maajnoona:

being a jew from iraq, my community was there since 597 BCE, before diaspora even began for the jews. this was long before arabization even began and when it did, it included the large amounts of jews, who participated fully in the islamic golden age. islam not only includes jews in it’s narrative, but an entire legal framework with to deal with jews and christians. we were a part of the region, and more or less indigenous and just as arab as anyone else. we have our own arabic dialects, just like christian arabs.

zionism is a european colonialist project,  originating from and rooted in the experiences of ashkenazi jews. however, the repercussions of the colonization of palestine effected us greatly. for various reasons; iraq allying itself with the nazis and publishing anti-semitic works, the growth of anti-semitism as a reaction to zionist colonialism, and zionist agents bombing synagogue, the jews of iraq were forced to flee in the early 50s.

zionists bombed the synagogue, because it was in their interest to have the jews of the middle east move to the newly colonized post-nakba palestine. mizrahi (trans; oriental) jews, boosted the numbers of the jewish nationalist project and became the proleteriat of israel who’s labor could be exploited to build the state. mizrahim are actually the largest jewish ethnic group in the country, but by virtue of israel being an ideologically european zionist state, they have faced various oppressions. however, in the jewish supremacist state, they retain the privileges and complicity of being colonizers.

the question you originally posed to me, “Are you a Jew or an Arab?” is a result of zionism. if you were to ask a jew in egypt or syria or iraq that question in the 20s or 30s, they probably wouldn’t understand. however, zionism has not only served to remove the jews from the arab world, but also has been trying to remove the arabness from those jews. israel is ideologically an anti-oriental state, even if a lot of it’s culture is oriental, and it has taught arab jews to reject their heritage or rebrand it as “Israeli.” many arab jews will tell you, with arabic accents, how they are not arabs but this is clearly bullshit and a colonial mentality. i want to embrace my arabness, not reject, and unite with palestinians in their struggle for national liberation.