Palgrave/Macmillan Publishes an Anti-Zionist Polemic — and Calls It Scholarship

The newly published  Palgrave Handbook of Racial Injustice and Resistance is not a fringe publication. Palgrave handbooks are used as sources in university courses. They carry institutional weight. They signal what the academy considers serious scholarship.

So it matters what they say and how they say it.

The first substantive chapter, immediately following the introduction, is by Ronit Lentin, retired professor at Trinity College Dublin. Most academic biographies in the book start off with "he is a professor of..." or "she is a senior lecturer at..." But Lentin's biography starts with "Ronit Lentin is a Jewish anti-Zionist woman." 

The title of this chapter is "Genocide Is Not a Metaphor: Reflections on Gaza and the Denial of the Crime of Genocide." 

That title tells you something. The first words of the article, after several quotes from Palestinians accusing Israel of genocide, are even more telling:  

The Zionist entity responded to the October 7 2023 act of resistance by the Gaza-based Islamic Resistance Movement—Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, Hamas—by launching a massive air bombardment of the besieged Gaza enclave, followed by a ground offensive. 

If a massive pogrom of murders, burning families, rapes and kidnapping is referred to as an "act of resistance" we can see that we are not going to be reading anything remotely resembling objectivity.  

We can see that Lentin refers to Israel as "the Zionist entity." That alone should be disqualifying for a serious academic press. But within the article we see a far more egregious misuse of both language and a twisting of academic standards. 

Lentin does not refer to the Israel Defense Forces. She refers throughout to the "IGF" — the "Israeli Genocidal Forces." She uses this term deliberately and consistently, embedding the legal conclusion inside the noun so she never has to prove it again. Genocide is no longer a charge to be established — it is an identity, built into the name. Just as in the paper's title, Every subsequent sentence that uses "IGF" inherits that verdict without argument.

In an activist pamphlet, this would be polemical but at least honest about what it is. In a Palgrave academic handbook, it is a pre-verdict dressed as terminology — a rhetorical move that forecloses the analysis it pretends to conduct.

Ask yourself whether Lentin would accept "Palestinian Jihadist Forces" or "Hamas Exterminationist Movement" as neutral academic terminology in a scholarly volume. She cannot even acknowledge Hamas as a terrorist organization — that label, she writes, is merely how 'white Jewish supremacy' frames it — and insists the October 7 attack must be understood as resistance to colonialism (p. 30).

Lentin argues that Zionism is "essentially a race-making ideology and practice" rooted in "European Jewish racial supremacy." This is her axiom, stated in the opening pages and never subsequently argued — only applied. From that premise, everything follows with logical inevitability: Gaza is racialized violence, Israeli military operations are genocidal by definition, and anyone who questions the genocide framing is participating in racial ideology.

Conspiracy theories and closed systems look exactly like this. It is internally coherent and completely unfalsifiable. Counter-evidence does not challenge the framework — it confirms it, as proof of how deep the denial runs.

Lentin is at least partially aware of this exposure. She writes that the chapter "does not deal with the legal implications" of genocide. Rather than modesty, this is insulation. By relocating the debate from international law — where genocide has a specific legal threshold requiring demonstrated intent — to race theory and colonial discourse, she moves onto terrain where legal standards of proof do not apply. Then she uses the word "genocide" as a legal and literal term throughout, even quoting approvingly from scholars who call Gaza "more than genocide." The chapter title insists genocide is not a metaphor, but she has quietly removed the framework that would make it anything other than one.

The author deliberately obscures what happened on October 7 - kidnapping women and children, slaughtering families, cold blooded murders of young people at a dance festival. Since facts upset the coherence of her arguments, she ignores them. Although when it comes to rape, she has a lot to say.

The rape allegations, Lentin argues, function not as evidence of atrocity but as a "racial boundary maintenance" mechanism — a tool for dehumanizing Palestinians and constructing Jewish women as symbols of national purity requiring protection. She cites Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada twice: once for the claim that the rape accusations rest on "emotional manipulation, outlandish claims, distortion, and an appeal to racist notions," and once for the claim that prosecutors found no October 7 rape victims. She cites the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs report only to immediately undercut it, and cites a Guardian piece noting no victims were identified by name.

What she does not cite is the Pramila Patten report.

Patten is the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Her March 2024 report — document A/78/773 — found "clear and convincing information" that sexual violence occurred on October 7, including rape and gang rape, and concluded there were "reasonable grounds to believe" these acts were "widespread and systematic." It is the authoritative UN document specifically addressing October 7 sexual violence, and it does not appear anywhere in Lentin's references.

Similarly, the first Israeli hostage to directly admit being sexually abused also went public in March 2024. Lentin does not want to admit it - so she ignores it. 

Compare this to her treatment of Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, whose reports Lentin cites approvingly and repeatedly as evidence of genocide. Albanese, it should be noted, is not a lawyer. Her mandate is advocacy, not adjudication. But Lentin treats her warnings as institutional validation while ignoring the findings of the UN's own investigator on sexual violence.

