"The Original Arab, The Bedouin"
"IN THE FERTILE CRESCENT empires have come and gone, but in the barren wastes the Bedouin has remained forever the same. The Bedouin, the camel and the palm rule supreme over the desert. And together with the sand they constitute the four great actors in its drama.
Tenacity and endurance enable the nomad to survive where almost everything else perishes. Individualism is so deeply ingrained that he has never become a socially conscious being. His ideals of devotion to the common good have not gone beyond that which pertains to his tribe. Discipline, respect for order and authority are not among his ideals."
THE AUTHOR OF THAT PIECE LINKED ABOVE WAS A LEBANESE GENTLEMAN NAMED PHILIP KHURI HITTI.
THE WORD 'BEDOUIN' IS A 'CORRUPTION' OR ANGLICIZED VERSION OF THE ARABIC WORD "BADAWIYIN" OR "BADAWI", WHICH REFERS TO THE CHOICE OF THESE AMAZING PEOPLE TO 'DWELL IN THE DESERT'.
BECAUSE THIS BLOG IS WRITTEN IN AMERICA, PLEASE FORGIVE MY USE OF THE MOST COMMONLY RECOGNIZED WORD, "BEDOUIN" AND THAT I DO NOT REFERENCE EACH TRIBE BY NAME.
ACTUALLY, AS MOST ARABS WILL STATE, IF THEY ARE HONEST, THE 'BEDOUIN' PEOPLE ARE CONSIDERED THE PUREST OF THE PURE AMONG WHAT WE NOW CALL 'ARABIC PEOPLE' AND THEIR LANGUAGE IS ALSO CONSIDERED TO BE THE PUREST OF THE SPOKEN 'ARABIC' LANGUAGES.
[SEE ."Dictionaries. An International Encyclopedia of Lexicography: Supplementary", pages 876, 883]
BEDOUIN PEOPLE ARE OFTEN CALLED "THE IDEAL ARAB" BY THE MANY WHO ADMIRE THEM FOR THEIR FIERCELY INDEPENDENT CULTURE, THEIR STAMINA WHEN FACED WITH THE HARSHNESS OF THEIR LIFESTYLE, THEIR POETRY AND POETICAL LANGUAGE, THEIR ABILITY TO BREED THE FINEST ANIMALS, ESPECIALLY THE "ARABIAN' HORSES, AND THEIR 'CODE OF HONOR'.
THESE ANCIENT TRIBES DID NOT SET OUT TO MINGLE THEIR BLOODLINES WITH FOREIGN INVADERS AS DID THE "SETTLED" TRIBES WHO MIXED FREELY WITH EACH INVASIVE WAVE AND SO THE BEDOUIN KEPT PURE THEIR LINEAGE AND THEIR VERY DISTINCT LANGUAGE FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS.
BY KEEPING ON THE MOVE, THEY KEPT AWAY FROM THOSE WHO CAME CONQUERING.
BUT ARE THE BEDOUIN THE TRUE "INDIGENOUS PEOPLE" OF WHAT IS NOW ISRAEL, JORDAN, SAUDI ARABIA, IRAQ, IRAN, ETC?
I BELIEVE SO.
HERE'S WHY...
In the book "Land, Indigenous Peoples and Conflict", the authors reference more than the Tea Room has read on the conflict of whether or not the bedouin are "INDIGENOUS PEOPLE" to Israel.
That books shows the history of these nomadic Tribes that pre-date written history.
While a bit "one-sided" the book "Indigenous (In)Justice: Human Rights Law and Bedouin Arabs in the Naqab/Negev" does lend credence to the documented historical, quite ancient presence of the Bedouin inside what are now Israel's borders.
That Israel herself recorded the use of Bedouin Tribes and their caravans to transport materials for the first Temple should speak volumes to any who may question who might have any remote claim to being the Indigenous People of that region.
I must agree that these Bedouin are the ONLY People with legitimate claim to being INDIGENOUS to Israel, because, after all, when Israel exited Egypt and came at last into the "Promised Land", it was BEDOUIN WELLS which sustained the Tribes of Israel in that Negev Desert.
I am NOT saying the Bedouins had been "conquerors" for they didn't need to conquer.
But, they had also not been conquered.
They merely existed as they had for centuries before Israel's arrival.
We can be certain there was conflict and battles between the nomads, both Jewish and Bedouin, that battles were fought, but we CANNOT say that EVERY Bedouin Tribe was defeated, can we, honestly?
