Yesterday PaleoJudiaca reported on a new website dedicated to Assyrian rights. Some of you might be shocked to discover the Assyrian nation is still with us, however I've actually known this for quite some time. When I was a young soldier manning a road block on the outskirts of Bethlem, I actually encountered quite a few people who had "Assyrian" as their nationality on their Israeli or Palestinian I.D. Being as curious then as I am now, I tried numerous times to start up conversations on the matter – but never really managed to go any further then "Sankhariv" was an Assyrian king. It took me a while to understand that from their perspective, if you are an Arab passing an Israeli roadblock, and some soldier starts questioning you on your nationality this is seldom a sign for good things to come.According to this old Ha'aretz story there are actually 132 different nationalities that are recognized by the Israeli Home office. Among those recognized: Samarian and Tartar.
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