The pattern is precise: the UN is authoritative when it supports the genocide framing and irrelevant when it documents Hamas sexual violence. The Patten report was published a full year before she wrote this piece. . It was widely covered. Lentin cites sources from 2024 and 2025 throughout. She chose not to engage with it because its findings complicated her argument that rape discourse is a Zionist racial instrument.

Individual bad papers exist in every field. What matters here is the editorial decision to open a Palgrave handbook's substantive content with this chapter. It tells readers how the editors believe the Israeli-Arab conflict should be categorized — not merely as a political dispute, a territorial conflict, or even a humanitarian crisis, but as the paradigmatic example of racial injustice. Before a word of any other chapter is read, the framework has been established: Israel is a white supremacist racial state, Gaza is a genocide, and skepticism is denial.

University syllabi will cite this volume. Graduate students will footnote it. It will be used to establish what "the scholarly consensus" holds.

Lentin is a sophisticated scholar who knows how to insulate an argument. She disclaims legal analysis while making legal accusations. She frames rape evidence as racial discourse. She cites the UN selectively. She builds a system where every objection is pre-categorized as ideological.

But the IGF rename gives it away. So does the missing Patten report. So does citing a partisan blog twice on sexual violence while ignoring the UN's own investigator on the same subject.

Lentin's framework has one final, self-sealing feature worth naming explicitly. Once genocide is established as axiomatic, the focus shifts to its denial — and denial itself becomes the crime. Her chapter title is not just "Genocide Is Not a Metaphor" but "Reflections on Gaza and the Denial of the Crime of Genocide." The denial is the subject, not the genocide itself.

This is elegant, in a troubling way. No one disputes that Israeli officials, journalists, and supporters dispute the genocide charge. That denial is real and documented. So Lentin has constructed a framework where the one thing no one can argue against — that Israelis deny committing genocide — becomes proof of their ideology. The denial confirms the racial logic. The more vigorously you reject the charge, the deeper your complicity.

There are no facts that Lentin can accept that  would disprove her thesis. And that is evidence that her entire well-footnoted article is structurally identical to antisemitic conspiracy theory.

Academic freedom means the right to publish arguments. It does not obligate the rest of us to pretend that selective citation, unfalsifiable frameworks, and pre-verdict terminology constitute scholarship. Palgrave/Macmillan apparently disagrees.

---

---

Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

Read More

02/26 Links Pt2: How the Revolutionary Left Embraced Radical Islam; Parents Sue California State Education System Over ‘Anti-Semitic Propaganda’ and Harassment; Modi places wreath at Yad Vashem’s Hall of Remembrance

From Ian:

How the Revolutionary Left Embraced Radical Islam

In 2006, in a public discussion of Israel’s assault on Lebanon, the feminist scholar Judith Butler characterized Hamas and Hezbollah as “part of the global left.” Butler’s remarks provoked a scandal at the time, but after the October 7 attacks, it became common to hear Western leftist protesters chanting slogans like “long live Hamas!” How did Middle Eastern terrorist groups rooted in radical Islamic ideology come to occupy such a central place in otherwise secular left-wing politics? In The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s, journalist Jason Burke takes up this question, exploring the historical roots of the Palestinian national movement and situating its rise within the transition from 1970s left-wing radicalism to the emergence of radical Islamism, which reshaped global politics in the 1980s.

Burke’s account brings to life the central figures of this transnational revolutionary movement: Leila Khaled of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Fusako Shigenobu of the Japanese Red Army, Ulrike Meinhof from the German Red Army Faction, and “Carlos the Jackal,” the nom de guerre of the sociopathic Venezuelan-born gun for hire Ilich Ramírez Sánchez. These leftist militants moved fluidly across borders, traveling from sympathetic regimes in the Middle East to hubs of revolutionary fervor, most notably the PLO’s refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan. They hijacked airplanes and marched with Kalashnikovs in the desert. Inspired by the revolutionary tracts of Frantz Fanon, Régis Debray, Che Guevara, and Mao Zedong, they forged a transnational network of anti-colonial insurgency and solidarity.

These left-wing radicals took Mao’s dictum that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” to heart and concluded that electoral politics and peaceful protest were insufficient for taking on the global forces of capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism. But this analysis also created its own problems. The enemy these militants fought was not a single politician, national government, or corporation, but a vast, complex global political and economic system, so it was always unclear how a small number of assassinations and kidnappings could defeat it.

This is part of why Israel became their primary target. The radicals of the era viewed the Jewish state as the most egregious manifestation of capitalist decadence and settler colonialism, but also as small and weak enough to be brought down through violent direct action. By doing so, they believed they could hasten the inevitable collapse of a rotten Euro-American imperial system.