Looking at the factual history, the long, well-recorded history of the Bedouin as opposed to the very SHORT "history" of the so-called "palestinians", who didn't even exist until the modern world's 20th century press and the PLO invented them, which People would Israel perhaps be more 'comfortable' acknowledging as INDIGENOUS?
THE FAKES OR THE FACTUAL?
That even the Arabic nations surrounding Israel tolerate the Bedouin on a much grander scale than any Arab nation is willing to tolerate make-believe "palestinians" should speak to anyone who has never been in those lands, up-close, and seen first-hand who is who and who is accepted by their peers as "ORIGINAL PEOPLE".
Let us NEVER FORGET that it has been the common fate of indigenous peoples all over the world to have their histories erased and retold by the conquerors, and all too common for indigenous people to be rendered powerless participants in this history writing process.
Let us also NEVER FORGET the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and smaller "island nations", and in the Americas whom we have seen in OUR lifetimes swept aside and packed away as much out of sight as possible in the name of either "God" or "PROGRESS".
There is little room in 'modern society' for what are perceived to be "backward cultures".
They must be assimilated, 'modernized', made to comply with the wishes of the 'conquerors'.
IT SEEMS ALMOST CRIMINAL TO ME FOR ANY MODERN NATION TO ENCOURAGE OR DEMAND "ASSIMILATION" FOR THESE ANCIENT CULTURES OF EVERY CONTINENT ARE RICH IN THINGS THAT WOULD HELP US ALL LEARN TO COPE AND SURVIVE SHOULD NUCLEAR WAR OR ANY GLOBAL CATASTROPHE THROW US ALL BACK INTO THE STONE AGE.
THE BEDOUIN SEEM TO MOSTLY JUST WANT TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED AS HAVING BEEN THERE FOR CENTURIES, BEFORE CURRENT 'OWNERS' TOOK OVER, AND THAT THEY MAY HAVE MUCH MORE "RIGHT" TO BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE THEIR LIVES AS THEY CHOOSE THAN ANYONE CALLED A "palestinian".
AT THE RISK OF SEEMING CRASS, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE BEDOUIN AND THE "palestinian" IS AKIN TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED 'EASTERN BAND CHEROKEE' AND THE STATE RECOGNIZED PSEUDO-TRIBES WHO SPRING UP WHEN WHITES WANT TO "PLAY INDIAN" AND WHO MERELY CALL THEMSELVES 'CHEROKEE'.
SOME OF THOSE STATE 'TRIBES' SELL MEMBERSHIP CARDS FOR $40 TO $100 ONLINE, BUT THOSE WHO "JOIN" WILL NEVER BE 'CHEROKEE', JUST WANNABES.
THOSE WHO CALL THEMSELVES "palestinians" ARE CLAIMING TO BE RELATED TO THOSE PHILISTINES OF LONG AGO, THOSE AEGEAN PEOPLE, NOT EVEN ARABIC, WHOM, BY THE WAY, THE BEDOUIN ALSO HELPED ANNIHILATE FROM OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH.
THE FEW PHILISTINES WHO ESCAPED THE WRATH OF BOTH ARABS AND JEWS SLITHERED BACK TO THE AEGEAN ISLANDS THEY CAME FROM AND WERE ASSIMILATED, NO SIGN OF THEM REMAINS, NOT EVEN A GENNETIC TRACE.
THE PROOF OF THE ANCIENT LINEAGE IS IN THE DNA OF THE BEDOUIN, AND THE PROOF OF THE LIE IS IN THE DNA OF THOSE WHO MERELY CLAIM THAT INDIGENOUS TRIBE TITLE, THE PLASTIC, BUY-A-CARD FRAUDS, THE FAIRY TALE "palestinians".
THE BEDOUINS HAVE NEVER DEMANDED THAT EITHER OTHER ARABS OR JEWS "GIVE BACK ALL THE LANDS".
THEY DON'T STRAP BOMBS TO THEMSELVES AND RUN TO BLOW UP JEWS.
THEY PERHAPS COULD DEMAND MORE LANDS THAN EVEN THE "palestinians" HAVE, COULD LAY CLAIM TO ALL THE MIDDLE EAST, ACTUALLY, TO SAUDI ARABIA, JORDAN, ALL THE "NEW" NATIONS THAT WERE GIVEN TITLES TO LANDS AFTER THE "ALLIES" SPLIT UP THAT MIDDLE EAST PIE POST-WORLD WAR I, BUT THEY HAVEN'T.
SHOULDN'T THEY BE RECOGNIZED FOR WHAT THEY ARE?
