Israel’s native Aramean Christian population is a very small but ancient group with ties to the Holy Land stretching back thousands of years. These people have a unique culture all their own, and still speak Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus and his contemporaries.
When Arabs conquered the Holy Land in the seventh century, the local Christian population learned to survive by coexisting with Islam and learning to speak Arabic. For this reason, Aramean Christians have been mistakenly known as “Arabs” for several centuries. But for the last several years, members of this unique ethnic group have been lobbying for separate legal recognition from the State of Israel.
Their quest has finally been successful, and for the first time Israel has provided these Christians with the opportunity to change their ethnic identification from Arab to Aramean. It is a moment of great rejoicing for these Christians, who hold great affection for Israel and the Jewish people and wish to become more in-step with mainstream Israeli culture.
Read more on the story here.
