Perhaps I'll have time to watch some of this later, but there is no doubt that many of the local Arabs are in fact descendants of Jews. IY"H, we'll get a reincarnation fo the Arizal who will able to pick them out of the dirt, do giur lechumra and come back into the clan..

people have this incredible fascination/obsession with jews. how many tv shows are there which are based on some biblical prophecy conspiracy? same thing here.

And meanwhile if they don't claim to be Jews, and actively keep another religion - then what? Even the Catholics gave up trying to wipe us off the map ch"v - only the British and their Arab friends persist!

'a BBC report suggests the Jews were never exiled'
Having watched the film, this comment is utter nonsense. It does suggest that alongside the destruction of Jerusalem in the Great Jewish Revolt of 68- 70AD and of many Judaean towns and villages during the Bar-Kochba Revolt of 135AD, that there were other Jewish Communities who did not revolt against Roman rule in the Galilee. It also argues for a complex reading of the history of what is now Israel-Palestine. It is worth asking, in this context, who the Palestinians really are? Are they descendants of Jews who converted to Christianity and Islam who remained in the land? Are they a different people?

Ed Stourton who chaired a discussion after the film was slightly more interesting because overall consensus was that history is so subjective. If you were to take BBC news report today, on for example some incident in Syria, it would probably be different than one reported from Al Jazeera or RT; therefore you cannot accept what some Greek or Roman writer says as empirical truth on the Jewish exile written several hundred years ago.

This post has been included in Shiloh Musings: Vayeitzei, Let's Go Out to Meet Some Blogs, aka Havel Havelim.  Please visit, share and enjoy.

Here's a link to the following debate. It is worth watching

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03gq4qh/Searching_for_Exile_The_Debate/