The Myth of Nativity
is a fierce, unflinching examination of how nationalist movements use ancestry myths to justify power, dispossession, and violence. A.A. Castor challenges readers to confront the uncomfortable parallels between the Nazi appropriation of the "Aryan" identity and Zionism's exclusive claim to Semitic nativity in Israel and Palestine. Drawing on history, religion, and politics, this book exposes the rhetoric that erases indigenous identity, rewrites ancestry, and turns complex heritage into a blunt weapon of exclusion. It dives deep into the exile and return narratives of Jewish tradition, the trauma of European anti-Semitism, and the colonial logic that rebranded Palestinian Arabs as foreigners on their own land. Castor refuses simplistic blame, acknowledging the real suffering of Jewish communities while demanding moral accountability for displacement and settlement. This is not a dry academic history but a provocative polemic designed to unsettle certainties, interrogate Zionist narrative, and reclaim the shared Semitic roots often buried under political dogma. Essential reading for anyone studying nationalism, race, religion, settler colonialism, anti-Semitism, or the Israel-Palestine conflict,
insists that true peace can only begin with historical honesty and the rejection of myths that divide us.