Shasu is an Egyptian term for nomads who appeared in the Levant from the 15th Century BC all the way to the Third Intermediate Period. The name evolved from a transliteration of the Egyptian word š3sw, meaning "moving on foot", into the term for Bedouin-type wanderers. The term first originated in a 15th Century list of peoples in the Transjordan, with one of the Shasu described as "Yhw in the land of the Shasu". Thus, a scholar- Donald Redford- implies that from this evidence the people that would eventually be the "Israel" recorded on the Merneptah Stele (widely known as the Israel Stele) and later form the Kingdom of Israel were originally a Shasu tribe. As a result of this, some have used Redford's work to verify the Exodus, but since no extra-Biblical data exists regarding an Exodus at all, this link remains sketchy. However, Redford's work does shine new possibilities regarding the origins of Israel in history. Communities of nomadic people move from place to place, rather than settling down in one location. ... The Levant or Sham (Arabic root word related to the term Semite) is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in Southwest Asia south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and the north Arabian Desert and Mesopotamia to the east. ... The Third Intermediate Period is a phrase used to refer the period of the history of Ancient Egypt from the death of pharaoh Rameses XI in 1070 BC to the foundation of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty by Psamtik I, following the expulsion of the Nubian rulers of the Twenty-fifth... A table of common transliteration systems for ancient Egyptian is given in this article. ... Bedouin resting at Mount Sinai Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawi بدوي, a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and... Corresponding geographically to todays Kingdom of Jordan, the Emirate of Transjordan was an autonomous political subdivision of the British Mandate of Palestine, split off in April 1921. ... The Merneptah Stele is the reverse of a stela erected by Amenhotep III written by Merneptah. ... The Kingdom of Israel (Hebrew: מַלְכוּת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Standard Hebrew Malḫut Yisraʼel, Tiberian Hebrew Malḵûṯ YiÅ›rāʼēl) was the Kingdom proclaimed by the Israelite nation around 1050 BC. The nation itself was formed as the Israelites left the Land of Goshen, Egypt during the Exodus at an uncertain date, often... Exodus is the second book of the Torah (the five books of Moses) and also the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) and Christian Old Testament. ...

References

Donald Redford, "Egypt, Caanan and Israel In Ancient Times".