Is Israel a European settler-colonial state, as people in postcolonial studies like to claim, or an expression of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, as much of the Jewish community would claim? Could there be multiple types of indigeneity, and could Jews and Palestinians be indigenous in different ways?
"We often hear that modern day Jews “colonized” Israel. It’s important to realize that we Jews are in fact decolonizing the land as we have lived in the ancient Israel (Judea) for thousands of years and were the ones subjected to colonial entities (such as the Roman’s, Greeks, Turks and the British)." Rudy Rochman
“Settler colonialism” refers to an attempt by an imperial power to replace the native population of a land with a new society of settlers. It cannot describe a reality in which a national group, acting on its behalf and not at the behest of an external power, returned to its historic homeland to achieve self-determination while simultaneously supporting the creation of a nation-state for another national group alongside the creation of their own state. (American Jewish Committee)
Who is more indigenous; a Jew who lives outside of Israel, but whose ancestors lived there thousands of years ago in biblical times, or a Palestinian whose grandparents and great-grandparents lived in villages in Israel before the founding of the state? (Note: There are also Jews whose families have lived in Israel uninterrupted for millenia).
● Is indigeneity a zero-sum game? Can more than one group be indigenous?
Show the social media post: Can both Jews and Palestinians be indigenous?“
https://www.instagram.com/p/C14w1T5x8z4/?hl=en
Can both Jews and Palestinians be Indigenous?
The conflict between Zionism & Palestinian nationalism is often described as a conflict between foreign settlers and indigenous natives.
But I think that a more accurate description would be a conflict between two Indigenous peoples.
Indigenous status has many definitions. But I want to focus on two main components that are widely agreed upon that are rooted in identity.
One refers to descent from the land’s original inhabitants. The other, to maintaining that original identity and culture.
The majority of Jews and Palestinian Arabs descend from the ancient Israelites and Canaanites that once lived here. This is well established by the majority of historians, anthropologists, and geneticists.
The Jewish community is the modern embodiment of Israelite identity and culture. According to linguists, the Hebrew language is the only surviving Canaanite language. The Jewish calendar and holiday seasons are based on the Land’s agricultural cycle. Many if not most Jewish laws involve the Lands indigenous flora and fauna.
Palestinians, while identifying as Arabs (an imperial identity brought to the Land by settlers from Arabia) do often identify as descendants of the Canaanites, and have maintained many indigenous agricultural practices and even Hebrew and Aramaic words in Palestinian Arabic.
Both Israelis and Palestinians in varying degrees have components of their identity and culture which are rooted in this Land. Both also have components that are not rooted in this Land.
For the Jewish people those aspects are a product of exile and Diaspora. For Palestinians, those aspects are a product of Arab imperialism and Arabization.
Both have had colonial-imperial structures attempt to take advantage of their respective liberation projects in order to advance their own interests at the expense of both Israelis and Palestinians.
Indigeneity is not a zero sum game. Both the Jewish and Palestinian peoples are Indigenous to Land, though in unique and different ways as a result of our unique and different histories.
Are Jews Indigenous to the Land of Israel? by Ryan Bellerose
An anthropologist named José Martínez Cobo, who served as the UN’s special rapporteur on discrimination against indigenous populations, developed a simple checklist in order to make indigenous status easier to understand. Even though that checklist has since been adjusted—I would argue, to fit the UN’s anti-Israel agenda—it remains the standard for most anthropologists in the field today:
"Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present nondominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system."
This historical continuity may consist of the continuation, for an extended period reaching into the present of one or more of the following factors:
a) Occupation of ancestral lands, or at least of part of them;
b) Common ancestry with the original occupants of these lands;
c) Culture in general, or in specific manifestations (such as religion, living under a tribal system, membership of an indigenous community, dress, means of livelihood, lifestyle, etc.);
d) Language (whether used as the only language, as mother-tongue, as the habitual means of communication at home or in the family, or as the main, preferred, habitual, general or normal language);
e) Residence on certain parts of the country, or in certain regions of the world;
f) Other relevant factors.
