danhakimi , 6 months ago

... what?

"Jews of other countries" are also indigenous to Israel / Judea / Canaan / Palestine / whatever you want to call it. I'm a Persian-American Jew. Before Iran, my community came from Israel. Is it possible that there are some Russian Jews in my family tree? Or Egyptian Jews? Or Bucharian Jews? Or Iraqi Jews? Yes. Are they all still indigenous to Israel? Yes.

Conversion to Judaism is extremely rare, but it does happen. Is it possible that some portion of my family tree converted to Judaism and is not indigenous to Israel? Sure. Does one drop of Iranian blood in m DNA make me somehow not indigenous to the place the rest of my ancestors are from? Hell the fuck no. Especially given that my ancestors in Iran were never welcome for long. It's also worth noting that, since the Arab Conquest reached Iran, conversion from Islam has been, for most of that time, illegal (it's currently punishable by death!), so the idea of converts to Judaism is extremely rare.

This is a strange, disturbing line of reasoning. You wouldn't ask Native Americans with ancestors from two different tribes how they can be called indigenous, would you?

What's going on here?