The ideological current underpinning this radical global project was internationalism. Building on Marx’s dictum that class conflict had no national boundaries, these radicals traveled the world for training, combat, and refuge. From the street cafes of Paris to the Arab communist enclave of Aden, the revolutionaries searched for hideout spots and friendly governments in far-flung parts of the world. For example, “Carlos the Jackal,” settled in the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen after fleeing authorities in Europe.

Burke offers a compellingly detailed picture of these radicals’ delusions of grandeur and the many comical contradictions that hampered their efforts. For example, a group of British Trotskyists drank alcohol in a PLO training camp and got into a fist fight with British Maoists as well as with the Palestinian guards who tried to confiscate their bottles. The German Red Army Faction mistakenly incorporated a submachine gun used by West German security forces into their logo, instead of the Kalashnikov, the weapon most associated with anti-colonial resistance. German radicals were so repulsed by the dirtiness of a PFLP office in Yemen that they went on a blitzkrieg-style cleaning spree. These militants romanticized the life of the revolutionary and were convinced they were forging a more just world, but they were constantly undermined by their own incompetence, poor planning, bad tempers, and cultural cluelessness.

Seth Mandel: The Emotional and Intellectual Fragility of Anti-Israel Activists

The few stills from the video presentation that have leaked focus on Islamophobia and something called “anti-Palestinian racism.” One example of anti-Palestinian racism, provided on a slide about “APR in Education,” is: “Being called Antisemitic if they are Pro-Palestinian or speak up about APR.”

This is a neat trick, and it is in line with the wider speech-chilling campaign conducted by pro-Hamas propagandists: It is “racist” to call someone an anti-Semite.

Because this idea is ubiquitous among Gaza Westerners, it tells us a few things about members of this movement.

First, they exhibit a level of emotional and intellectual fragility that is, frankly, pathetic. This training reportedly showed a map of Israel replaced by the Palestinian flag, and yet “teaching students that ‘Israel is a free democratic state’ would render teachers ‘racist’ in the eyes of the board,” Hummel explains. That the “pro-Palestinian” narrative relies on such Stalinism is not unrelated to the fact that much of modern anti-Zionist propaganda was produced by the Soviet Union in the first place. Yet even by the standards of anti-freedom Hamasniks, this scale of reality-aversion in adults is frightening.

Second, the process by which this campaign is being carried out is anti-democratic in the extreme. That means the system will be anti-democratic about everything it does. Israel isn’t the exception but the rule. The ultimate target, then, is the Western system of liberty and self-government, with which strident anti-Zionism is entirely incompatible.

Third, the terminology is an assault on language. “Anti-Palestinian racism” is a ridiculous, self-contradictory phrase that ought to be laughed out of the room. If it were racism, they could just call it racism. Since it isn’t, its proponents have come up with a term that means “pretend ‘Palestinian’ is something it’s not.”

And fourth, absolutely none of the movement’s complaints about “policing anti-Israel rhetoric” are to be taken seriously. These lunatics are arguing that openly calling for genocide against the Jews is not only within the bounds of neutral argumentation but that it is fundamental to the identity of what might be called Palestinianism. But saying “Israel is a democratic state” is so “racist” that educators have to be trained not to say it around children.

As this type of “equity” training colonizes Western academia at every level of schooling, it’s easy to see why these activists want it kept secret. Any self-respecting person would be ashamed to be a part of it.

The Real Reason the “Pro-Pals” Did not speak out on behalf of Iranians

The author seems to think this is perfectly understandable under the circumstances of the Palestinians’ lives imposed on them, not by their own leaders who drag them into incessant conflict, but because of Israel’s terrible treatment of Palestinians [2](also in the West Bank- I guess the Gazans were channeling their brothers and sisters.) In point of fact, Israel had not stepped foot in Gaza since 2005. Only when Hamas was elected to lead and resumed firing rockets at Israeli towns on a near daily basis, did Israel together with Egypt impose a blockade to prevent the Gazans from bringing in more tools of destruction (it didn’t work).

Mr. QJ laments the number of deaths of Palestinians at the hands of Israelis but you know what he never mentions even once? Hamas and a good part of the Palestinian population at large, is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and killing Jews as they have threatened to do repeatedly. And we had a front row seat to how that threat has been and, if given the opportunity, will continue to be carried out, on October 7, 2023. Israel set out to destroy Hamas so that the October 7 atrocities can never be repeated — and all of its actions in Gaza were proportionate to war’s purpose. No one forced Hamas to store munitions in schools and use hospitals as a base for military operations or to shoot from people’s homes making civilian casualties unavoidable.

The author’s point is essentially this: We don’t need to stand up for Iranians because there is substantial agreement in the country that what Iran is doing is wrong. We need only protest Israel’s actions because Israel has the support of its American ally.

So notwithstanding the real genocide in Sudan, no need to support the Sudanese because we all agree that they are oppressed and the United States is not supporting Sudan,

Tell that to the people who spoke out on behalf of the Ukrainians and against the South African apartheid.