As a guideline, the Martínez Cobo study is fairly clear and gives us a way to avoid falling prey to false claims. However, there is one section—which, as far as I can tell, wasn’t in Cobo’s earliest definition—that has been referred to as problematic by many indigenous activists. This section refers to “nondominant sectors of society,” which is directly related to the issue of Jews as an indigenous people. It implies that by being “nondominant,” you have yet to realize self-determination. Ergo, if a group has achieved self-determination (i.e., the Jewish people or the Fijians), they will no longer meet the checklist as indigenous. Seeing how the goal of all indigenous peoples is to achieve self-determination on their ancestral lands, it’s basically the most egregious example of a Catch-22.
You might be wondering why this seemingly throwaway line about “prevailing societies and non-dominant sectors” was included when it’s so clearly counterintuitive to our goals as indigenous peoples. It is my belief that it was inserted to deny indigenous status to one specific people, in fact, the only people who have actually achieved full self-determination on their ancestral lands: the Jewish people. Why else would the United Nations include a caveat that basically denies indigenous peoples’ identity if we actually win in our struggle? (Tablet Magazine)
Big Ideas
1. All Jews are descended from Judeans who were indigenous to the Land of Israel.
2. Jews can be found in different countries around the world because they were often expelled from their homes, fled, or voluntarily left to seek better opportunities.
3. Though Jewish culture varies greatly because Jews have lived amongst many different cultures, all Jews share a central identity, traditions, and practices.
Israel in Jewish prayer
Even while exiled, the Land of Israel has always had a special place in Jewish prayer. For example: at the end of every Passover seder Jews sing “Next year in Jerusalem!”, at Jewish weddings before crushing a glass the song “Im Eshkach” (If I forget thee) is sung, and three times a day Jews pray in the direction of Jerusalem.
● What are some other examples of the importance of the Land of Israel in Jewish prayer or traditions?
● Why do you think Jews put such an emphasis on these rituals in the Diaspora?
● What does it mean to retain a connection to Israel when you aren’t there?
Challenging indigeneity
In discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a claim is often made that Jews are colonialists and not indigenous because the vast majority of Jews have lived outside the land of Israel for 2,000 years.
● What do you think of this claim? Does it have any merit?
● How long does indigeneity last?
● If a group leaves or is expelled from their land, are they still indigenous even outside the land? What if they are gone for thousands of years?
● How does the uniqueness of Jewish history complicate or challenge the idea of indigeneity?
Play an excerpt from the video Are Jews Indigenous to Israel? [19:06-20:13]
THE FIRST PROMISE: You Will Live in The Land and it Will Support You
וְנָתַתִּ֣י לְ֠ךָ וּלְזַרְעֲךָ֨ אַחֲרֶ֜יךָ אֵ֣ת ׀ אֶ֣רֶץ מְגֻרֶ֗יךָ אֵ֚ת כָּל־אֶ֣רֶץ כְּנַ֔עַן לַאֲחֻזַּ֖ת עוֹלָ֑ם וְהָיִ֥יתִי לָהֶ֖ם לֵאלֹהִֽים׃
I assign the land you sojourn in to you and your offspring to come, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting holding. I will be their God.”
(ג) וְשָׁב יהוה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת שְׁבוּתְךָ וְרִחֲמֶךָ וְשָׁב וְקִבֶּצְךָ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים אֲשֶׁר הֱפִיצְךָ יהוה אֱלֹהֶיךָ שָׁמָּה. (ד) אִם יִהְיֶה נִדַּחֲךָ בִּקְצֵה הַשָּׁמָיִם מִשָּׁם יְקַבֶּצְךָ יהוה אֱלֹהֶיךָ וּמִשָּׁם יִקָּחֶךָ. (ה) וֶהֱבִיאֲךָ יהוה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר יָרְשׁוּ אֲבֹתֶיךָ וִירִשְׁתָּהּ וְהֵיטִבְךָ וְהִרְבְּךָ מֵאֲבֹתֶיךָ.
3. then, the Lord, your God, will bring back your exiles, and He will have mercy upon you. He will once again gather you from all the nations, where the Lord, your God, had dispersed you.4. Even if your exiles are at the end of the heavens, the Lord, your God, will gather you from there, and He will take you from there. 5. And the Lord, your God, will bring you to the land which your forefathers possessed, and you [too] will take possession of it, and He will do good to you, and He will make you more numerous than your forefathers.
