Indigeneity in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The notion of indigeneity—the quality of being descended from the original inhabitants of a territory, especially a territory that has been colonized—has been central to debates about political legitimacy in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. These debates have centered on whether or not Israeli Jews, Palestinians, or both peoples are to be defined as indigenous peoples to the region of Palestine. During the 21st century, many Zionists have advocated the view that Jews are the indigenous people of the Land of Israel. Advocates of the Palestinian cause often advocate the view that Palestinians are an occupied Indigenous people and that Zionism is a form of settler colonialism. Some observers consider both Jews and Palestinians to be Indigenous.
Jews as indigenous
The Zionist claim to Palestine, over other proposals for a Jewish state, was based on the notion that Jews had a hereditary right to the land that outweighed the equivalent nationalist claims of the local Arabs. After suffering as a minority in Europe and the Middle East, establishing a Jewish state, with a Jewish majority, became a focus of the Zionist movement. Zionist organizations encouraged immigration to Palestine, and antisemitism produced a strong push factor.Political scientist Dore Gold notes that Jews comprised a majority in the Southern Levant from the Roman period until the Muslim conquest and only began to diminish due to the institution of persecutions, such as the Jizya tax. Jews continued to live in the land without interruption, and those who left maintained cultural and religious ties with the land. In his view, Jews have "deep, indigenous roots" to the Land of Israel. As such, the idea of Zionism as a colonial project should be rejected.
Ilan and Carol Troen say that Jews were considered to be indigenous by Jews and the international community until relatively recently. The "indigeneity argument" was taken up by Palestinian Arabs in 1990s to cast themselves as the sole legitimate indigenous population, re-framing of Jews as being recent foreign invaders by adopting a colonial-settler paradigm. The argument that modern Jews from around the world have no connection to historical Jews who lived in the region is not based in fact, but is a product of a political supersessionism to deny legitimacy of Israel.
According to anthropologists Rachel Z Feldman and Ian McGonigle, "Israeli settler organizations and allied American-Jewish lobbyists have responded to international condemnation of the occupation by mobilizing narratives of indigeneity, claiming sovereign and divine rights to the land." Major Zionist organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and the Israel Action Network of the Jewish Federations of North America have stated that Jews are Indigenous to the Land of Israel. The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs defines the Palestinian Bedouin as the Indigenous people of Palestine.
In 2015, a proposal titled "Recognition of the Jewish People as Indigenous to the Land of Israel" was submitted and approved by a 51% vote in favor at the World Zionist Congress. The bill's author stated that the bill rejects "the core anti-Israel accusation that Jews are foreign colonialists in the country and instead affirms that the Jewish people have indigenous rights to live in their ancestral home." The proposal was opposed by the liberal Zionist organization J Street, the Reform movement's ARZA, and the Conservative movement's Mercaz USA, among other organizations.
The New Zealand Jewish Council has stated that "Indigeneity and colonialism" are "not useful metaphors for Israel", citing Jewish presence in the land for thousands of years.
Palestinians as indigenous
The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association have stated that "e strongly protest the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and the legal structures of the Israeli state that systematically discriminate against Palestinians and other Indigenous peoples...We reaffirm this sentiment that recognizes the rights of Indigenous Palestinians when we demand an end to the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and a free Palestine.The author Gabor Maté has stated that Israel and Canada have shared colonial values as they are "both countries founded on the extirpation of Indigenous cultures and the displacement of Indigenous people".
The United Nations has referred to Palestinians as the "indigenous people of Palestine".