What message does silence send to the Iranian people who are risking their lives for freedom? Some suffering is more worthy than others?

In other words, instead of answering the question—why some activists ignore atrocities in Iran—the author takes the opportunity to add to the slanderous vitriol against Israel who are portrayed as uniquely evil and invents a narrative that absolves him of any moral responsibility, Iran as irrelevant, and critical thinking is nowhere in sight.

This was not an article to be taken seriously on its merits and I would not usually pay attention to this kind of drivel but the author has 18,000 followers and lots of support. Fair minded people cannot allow antisemitic voices to continue slandering the State of Israel without raising our hands.

Read More

02/26 Links Pt1: The crumbling wall of Hamas propaganda; Ex-hostage Matan Angrest reveals he was tortured; The Disastrous Legacy of Mahmoud Abbas

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The crumbling wall of Hamas propaganda

That “genocide” lie has now been revealed as a travesty by Hamas itself. In its latest revision of the number of deaths in Gaza during the war, it says that 68,800 died. As before, it provides no acknowledgement of the number of these casualties who were terrorist combatants, nor the number who were killed by misfired rockets from Gaza or execution by Hamas (of which there have been many), nor indeed the number of natural deaths.

Most of the dead were men aged 18 to 59. According to researcher Gabriel Epstein, who broke the numbers down for Haaretz, the Hamas statistics show a much higher share of adult men and older teenage boys relative to their share of the population and a much lower share of women and children.

This totally refutes the mantra that those killed by Israel were “overwhelmingly” women and children. And, of course, it exposes the claim of genocide as utterly ludicrous.

Among those who have defamed Israel with these lies for the past 28 months, there is no admission of the terrible wrong they have done, even as their narrative collapses around them. Far from acknowledging that an unknown number of its staff have terrorist links, MSF is refusing to share a list of its Palestinian and international staff with Israeli authorities as part of the registration process to work in Gaza and the “West Bank.”

What’s more, its admission about terrorists at Nasser Hospital was buried in a rarely referenced FAQ page on the MSF website, where it was spotted by the eagle-eyed analyst Salo Aizenberg.

There appears to be nothing about this MSF report, the PIJ “dual identity” revelations or the revised Hamas statistical breakdown on the websites of Israel’s chief media demonizers, the BBC and The New York Times.

As for Oxfam, the BBC website reports the industrial tribunal case Begum has brought against the charity by detailing claims against her of bullying and other leadership issues, while failing to mention her explosive charge that Oxfam has a “toxic antisemitic culture.”

Nor is this the first time that MSF’s halo has been tarnished from within. In December 2023, Alain Destexhe, MSF’s former head, published a 47-page report based on tweets and posts by MSF staff on X and on Facebook.

This revealed that a significant proportion of MSF staff in Gaza supported Hamas, including its onslaught on Oct. 7. They never denounced on X the crimes committed by Hamas on that day, the taking of hostages, or the use of hospitals as barracks or human shields.

While MSF spared Hamas, said the report, the NGO accused Israel of “all the crimes,” using terms such as “massacres,” “annihilation,” and “accepted and organized sacrifice.”

“Is it possible,” it asked, “that MSF and its employees knew nothing and saw nothing of the violations of humanitarian law in the hospital by Hamas?”

It’s a good question, which could usefully be repeated about others. Is it possible that the Western media and the rest of the liberal establishment that demonize and defame Israel know nothing and see nothing of the violations of truth and evidence by Hamas?

The answer, incredible as it seems, is yes—and no. Those who see it shut their eyes to it. Others don’t allow themselves to see it at all.

Nothing, including whistleblowing or revised information from within, can be allowed to challenge the Western liberal narrative of heartless Israeli colonizers and wretched displaced Palestinians. Which is why the entire media, humanitarian and human-rights complex, which has poisoned the mind of the West with this exterminatory propaganda, is itself an accomplice to an all-too-real genocidal program.

Former hostage Matan Angrest says he was electrocuted in captivity

Former hostage Matan Angrest says he was tortured and electrocuted during his two-plus years in Hamas captivity.

“For eight hours in a row, I sat and had to tell them things, during which I knew that it wasn’t just about my own well-being but the security of the country at stake. There are things that are in the realm of ‘die and don’t tell,'” Angrest tells Channel 12’s Uvda investigative program, indicating that he was exposed to highly classified intelligence during his service in an elite tank unit.

Angrest recalls opening his eyes for the first time after he was kidnapped from his tank, which was hit by an RPG on the Gaza border.

He says he found himself in a home in Gaza with over half a dozen Palestinians sitting in front of him.

They began asking him questions about where he served and where he was kidnapped from, but the questions were in Arabic and he didn’t understand. His captors then got angry and started beating him while his hands and feet were tied.

He says he couldn’t move his arm because it was burned so badly.

