Does Obama have an Arab-link?

LONDON: Here is more about larger-than-life Barack Obama. The US President-elect apparently has an Arab-connection too.

Around 8,000 Bedouins, Arab nomadic pastorates, living in the Galilee area of Israel have claimed that America's first black President is a lost member of their tribe, a media report said.

"We knew about it years ago but we were afraid to talk about it because we didn't want to influence the elections," Ha'aretz quoted Abdul Rahman Sheikh Abdullah, a local council member from the tribe, told The Times.

"We wrote a letter to him explaining the family connection," Abdullah added. Obama has not yet responded to the letter, the report said.

The claim originated with Abdullah's 95-year-old mother, who believes the US President-elect bears resemblance to the African migrant workers once employed by the Sheikhs in British Mandate Palestine in the 1930, the report said.

Abdullah's mother said that a relative of Obama's Kenyan grandmother had once been employed in such capacity and married a local Bedouin girl who he later returned home with.

Abdullah has said that he has documentary evidence to the family connection, but has promised his mother not to reveal them until he has presented them to Obama.

The claim has brought a slew of visitors to the small Bedouin village, where tribesman have celebrated the "Bedouin Obama's victory.

Abdullah plans to hold a massive party next week, including the slaughter of a dozen goats, 'The Times' reportedly said and has already been marking the occasion of Obama's win by handing out traditional sweets to guests and locals.

"We want to send a delegation to congratulate him and we know we'll get an answer soon," ‘The Times’ quoted him as saying.

The clan based in Israel's northern village of Bir al-Maksour is so certain of the connection that two of its newest members have already been named Obama.

Abdullah said the tribe is pinning its hopes on the president-elect to "end all wars and intervene here to solve our problems in Israel".

"The Bedouin are the people who suffer the most here," he was quoted as saying.