2 yr-old Yaakov Khalloul becomes 1st Israeli Christian to be officially registered as Aramean. “Finally, after 1,400 years of the Middle East being occupied and controlled by different forces, the Jews come along and recognize us.” says father.
Yaakov Khalloul, a two-year-old Christian child from the Galilee, made history on Monday when he became the first person in Israel’s modern history to be officially registered as an Aramean.
To date, all Christians in Israel have been registered with population authorities as Arabs, given that for most, their mother tongue is Arabic. But last month, outgoing Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar issued a directive permitting local Christians to now be voluntarily registered according to a more ancient ancestry.