Diaspora? Shattering a National Mythology

An interview with a Professor of Israel who writes concerning the coopting or invention of a Jewish History to justify the Zionist Agenda in Palestine.

http://www.notmytribe.com/2008/sholomo-sand-and-shattering-a-national-mythology-85063.html

Shlomo Sand and shattering a national mythology
By Tony Logan
NOT MY TRIBE - 10/09/2008 11:45AM MDT - 1 Comment

Shattering a ‘national mythology’ Shlomo Sand’s book is titled “When and How the Jewish People Was Invented?” and you probably will not find it stacked up on tables for sale in Barnes and Noble or Borders. I don’t expect it to be readily available for Colorado Springs librarian patrons either. Ask for it though.


The Haaretz interview:

Actually, most of your book does not deal with the invention of the Jewish people by modern Jewish nationalism, but rather with the question of where the Jews come from.

Sand: “My initial intention was to take certain kinds of modern historiographic materials and examine how they invented the ‘figment’ of the Jewish people. But when I began to confront the historiographic sources, I suddenly found contradictions. And then that urged me on: I started to work, without knowing where I would end up. I took primary sources and I tried to examine authors’ references in the ancient period - what they wrote about conversion.”

Experts on the history of the Jewish people say you are dealing with subjects about which you have no understanding and are basing yourself on works that you can’t read in the original.

“It is true that I am an historian of France and Europe, and not of the ancient period. I knew that the moment I would start dealing with early periods like these, I would be exposed to scathing criticism by historians who specialize in those areas. But I said to myself that I can’t stay just with modern historiographic material without examining the facts it describes. Had I not done this myself, it would have been necessary to have waited for an entire generation. Had I continued to deal with France, perhaps I would have been given chairs at the university and provincial glory. But I decided to relinquish the glory.”

Inventing the Diaspora

“After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people remained faithful to it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom” - thus states the preamble to the Israeli Declaration of Independence. This is also the quotation that opens the third chapter of Sand’s book, entitled “The Invention of the Diaspora.” Sand argues that the Jewish people’s exile from its land never happened.

“The supreme paradigm of exile was needed in order to construct a long-range memory in which an imagined and exiled nation-race was posited as the direct continuation of ‘the people of the Bible’ that preceded it,” Sand explains. Under the influence of other historians who have dealt with the same issue in recent years, he argues that the exile of the Jewish people is originally a Christian myth that depicted that event as divine punishment imposed on the Jews for having rejected the Christian gospel.

“I started looking in research studies about the exile from the land - a constitutive event in Jewish history, almost like the Holocaust. But to my astonishment I discovered that it has no literature. The reason is that no one exiled the people of the country. The Romans did not exile peoples and they could not have done so even if they had wanted to. They did not have trains and trucks to deport entire populations. That kind of logistics did not exist until the 20th century. From this, in effect, the whole book was born: in the realization that Judaic society was not dispersed and was not exiled.”

If the people was not exiled, are you saying that in fact the real descendants of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah are the Palestinians?

“No population remains pure over a period of thousands of years. But the chances that the Palestinians are descendants of the ancient Judaic people are much greater than the chances that you or I are its descendents. The first Zionists, up until the Arab Revolt [1936-9], knew that there had been no exiling, and that the Palestinians were descended from the inhabitants of the land. They knew that farmers don’t leave until they are expelled. Even Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the second president of the State of Israel, wrote in 1929 that, ‘the vast majority of the peasant farmers do not have their origins in the Arab conquerors, but rather, before then, in the Jewish farmers who were numerous and a majority in the building of the land.’”

And how did millions of Jews appear around the Mediterranean Sea?

“The people did not spread, but the Jewish religion spread. Judaism was a converting religion. Contrary to popular opinion, in early Judaism there was a great thirst to convert others. The Hasmoneans were the first to begin to produce large numbers of Jews through mass conversion, under the influence of Hellenism. The conversions between the Hasmonean Revolt and Bar Kochba’s rebellion are what prepared the ground for the subsequent, wide-spread dissemination of Christianity. After the victory of Christianity in the fourth century, the momentum of conversion was stopped in the Christian world, and there was a steep drop in the number of Jews.

Presumably many of the Jews who appeared around the Mediterranean became Christians. But then Judaism started to permeate other regions - pagan regions, for example, such as Yemen and North Africa. Had Judaism not continued to advance at that stage and had it not continued to convert people in the pagan world, we would have remained a completely marginal religion, if we survived at all.”

continued..............

 

How did you come to the conclusion that the Jews of North Africa were originally Berbers who converted?

“I asked myself how such large Jewish communities appeared in Spain. And then I saw that Tariq ibn Ziyad, the supreme commander of the Muslims who conquered Spain, was a Berber, and most of his soldiers were Berbers. Dahia al-Kahina’s Jewish Berber kingdom had been defeated only 15 years earlier. And the truth is there are a number of Christian sources that say many of the conquerors of Spain were Jewish converts. The deep-rooted source of the large Jewish community in Spain was those Berber soldiers who converted to Judaism.”

