Everyone talks about peace. But who gets invited to the table? Who draws the maps? Certainly not the refugees from the towns and villages in Gaza. Where is their clause as the people that never left? Arab identity was never neutral. It was crafted by a few, and not long ago. By oil states with interests. It erased an indigenous diversity that sought true peace for its lands. Tunisian and Moroccan Amazigh. South Lebanese Phoenicians. Palestinian Canaanites. All folded into one Arab identity, whether we agreed or not. We’re not against Arabs. But we’re not from the Gulf. We didn’t migrate from "the Peninsula." Our ancestors signed covenants of peace under the name Palestine, before those nations even existed. Yet our memory remains dangerous to those who need us to forget. The British drew the borders. Arab and Zionist nationalism renamed the tribes and expelled the farmers. They agreed to disagree. But they agreed in 1948. The tribe was pushed into Gaza camps in 1948, but we were never "from Gaza". We are from Khirbet Umm Gerar, Wadi al-Sharia, Khirbet Abu Mu’ailiq. Lands being erased from the maps, but not from our bones.
The formation of this tribe isn’t new. This platform can evolve into a force for cultural coexistence.
The Tribe of Abimelech platform is an experimental initiative aimed at preserving, documenting, and reasserting the historical identity of a tribe currently residing in Gaza amidst the devastation of war. This community, whose presence predates modern political constructs and nationalist narratives, faces the risk of cultural extinction in its ancestral territories. Using oral histories, genealogical and DNA evidence, and land-based memory, the platform seeks to restore visibility and recognition for an indigenous tribe that is marginalized and misrepresented. Central to its narrative is the tribe’s ancestral link to Abimelech of Gerar - cited in the Hebrew Bible as having signed the first recorded treaty of coexistence in the Holy Land. This platform is an act of cultural survival for this tribe, a response to extinction, a digital lifeline for a tribe whose history was written in the soil, not in the margins of archives.
You can support the project at https://abimelech.org/support
The project is an attempt to protect what’s left of this tribe and its collective memory. The stories. The names. The good deeds the tribe preserves in memory. The tribe's elders say the ancestors stood there, at that well, and slaughtered the seven lambs. The tribe attests to having lived in the land between Gaza and Beersheba for over 4,000 years. Yet, where they invited to Oslo? Or Camp David? Or the Abraham Accords?
To become a member
Visit: https://abimelech.org/join Membership at this stage is an act of support. As the platform evolves, members will gain access to additional features and resources. By joining, you contribute directly to the preservation and expansion of this initiative. Your support sustains the project and helps it grow. The Tribe of Abimelech Platform
