'Palestinian' DNA: From Fellahin To Fedayeen

I have been writing and speaking recently about the lie of the indigenous Palestinian.

Truth be told, a vast number of Arabs, who chose to attach the nom-de-guerre “Palestinian” to their identity, migrated into the area of pre-state Palestine from other countries attracted by the development of the land by the Jews, a development that began under Ottoman rule and exploded when the British deposed the Ottoman Turks.

Under British control from the 1920s to 1948, when people wanted to travel in the British-controlled area, they received a Palestinian passport.

Following a harrowing history of European, Arab, and Islamic persecution, Jews were attracted by biblical roots and by the developing events to pre-state Palestine, later Israel.

But the Arabs. Are they indigenous to the area, as they claim? Or, instead, did they migrate into the area, and why?

I claim that the majority of those who call themselves indigenous “Palestinians” are, in fact, Arabs who migrated into pre-state Israel, attracted by the Jewish development of the land and the protection afforded them by the British control over pre-state Palestine. And one test to discover if the local Arab has claims to an ancient indigenous history is rooted in the Arab family names.

But first, let’s dig into the British archives of the time. What did they have to say about migrants and immigrants?

I recently came across this from British records.

The British Governor of the Sinai (which is now Egpyt) from 1922 to 1936 wrote; “This (Arab) illegal immigration was not only going on from the Sinai, but also from TransJordan and Syria, and it is very difficult to make a case out of the misery of the Arabs if at the same time rheir compatriots from adjoininig states could not be kept from entering to share that misery.”

It would be wrong to call such Arab immigrants as indigenous, deeply-rooted Palestinians.

In the 30’s, the British began restricting, even deporting, Jews, even though the Hope Simpson contradictory Report of 1930 wrote, wrongly, that Arabs were being “displaced” by Jews even though its own report revealed that there was an “uncontrolled influx of illegal Arab immigration through Egypt, Transjordan and Syria.”

This report also concludes that “the case of the pseudo-traveller (Arabs) who come in with permission for a limited time, then continue to Palestine...is a method that is an “injustice” to the Jews.

The Simpson Report begged the question, “If large-scale Arab immigration was a recognised ‘practice’, how could official reports justify a conclusion that only the Jewish population was increasing through immigration and even forcing out Arabs?”

If Arabs were also coming in from other places, then might their increase be attributed to this and not to the natural increase of present natives but mainly by immigration?

Truth be told, the land being developed by the Jews was being misappropriated by the Arabs. We see a modern version of this in the Negev, in which the Bedouin were allowed to drift into the area, pitched their tents, and settle there illegally for decades.

The evidence of my case that Arabs, who now call themselves “Palestinians,” actually migrated into the area attracted by Jewish development linked to a British governance, is in their family names. Examples include;

al-Masri from Egypt.
al-Baghdadi, Zubeidi, al-Tikriti from Iraq.
al-Hijazi and al-Saud from Saudi Arabia.
al-Yamani and Murad from Yemen.
al-Hourani and Alawi from Syria.
al-Mughrabi from Morocco.
al-Lubnani and Tarabulsi from Lebanon.

There are many more examples. Suffice to say that Yasser Arafat was born in Egypt.

The Arab town of Shechem or Nablus, home of the Arab billionaire Munib al-Masri (see above listing) is not an Arab name.

Shechem dates back to the Bible and Mount Gerazim, where Munib al-Masri built his elaborate Italian-style palace, which he calls “House of Palestine,” hovers over this town. Shechem was renamed by the Romans as Nablus in an effort to denude its Jewish origin, just as al-Masri is trying to do today. Try as he may, al-Masri lives in a Jewish-named town.

So let’s expose this basic lie and claim that Palestinians are not indigenous to the land. They may have connections to the Philistines, who were, in biblical times, invaders.

Truth be told, the Arabs went in just over a century from being migrant Arab fellahin to Palestinian fedayeen occupying Jewish land and attempting to claim it all for themselves.

Barry Shaw is a Senior Associate, Israel Institute for Strategic Studies, and author of books including Israel Reclaiming the Narrative. Fighting Hamas, BDS, and Anti-Semitism. BDS for Idiots. 1917 From Palestine to the Land of Israel. A Tale of Love and Destiny. His newsletter is available at Substack.