(א) בראשית. אמר רבי יצחק לא היה צריך להתחיל [את] התורה אלא (שמות יב ב) מהחודש הזה לכם, שהיא מצוה ראשונה שנצטוו [בה] ישראל, ומה טעם פתח בבראשית, משום כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו לתת להם נחלת גוים (תהלים קיא ו), שאם יאמרו אמות העולם לישראל לסטים אתם, שכבשתם ארצות שבעה גוים, הם אומרים להם כל הארץ של הקדוש ברוך הוא היא, הוא בראה ונתנה לאשר ישר בעיניו, ברצונו נתנה להם וברצונו נטלה מהם ונתנה לנו:
Rabbi Yitzchak said: The Torah could have started from, 'This month shall be to you the first of months' (Exodus 12:2), which is the first mitzvah which Israel was commanded. So what is the reason that it opened with with 'In the beginning'?
Because of [the idea expressed in the verse]: '[God] has declared to His people the power of His works, in order to give them the inheritance of the nations.' (Psalms 111:6). Thus, should the nations of the world say to Israel: 'You are robbers, having conquered the lands of the seven [Canaanite] nations [by force],' [Israel] can say to them: 'The whole earth belongs to the Holy Blessed One; He created it and gave it to whomever He saw fit. By His will He gave it to them, and by His will He took it from them and gave it to us.'
ספר המצוות רמב"ן
עשה ד' – ליישב את ארץ ישראל
.היא מצות עשה לדורות, מתחייב כל יחיד ממנו, ואפילו בזמן גלות, כידוע בתלמוד במקומות הרבה...
Ramban Book of Mitzvot
"...Settling the Land of Israel is a positive commandment for all the generations, every individual is obligated to do it, even in the time of exile, as it's written in the gemara in many places."
(י) כִּ֣י הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֨ר אַתָּ֤ה בָא־שָׁ֙מָּה֙ לְרִשְׁתָּ֔הּ לֹ֣א כְאֶ֤רֶץ מִצְרַ֙יִם֙ הִ֔וא אֲשֶׁ֥ר יְצָאתֶ֖ם מִשָּׁ֑ם אֲשֶׁ֤ר תִּזְרַע֙ אֶֽת־זַרְעֲךָ֔ וְהִשְׁקִ֥יתָ בְרַגְלְךָ֖ כְּגַ֥ן הַיָּרָֽק׃ (יא) וְהָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֨ר אַתֶּ֜ם עֹבְרִ֥ים שָׁ֙מָּה֙ לְרִשְׁתָּ֔הּ אֶ֥רֶץ הָרִ֖ים וּבְקָעֹ֑ת לִמְטַ֥ר הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם תִּשְׁתֶּה־מָּֽיִם׃ (יב) אֶ֕רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־יהוה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ דֹּרֵ֣שׁ אֹתָ֑הּ תָּמִ֗יד עֵינֵ֨י יהוה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ בָּ֔הּ מֵֽרֵשִׁית֙ הַשָּׁנָ֔ה וְעַ֖ד אַחֲרִ֥ית שָׁנָֽה׃ (ס)
(10) For the land that you are about to enter and possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come. There the grain you sowed had to be watered by your own labors, like a vegetable garden; (11) but the land you are about to cross into and possess, a land of hills and valleys, soaks up its water from the rains of heaven. (12) It is a land which the LORD your God looks after, on which the LORD your God always keeps His eye, from year’s beginning to year’s end.
