Recognition of the Lebanese of South Lebanon and Palestinians as Descendants of Jacob–Israel

Jesus said, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

What did Jesus intend by this statement? Does it suggest that people may be living under falsehoods without realising it?

My name is Myriam Ghaith, a Franco-Lebanese citizen holding a Master’s degree in Theology with a specialisation in Biblical Studies from the University of Edinburgh.

 
1- The Issue
Note: In this petition, when I mention Jacob–Israel, I am referring to the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob—also known as Israel—the son of Isaac. However, when I refer to Israelis, I mean the citizens of Israel, the modern state established for the Jewish people in 1948.

Israelis maintain that the biblical Israelites, descendants of Jacob–Israel, were exiled and scattered across the world, and that present-day Jews are their descendants. On this basis, Israelis assert a claim to the lands of Lebanon and Palestine as part of their heritage and legitimise the use of force against the Lebanese and Palestinians to reclaim the territory. Furthermore, Israelis refer to the Lebanese and Palestinians as “Arabs” and claim that, by divine promise to their ancestors, the Israelis have the right to displace the Lebanese and Palestinians.

Benjamin Netanyahu (born Benjamin Mileikowsky) stated: “Israel is not a state of all its citizens. Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people—and it alone.”

According to the Bible, God promises the “land of Canaan” not exclusively to the Jewish people, but to all descendants of Isaac and Jacob. God speaks to Jacob in a dream at Bethel: “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring” (Genesis 28:13–15).

Does Mr. Netanyahu’s stance contradict this divine promise? On what basis do Israelis claim the right to possess Lebanon and Palestine—is it solely because they practice Judaism? Moreover, is there credible historical or genealogical evidence that all Jews are direct descendants of Jacob–Israel? Finally, is there any historical or theological justification for the assertion that Lebanon and Palestine were divinely promised exclusively to Jews?

I, Myriam, attest that most Lebanese and Palestinians are Semites and Israelites—the direct descendants of Jacob–Israel—and that the majority of them never experienced exile. Even among the Israelites who were exiled, many eventually returned, as attested in the Bible and by the ancient historian Flavius Josephus.

The ancestors of most Lebanese and Palestinians were among the earliest followers of Jesus. The majority were converted to Christianity during Byzantine rule and later to Islam during the Arab-Islamic and Ottoman periods. Furthermore, the Lebanese and Palestinian people are not “Arabs,” as most of their ancestors did not inhabit the region east of the Jordan River, known as the Arabah (see Deuteronomy 1:1).

Therefore, I maintain that no further conflict or violence should be pursued against the Lebanese, the Palestinians, and the Jews. Those who claim to defend “Israel” have instead become the destroyers of the biblical House of Israel.

 
2- Evidence Supporting My Claim
A) Contrary to common assumptions, there was NO mass exile of the biblical Israelites. Most remained on their ancestral land; their descendants are the majority of today’s Lebanese and Palestinians.

Long ago, Joseph rose to power in Mizraim. During a time of famine, he brought his family from the “land of Canaan,” seventy people, to settle in the best part of the land of Mizraim (Genesis 46:27; Exodus 1:5). Over 430 years, they multiplied into a great people (Exodus 12:40).

Exodus 12:37 states: “The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.” If we include women and children, the total population of the Israelites during the Exodus would have been much larger than 600,000. Scholars and biblical commentators estimate the total population of Israelites at approximately 2–3 million who lived in Mizraim.

But a Pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph and said: “Come, we must deal shrewdly with them” (Exodus 1:9–10). Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites and commanded that their sons be killed (Exodus 1:16). God raised up Moses, who said to Pharaoh: “Let my people go, that they may serve Me” (Exodus 9:1). God brought the Israelites out of Mizraim with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm (Deuteronomy 26:8). Joshua led them back into Canaan, the land promised by God, stretching from Sidon in the north to Gaza in the south (Genesis 10:19).

Throughout history, the Israelites fought numerous wars, winning some and losing others, yet they were never subjected to mass exile. The majority remained on their ancestral lands. I argue that most of their descendants constitute today’s Lebanese and Palestinian populations, the very people whom contemporary governments and military forces seek to “annihilate.” The supporting evidence is outlined as follows:

• The First Exile (Assyria)

In the time of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, conquered the cities of Ijon, Abel Beth Maakah, Janoah, Kedesh, and Hazor. He also captured Gilead and Galilee, including the entire land of Naphtali, and deported the Israelites living in those territories to Assyria (2 Kings 15:29). Later, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, rose against Hoshea. After besieging Samaria (Shemer) for three years, the city fell. Israelites of Samaria (Shemer) were deported to Halah, Gozan, and the towns of the Medes (2 Kings 17:6). But the exiled were not forgotten; King Hezekiah called upon all the Israelites, including those in exile, to return to Jerusalem and observe the Passover (2 Chronicles 30:1–5).

• The Second Exile (Babylon)

The Babylonian exile affected only the residents of Jerusalem, as recorded in 2 Kings 24: “Nebuchadnezzar carried all Jerusalem into exile: all the officers and fighting men, and all the skilled workers and artisans, a total of ten thousand. Only the poorest people of the land were left.” The general population in and outside Jerusalem were not taken into exile and stayed behind to continue farming and working the land. According to Ezra 1:1–4, King Cyrus of Persia officially permitted the exiled ones to return to their land.