Sand argues that the most crucial demographic addition to the Jewish population of the world came in the wake of the conversion of the kingdom of Khazaria - a huge empire that arose in the Middle Ages on the steppes along the Volga River, which at its height ruled over an area that stretched from the Georgia of today to Kiev. In the eighth century, the kings of the Khazars adopted the Jewish religion and made Hebrew the written language of the kingdom. From the 10th century the kingdom weakened; in the 13th century is was utterly defeated by Mongol invaders, and the fate of its Jewish inhabitants remains unclear.

Sand revives the hypothesis, which was already suggested by historians in the 19th and 20th centuries, according to which the Judaized Khazars constituted the main origins of the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe.

“At the beginning of the 20th century there is a tremendous concentration of Jews in Eastern Europe - three million Jews in Poland alone,” he says. “The Zionist historiography claims that their origins are in the earlier Jewish community in Germany, but they do not succeed in explaining how a small number of Jews who came from Mainz and Worms could have founded the Yiddish people of Eastern Europe. The Jews of Eastern Europe are a mixture of Khazars and Slavs who were pushed eastward.”

If the Jews of Eastern Europe did not come from Germany, why did they speak Yiddish, which is a Germanic language?

“The Jews were a class of people dependent on the German bourgeoisie in the East, and thus they adopted German words. Here I base myself on the research of linguist Paul Wechsler of Tel Aviv University, who has demonstrated that there is no etymological connection between the German Jewish language of the Middle Ages and Yiddish. As far back as 1828, the Ribal (Rabbi Isaac Ber Levinson) said that the ancient language of the Jews was not Yiddish. Even Ben Zion Dinur, the father of Israeli historiography, was not hesitant about describing the Khazars as the origin of the Jews in Eastern Europe, and describes Khazaria as ‘the mother of the diasporas’ in Eastern Europe. But more or less since 1967, anyone who talks about the Khazars as the ancestors of the Jews of Eastern Europe is considered naive and moonstruck.”

Why do you think the idea of the Khazar origins is so threatening?

“It is clear that the fear is of an undermining of the historic right to the land. The revelation that the Jews are not from Judea would ostensibly knock the legitimacy for our being here out from under us. Since the beginning of the period of decolonization, settlers have no longer been able to say simply: ‘We came, we won and now we are here’ the way the Americans, the whites in South Africa and the Australians said. There is a very deep fear that doubt will be cast on our right to exist.”

Is there no justification for this fear?

“No. I don’t think that the historical myth of the exile and the wanderings is the source of the legitimization for me being here, and therefore I don’t mind believing that I am Khazar in my origins. I am not afraid of the undermining of our existence, because I think that the character of the State of Israel undermines it in a much more serious way. What would constitute the basis for our existence here is not mythological historical right, but rather would be for us to start to establish an open society here of all Israeli citizens.”

In effect you are saying that there is no such thing as a Jewish people.

“I don’t recognize an international people. I recognize ‘the Yiddish people’ that existed in Eastern Europe, which though it is not a nation can be seen as a Yiddishist civilization with a modern popular culture. I think that Jewish nationalism grew up in the context of this ‘Yiddish people.’ I also recognize the existence of an Israeli people, and do not deny its right to sovereignty. But Zionism and also Arab nationalism over the years are not prepared to recognize it.

“From the perspective of Zionism, this country does not belong to its citizens, but rather to the Jewish people. I recognize one definition of a nation: a group of people that wants to live in sovereignty over itself. But most of the Jews in the world have no desire to live in the State of Israel, even though nothing is preventing them from doing so. Therefore, they cannot be seen as a nation.”

What is so dangerous about Jews imagining that they belong to one people? Why is this bad?

“In the Israeli discourse about roots there is a degree of perversion. This is an ethnocentric, biological, genetic discourse. But Israel has no existence as a Jewish state: If Israel does not develop and become an open, multicultural society we will have a Kosovo in the Galilee. The consciousness concerning the right to this place must be more flexible and varied, and if I have contributed with my book to the likelihood that I and my children will be able to live with the others here in this country in a more egalitarian situation - I will have done my bit.

“We must begin to work hard to transform our place into an Israeli republic where ethnic origin, as well as faith, will not be relevant in the eyes of the law. Anyone who is acquainted with the young elites of the Israeli Arab community can see that they will not agree to live in a country that declares it is not theirs. If I were a Palestinian I would rebel against a state like that, but even as an Israeli I am rebelling against it.”

The question is whether for those conclusions you had to go as far as the Kingdom of the Khazars.

“I am not hiding the fact that it is very distressing for me to live in a society in which the nationalist principles that guide it are dangerous, and that this distress has served as a motive in my work. I am a citizen of this country, but I am also a historian and as a historian it is my duty to write history and examine texts. This is what I have done.”