(יח) וְשַׂמְתֶּם֙ אֶת־דְּבָרַ֣י אֵ֔לֶּה עַל־לְבַבְכֶ֖ם וְעַֽל־נַפְשְׁכֶ֑ם וּקְשַׁרְתֶּ֨ם אֹתָ֤ם לְאוֹת֙ עַל־יֶדְכֶ֔ם וְהָי֥וּ לְטוֹטָפֹ֖ת בֵּ֥ין עֵינֵיכֶֽם׃ (יט) וְלִמַּדְתֶּ֥ם אֹתָ֛ם אֶת־בְּנֵיכֶ֖ם לְדַבֵּ֣ר בָּ֑ם בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ֤ בְּבֵיתֶ֙ךָ֙ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ֣ בַדֶּ֔רֶךְ וּֽבְשָׁכְבְּךָ֖ וּבְקוּמֶֽךָ׃ (כ) וּכְתַבְתָּ֛ם עַל־מְזוּז֥וֹת בֵּיתֶ֖ךָ וּבִשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ׃ (כא) לְמַ֨עַן יִרְבּ֤וּ יְמֵיכֶם֙ וִימֵ֣י בְנֵיכֶ֔ם עַ֚ל הָֽאֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר נִשְׁבַּ֧ע יהוה לַאֲבֹתֵיכֶ֖ם לָתֵ֣ת לָהֶ֑ם כִּימֵ֥י הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ (ס)
(18) Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, (19) and teach them to your children—reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up; (20) and inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates— (21)Your days and the days of your children will increase on the land which YHVH swore to your ancestors to give to them, like the days of the heavens over the land”
THE SECOND PROMISE: The Land will drive you out
מכילתא דרבי ישמעאל, יתרו, עמלק
שלשה דברים נתנו על תנאי, ארץ ישראל ובית המקדש ומלכות בית דוד, חוץ מספר תורה ובריתו של אהרן שלא נתנו על תנאי. ארץ ישראל מנין, שנאמר +דברים יא טז+השמרו לכם פן יפתה לבבכם וגו' וחרה אף יהוה בכם.
Mechilta d'Rabbi Yishmael
Three things were given conditionally: the Land of Israel, the Temple, and the Kingship of the House of David. But the Torah and the Covenant of Aaron were given unconditionally.
From where do we know this about the Land of Israel? It says (in Deut. 11:16), "Take care, lest your heart be seduced to serve other gods and bow to them. For then the anger of the Lord will flare up against you...."
(טז) הִשָּֽׁמְר֣וּ לָכֶ֔ם פֶּ֥ן יִפְתֶּ֖ה לְבַבְכֶ֑ם וְסַרְתֶּ֗ם וַעֲבַדְתֶּם֙ אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֔ים וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתֶ֖ם לָהֶֽם׃ (יז) וְחָרָ֨ה אַף־יהוה בָּכֶ֗ם וְעָצַ֤ר אֶת־הַשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ וְלֹֽא־יִהְיֶ֣ה מָטָ֔ר וְהָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה לֹ֥א תִתֵּ֖ן אֶת־יְבוּלָ֑הּ וַאֲבַדְתֶּ֣ם מְהֵרָ֗ה מֵעַל֙ הָאָ֣רֶץ הַטֹּבָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר יהוה נֹתֵ֥ן לָכֶֽם׃
(16) Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them. (17) For the LORD’s anger will flare up against you, and He will shut up the skies so that there will be no rain and the ground will not give her produce, and you will be destroyed quickly from off the good land which YHVH gives you”
(ה) כִּ֤י אִם־הֵיטֵיב֙ תֵּיטִ֔יבוּ אֶת־דַּרְכֵיכֶ֖ם וְאֶת־מַעַלְלֵיכֶ֑ם אִם־עָשׂ֤וֹ תַֽעֲשׂוּ֙ מִשְׁפָּ֔ט בֵּ֥ין אִ֖ישׁ וּבֵ֥ין רֵעֵֽהוּ׃ (ו) גֵּ֣ר יָת֤וֹם וְאַלְמָנָה֙ לֹ֣א תַעֲשֹׁ֔קוּ וְדָ֣ם נָקִ֔י אַֽל־תִּשְׁפְּכ֖וּ בַּמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וְאַחֲרֵ֨י אֱלֹהִ֧ים אֲחֵרִ֛ים לֹ֥א תֵלְכ֖וּ לְרַ֥ע לָכֶֽם׃ (ז) וְשִׁכַּנְתִּ֤י אֶתְכֶם֙ בַּמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה בָּאָ֕רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָתַ֖תִּי לַאֲבוֹתֵיכֶ֑ם לְמִן־עוֹלָ֖ם וְעַד־עוֹלָֽם׃
(5) No, if you really mend your ways and your actions; if you execute justice between one party and another; (6) if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow; if you do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place; if you do not follow other gods, to your own hurt— (7) then only will I let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your ancestors for all time.