“Someone came to me with two cables and put them on my wound and just turned (a machine) on. I could feel myself being electrocuted. I screamed in a pain that is impossible to describe,” Angrest says.

The Disastrous Legacy of Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who became head of the Palestine Liberation Organization after Yasser Arafat's death, is a Holocaust-denying, terror-supporting, corrupt dictator who was bad for Israel, bad for the Palestinians, and bad for peace, which he undermined more than promoted. His policies promoted, incited, and rewarded terrorism and the systematic indoctrination of generations of Palestinians to hate Israel and Israelis.

He insisted on treating genocidal terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as legitimate Palestinian factions and continued to reject peace efforts. Abbas bears direct responsibility for the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis. If the PA is to continue playing any future role, any future Palestinian leader must be the absolute antithesis of Abbas.

While consistently feigning moderation and pragmatism, Abbas consistently rejected peace. In 2008, he rejected an offer by then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to create a Palestinian state. Instead, Abbas chose to pursue virtual statehood, repeatedly requesting that the UN recognize the non-existent "State of Palestine."

Abbas accumulated a substantial personal fortune estimated to be over $100 million. His sons, Tarek and Yasser, run the large Falcon business consortium that controls much of Palestinian commerce. The consortium includes tobacco, electrical and mechanical engineering, media, construction, and investment interests. They, too, have amassed huge personal fortunes.

Read More

Parents Admit ‘Some Concern’ As Gannenet Deploys ED-209 To Guard Bamba (PreOccupied Territory)

 Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook  and  Substack pages.

Parents Admit ‘Some Concern’ As Gannenet Deploys ED-209 To Guard Bamba

Jerusalem, February 27 - A wave of snack thefts at a local daycare has prompted the preschool teacher to install an enforcement droid to prevent further trespasses, but the unit's reputation for uncompromising implementation of its protocols has some adults in the community wondering whether other, less extreme, options might deserve exploration before this solution gets implemented, lest, for example, a child gets frightened.

Parents of the two dozen children at Gan Esti in the city's Giv'at Massua neighborhood expressed a modicum of anxiety over the use of the Omni Consumer Products ED-209, following at least two instances of children in Esti's care breaking into the cabinet and stealing Bamba.

"We have some concern," acknowledged Yuval Shalev, father of Lihi, 5. "Nobody wants their child consuming too much junk food, and certainly nobody wants their child to learn that stealing is tolerated. Everyone agrees on that. We just think that, maybe, before resorting to a machine that riddles the suspect with hundreds of rounds, continuing even after he's just a convulsing corpse, should sit no higher than, say, ninth of the list of deterrence possibilities."

The preschool teacher, Esti Cohen, defended the decision with characteristic gannenet pragmatism. "Bamba is not just a snack — it's practically a food group," she explained in a brief phone interview. "After the second incident, where little Noam [Sharabi, 4] managed to pry open the cabinet during circle time and distributed half the stash to his friends before I noticed, I realized we needed something more reliable than a child-proof lock. The ED-209 arrived last week from a... surplus supplier. It's programmed for compliance enforcement. Simple."

Cohen emphasized that the unit remains in standby mode during most gan hours, stationed discreetly behind the craft-supply shelf with its massive frame partially concealed by a colorful mural of the Israeli flag and smiling cartoon animals. "We only activate it when there are fewer staff members in the room," she added. "And we've adjusted the protocols — no lethal force unless the offender refuses to return the pilfered bag after verbal warning. It's very reasonable."

Not all parents share that confidence. Michal Levy, mother of twins aged 4, described the robot's arrival as "a bit much, even for Jerusalem standards." She pointed out that the ED-209's distinctive mechanical growl occasionally echoes through the thin walls during naptime, startling some of the younger children awake. "One boy asked if it's a new kind of dinosaur," she said. "We told him it's a very big toy. But honestly? We're worried about the 'twenty seconds to comply' part. Toddlers and preschoolers don't count that well, if at all."

Community WhatsApp groups have lit up with memes: side-by-side photos of the hulking droid looming over innocent orange Bamba bags, captioned with variations on "You have 20 seconds to hand over the puff...." "You are in violation of Gan Protocol III Section 9." Some parents have suggested alternatives —reward charts, a "Bamba honor system," or simply buying more bags to avoid scarcity-driven crime. A few even floated crowdfunding a less aggressive model, perhaps an ED-101 with softer protocols.

Shalev, the father quoted earlier, remains diplomatic but firm. "We're not against innovation," he said. "Israelis love tech. But when the alternative to a five-year-old grabbing an extra handful is hundreds of rounds turning the play area into a crime scene reenactment, maybe we dial it back. Start with a stern look, move up to time-outs, then maybe a locked box. At least in our home, even when he's at his worst, we try to avoid murdering a misbehaving child."