If the myth of Zionism is one of the Jewish people that returned to its land from exile, what will be the myth of the country you envision?

“To my mind, a myth about the future is better than introverted mythologies of the past. For the Americans, and today for the Europeans as well, what justifies the existence of the nation is a future promise of an open, progressive and prosperous society. The Israeli materials do exist, but it is necessary to add, for example, pan-Israeli holidays. To decrease the number of memorial days a bit and to add days that are dedicated to the future. But also, for example, to add an hour in memory of the Nakba [literally, the “catastrophe” - the Palestinian term for what happened when Israel was established], between Memorial Day and Independence Day.”

 

Thank you, Margot - I have been saying at least some of this stuff for years. I shall buy the book and learn more.

 

It would help if they Israelis heeded their scholars and archeologists.

 

Yes. Fascinating. And it has been an "open secret" for years.

This is also another thing that falls under the heading "Eveything I ever needed to know I learned from Star Trek."

Star Trek Voyager
3rd Season, 23rd Episode
"Distant Origin"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distant_Origin

 

Open secret is right.. They have fine scholars and they all know that Genesis and Exodus are myths as well.

 

Fyi........................

 

Why does any of this matter, even if true?

People are permitted to convert to Judaism and after that they are just as much a Jew as anyone.

And all of it makes no difference so long as Jews are armed and ready to defend their homeland from invaders.

Possession is 9/10 of the law.

 

What invaders? The Palestinian Muslims and Christians didn't invade Palestine.

 

Whatever...

This problem really only impacts a few million people in a tiny little country.

The rest of the world should just butt out.

How about it Margot? Can you stop sticking your nose in other people's problems?

 

As Al Capone said. Where is he now? Hitler said it too. Same question. The homeland of the ex-Jews occupying Palestine, if any, was - hundreds of years ago - the Khazar Kingdom, but who cares? People's homelands are where they and their recent ancestors come from - which is why we need to see that the settlers, when they have paid adequate reparations, are allowed to stay in a democratic non-racist Palestine if they wish.

 

The Palestinians are a tool, nothing more. No one really cares what happens to them.

 

Normal human beings who detest colonialism care very much. Those who follow the likes of Hitler regard people as mere pawns in their love of and hoovering-up of moneyand power, but you of course know that.

 

I am simply opposed to genocide and theft............

 

FYI

http://www.politicalforum.com/religion/198775-diaspora-shattering-national-mythology.html

 

Are you really? From what I have gathered from the totality of your posts, you are opposed to the Jewish people.

In a perfect world, the Jews of Israel and their Arab/ read Muslim neighbors would live side by side in harmony but it is not a perfect world. Werre the Israelis less militant in protecting their nation, Israel would cease to exist and so would the Jews living there.

I am not Jewish and have no personal stake in what happens to them other than that stake all people have when others are the targets of hatred. I have spoken out in the past and wil continue to speak out in the future about Israeli mistreatment of Arabs, both Muslim and Christian living within the borders of Israel and the Palestinians living in the occupied territories.There is no getting around the fact that the Israelis are simply wrong.

Having said that, I have also spoken out about the treatment of Jews in Muslim territories. I have also spoken out about the calls for death to all Jews which is a common thread running through all Muslim societies.

Unless and until Israel's neighbors recognize the country's right to exist, Israel will continue to be a country exhibiting a bunker personality.

 

The European Jews were refugees seeking sanctuary when no one else would take them in .. Their treatment of the Palestinians is criminal..

Further, in the Torah they are told to remember that they were refugees and strangers in Egypt.

 

And that is relevant to my post in what way, other than giving you another post in which to show your hatred of Jews?

I said they were wrong in their treatment of the Palestinians. I also said, their Muslim neighbors are wrong in calling for the annihalation of all Jews.

You seem focused on the mote in Jewish eyes while conveniently ignoring the beam in Muslim eyes.

 

The Arabs don't care about Israel at all.. except in as much as they abuse the Palestinians.

The problem was NEVER religion.. its about land theft..

In the same way that the US wouldn't want 100 million Somalis and Nigerians to suddenly illegally immigrate to the US... the Palestinians didn't want 600,000 European foreigners who didn't speak Arabic and didn't share Arab culture.

Read.. As an Arab Sees the Jews, 1947 King Abdullah of Jordan.

 

http://www.tellthechildrenthetruth.com/gallery/

 

So why does the book of evil say to kill all Jews, long before there was an Israel?

 

HAHAHAHA.. Why don't you READ what the Koran says?

 

Really?

So are they Khazars or not?

Because the khazars were never in AEgypt.

 

The Arabs can have Israel when they give Egypt back to Africans.

Deal?

 

Quite true.. the Khazars converted much much later, but by 200 BC there was a huge population of Jews in Egypt.. In fact , there are Jewish soldiers living in Elephantine Island in Egypt by 600 BC.