Last week, I spent the most wonderful three days in Vancouver – who knew! Many where I live on the East Coast travel more to Toronto or Montreal if choosing Canada as a travel destination.
Points of interest included a food tour in Gastown, Granville Island to see the public market and artisans, Stanley Park with its meaningful totem poles and scenic seawall, dinner in Yaletown, and on our last day there, we visited the Museum of Anthropology followed by lunch near the gorgeous beach in Kitsilano.
Not a keffiyeh in sight despite being a very liberal city.
I learned a great deal about the First Nations tribes at the Museum of Anthropology; however, they will be receiving an email from me shortly. The primary focus of the museum is centered around the diverse First Nations, but secondary, they feature an extensive and very educational exhibit displaying cultures from Korean to Island Pacific, to African cultures and even Greek, and Cypriot. Each exhibit spotlighted indigenous artifacts, and customs explained in thorough detail.
Why are Jews missing?
Jews are more indigenous to Israel (Jews emerged from the pagan Semitic tribes in the Hill Country, Judea & Samaria, of Canaan) than the First Nations or Native Americans are to North America.
It most likely is the chicken or the egg scenario— Jews who don’t know our actual history lie that we ‘came to Israel’ or that there are White Jews and Brown Jews. Jews are a race and are not racially White nor racially Black nor racially Arab. Skin color is not race, and fun fact: white skin actually originated in the Middle East, as did blue eyes. Every other race has different skin tones. Jews are no different, but no other race confuses who they are and are united in their knowledge of their actual history to the outside world.
Jews have spent Diaspora years in other nations where it was not even legal to marry Jews until the 20th century (Amazighs were only exception and why we do have Amazigh Jews). And Judean males did marry Han Chinese women resulting in Kaifeng Jews, but today, their offspring married within the Han race and erased any traces of Judean genetics.
So when Jews are not leading with our indigenous history, is it a wonder why we are called colonizers and occupiers and land stealers of Arab occupiers? Arab occupiers who didn’t even step foot in Israel until the 7th century AD, and who majority didn’t come, uninvited by any Jews, until between the World Wars.
I look forward to educating the Museum of Anthropology on actual Judean history in the hopes that perhaps one day, Jews too will have a rightful indigenous-focused exhibit at that storied institution.
Judean Pride History Fact: The Muslim invasion of Spain and Portugal was pushed by Jews who were wanting retribution for the antisemitic Christians’ 1st Inquisition against Jews in the 4th – 6th century in Sepharad. The initial campaign was largely led by Amazighs or ‘Berbers’ who had recently converted (by force) to Islam; only some Arabs joined in the conquest. For centuries prior to the Arabization of the Maghreb, Jews and Amazighs lived peacefully with one another, and as mentioned above, even intermarried.
A Jew, Samuel Ibn Naghrillah, was the Vizier and military Commander of Muslim Granada where he led the Muslim army there for 17 years. Until the pogrom in 1099, Jews fared very well under the Moors, and often worked with the Moors to administer various towns.
A bit about me and my Zionism work, if anyone would like to join forces:
For 20 years, I was an anti-Israel Jew, not due to the media, but largely due to the Jewish organizations I was part of, who would misinform that Israel was ‘founded’ in 1948, that Herzl had anything to do with it, or even more laughable, the UN. Antisemitic terms such as ‘Palestinians’ to mean the Arab occupiers, and not the indigenous Jews in Israel, who were called Palestinians from 136 AD – 1948, West Bank, settlers, settlements, Green Line, and East Jerusalem. Other lies included that all Jews were exiled after 136 AD. Or that Jews came to Israel per a Biblical story and not invoking actual history, that Jews literally emerged from Semitic tribes in Judea & Samaria 4,000 years ago.
None mentioned that Gaza was Judean land since 145 BC, and to this day, legally, per international law (Article 80) still belongs to Israel. Or that Gaza was an epicenter of Judean life in numerous eras prior to the liberation of Israel, in 1948, by brave Jews after 20 years of fighting the British occupiers. Or that most of the Arab occupiers in Jewish Gaza are not ‘Gazans’ but former Egyptian nationals settled in after 1947/48 and radicalized, or that the other smaller cohort are former Israeli-Arabs who came to Israel originally from 25 different Muslim nations, and who then fled to Gaza, once Egypt stole Gaza, to help Arab armies kill Jews faster in the 1947-1948 War.
In 2014, I became a Zionist, and began to learn actual Judean history along with the history of Israel, as that is interwoven. Social media posting turned into becoming a published op-ed writer on the topics of Israel, antisemitism, and politics. Thousands of people since then have been converted to being pro-Israel solely by my sharing irrefutable facts and history. To date, I have been published over 50 times in both Jewish and non-Jewish publications. And, in 2022, I launched Taking Back the Narrative (www.tbtnisrael.com), a Zionism education company.
All my materials were triple vetted by top Middle Eastern affairs experts, and in the few years of the company being in operation, 7 classes of Israel Explained: Through the Lens of History have been completed, with on average of 100 students per class (worldwide, over Zoom), a newsletter, a Zionism-oriented podcast, The Zionist Corner, and I have been a featured speaker on podcasts, tv segments, and a speaker for both Jewish and non-Jewish groups in person and online.
https://tbtnisrael.com/zionism-glossary-combat-antisemitism/
https://tbtnisrael.com/articles/
https://tbtnisrael.com/zionism-education-services/
https://tbtnisrael.com/tbtn-in-the-media/
https://tbtnisrael.com/zionism-education-class/ (next course will begin either mid August or early October, will decide within the next few days).
My classes are perfect for those who are seeking to effectively push back on antisemitic lies. If anyone is interested in a meeting to potentially partner on any aspect of Zionism outreach, I welcome any inquiries. The range of educational services TBTN offers is outlined above.
I am currently also working on a ‘tear sheet’ on Israel to counter the false ones out there, to spread to colleges and universities come fall.