THE THIRD PROMISE: You will return to the Land
(א) וְהָיָה֩ כִֽי־יָבֹ֨אוּ עָלֶ֜יךָ כָּל־הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֗לֶּה הַבְּרָכָה֙ וְהַקְּלָלָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָתַ֖תִּי לְפָנֶ֑יךָ וַהֲשֵׁבֹתָ֙ אֶל־לְבָבֶ֔ךָ בְּכָל־הַגּוֹיִ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֧ר הִדִּיחֲךָ֛ יהוה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ שָֽׁמָּה׃ (ב) וְשַׁבְתָּ֞ עַד־יהוה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ וְשָׁמַעְתָּ֣ בְקֹל֔וֹ כְּכֹ֛ל אֲשֶׁר־אָנֹכִ֥י מְצַוְּךָ֖ הַיּ֑וֹם אַתָּ֣ה וּבָנֶ֔יךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֖ וּבְכָל־נַפְשֶֽׁךָ׃ (ג) וְשָׁ֨ב יהוה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ אֶת־שְׁבוּתְךָ֖ וְרִחֲמֶ֑ךָ וְשָׁ֗ב וְקִבֶּצְךָ֙ מִכָּל־הָ֣עַמִּ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֧ר הֱפִֽיצְךָ֛ יהוה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ שָֽׁמָּה׃ (ד) אִם־יִהְיֶ֥ה נִֽדַּחֲךָ֖ בִּקְצֵ֣ה הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם מִשָּׁ֗ם יְקַבֶּצְךָ֙ יהוה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ וּמִשָּׁ֖ם יִקָּחֶֽךָ׃ (ה) וֶהֱבִֽיאֲךָ֞ יהוה אֱלֹהֶ֗יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֛רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־יָרְשׁ֥וּ אֲבֹתֶ֖יךָ וִֽירִשְׁתָּ֑הּ וְהֵיטִֽבְךָ֥ וְהִרְבְּךָ֖ מֵאֲבֹתֶֽיךָ׃ (ו) וּמָ֨ל יהוה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ אֶת־לְבָבְךָ֖ וְאֶת־לְבַ֣ב זַרְעֶ֑ךָ לְאַהֲבָ֞ה אֶת־יהוה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ לְמַ֥עַן חַיֶּֽיךָ׃ (ז) וְנָתַן֙ יהוה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ אֵ֥ת כָּל־הָאָל֖וֹת הָאֵ֑לֶּה עַל־אֹיְבֶ֥יךָ וְעַל־שֹׂנְאֶ֖יךָ אֲשֶׁ֥ר רְדָפֽוּךָ׃
(1) When all these things befall you—the blessing and the curse that I have set before you—and you take them to heart amidst the various nations to which the LORD your God has banished you, (2) and you return to the LORD your God, and you and your children heed His command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day, (3) then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love. He will bring you together again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. (4) Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world, from there the LORD your God will gather you, from there He will fetch you. (5) And the LORD your God will bring you to the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will make you more prosperous and more numerous than your fathers. (6) Then the LORD your God will open up your heart and the hearts of your offspring to love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul, in order that you may live. (7) The LORD your God will inflict all those curses upon the enemies and foes who persecuted you.
Does this myth of “eternal return,” the third promise of the covenant, imply that the Jewish people are irrevocably indigenous to The Land?
If Judaism’s indigeneity is conditional, this leads to a more fundamental question: if Judaism was once indigenous, can it again become indigenous?
"The Third Promise: Can Judaism’s indigenous core help us rise above the damaging politics of our time?"
Rabbi David Seidenberg
The continuity of living on the land for as long as the heavens stay suspended over the earth was not simply a reward for obedience. Three commandments most determined one’s fitness to remain in the land: eschewing idolatry, allowing the land to rest, and doing justice for the poor, widow, orphan and stranger, that is, for the vulnerable.[10] Sustainability in the ecological sense and in the social/political sense is a direct outcome of following the latter two.
Indigeneity is not only determined by the mere fact of being first or longest in a place, but also by forming a way of life that evolves in relation to the place where one lives. An indigenous religion[14] is one whose rituals, stories, times, dreams and laws are tied to a particular land and to its ecological rhythms and necessities.[15] One could describe the nature of these ties as constituting a covenant between a people and a land.