DON'T THEY HAVE THE ANCIENT HISTORY, THE PURE LANGUAGE AND THE DNA TO PROVE THEIR CLAIMS?
YES, YES THEY DO.
YOU MAY BE SHOCKED TO KNOW THAT THE WORD "ALLAH" IS DERIVED FROM THE BEDOUIN BELIEF SYSTEM, PRE-ISLAM.
ALLAH, OR "AL-ILAH" WAS RECOGNIZED BY THE BEDOUIN AS A 'SUPREME god", WAY BEFORE THE 'PROPHET' OF ISLAM WAS A TWINKLE IN HIS FATHER'S EYE.
THE BEDOUIN 'ALLAH' WAS A god OF THE SKY AND OF RAIN AND RAIN WAS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE TO THE NOMADIC BEDOUIN.
NO RAIN, NO GRASS FOR THEIR WANDERING HERDS, NO LIFE.
EVEN THE 'PROPHET' OF ISLAM RECOGNIZED THAT THE god 'ALLAH' DID INDEED EXIST AT MECCA BEFORE HE BEGAN DICTATING THE QUR'AN.
NO, ALLAH WAS NOT 'DISCOVERED' IN THAT CAVE, BUT THE 'PROPHET' KNEW OF 'HIM'.
NEITHER THE WORD PALESTINE NOR THE WORD FILASTIN APPEARS IN THE QU'RAN, NOR DOES THE NAME JERUSALEM.
FEW ARE AWARE OF THOSE TWO FACTS.
HOW ANCIENT ARE THE BEDOUIN?
THEY CERTAINLY FAR PRE-DATE THOSE WE KNOW TODAY AS SAUDI ARABIANS, JORDANIANS, EVEN LEBANESE, IRAQI, AFGHAN, OR THE COLLECTIVE KNOWN AS "MUSLIMS".
WE CAN TRACE THESE NOMADIC PEOPLE BACK TO AT LEAST 6,000 B,C,E,
WHEN ISRAEL FIRST SWEPT INTO WHAT BECAME KNOWN AS JUDEA AND THEN ISRAEL, THE BEDOUIN WERE THERE.
ROCK CARVINGS ATTRIBUTED TO THE NOMADIC BEDOUIN TRIBES DATING BACK TO 10,000 B.C.E. WERE LEFT SCATTERED ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTHERN AFRICA.
[SEE: "THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ROCK ART", BY CHIPPENDALE AND TAPON, PAGE 201 AND "The Rock Art of Saudi Arabia" by Dr. Majeed Khan]
IN "Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions and Varieties", and in "Travels in Asia and Africa. 1325–1354" [C.E/A.D.] and in many other studies of the Arabic language, we learn that the purest form was and is still attributed to the Bedouin, that it was that language which far pre-dated what is called "Islamic Arabic".
"The Qur'an does not use the word 'Arab, only the adjective 'arabiyyun . The plural noun 'A'rab indicates the Bedouin tribes who lived in the desert and resisted the message of the Prophet, as for instance in Q 9/97 al-'A'rabu 'ashaddu kufran wanifaqan 'the Bedouin are the worst in disbelief and hypocrisy'.
After the period of the conquests, however, the sedentary population began to regard the free-roaming Bedouin, whose language preserved the purity of pre-Islamic times, as the ideal type of Arab, and the term kalam al-'Arab 'language of the Arabs' came to denote the pure, unaffected language of the Bedouin.
The language of pre-Islamic poetry, lay in the Central or Eastern part of the peninsula, possibly in the Nagd ."
IN THE VERY LONG LIST OF ALL THE KNOWN LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD, OVER 7,000 OF THEM, YOU WILL NOT FIND A "palestininan"LANGUAGE.
THERE NEVER WAS ONE AND THERE IS NOT ONE NOW.
IN JUST ONE ETHNOLOGUE WILL YOU SEE THE WORD "palestinian" WRITTEN, WHEN IT SPEAKS OF THE JEWISH/PALESTINIAN ARAMAIC, ARAMAIC, NOT "palestinian", ARAMAIC.
IN ALL ETHNOLOGUES, YOU WILL FIND 'BEDAWI/BEDAWIYET'
YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND DIFFERENT DIALECTS OF BEDAWI ('BEDOUIN'), EVEN A BEDAWI SIGN LANGUAGE LISTED.
WHY?
