The relationship between Israeli and Palestinian archeologists always has been tense. Most Palestinian scholars reject the Jewish belief that archaeological evidence accords Jews the strongest claim to the Holy Land. Some Palestinians claim their presence in the region predates the Jews by more than a millennium. Modern-day Palestinians, according to that school of belief, are not the descendants of people who drifted from the Arabian peninsula in recent centuries, as most historians believe, but are the direct descendants of the Philistines, Aegean Sea people who settled on the coast of Canaan in the 12th century B.C. Palestinian archeologist Dr. Adel Yahya argues that "Palestinians are the descendants of the ancient Canaanites themselves, who were present in the land before the Israelites arrived."
Though there is no physical evidence to back these assertions, they have been popular among Palestinian academics for at least a decade. Mainstream international archeologists flatly reject that belief. Palestinian Islamists also shy away from the theory, which would make them descendants of pagans.
mcjonline.com
Hamed Salem, a lecturer in archeology at Bir Zeit University in Ramallah, recently declared: "Even the term Judaism is not very old. There is no record of Judaism before Jesus." |
