#judea

I am begging activists to open a history book. Calling Jesus "Palestinian" isn't just illiterate, it’s offensive historical revisionism.

Jesus was a Jew from Judea. The name "Palestine" was a Roman colonial invention applied over a century after he died specifically to erase Jewish connection to the land. He was a Jew living under Roman occupation - the Jews were the oppressed indigenous population, not the "occupiers."

The most hilarious part? Jesus was a Jew, and Jews aren’t even allowed to live in Bethlehem today. You are claiming a "Palestinian Jesus" in a city where the actual Jesus would be banned from entering because of his ethnicity.

This may be controversial, I don't know - but please hear me out. I think it's time we started phasing out and objecting to the terms "Jew" and "Jewish" for ourselves; and for that matter, "antisemitism" as the word for racism/xenophobia against us. This may be rather radical to some, but it really isn't if you look at the approach other indigenous peoples have had to this same problem. It is more respectful to call Diné people Diné than "Navajo", for instance; I myself am half Amazigh, and while the term "Berber" still sees use, it is widely being rejected as disrespectful. I am convinced it's time for Judeans - Yehudim - to follow this approach. The words "Jew" and "Jewish" (or, for that matter, their equivalents in most languages of peoples who oppressed us) were not our creations, and while we have put substantial time into getting comfortable using them (whether it be through the insistence on "Jewish people" or even reclaiming old slurs like "Jewess"), I think it's time we accepted that they've done more harm to us than good.

Calling us "Jews", "Juden", "Juifs", etc., has so often been used as a slur, and more than just that: it actively distances us from our roots in a way that's made our sociopolitical alienation easier. "Jewish" also has myriad problems; how many times have we heard ignorant Judeophobes insist that we aren't "real" Jews/Israelites/Hebrews - merely "Jew-ish". It's distortions like these that have made the job of those hostile to us easy, and our job in combating them all the more frustrating. A "Jew" has no country, can be called "just a religion", can be called "the Jew" as if a mere abstraction, an object. "Jewish" people - even if recognized as people - need not truly be what we claim to be. Our own indigenous name for ourselves - Yehudi, Yisraeli - generally does not share these problems. It can't be said that a Yehudi is "-ish". A Judean is very unambiguously of Judea, just as a Russian is of Russia or a Japanese person is of Japan; or a Diné of Dinétah; or an Amazigh is of Tamazgha.

Antisemitism is another term that was invented by our oppressors, and has been twisted more recently to use as another form of identity-denial. Antisemitism as an imagined form of racism against "Semites" may have made sense in the 19th Century when A.) the only real "Semites" familiar to Europeans were Judeans, and B.) "Semite" was conceived of as a "race", but in the 21st Century there is absolutely no reason to keep using a term that is routinely misunderstood to be applicable to any and all "Semites" (look no further than popular antizionists claiming the oppression of Palestinians is itself "antisemitism" because Arabs are "Semites"). It's ironic how the concept of the "Semite" was invented to oppress Israelis and Arabs alike, but once Israelis declared independence the Arab response seems to have been embracing a proud racial "Semite" identity so hard that many now actively wish to exclude Jews from it - with the side-effect that, well, "antisemitism" against Judeans might as well not exist, because we are not "real Semites" to these people. Judeophobia is a far better term for prejudice against Judeans; and it makes it seem less exotic/unique. Judeophobia is of a kind with Sinophobia, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. It's hatred of a particular group. "Antisemitism" is an antiquated and ambiguous word whose utility to fight Judeophobia has been increasingly outweighed by its utility to the Judeophobes themselves.

The clothes:

The dress is double layered and based on biblical description i saw of the clothes ancient jews wore i added yellow hoops at the end of the dress to represent the color of our oppression- yellow belts under the muslim rule and yellow stars in the holocaust

The embroidery:

The Rikma(embroidery) is a personal project i am working on for the past 3 months. The embroidery that WAS practiced on the land eventually was allowed only to muslims and arabs, jews in ottoman syria/palestine were so oppressed and poor they didn't have access to threads and around 1800's some rabbis discoraged jews being involved in arab activity, not only that the jews has completely disconnected themselves from most of the arab culture after the spread of zionism to the land as a form of building their own identity. And if there were jews involved in embroidery it is unknown bc all the photos i see are labeled as "palestinian woman" with no explanation if it is a christian, muslim or jewish.

My project consists of making patterns and motifs based on jewish history, symbols, traditions, land etc and i try to make it original, unique and as diverse from the tatreez as possible to avoid conflict. If any of you want i can explain in a different analysis on what each pattern represents.

The jewelry:

I genuinely suck at drawing gold and jewelry and tried my best to adorn her with as much jewelry as i can. The side piece(that can barely be seen) is also a pattern i came up with, i call it "amulet"

(ps. I forgot to make her a normal necklace, wanted to make it with a hamsa)

Henna:

Henna is still practiced by jews, mainly sefardic and mizrahi jews + ashkenazi jews who grow up and participate in mizrahi culture. The henna on the hands is based on patterns i saw some jewish artists made (on google unfortunately it didn't have names) which has the star of david on it and on the legs i made a mix of bukharan and yemeni jewish henna.