124 • CHAPTER 3
composed from different elements.” “The Arabs who conquered the
Land of Israel,” Ben- Zvi explains, “did not destroy the earlier settle-
ment, nor did they themselves engage in colonization. They simply
seized lands and levied taxes upon the residents.” Along with the Bed-
ouin, some of these “racial” arabs, he suggests, did remain in palestine,
settling primarily in the larger cities and mixing with the natives.
But who are the fellahin, the masses that account for the vast major-
ity of the residents of palestine? “the fellahin,” Ben- Zvi writes, “are the
descendents of the laborers of the land who remained in palestine from
before the Islamic conquest.”^112 and who were those pre- Islamic fel-
lahin of palestine? here Ben- Zvi draws on the argument he had made
in his Yiddish collaboration with Ben- Gurion.^113 “the primary source
of this agricultural settlement was the ancient Jewish agricultural set-
tlement.” this settlement “certainly absorbed a mix of blood from all
of the conquerors of palestine who left their traces within it: among
them the Byzantines, the Mongols, the Syrians, the Bedouin, and the
Crusaders. however, the core of the present agricultural settlement
has its source in the fellahin, Jews and Samaritans, the ‘people of the
land’ (ʿamha-areẓ) then and always, who remained connected to the
land and did not go into exile.”^114 Ben- Zvi explains that these Jews
“were torn from the Jewish nation through wars and revolts—lasting
six hundred years, always ending in slaughter and plunder—and fi-
nally submitted to their conquerors and became servants to tribute.”^115
under Christian rule, “they ultimately accepted, if only in appearance,
the Greek religion that was . . . the majority religion of the Palestinian
community in the generation before the conquest of ʿumar. After this
conquest, they accepted Islam.” however, Islam “has not penetrated
into them even until the present day. [rather] they have a mix of cus-
toms: Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Canaanite all together.”^116 those
seemingly Muslim arab peasants, Ben- Zvi argues, are hardly Muslim
or even arab beneath the surface, neither in faith nor in racial origin.
“the fellahin were material that was dragged toward the conquering
religion,” he explains, and this means that their identity remains mal-
leable at present as well. “they might become a distinct nation (ʿam
meyuḥad), or they might be dragged toward one of the nations (eḥat
(^112) Ibid.
(^113) For Ben- Zvi’s earlier writing on the matter, see Ben- Gurion and Ben- Ẓevi, Erets
YisroelinFergangenhaytunGegenvart, 37– 38. For Ben- Gurion’s discourse on this same
issue, see ibid., 319, 326ff. See also Belkind and Ben- Gurion, ha-ʿArvimasherbe-ereẓ-
yisraʾel, 43ff.
(^114) On Jewish- Samaritan relations, see Knoppers, Jews and Samaritans.
(^115) The term here is taken from Genesis 49:15.
(^116) Ben- Ẓevi, ha-Tenuʿahha-ʿarvit, 20.