September 21, 2014
After recognizing its Christians as an independent minority earlier this year, Israel is now allowing them to register as an ethnicity, distinguishing them from the Muslim-dominant Arab population.
Israel Today points out in a report that while they have been regarded for centuries as Arab, most of the region’s Christians are Aramaean.
Aramaic is a Semitic language that was spoken by Jews and early Christians for centuries. Jesus himself spoke primarily in Aramaic, according to many scholars. The language is still used the liturgies and prayer services of some Christian communities in the Middle East.
Interior Minister Gideon Saar issued a directive Wednesday to Israel’s Population, Immigration and Border Authority affirming local Aramean Christians have a distinct “historical heritage, religion, culture, descent and language,” which makes them eligible to be recognized as a national or ethnic group.
Father Gabriel Naddaf, writing on his Facebook page, said the decision “corrects a historic injustice that wrongly defined Israel’s citizens of eastern-Christian descent as ‘Christian Arabs,’ although other than their spoken language, they have absolutely no connection to the Arab nationality.”
As WND reported earlier this month when Sen. Ted Cruz was booed by a gathering of Middle East Christian leaders, some Islam analysts believe the historical identification the region’s Christians have with Muslims as fellow Arabs and the subjugation to Islamic strictures under which many of them live is behind the public animosity of many church leaders toward Israel.
Naddaf, Israel Today reported, is the spiritual leader of the Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum, which encourages integration into Israeli Jewish society.
Anyone born into a Christian family or clan who can speak Aramaic and comes from the Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Syriac Catholic or Orthodox Aramaic traditions can be granted the new ethnic status.
About 10 percent of Israel’s 1.5 million Arab citizens are Christians. Some 130,000 of the Christians are regarded as Aramaean.
Shadi Khalloul, spokesman for the Israel Christian Recruitment Forum, explained the Armaeans history to Israel’s Ynetnews website.
After accepting Christianity in the 1st century AD, he said, the Armaeans had Arabic forced upon them during the Arab conquest but were able to preserve their language in churches and other cultural settings.
He described the lack of proper ethnic recognition as a gaping hole in their lives.
“I refused to officially register my 2-year-old son after his birth because the Interior Ministry wanted to register him as an Arab,” he told Ynetnews. “Now I can happily register him as an Aramean.”
Khalloul noted Arameans share a deep connection historically with Jews, including through the influence of the Aramaic language on Hebrew and on Jewish prayers.