---

---

Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

Read More

Most Palestinians, among themselves, consider themselves as originating from outside Palestine

There is a striking disconnect between three different ways Palestinian identity is described: in genetic studies, in Western political discourse, and in internal clan narratives.

Start with genetics. Most population studies show that Palestinian DNA is overwhelmingly Levantine - often over 80%. That category includes Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, so it does not prove continuous residence within the borders of Mandatory Palestine. Still, genetically speaking, Palestinians are largely a Levantine population.

Now look at how Palestinian identity is framed in the West. There the emphasis is on absolute indigeneity: a people wholly rooted in the land, implicitly contrasted with Jews portrayed as foreign. In that framing, outside origins are minimized or ignored.

But there is a third narrative - the one found in Palestinian clan histories, tribal affiliations and social media accounts. Here, a very different picture emerges. Many families openly state, and often take pride in, origins outside Palestine: Hejaz, Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Syria, even Circassian or Kurdish migrations during Ottoman times.

To move beyond anecdote, I examined the appendix of Glenn Robinson’s 2009 paper “Palestinian Tribes, Clans, and Notable Families.” The list was not compiled with this issue in mind, which makes it a reasonably neutral sample of prominent Palestinian family names. After removing duplicates, roughly 95 families remained.

The origins of about 10% of the families could not be identified. Of the remainder:

• About 20% described themselves as indigenous to the local Levant.

• About 12% traced their origins to older Levantine Arab migrations that long predated Islam.

• About 69% claimed migration from Arabia or other external regions, including prestigious lineages tied to the Hejaz, Yemen, Bedouin tribes, Hashemite ancestry, companions of Muhammad, Egyptian arrivals, or Ottoman-era migrations.

In other words, among families that preserve and publicize origin traditions, roughly 80% associate themselves with roots outside Palestine.

This does not necessarily contradict the DNA evidence. Male-line tribal migrations marrying local women could easily produce a largely Levantine genetic profile alongside Arabian clan narratives. The point is not genetic purity. It is self-perception.

Why do so many families prefer to emphasize external tribal origins rather than local indigeneity? In Arab society, descent from prestigious tribes - especially those connected to early Islamic history - carries social capital. Identity narratives often follow honor and status.

That creates tension with the Western-facing narrative of exclusive indigeneity. Internally, many families celebrate migration stories. Externally, migration is rhetorically erased. Their self-definition is that they came from elsewhere, not that they are proudly native Palestinians - even when their DNA might say otherwise. 

By contrast, Jewish diasporic naming traditions generally preserve identification with ancient Israelite tribes rather than with host nations. Ashkenazic Jews did not historically claim Polish or Hungarian tribal origin as a source of prestige. Surnames such as Cohen, Katz, Levi and even Loeb. Wolf and Hirsch explicitly reference biblical lineage. Whether every claim is provable is secondary; the identity myth points toward ancient Israel, not toward the countries of exile.

This small fact is of course Kryptonite to the prevailing anti-Israel propaganda that Jews are illegal settlers and Palestinians are indigenous. The Jews never relinquished their ties to the land from their origins; Palestinians by and large do it even today on countless Palestinian Facebook and family webpages. 

The contrast is not about genetics. It is about where a people locates its origin story. When internal clan narratives celebrate external migration while political narratives assert exclusive indigeneity, the tension deserves examination.

Here is the entire list of Palestinian surnames as identified by Robinson and where these families say they originated from:

Family/Clan/Tribe	Region(s)	Claimed Origins	Status
‘Abd al-Hadi	Nablus	Notable; claims descent from al-Hadi (Hashemite, from Mohammed).	Migrated (Arabian/External)
‘Amr	Hebron	Linked to Banu Amr, sub-tribe of Tamim or others.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
‘Atrash	Bethlehem	Deaf clan; possible Bedouin.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
‘Azza	Hebron	Clan; possible Jewish origins in traditions.	Indigenous
Abu Amash	Bayt Hanun	Clan; claims descent from Umash in Beirut (Lebanese ties) or from Kafr Qaddum (West Bank local).	Indigenous (if West Bank) or Migrated (if Lebanese) – assuming Indigenous based on Palestinian context
Abu Awda	Bayt Hanun	Clan; possible Egyptian or Sudanese roots, or from Awad in Palestine (local Levantine).	Migrated (Arabian/External) if Egyptian; Indigenous if local
Abu Ghawsh	Jerusalem	Clan; claims Kurdish origins.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Abu Hassanayn	Gaza	Clan; possible from Hassanayn in Syria or Iraq; linked to Husseini/Hashemite descent.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Abu Khusa	Gaza	Clan; possible from Khusa in Egypt or Transjordan.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Abu Mashaseeb	Dayr al-Balah	N/A (no new claims; possible local Gaza clan).	N/A
Abu Middain	Gaza	Clan; possible Egyptian origins.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Abu Naja	Rafah	Clan; claims descent from Naja in Arabia or Morocco; some link to Quraish.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Abu Samhadana	Rafah	Clan; Bedouin, with Sinai/Egyptian ties.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Abu Sharkh	Gaza	Possible east origins, implying Transjordanian.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Abu Taha	Gaza/Rafah/Khan Yunis	Clan; possible Yemeni or Egyptian roots.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Abu Warda	Gaza	Clan; possible from Warda in Arabia or Egypt.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Adwan	Gaza	Bedouin clan; claims descent from Adwan tribe in Jordan, Hejazi origins.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Agha	Gaza	Claims Turkish or Circassian descent from Ottoman era.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Ahfat	Nablus	N/A (no new claims; possible local Nablus notable).	N/A
Al-Ahmad	Nablus/Jenin	Common; possible descent from Ahmad (variant of Mohammed).	Indigenous
Al-Hajj Muhammad	Nablus	Pilgrim family; claims to Mohammed.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Al-Sayf	Nablus	Sword clan; possible warrior Sahaba links.	Indigenous
Al-Sha’ir	Rafah/Khan Yunis	Clan; claims poetic lineage, possibly from Hejaz tribes.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Alami	Jerusalem	Notable; claims Moroccan or Syrian roots.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Ashur	Khan Yunis	Possible Assyrian or Transjordanian roots.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Atallah	Hebron	Christian connotations; possible Ghassanid.	Levantine but Migrated (Pre-Islamic/Regional Arab)
Bakr	Gaza	Linked to Banu Bakr tribe, Adnanite Arabs from Hejaz.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Bani Himar	Jerusalem	N/A (linked to Banu Himar, possibly Hejazi tribe; scarce info).	N/A
Bani Murra	Jerusalem	Linked to Banu Murra, Hejazi tribe.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Bani Shamsa	Nablus	Clan; claims descent from Shamsa in Arabia (Qahatani or Adnani ties).	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Bani Zayd	Jerusalem	Clan; claims Arabian Peninsula origins, linked to Bani Zeid.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Barghouthi (Barghouti)	Ramallah/Al-Bira/Bethlehem	From Bani Zeid; descent from Omar ibn al-Khattab (Sahabi), via Egypt/Tunisia.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Baytuni	Jerusalem	Possible Christian origins (Beitunia ties).	Indigenous
Buhaisi	Gaza	Clan; possible from Buhaisi in Bahrain or Hejaz.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Burqawi	Nablus	From Burqa; local roots.	Indigenous
Dajani	Jerusalem	Notable a'yan; claims descent from Dajan tribe, possibly Hejazi or Yemeni.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Dakkak	Jerusalem	Notable; possible from Dakkak in Syria or local Jerusalem elite.	Migrated (Arabian/External) if Syrian; N/A otherwise
Darwish	Jerusalem	Sufi connotations; possible Yemeni or Hejazi.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Dira	Gaza	N/A (scarce; possible local Gaza clan or from Dira in Arabia).	N/A
Dughmush	Gaza	Clan; claims descent from Arab tribes in Iraq or Hejaz.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Duwaykat	Nablus	Clan; possible from Duwaykat in Nablus region (local).	Indigenous
Dweik	Hebron	Notable; claims descent from Dweik in Arabia or Ottoman ties.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Freij	Bethlehem	Possible Christian origins.	Indigenous
Hamad	Bethlehem	Praise; common Arab.	Indigenous
Hanun	Tulkarm	Compassionate; possible from Hanun in Syria or local.	Migrated (Arabian/External) if Syrian
Hasan	Jerusalem	Common name; possible descent from Hasan ibn Ali (grandson of Mohammed).	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Haniyya	Ramallah/Al-Bira	From Haniyah tribe, possible Yemeni.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Hilmi	Nablus	N/A (possible local notable; linked to Hilmi in Syria).	N/A
Hillis	Gaza	Clan; claims Yemeni tribal origins.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Hizbun	Bethlehem	N/A (scarce; possible Christian or local Bethlehem clan).	N/A