By most of these measures, Judaism as a religious culture and civilization should be described as indigenous to Canaan/Israel.[16] This is true regardless of how that impacts questions related to Israel/Palestine or to what degree this applies to modern Judaism. Every one of Judaism’s celebrations is exquisitely tuned to Canaan’s ecosystems and crop and water cycles.[17] ...
Because of the generative relationship between the land and the people, many traditions describe the people as being born from the land to which they are indigenous.[21]
The opposite is the case for Israelite religion and the Judaism of the rabbis that grew from it.[22] Even though both are acutely attuned to the hills of Canaan, the Torah adamantly asserts that the Israelites and their ancestors were not from Canaan.[23] Rather, the Israelites’ self-understanding was that they came from other places – Ur Kasdim (Abraham), Aram (most of Jacob’s sons) and Egypt (the Israelites, after they evolve from a family into a nation) – to settle in Canaan.[24]
Even more dissonant than this is the biblical commandment that the Israelites displace and dispossess, or even wipe out, the original, i.e. indigenous, inhabitants of Canaan.[25]
It is no small relief to learn that stories about the genocide of the Canaanites at the hand of Joshua are unsupported by archaeological finds or even by other stories in the Bible.[26] There is near consensus among archaeologists that the Israelites did not cause the collapse of Canaanite culture but rather benefited from the vacuum that a prior collapse might have created.[27] Some speculate that the Israelites comprised indigenous Canaanites, escaped slaves from Egypt, the nomadic Apiru.[28]...
The story of being strangers in Egypt also makes the Israelites strangers in the land of Israel, because part of that story is that Egypt, not Canaan, is where their national identity was formed. From God’s perspective as portrayed in Leviticus 25, they were and would always remain strangers and temporary residents in the land (v. 23), while only God could be the land’s true owner.[30] Implicit in the structure of the story of leaving Egypt is the third promise of the covenant, that one could be exiled from the land and still be able to return.[31] ...
Does this myth of “eternal return,” the third promise of the covenant, imply that the Jewish people are irrevocably indigenous to the land of Canaan? Not necessarily by contemporary legal or moral standards.[36] Even according to the Torah and prophets, the Jewish people can only restore their belonging to the land through a relationship characterized by humility, justice, and compassion. For example, Leviticus 26 states: “then their hearts will be humbled… and I will remember for them the covenant of the first ones whom I took out from Egypt” (vv. 41, 45).[37]
The early Zionists certainly believed they could return to the land while upholding those virtues. Abraham Isaac Kook, chief rabbi of Palestine before the state of Israel came into being, once wrote:
Since we (the Jewish people) are a “righteous nation, keeping faith,” our conquest [of the land of Israel] can only take place via the path of peace, by means of purchase with money. It [must be] our will to uphold the commandment to “love your neighbor like yourself” not only with individual people, but also with [other] nations.[38]
This is not how it happened.[39] But this raises a critical question. If according to the indigenous knowledge of the ancient Israelites, a renewed relationship with the land cannot be forged without love and equal justice for neighbor and stranger, is a Jewish people whose relationship with the land is lacking in those qualities no longer indigenous?
If the answer is yes, if Judaism’s indigeneity is conditional, this leads to a more fundamental question: if Judaism was once indigenous, can it again become indigenous?...
The covenant remains the only basis for claiming a Jewish right to return to the land of Palestine. What has become clearer and clearer through the decades is that the third promise of the covenant is not the return engineered by Zionism. Though annexation seems to be a willful turning away from a more humanistic version of Zionism, the blindness it represents dates back to the origins of the state and the failure of the state to live up to the third promise of the covenant, the promise to “redeem Zion through Justice” (Isa. 1:27). The only way to safely open Judaism’s vessels, to validly reclaim indigeneity and to return to the land, is to embrace being in a land that is home to more than one indigenous people and more than one type of indigenousness...
What existed at the time of the formation of the state of Israel were two incommensurable realities, each holding different parts of the equation of indigenousness: a Jewish culture based on religious tradition, which encoded indigenous knowledge, and a Palestinian and Bedouin culture based on practical knowledge and experience with the land. The same differences of kind that separate Jewish and Palestinian indigenousness make it hard for each side to recognize indigenousness in the other. Whether these two realms of indigenousness can or will ever be brought together in synergy, rather than enmity, is a question as yet unresolved.
(https://www.tikkun.org/the-third-promise)