• The Third Exile (Rome)

Flavius Josephus, in The Wars of the Jews, 6.420 (translated by William Whiston), describes the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE: “In total, ninety-seven thousand people were taken captive during the entire war, and approximately eleven hundred thousand perished throughout the siege.” Josephus describes the slaughter and enslavement that took place in Jerusalem. In 362 CE, Emperor Julian the Apostate authorised the return of the Israelites and the rebuilding of the Third Temple in Jerusalem. Construction began, but according to Ammianus Marcellinus, repeated eruptions of fire from the foundations injured the labourers. As a result, the effort to reconstruct the Third Temple was ultimately abandoned (see Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, “Julian and the Jerusalem Temple,” 23.1.2–3, Rolfe’s Loeb edition).

The Assyrian exile affected only Israelites living in Ijon, Abel Beth Maakah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, including the territory of the tribe of Naphtali and the city of Shemer. The Babylonian and Roman exiles involved residents of Jerusalem. None of these three exiles impacted all Israelites living in the “land of Canaan” between Sidon and Gaza. It is important to note that many of those who were exiled eventually returned to their homeland, as mentioned earlier.

 
B) Most Lebanese and Palestinians are Semites and Israelites—the direct descendants of Jacob–Israel.

Several Zionist figures, including Ahad Ha’am, Ber Borochov, David Ben-Gurion (born David Grün), and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, acknowledged that the Palestinian peasant population was descended from the ancient biblical Hebrews.

The identities of “Palestinian” and “Lebanese” were largely shaped during the French and British mandate administrations, when the Levant was designated as Palestine and Lebanon. Similarly, British policies, for instance, the Balfour Declaration, helped shape the modern identity of Israelis. 

The name “Palestine” originates from the biblical term “Peleeshet.” The Philistim, or Philistines, were an ancient people often identified with the “Sea Peoples” mentioned in Egyptian records. They settled in the coastal cities of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath, collectively known as the Philistine Pentapolis (Joshua 13:3). Archaeological evidence shows that they brought Aegean-style pottery, architecture, and cultural practices to the region. While they often clashed with the neighbouring Israelites, their presence in these cities was primarily as settlers rather than conquerors. Archaeological and demographic estimates suggest that at their peak, the population of the Philistines likely numbered only in the tens of thousands, far fewer than the millions of Israelites living in the region stretching from Sidon to Gaza.

It is incorrect to ascribe a Philistine identity to all Israelites who inhabited the region from Sidon to Gaza. Likewise, it is misleading to label the entire area from southern Lebanon to Gaza as “Palestine.” In the Hebrew Bible, the Philistines are depicted as historical adversaries of the Israelites, settled in only five coastal cities rather than throughout the entire region. Marriages between Israelites and Philistines did occur but were generally viewed as problematic. A well-known example is Samson, who married a Philistine woman (Judges 14). His parents objected, reflecting broader concerns about intermarriage with groups holding different religious practices.

Moreover, I have found no evidence to support the claim made by modern historians that Judea was renamed “Syria-Palaestina” by Hadrian. Not even Eusebius of Caesarea states this; he only records that Jerusalem was renamed Aelia. This suggests that the later renaming of the “land of Canaan”—from Sidon to Gaza, as described in Genesis 10:19—to “Palestine” by British and French Orientalists may have been an attempt to impose a “Palestinian” identity on the Israelites, framing the historical conflict in the Levant as one between Jews (labelled as Israelis) and Israelites (labelled as Palestinians and Lebanese).

Antique maps, drawn by British and French cartographers, also wrongly designated southern Lebanon as part of “Palestine” before the area was formally recognised as Lebanon on later maps, following the French Mandate’s creation of Greater Lebanon, which expanded the Mount Lebanon region to include southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

 
3- Conclusion
In the biblical narrative, “Israel” is another name for Jacob, the son of Isaac, and “Israel” also refers to his descendants. It does not denote a “nation-state of the Jewish people—and it alone,” as suggested by Benjamin Netanyahu. As outlined in this petition and supported by both historical and biblical sources, to deny this truth is, in effect, to reject the word of God.

Since 1948, reports indicate that military operations involving the Israeli state have led to widespread violence and death among Lebanese and Palestinians. My claim indicates that, over the past seventy-eight years, military and political actions have resulted in deaths, land confiscation, and suffering among communities who have lawfully lived on their land. From a biblical perspective, the land is promised to all the descendants of Jacob–Israel, rather than to a modern state created exclusively for Jews and those who convert to Judaism.

The Lebanese and Palestinians, therefore, assert their right to protect themselves and their communities by all lawful means against land dispossession, the erasure of Israelite identity, and ongoing encroachment. Why should the descendants of the ancient Israelites, who were subsequently converted to Christianity and Islam, endure violence, displacement, or persecution?

From the perspective of divine law, can the commandment “You shall not kill” be interpreted to allow Jews to kill fellow Israelites, or vice versa? Does divine law accept the silence of international law and global political leaders in the face of what I consider a systematic campaign of violence against a people who carry the lineage of Jesus and of Jacob–Israel?

May truth illuminate the path to freedom and justice for all, and may the Levant know the serenity of lasting peace. Let all weapons be laid down, and let hearts turn toward reconciliation.

This petition is a call for recognition rooted in history and divine law, guided by a commitment to peace, reconciliation, and unity.

Signed,

Myriam Ghaith
Theologian and Advocate for Justice
Beirut, Lebanon
February 13, 2026