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Biblical origins of the Israeli Palestinian relationship
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A brief history of Israeli Palestinian relations is integral to a discussion of the role of hip-hop as a mediator of this inter-cultural dialogue. Contemporary disputes regarding socio-political autonomy and economically viable access to resources have their emotional foundation in the Jewish biblical narrative later adapted and incorporated in the Qu’ran. Judaism and Islam share a common ancestor in the Patriarch Abraham. Competition, tension and a seemingly contradictory intimacy have been present in the relationship between these two religions from their first biblical inceptions. Unable to procreate with his wife Sarah, Abraham has a child with his wife’s servant Hagar. Hagar bears a son, Ishmael, who grows up resented and mistreated by Sarah. When she finally bears a son at the age of 99 she instructs Abraham to cast out Hagar and Ishmael, which he does comforted by God’s reassurance of protection and proliferation for the decedents of Ishmael. The same blessing is bestowed upon Sarah’s son Isaac from whom the Jewish people are descended. Echoes of this competition for Abraham’s affection can be seen in the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian struggle over land claims and access to water. Additionally, the practical applicability of this narrative can be seen in the negligible proximity between the customs and characteristics of these two religiously based culture groupings. Both religiously observant Jewish Israelis and Islamic Palestinian share similar dietary restrictions, mandatory male circumcision, and an emphasis on modesty and literacy. These similarities carry over into the secular realms of Israeli and Palestinian culture, most identifiably and perhaps significantly, in the near identical linguistics patterns of Hebrew and Arabic wherein many words differ in a singular phoneme or letter.
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