Jews are white people, right? They have German and Polish sounding names and they come from Western and Eastern Europe. They are basically white colonists, occupying the land of the indigenous people of Palestine. That’s the narrative that is being spread lately, anyway.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Jews come in all colours and cultures, and many of them have lived on the Arabian peninsula for thousands of years. Mizrahi Jews are people whose ancestry is traced back to Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq – even Palestine itself. Yes I know, shocker!!

This is from the “Jews from the Middle East Fact Sheet” of the Jewish Voice for Peace:

“Of 7 million Israelis, 35-40% are Mizrahim, 15% are Russian immigrants, 20% are Palestinian Israelis, 2.2% are Ethiopian, and 25-30% are Ashkenazi Jews and others. This means 55-60% of the Israeli population is ‘non-white’; together, Mizrahim and Palestinian Israelis form a majority.”

As you probably know and accept, Jews originated from the land we now know as Israel. In the 6th century BCE, their country was invaded by the Babylonians and many of the Jews fled – an event known as the Babylonian exile. Some of them travelled far and wide and settled in Europe, Poland and Russia. Their descendents are now called Ashkenazi Jews. They have lighter skin, hair and eyes and some of them still speak Yiddish, which contains elements of Hebrew, German and Eastern European languages.

But most Jews did not travel that far, or in that direction. Many settled closer to Israel, in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Others spread out over the rest of the Arabian peninsula and stayed in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen, and some ended up in Persia (Iran) and Turkey. Yet others moved to Northern Africa and settled in Morocco, Libya, Tunesia and Algeria. These Jews are now known as Mizrahi (or Sephardic) Jews. Their skin, hair and eyes are darker. They speak many languages, but not Yiddish. Their culture and customs are very different from those of the Ashkenazi and share a lot of similarities with Arabic cultures.

In the Second World War, 85% of the Jews that were murdered in the Holocaust were Ashkenazi. Most of the Jews in Germany, Poland, Eastern and Northern Europe were wiped out in a huge-scale, monstrous act of genocide. We all know about this. (And if you don’t, you should). My husband’s family from his father’s side is Polish. His grandparents were the only ones in both their families who survived. They emigrated to Israel in an attempt to leave the unspeakable horror behind. But his other set of grandparents came to Israel from Iran. And they were not running from the European Holocaust. They were fleeing from something else.

After the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel in 1948, all Arab countries surrounding Israel declared war. They did not want a Jewish state next to them. In fact, they decided they did not want any Jews inside their own countries, either. This led to the Jewish Exodus from the Muslim world. Around 900,000 Mizrahi Jews were expelled from all Arab and Northern African countries. An estimated 650,000 of these people fled, often on foot, to Israel, which, against all odds, managed to hold its own against the entire Arab world, and even won the war.

And then, there were the Jews who never left. Yes, some Jews stayed where they were after the Babylonians took over. They stayed when the Greeks and the Romans came and went. They stayed through all the Crusades. The country was called Canaan, the Holy Land, Mandatory Palestine. It was ruled by Romans, Christians, Muslims and later the British. But Jews have always lived in Israel. They have sometimes been called Palestinian Jews. But really, they were the original Israelis, who simply never left. Jews are indigenous to Israel, just as much as Arabs are.

So wait a moment before you shout “from the river to the sea”. Do some research. Where do you want the Jews to go? Back to where they came from? The majority of them came from Arab countries, where they were harassed, persecuted, stripped of their citizenship and expelled. None of the Mizrahi Jews can “go back to where they came from”. They would be either deported or simply killed instanty. If you remember, Muslim countries hate Jews. “From the river to the sea” is a call for a death sentence to all Jews. Do you really want to be a modern Nazi?

This very compact history of the Mizrahi Jewish people is obviously extremely simplified. And their immigration to Israel did not go without a hitch. European Jews and Middle Eastern Jews were so different from each other that many problems arose between them. Mizrahi Jews felt like second class citizens, discriminated against and pushed to the side. Some still feel like that. Their feelings are valid and the injustice done to them must be addressed.

Also, I am not in any way saying that Arab Israelis / Palestinians are not indigenous to Israel. They are. But so are Jews. And we must find a way to live together. I believe it can be done. But not with Hamas.