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Comments (0)DNA tests on the Lemba tribe of central Zimbabwe and northern South Africa show that they are of Jewish or Semitic origin, the BBC reported.
The tribe’s customs are similar to Jewish ones, including male circumcision, ritual animal slaughter, abstaining from eating pork and wearing skull caps. And their oral tradition claims they are descended from seven male Jews who left Israel 2,500 years ago and married African women, according to the BBC.
Their prized religious artifact is a replica of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant known as the ngoma lungundu, meaning “the drum that thunders,” the BBC reported. Their sacred prayer language is a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic.
The Lemba also have 12 tribes, including a priestly clan that has a genetic element found in Jewish priests or Cohanim, according to the report.
Many of the Lemba in Zimbabwe are Christians, while some are Muslims.
Professor Tudor Parfitt of the University of London has spent 20 years researching the Lemba, and lived with them for six months.
“Many people say that the story is far-fetched, but the oral traditions of the Lemba have been backed up by science,” Parfitt told the BBC.
Turkey Rejects Israel Earthquake Aid
Turkey turned down Israel’s offer of aid following an earthquake in the east of the country.
The earthquake registering 6.0 on the Richter scale that struck early Monday has killed 41 villagers in eastern Turkey and injured 50, according to reports.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak reportedly instructed his staff to find ways that Israel could help in the aftermath, but Turkey reportedly refused the aid, saying it has the experience to handle the disaster.
In August 1999, Israel sent a 250-member rescue and recovery team and a field hospital to Turkey following an earthquake measuring 7.4 that killed 18,000.
Relations between Israel and Turkey have been strained in recent months, especially since the Gaza war last winter.
Israel Rips Anti-Zionist Tribunal in Barcelona
The Israeli Embassy in Madrid likened a recent meeting in Barcelona of well-known anti-Zionists as a “lynching.”
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine, held March 1-3 and largely funded by Barcelona City Hall, aimed to “examine on what level the European Union and its member states are complicit in the prolongation of the occupation of Palestinian territory and the violations on the part of Israel in the rights of the nation of Palestine.”
In an unusually harsh news release, the Israeli Embassy accused the “tribunal” of being carried out by “anti-Semites and anti-Israelis,” and likened the meeting to a “lynching.”
“They didn’t call anyone to defend Israel at this event,” said Lior Haiat, spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Madrid. “The sentence was so foreseeable, like a jury made up exclusively of members of the KKK in a trial against a black man.”
The eight-member tribunal found that “Israel has committed and continues to commit grave breaches of international law against the Palestinian people.” It called on the European Union and its member states to take “appropriate action” against Israel.
Members included notorious anti-Israel critics Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, the winner of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize; Cynthia McKinney, a former member of the U.S. Congress and a 2008 candidate for president with the Green Party; and Ronald Kasrils, a South African writer and activist.
The embassy said that having the meeting in Spain was not incidental, that it was largely connected to the “worrying situation of anti-Semitism” in the country.
“The fact that Barcelona City Hall has paid for a large part of this meeting, without a doubt, is connected to anti-Semitism in Spain,” according to the news release.
A recent ADL survey showed that 74 percent of Spaniards believe the traditional stereotype that Jews hold too much power in international financial markets.