BECAUSE THESE DIALECTS HAVE EXISTED FOR CENTURIES, MILLENNIA, BECAUSE THE BEDAWI/BEDOUIN ALWAYS WERE AND ARE A REAL PEOPLE WITH AN ANCIENT HISTORY, UNLIKE THE VERY NEW "palestinians".
PERHAPS THE WORLD WOULD DO WELL TO ASK A BEDOUIN ELDER WHAT THE LAND WAS CALLED BEFORE IT WAS EVER CALLED 'PALESTINE' BY THE FOREIGN INVADERS.
BUT DON'T USE THE EXACT WORD "PALESTINE", AS THERE IS NO "P" IN ANY ARABIC LANGUAGE.
WHEN THE REGION WAS FIRST CALLED BY OTHER THAN ITS ORIGINAL, ANCIENT NAME, THE WORD USED THEN AND NOW AMONGST ARABIC-SPEAKING PEOPLE WAS SPOKEN AS "FALASTIN", OR "FILASTIN, OFTEN CORRUPTED TO "BILASTIN'" OR EVEN "BALESTINE" BY THOSE RESIDING INSIDE THE BORDERS OF PRESENT-DAY ISRAEL.
THERE WAS NO 'PALESTINE' FOR THEM SO THEY HAD TO INVENT AN ARABIC WORD THAT MATCHED WHAT THE ROMANS CREATED IN THE FIRST CENTURY BCE./AD.
FROM 1911 TO 1948, A DAILY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED THERE BY MUSLIMS NAMED ITSELF "FILASTIN".
REMEMBER, THIS WAS BEFORE THE BALFOUR DECLARATION (1917) WHICH GAVE THE JEWS ALL OF WHAT IS NOW 'JORDAN' AND ALL OF WHAT IS NOW THE VERY SMALL NATION KNOWN AS ISRAEL.
THE BOOK "Population Dilemmas in the Middle East" GIVES A RATHER LOPSIDED VIEW, BUT A VIEW WHICH FEW ARE AWARE OF, OF IMMIGRATION INTO AND OUT OF ISRAEL BY THOSE CLAIMING TO BE "palestinians".
IT DEMONSTRATES, SOMEWHAT, THE YEARS OF MOST AND LEAST MIGRATION INTO ISRAEL FROM SURROUNDING NATIONS LIKE SYRIA, LEBANON AND EGYPT.
DURING THESE "MIGRATIONS" OF THE EARLY 1900s, THE BEDOUIN PEOPLE OFTEN COMPLAINED QUITE LOUDLY TO THE BRITISH THAT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WERE CROSSING THAT ISRAELI BORDER, STEALING FROM THE NOMADS' FLOCKS, ROBBING THEM OF GOODS, USING THEIR WELLS, AND ATTACKING THEIR WOMEN....ALL TO LITTLE AVAIL.
WHAT MOST WHO WANT TO RECOGNIZE "palestinians" AS A VALID NOMENCLATURE FOR MIGRANTS INTO ISRAEL FAIL TO ADDRESS IS THAT THERE WERE CENSUSES MADE BY THE ROMANS, THE OTTOMAN TURKS AND THE BRITISH OVER THE CENTURIES.
EXACTLY WHO LIVED IN WHAT IS NOW ISRAEL WAS CLOSELY MONITORED AND COMMENTS MADE SHOW US THE SUDDEN RUSH INTO ISRAEL AS WORLD WAR I WAS ENDING, AND AGAIN, AS WORLD WAR II CAME TO A CLOSE.
WHAT WAS RECORDED BY NEIGHBORING PEOPLE, AND BY THE BEDOUIN THEMSELVES, WAS HOW AND WHEN THE JEWISH PEOPLE ASSUMED DOMINANCE IN THE REGION, WHEN THE JEWISH TRIBES' CONQUESTS BEGAN, THE OUTCOMES OF WARS OF THAT REGION, HOW THE BEDOUIN PEOPLE FARED AFTER EACH WAR, HOW THEY WERE TREATED BY EACH SET OF 'CONQUERORS', WHAT THEY DID TO PRESERVE THEIR CULTURE, THEIR VERY WAY OF LIFE.
WHILE NO ARABIC NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST TODAY FLINGS OPEN ITS DOORS TO "palestinians", BUT PLACES "palestinian" IMMIGRANTS" IN SQUALID "CAMPS", TENT CITIES, AND SECTIONS THEM OFF FROM MAINSTREAM SOCIETY INSTEAD, THE ARAB WORLD STILL VERY MUCH ADMIRES AND ACCOMMODATES THE BEDOUIN, TO A POINT.
