Ishaq Shami and the Predicament of the Arab Jew in Palestine/ Leper, Lunatics, and Saints

Ishaq Shami and the Predicament of the Arab Jew in Palestine 
     Being an Arab Jew is an "oxymoron." I loved this idea because it is very true. In today's society, most Arabs are seen as muslims and Arabs and Jews do not get along. I thought that Shami's story was very interesting because being an Arab Jew is like living two different lifestyles with two different beliefs in two different worlds. Today, how can one really be an Arab Jew? You are forced to pick due to the tension and the conflict.
      However, I think that Shami did an excellent job in discovering both sides of his culture. He learned Arabic and Hebrew and brought a novel that was written in hebrew but portrayed a palestinian narrative voice to society. I never knew that when the first waves of the diaspora occurred that many Arab Jews felt torn between their culture and their religion. I always assumed that being Jewish trumped all. Today, being Jewish is both a culture and a religion. As a citizen of the U.S. and because I am Jewish, I am considered a Jewish American. But if I had to pick between my american culture or my jewish heritage, I would pick my jewish heritage because I feel like jews all around the world share the same lifestyle, as opposed to all Americans. 
     Until reading this article, I never knew that any Jews were welcomed by the Palestinians. However, the First Palestinian Congress of 1919 rejected zionism and zionist immigrants but welcomed those Jews that were already Arabicized. This makes me question whether religion played as big as a role in the Arab-Israeli conflict as everyone puts it out to be. 

Leper, Lunatics, and Saints 
     I think the word nativism that is addressed in this article really speaks out to what we have discussed in class about what land belongs to who. Nativism also relates nationalism and history. The diaspora and right of return led to a rise in both Jewish Nationalism and Palestinian Nationalism. History has displayed that when one culture feels threatened by another, they all join together and ignite nationalism. 
     For example, the Zionists attempt to to establish claim to Israel through biblical heritage, the Palestinians began a movement of nationalist revivalist writings.  Therefore, anything that the Zionists claimed to be true to the biblical sense, the Palestinians contested by "stressing present-day continuities between the biblical heritage and Palestinian popular beliefs and practices." I think this illustrates how each side was really trying to prove what was theirs instead of wanting to share it. 
     I also thought it was interesting that all 3 religions believed in saints- I thought that saints was only something the the Catholic sect of christianity believed in.