Yasser Arafat a Moroccan Jew?

Israeli Guy (Weblog) ^ | February 17, 2004 | Israeli Guy

[Piranha]

At least that is what a new book published in Syria says. According to the book, written b y a top PLO member, Arafat’s father Arrived to Jerusalem from a village in Morocco populated mostly by Jews. The author claims that a cousin of Arafat confirmed that Arafat changed his last name trying to hide his Jewish Moroccan roots.

The author also writes what has been known for a long time that Arafat was born in Cairo not in Jerusalem. Arafat’s father was married to an Arab woman from Jerusalem but Arafat was not born there. Another thing the book says is that Arafat is not related, as he claims, to the infamous/ famous Husseini family from Jerusalem. As for being from Moroccan origin the book quotes Morocco’s former Foreign Affairs minister that as far as he knows Arafat is from that Moroccan village. (all of the above freely translated from Israeli news siteYnet)

The readers of Ynet had some funny conclusions: If Arafat is a Jew it will explain many things. For example it explains why Arafat refused to accept Barak and Clinton plan to give land to the Palestinians. It would also explain why he leads the Palestinians to chaos. Why he encourages suicide bombings that causes more and more people to loathe the Palestinians. Another thing: If Arafat is a Jew and he lives in the West Bank, does that make him a settler?

Posted by Gil at February 17, 2004 03:43 PM | TrackBack

[benmoussa00]

It could be true that he was Moroccan Jew , does it make a difference if his ancestors were Jew , maybe his parents or grand parent convert to Islam , That's very common especially in Morocco

[Piranha]

From reading above, it appears that was born in Cairo as the son of a Moroccan Jewish father (and, presumably, a Muslim mother who came from Jerusalem).

Therefore he would not be Jewish under Jewish law. My limited understanding of Islamic law is that religion is passed through the father. If that is true, then unless his father or he converted to Islam he would not be considered either Jewish under Jewish law or Muslim under Islamic law.

I did not read the Hebrew-language article on YNET (the website for Yediot Achronot, a prominent Israeli newspaper), so I don't know whether it suggests that his father converted to Islam.