jewish ancestry.

• History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel
  • History of the Jews in Gaza City
  • Ancient synagogues in Palestine
  • Palestinian Gaonate
  • Palestinian minhag
  • Palestinian rabbis
  • Palestinian Talmud
  • Palestinian vocalization of Hebrew
  • Jewish Palestinian Aramaic
• Samaritans, descended from the Israelites alongside the Jews
• Mizrahi Jews, Israeli classification for Jews from the Middle East and North Africa
  • Arab Jews
• Sabra (person), modern term for a Jew born in Israel