Indigenous Embassy Aiming To Change Anti-Israel Narrative Among Native Peoples

Some Palestinians, however, take issue with the argument that Jews are the land’s only indigenous people

While Indigenous peoples around the world largely identify with the Palestinian cause, the newly established Indigenous Embassy in Jerusalem aims to demonstrate its founders’ belief that Jews are the indigenous people of the land of Israel.

“There has been a very effective propaganda campaign, a deliberate attempt to divest Jews of their rightful claims to this place,” Sheree Trotter, co-founder of the Indigenous Coalition for Israel, told The Media Line. “A lot of indigenous people have this natural tendency to gravitate toward Palestinians because they see them as an oppressed minority like themselves.”

According to Trotter, who has a doctorate in the history of Zionism in New Zealand, settler-colonial ideology has perpetuated a false narrative that has become “deeply embedded in people’s understanding of Israel.”

Dr. Sheree Trotter, co-founder of the Indigenous Coalition for Israel, speaking at the opening of the Indigenous Embassy in Jerusalem, Feb. 4, 2024, at the Friends of Zion Museum. (Screenshot: Indigenous Embassy)

The religion, language, and national identity of the Jewish people were all formed in the land of Israel, Trotter noted. Jewish patriarchs and prophets are buried in Israel, and Jerusalem is mentioned 700 times in the Bible, all of which are the “defining features of indigeneity,” she said.

In contrast, Trotter noted, Arabs have never had sovereignty in this land.

“It [modern-day Israel] has been ruled over by foreign powers and colonizers,” she said, adding that a Palestinian identity did not develop until the 1960s and then only in opposition to the Jewish presence.

But Palestinians such as Dimitri Diliani, spokesperson for the Fatah Reformist Democratic Faction, called the concept of indigenous exclusivity for Jews in Israel “ignorant.”

“I don’t deny that there’s a continuous line of Jews and…they are Palestinians and you can go visit them in Nablus,” he told The Media Line, speaking of the Samaritans.

But, according to Diliani, the people of this region trace back to Abraham and were once pagans who became Jews and, eventually, some converted to either Christians or Muslims, leading to the local population today.

“Judaism is a religion. My great-great-great-great-great-grandfather probably was a Jew that converted to Christianity,” he said. “That’s why we share a lot of family names.”

Diliani added that this attempt to equate the land with only Jewish heritage is “Zionist Israel propaganda.”

“Are they trying to convince me that these blond-haired, blue-eyed people are indigenous to the Middle East? Are you trying to tell me an African-Ethiopian is indigenous to this land?” he asked.

To be sure, the Maori in New Zealand generally identify with Palestinians as their “brown brothers,” Trotter said. But she said many Israeli Jews are also “brown.”

A member of Te Arawa, a Maori tribe, Trotter co-founded the Indigenous Coalition for Israel “as a platform for indigenous voices to show our support for Israel and to push back against the false narrative which is very prevalent.”

Having an embassy to represent indigenous peoples has been one of the organization’s goals. Talk of creating an indigenous embassy goes back to at least the 1990s, Trotter said.

The idea was accelerated into fruition by Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, deputy mayor of Jerusalem, and the embassy was inaugurated on Feb. 1, just months after Hamas infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 Israelis and abducting 250 into Gaza.

Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip has resulted in more than 27,000 deaths, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, sparking accusations of genocide by Israel along with virulent anti-Israel demonstrations and, Trotter noted, victim-blaming.

Native American Chief Joseph Riverwind, a leader of the Arawak Taino Nation, and his wife, Dr. Laralyn Riverwind, ambassador-at-large for the Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee, have also expressed their desire to open a Native American embassy in Jerusalem. At the Indigenous Embassy’s inauguration, Chief Joseph spoke about his tribe’s connection to Sephardic Jews during the Inquisition. Meanwhile, Laralyn credited her parents for instilling a love of Israel into their children.

In an interview with The Media Line last year, Laralyn said she felt “compassion that the Palestinians believe this is their land.”

“When you’ve raised generations of people on a land, you tend to feel the connection to it. However, when you go back far enough, the truth of the matter is that this land was given by Creator to the Jewish people,” she said, adding that “there are many countries around the world where the Arab communities have countries, but there’s only one small piece of land that belongs to the Jewish people.”

At the embassy inauguration, Chief of State Protocol for Israel’s Foreign Ministry Gil Haskel noted that the new Indigenous Embassy was Israel’s 100th embassy. He said Israel was “generous and willing to host in this land of ours our neighbors and the people who came also after us” and to “allow freedom of expression of any religion here in the Holy Land.”

“Unfortunately,” he added, “we are met with different gestures from our immediate neighbors and also more distant neighbors.”

Dr. Laralyn Riverwind and Chief Joseph Riverwind speak at the opening of the Indigenous Embassy in Jerusalem on Feb. 4 at the Friends of Zion Museum. (Nicole Jansezian/The Media Line)

The embassy, which does not represent any government or have diplomatic status, is located at the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem. It is largely composed of pro-Israel evangelical Christians. The opening was attended by indigenous leaders from several nations, including the United States, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Tonga.

“You who are here are going to be a tremendous comfort to the nation of Israel,” Mike Evans, founder of the Friends of Zion Heritage Center, said at the opening event. “And you are going to be the ambassadors to your nations that’s going to be sparking a flame of love.”

Diliani, however, called them “despicable genocide sympathizers” who represent only themselves.

“We all know how Israel’s lobbies work, trying to buy support,” he said. “The majority of the world rejects the idea not only that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel or that it is even a part of Israel, they don’t recognize Israeli sovereignty over Israel.”