Israel ponders restricting access to one of Islam's holiest sites for Ramadan

Î.) Semite
NOUN & ADJECTIVE

1.
1598–
Originally: a member of any of the peoples mentioned in Genesis 10:21–31 as descended from Shem, one of the sons of Noah, traditionally interpreted as including the Hebrews, Aramaeans, Assyrians, and Arabs. Subsequently also: a member of any of the peoples who speak or spoke a Semitic language.

* 1598From Assyria the Semites gan to trauell [Fr. on se retire] Vnto the land beguilt with Hytans glistring grauell. W. Lisle, translation of G. de S. Du Bartas, Colonies 35

* 2018Jews and Arabs are Semites, sharing more than they have chosen to remember. Australian (Nexis) 26 May (Review edition) 22


2.) 1881–
A Jewish person. Frequently derogatory or euphemistic.

* 1881This object [of the Anti-Semite League] is to be striven after in a strictly legal way, by resisting with all lawful means the further supplanting of Germanism by Judaism, by making it its task to thrust the Semites back into a station corresponding to their numerical strength. 19th Century February 344

* 2010They ponder whether they should have a Jewish employee present to make her think they're a Semite-friendly firm. R. Carveth in R. Carveth & J. B. South, Mad Men & Philosophy xv. 222

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ADJECTIVE
(attributive).

* 1855–
That is a Semite; of or relating to a Semite; Semitic.

* 1855In all probability, the Salem of Melchizedek, who was the prototype of the Semite race in Syria, comes from the same source. Journal of Royal Asiatic Society vol. 15 252

* 2002He..thrusts his far from pleasant Semite face so close to mine. D. Abse, Strange Case Dr Simmonds & Dr Glas (2003) ii. 21

SOURCE : https://www.oed.com/dictionary/semite_n?tl=true#:~:text=1598–-,Originally%3A%20a%20member%20of%20any%20of%20the%20peoples%20mentioned%20in,or%20spoke%20a%20Semitic%20language.



ÎÎ.) Semites and Anti-Semites, That is the Question

There is much misunderstanding about the term "anti-Semitism" among Jews, Arabs, and European Christians.

The term is bandied about as a description of attitudes deemed anti-Jewish, and on occasion anti-Arab, but much of its use is anachronistic and ahistorical. While Zionists and their supporters have been using the charge of anti-Semitism against any and all who oppose Israel and its policies, especially, although not exclusively, in the Arab World, Arabs have taken offense countering that they are "Semites" and therefore by definition cannot be "anti-Semitic".

What are the merits of such arguments?

Semitic people or Semites is an obsolete term for an ethnic, cultural or racial group associated with people of the Middle East, including Arabs, Jews, Akkadians, and Phoenicians. The terminology is now largely unused outside the grouping "Semitic languages" in linguistics.


The term Semite was proposed at first for the languages related to the Hebrew by Ludwig Schlözer, in Eichhorn's "Repertorium", vol. VIII (Leipzig, 1781), p. 161.

Through Eichhorn the name then came into general usage (cf. his "Einleitung in das Alte Testament" (Leipzig, 1787), I, p. 45. In his "Gesch. der neuen Sprachenkunde", pt. I (Göttingen, 1807) it had already become a fixed technical term.

Since then the name has been generally adopted, except that modern science uses it in a somewhat wider sense to include all those Peoples who are either demonstrably of Semitic origin, or who appear in history as completely Semitized.


* Classification

In historic times all Western Asia (see below), with the exception of the peninsula of Asia Minor, was Semitic. From the philological point of view the Semitic peoples are divided into four chief Babylonian-Assyrian Semites (East Semites), Chanaanitic Semites, (West Semites), Aramaic Semites (North Semites), and Arabian Semites (South Semites).

The last-named group is divided into North and South Arabians, of which last the Abyssinians are a branch.

The first three groups are usually termed North Semites, in contrast to the Arabian group, or South Semites. But the classification of the Babylonian with the Aramaic and Chanaanitic Semites is not permissible from the philological point of view.



* Territory

The great mountain-chains which begin at the Syro-Cilician boundary, and then curving towards the southwest extend to the Persian Gulf, separate on the north and east the territory of the Semites from that of the other peoples of Western Asia.

It includes the Syro-Arabian plain with the civilized countries extending to the east and west and the Arabian Peninsula which joins it on the south. The lowlands to the east are formed by the Euphrates and the Tigris, and include the homes of two very ancient civilizations, in the north the rather undulating Mesopotamia, in the south the low Babylonian plain; the land extending to the west from the lower Euphrates is called Chaldea.

These are the territories of the East Semitic tribes and states. On the west lies Northern Syria, then the Lebanon Mountains with the intervening Coelo-Syria, the oasis of Damascus, the seat of an ancient culture, the Hauran, and in the midst of the desert the oasis of Palmyra (Tadmor).

These territories were at a later period occupied principally by Aramaic tribes. The territory on the coast extending westwards from Lebanon, and Palestine, which joins it on the south, are the principal seats of the Chanaanitic Semites. The mountainous country to the east of Arabia and the Sinaitic peninsula extending to the west of Arabia, belong to Arabia proper, the territory of the South Semites.

SOURCE : https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13706a.htm



ÎÎÎ.) Who are Semites?

Semites are a group of Near Eastern and African peoples descended from Shem. Called the father of the Semites, Shem was a son of Noah. He and seven other members of his family entered the ark, escaped the flood, and lived to repopulate the earth. Through Shem passed the line of descent to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Shem’s great-grandson Eber was the father of those who were eventually called “Hebrews,” including Abram (see Genesis 10 and 11 for more on Shem’s line).

Scholars of philology, the study of language, traditionally classify the Semitic family of languages into three topographical divisions. East Semitic (sometimes classified as Northeast) was used in ancient Babylon and Assyria and includes the Akkadian (or Accadian) language. The Northwest classification takes in Hebrew, Aramaic, Canaanite, Syrian, Phoenician, Samaritan, Palmyrene, Nabatean, Eblaite, and Ugaritic languages. South Semitic languages include Arabic, Sabean, Minean, and Ethiopic. Of the more than 70 different known forms of Semite languages, some contain vast libraries of literature; others have only a small collection, and some remain entirely unwritten. Modern Semitic languages in common use include Hebrew, Arabic, Neo-Aramaic, Amharic, and Maltese.

Today, anti-Semitism is a term that has come to mean “prejudice or hostility toward Jews as a religious, cultural, or racial group.” According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the word anti-Semitism was introduced in 1879 by Wilhelm Marr, a German agitator who used it to describe anti-Jewish campaigns that were taking place in central Europe at the time. The term is, in fact, a misnomer, as true anti-Semitism would imply discrimination against anyone of Semitic descent including Arabs, Ethiopians, and other Semites.

SOURCE : https://www.gotquestions.org/Semites.html

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