Today is a minor holiday in Israel. But it is a recognition of the Jewish people being the indigenous native people of Israel. In about 1400 b.c.e. on the 10th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, Joshua led the Hebrew people into Canaan their promised land.

A 2020 study found common ancestry for modern Levantine Arabic-speaking peoples and Ashkenazi Jewish populations (Canaanite ancestry), but with the latter harbouring a much higher (41%) European-related component. A 2010 study by Atzmon and Harry Ostrer concluded that the Palestinians were, together with Bedouins, Druze and southern European groups, the closest genetic neighbors to most Jewish populations.

One DNA study by Nebel found substantial genetic overlap among Israeli/Palestinian Arabs and Jews. Nebel proposed that "part, or perhaps the majority" of Muslim Palestinians descend from "local inhabitants, mainly Christians and Jews, who were forced to convert to Islam after the Islamic conquest in the 7th century AD."

- Wikipedia contributors, "Origin of the Palestinians," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

When the Hebrews entered Israel it was occupied by Canaanites, those that survived the war with Joshua's Army, were absorbed into the population. DNA shows that BOTH the Jews and the Palestinians are INDIGENOUS NATIVES OF ISRAEL and genetically close relatives with Canaanite Ancestry. The Gaza war is like a large scale, family argument over land inheritance and religion. The Jews have just as much right to the land as the Palestinians and vice versa. The same situation was going on in Jesus time between the Jews and the Samaritans.

God promised to forgive the Jews and bring them home - he has NOT forgotten his first children. He doesn't break his promises! Through all the suffering their people have endured over the Centuries they retained their culture, their language and their love for God and every year through the Centuries chanted at Passover - "Next Year in Jerusalem".

The prophets of the Old Testament said that the Jews would return to the land from the 4 corners of the earth, in preparation for the coming of Messiah. Many Christians believe we must assist the Jewish people with their return to Israel so we have. Yom HaAliyah is the celebration of these prophecies being fulfilled before our eyes. Even before 1948 Jews escaping the Holocaust, felt called to go home, and an underground railway existed smuggling thousands of them back into their original homeland. Since the re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, millions of Jews have made ‘Aliyah’ (literally: ‘going up’). Returning to the land of their ancestors, this continues to the present day.

These refugees of suffering, have come home, worked hard and built one of the most prosperous, ethnically diverse, democratic, nations on earth. They have made the desert bloom, and become fruitful, and they have had to fight time and again just for the right to survive and exist. God has NOT forgotten his first children and he has proven that time and again as He has protected them and blessed them. So pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that God will grant their leaders the wisdom to avoid World War III!