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Columbia University Professor of History Joseph Massad stated that "the idea that European Jews are somehow direct descendants of the Ancient Hebrews is, of course, a bogus claim." He added that while some Jews may have had a religious or spiritual connection to the Ancient Hebrews, European Christians began suggesting in the 17th and 18th centuries that Jews originated from Asia in order to "estrange them from Europe."
He further claimed that "it is almost like a Hitlerian project to speak about Jews genetically" and that talk of a genetic connection between Jews and the Ancient Hebrews or Ancient Israel "became fashionable" only in the 19th century with the rise of biological sciences. He also stated that "Israeli propaganda" claims Palestinians are descendants of Arab colonizers, but asserted this cannot be true, as the Arab-Islamic conquest of the Levant and North Africa was not a settler colonialist project. Massad dismissed archaeological records as a "colonial venture." He added that Palestinians are the only group in the region not allowed to claim the Ancient Hebrews as their ancestors because "some strange European group" is claiming them for themselves.
Professor Massad spoke on the podcast of Ejaz Haider, Senior Resident Fellow at the Center for Security, Strategy, and Policy Research (CSSPR) at Lahore University. Joseph Massad teaches a course titled "The History of the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskala) in 19th-century Europe and the development of Zionism." For more about Joseph Massad, see MEMRITV clips nos. 10835, 11673, and 11683.
Joseph Massad: "The idea that European Jews are somehow direct descendants of the Ancient Hebrews is, of course, a bogus claim. Even if some Jews believed somehow [they had] some lineage – at least a religious or spiritual lineage [to Ancient Hebrews] – by the 17th century and 18th centuries, the idea among European Christians would become important, especially to estrange European Jews from Europe, and they begin to case them as 'Asiatics' – people who have come from Asia originally.
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"What is special here about Zionism is not only the invention of Ancient Israel and the invention of Jews as descendants of the Ancient Hebrews – it is almost like a Hitlerian project to speak of Jews genetically in this fashion. It only becomes fashionable, of course, in the 19th century, with the rise of racial science and the biological sciences.
Israeli propaganda often claims that the Palestinians, today, are somehow descendants of Arab settlers, who had come with the Arab-Islamic conquest of Palestine – that, of course, is not true at all.
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"The Arab or Islamic conquest of Greater Syria, including Palestine or even North Africa, was not a settler colonial project.
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"Of course, they mythology also includes aspects of the invention of Ancient Israel.
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"This is all a game of archeology, and we know archaeology, of course, is part of colonialism. This is a science that begins in the last 18th century and early 19th century, as part of the colonial venture.
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"It is strange that the only people in that region – Palestinians are the only people unable to claim the Ancient Hebrews as their ancestors, because some strange European group is claiming them as their ancestors."
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