THE BEDOUIN HAVE A CERTAIN 'NOBILITY' AND ENJOY A FAR MORE FAVORABLE POSITION IN ARABIC SOCIETY THAN ANY "palestinian" EVER WILL.
NATIONS LIKE EGYPT, JORDAN, LEBANON AND EVEN SYRIA HAVE OFTEN GIVEN THE WORLD THEIR REASONS/EXCUSES FOR ISOLATING AND NOT PREFERRING TO ACCEPT "palestinian" IMMIGRANTS.
THE WORLD ACCEPTS THOSE REASONS AND THE PRESS DOES NOT CONDEMN HOW JORDAN AND EGYPT, ESPECIALLY, HAVE TREATED THOSE WHO CALL THEMSELVES "palestinians".
ARAFAT CLAIMED THAT THE KING OF JORDAN MURDERED 20,000 "palestinians" DURING "BLACK SEPTEMBER" IN 1970, AND KILLED AT LEAST 150-200 MEMBERS OF HIS PLO, THAT HE HIMSELF WAS ALMOST KILLED, BUT WHO IN AMERICA OR ANYWHERE ELSE WANTS TO TALK ABOUT THAT?
ANOTHER SOURCE IN INDIA REPORTED 25,000 KILLED IN THAT ONE MONTH AND SAID PAKISTAN HAD HELPED "BUTCHER" THOSE "palestinians".
THAT THOSE WHO CALL THEMSELVES BY THAT VERY NEW NAME ARE KEPT ISOLATED FORM THE POPULATIONS OF THOSE OTHER ARAB NATIONS IN SQUALID REFUGEE CAMPS IS ALMOST NEVER WRITTEN ABOUT HERE IN THE WEST.
THAT EGYPT HAS BUILT A WALL TO KEEP OUT ANY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT "palestinians" GOT NOTICED BY NEWS AGENCIES LIKE AL JAZEERA, AND THEY ALSO REPORTED THE NEWS IN 2015 WHEN EGYPT FLOODED THOSE HAMAS TUNNELS THAT EXTENDED FROM GAZA INTO EGYPT, BUT NOT THE WESTERN BIG NAME NEWS.
THE BBC ALSO REPORTED ON THE EGYPTIAN WALL.
THAT THE "palestinians" OF HAMAS AND FATAH OFTEN KILL ONE ANOTHER AND EVEN TORTURE AND EXECUTE THOSE UNDER THEIR RULE ( SEE "VOICES FROM GAZA" AND "GAZANS SPEAK OUT: HAMAS WAR CRIMES") IS ALSO SELDOM MENTIONED BY MAINSTREAM MEDIA, NOR IS THIS COMPARED TO THE BEDOUIN, WHO ARE A CLOSELY KNIT ETHNIC GROUP WHO HAVE NEVER BEEN REPORTED AS KILLING THEIR OWN PEOPLE, OR KILLING JEWS, OR KILLING THEMSELVES IN THE NAME OF "JIHAD".
IF THE CURSED UNITED NATIONS OR BLEEDING-HEART AMERICANS OR ANYONE ELSE WANTS TO CHIDE ISRAEL FOR ANYTHING, THE BEST ANY CAN DO IS CHIDE THEM FOR NOT RECOGNIZING THE BEDOUIN AS THE ONLY POSSIBLE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE INSIDE THE BORDERS OF ISRAEL.
THOSE WHO CALL THEMSELVES BY THE NAME "palestinians" SHOULD PERHAPS BE MOVED ASIDE TO MAKE ROOM FOR THE BEDOUIN.
PERHAPS "palestinians" COULD LEARN FROM THE HONORABLE BEDOUIN HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO REMAIN LOYAL TO ONE'S OWN PEOPLE AND NEVER TRY TO BE WHOM YOU ARE NOT.
LET THE "NEW" LEARN FROM THE ANCIENT.
________________________________________
Other Text Sources:
~"The Historical Muhammad"
~The Rock Art of Saudi Arabia by Dr. Majeed Khan
~Rock Engravings as Text: Territorial Assertions on the Walls of the En Nusra Cave in Avdat, Israel Joshua Schmidt & Davida Eisenberg-Degen
~History of Arab People by Albert Hourani (Faber and Faber, 1991);
~Islam, a Short History by Karen Armstrong (Modern Library, 2000);
~National Geographic articles about the Middle East;
Articles by the quite anti-Semitic New York Times;
by Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Yomiuri Shimbun, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, etc.
~
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