You know how Israel is always accused of using archaeology to hide any traces of Muslim presence in the land (a charge that a simple visit to the Israel Museum would dispel)?
Well, that's passe. Now Israel is being accused of hiding the flourishing Canaanite-Palestinian civilization.
A
Jordanian columnist says "The Zionist movement is trying hard to obliterate any trace of the existence of the Canaanite civilization in Palestine."
Given that the Torah says that the Canaanites existed, this is an interesting accusation. But, you see, it isn't the Canaanites they are hiding so much as the purported
Palestinian ties to Canaan. You see, from this article we learn that the formidable giants that the twelve Israelite scouts encountered (Numbers 13:28) were, in fact, Palestinian!
You learn something new every day.
It is good to know that Palestinian Arabs are in fact descended from Canaanite non-Arabs.
Except for those named
Erekat/Uraiqat/Areikat.
And the famous
Husseini family of Jerusalem, who came in the 12th century. (The
Shawishes come from the Husseinis.)
And the equally famous
Nashashibis of Jerusalem, who are of Kurdish/Turkoman or Arabian peninsula origin.
And the
Abu Ghoshes, who came around the time of the Crusades, possibly from Europe.
And the
Barghoutis, who came from the
Bani Zeid clan who arrived after the Crusades as well.
And the
Al Khalil family, from Mecca.
And the
Khazens, who are from Lebanon.
And the Nusseibehs,
the oldest Arab family in Jerusalem, who arrived in the 7th century.
And the
Qudwa and Arafat families, who came from Aleppo, Syria to Gaza in the late 17th century.
And the
Ridwans, who came from the Ottoman empire to become leaders in Gaza.
And the
Salibas, from Greece via Lebanon.
And the
Touqans, from either northern Arabia or northern Syria.
And the
Hammoudas from Transjordan.
And the
Zeitawis who came from Mecca to Morocco to Gaza. They are related to the
Zaghabs.
And the
Ghassans, who came from Arabia to Lebanon.
And the
Tamimis, who come from the Tamim tribe of Arabia.
And the
Tarabins, who claim to originally come from the Bakom Valley east of Mecca.
And the
Jabaris, who descend from an inhabitant of the Jabar castle on the Euphrates.
And the
Matar family from Kuwait.
And the prominent Jerusalem family
Nammari, who came to Palestine from Spain during the expulsion.
And the
Adwans, who came from the Hijaz.
And the
Dajanis, originally from Arabia but whose first resident came to Palestine from Spain and Morocco.
And even the Nabulsi family, who are named after the town of Nablus, but
Nablus only got that Arabicized name in the 7th century.
The
Murads came from Albania, and settled in Palestine in the 1500s.
The
Al Hafi clan descended from
Bishar al-Hafi who lived in Baghdad.
The
Chehaybers are of Turkish-Arab descent.
Christian families from Bait Sahour named Abu Aita, Khoury, Yacoub, Ibrahim, Sous, Abdil-Masih Al-Hayik, Rishmawi and Hannouneh whose
ancestors came from Turkey in the 17th century.
The Marashda, Khair, Bannoura, Awwad and Badra families who came from the Rashda area of Egypt in the 18th century.
The Kukali family which came from Syria around the same time.
The Tawil, Sa'ad, Gharub and Masa'ad families, descended from the Marashda family mentioned about.
And the Hejazis from Arabia, Mughrabis from Morocco, Masris from Egypt, Houranis from Syria, Turkis and Dogmushes from Turkey, Yamanis from Yemen, Jaziris from Algeria, Hindis from India, Kurdis from Kurdistan, Halabis from Aleppo, Trabelsis (Tripoli), Sudanis (Sudan), Faranjis (French), and Shamis (Syria).
But besides
every famous Palestinian Arab clan, sure, everyone
else must be Canaanites.