An Israeli-Arab woman said she was born 120 years ago when she filed the routine form for a new identity card, media reported Friday.
The Guinness Book of Records currently lists 114-year-old American woman Edna Parker as the oldest person. Mariam Amash from the Israeli Arab village of Jisr a-Zarka would hold this title if her claim gets confirmed.
A spokeswoman for Israel's Interior Ministry confirmed that Amash is listed as having been born in 1888. Amash said the listing was based on a birth certificate issued by Turkish authorities that ruled the region at the time.
Amash's relatives said she has 10 sons, one daughter, about 120 grandchildren, 250 great-grandchildren and 20 great-great grandchildren.
"She is a healthy, active woman. She walks each day and makes sure she drinks at least one glass of olive oil," said Hamda Amash, Mariam Amash's granddaughter-in-law." People like to come to her house. She talks to us about the old days. She knows the history since the Turkish times."
Amarilis Espinoza, a Guinness spokeswoman in London, said multiple documents would need to be produced to back up a birth certificate, like the death certificates, school certificates and medical examinations.
"Anything that helps reconstruct the timeline of the person back to that age," Espinoza explained. "There is a lot of documentation that needs to be prepared before we could announce a person is the oldest person."
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