Its collapse would have had a tremendous impact on the many civilizations it had touched, whether through trade or slaves or war or treaty. It was moreover a morally creative civilization, the best of whose shepherd-kings took responsibility for the poor and articulated laws to protect them. Seven thousand years ago, Sumer, in Mesopotamia, was one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known – the creator of paradigms and inventions that spread the world over, including writing and the plow. Both areas of focus bear directly on the contemporary politics of Israel and Palestine, including on the most pressing issue of annexation. My second focus is to find a language that allows us to make sense of this contradiction. Evaluated independently from Judaism and Jewish peoplehood and historical context, Zionism is barely distinguishable from settler colonialism. Evaluated independently from Zionism, Judaism and Jewish peoplehood meet many of the criteria for being indigenous. However, the claim of indigeneity presents us with a conundrum. What this means, why it matters, and how it plays out in both the context of Judaism’s origins and in post-exilic contexts, is the first focus of this article.
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