Husayni	Jerusalem	Claims descent from Husayn ibn Ali (grandson of Mohammed) via Yaman tribe roots.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Ja’bari	Hebron	Notable; claims descent from Jabir ibn Abdullah (Sahabi).	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Jarrar	Nablus	Clan; claims Jordanian or Hejazi ties.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Jaraf	Gaza	N/A (scarce; possible from Jaraf in Arabia).	N/A
Jawwad	Salfit	Generous; possible from Jawwad in Arabia or local.	N/A
Jayyusi	Nablus	Linked to Jays tribe, Arab Peninsula.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Jughan	Khan Yunis	N/A (scarce; possible local Khan Yunis clan).	N/A
Kafarna	Bayt Hanun	Possible Christian origins, implying Ghassanid (Yemeni-Arab Christian) ties.	Levantine but Migrated (Pre-Islamic/Regional Arab)
Kamal	Ramallah/Al-Bira	Perfection; notable, possible Turkish.	Indigenous
Kan’an (Kanaan)	Nablus	From Kanaan; claims Syrian origins.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Ka’raja	Jerusalem	N/A (scarce; possible from Ka'raja in Jerusalem local elite).	N/A
Khalaf	Ramallah/Al-Bira	Successor; possible caliphate ties.	Indigenous
Khalidi	Jerusalem	From Bani Khalid tribe; descent from Khalid ibn al-Walid (Sahabi).	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Khatib	Jerusalem	Preacher family; claims Quraysh or Sahaba ties.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Khoury	Ramallah/Al-Bira	Priest; Christian, Ghassanid Arab from Peninsula.	Levantine but Migrated (Pre-Islamic/Regional Arab)
Lahham	Jerusalem/Bethlehem	Butcher clan; possible Christian Ghassanid roots.	Levantine but Migrated (Pre-Islamic/Regional Arab)
Madhun	Gaza	Notable; descent from Bani Hashim al-Ashraf al-Husayni (Quraish), migrated Mecca-Medina-Ta'if, then various places including Palestine in Mamluk era.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Majayda	Khan Yunis	Clan; claims descent from Majayda in Arabia (possibly Qahtani).	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Mamar	Khan Yunis	N/A (scarce; possible from Mamar in Arabia or local).	N/A
Mansur	Nablus	Victorious; possible Ottoman ties.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Masri	Multiple	"Egyptian"; claims descent from Egyptian migrants in 19th century.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Mattar	Gaza	Possible Egyptian ties.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Milhem	Halhul	Notable; possible from Milhem in Arabia or local Hebron.	N/A
Mughani	Gaza	Clan; claims descent from Mughani in Arabia (Quraish or Hejaz).	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Muhtasib	Hebron	Market inspector; Ottoman-era role, possible Syrian roots.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Musleh	Ramallah/Al-Bira	Reformer; possible local Ramallah notable.	Indigenous
Nasir	Jabalya	Linked to Banu Nasr, possible Hejazi tribe.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Nasr	Qalqilya	Victory; possible Nasr tribe.	Indigenous
Natshi	Hebron	Notable; claims descent from Natshi in Arabia (Tamim or Quraish ties).	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Nimr	Nablus	Tiger clan; notable a'yan.	Indigenous
Nusayba (Nusseibeh)	Jerusalem	Descent from Ubadah ibn al-Samit (Sahabi) and Banu Khazraj (Ansar).	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Qasim	Nablus	Linked to Banu Qasim, Hashemite.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Qawasma	Hebron	Clan; claims Yemeni origins.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Rayyan	Nablus	Common; possible from Rayyan in Arabia (gate of Paradise link, symbolic).	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Reyyes (Rayyes)	Gaza	Notable family; claims Arab elite (a'yan) roots, possibly from Hejaz.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Rishmawi	Bethlehem	Christian; Ghassanid or Yemenite.	Levantine but Migrated (Pre-Islamic/Regional Arab)
Salah	Jerusalem	Linked to Saladin's era, Kurdish or Arab.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Samana	Jabalya	N/A (scarce; possible from Samana in Arabia).	N/A
Shaq’a	Nablus	Notable; claims Hejazi Arab roots.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Shahwan	Khan Yunis	Clan; claims descent from Shahwan in Arabia (Bedouin ties).	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Shawwa	Gaza	Notable; Ottoman-era origins, with claims to Syrian or Transjordanian descent.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Shawwaf	Gaza	Notable; possible from Shawwaf in Arabia or Syria.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Shami	Jenin	From Sham (Syria); Syrian origins.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Simhan	Jerusalem	N/A (scarce; possible from Simhan in Jerusalem local).	N/A
Suwayti	Jericho	Clan; possible from Suwayti in Arabia or local Jericho.	N/A
Ta’amra	Bethlehem	Bedouin; nomadic Arab, with Edomite/Nabatean ties via trade.	Indigenous
Tamimi	Hebron	From Banu Tamim tribe; Adnanite descent from Ishmael via Adnan.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Tawil	Ramallah/Al-Bira	Tall clan; possible Christian Ghassanid.	Levantine but Migrated (Pre-Islamic/Regional Arab)
Tayaha	Gaza (Tribal Confederation)	Bedouin; linked to Tayy tribe, claiming Adnanite descent from Ishmael, with Hejazi origins.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Tuqan (Touqan)	Nablus	Notable; linked to Ta'amira Bedouins, nomadic Arab roots.	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Uraqat	Jerusalem/Jericho	Bedouin clan from Huwaitat region (northwestern Arabia); ancestors from Medina (Hejaz).	Migrated (Arabian/External)
Yahya	Jenin	John; possible Christian links.	Indigenous
Ziyada	Ramallah/Al-Bira	Common; possible from Ziyada in Arabia or local Ramallah.	N/A

---

---

Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

Read More