Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 1763 } Location: Hudson Valley, NY
Posted: Fri 17 Dec 2004 19:00 Post subject: Palestinian Genes
Palestinian Genes Show Arab, Jewish, European and Black-African Ancestry
By David Storobin, Esq.
A study by the University of Chicago found that Arab populations, including Palestinians, Jordanians, Syrians, Iraqis, and Bedouin, have at least some sub-Saharan African genes. Non-Arabs from the region, including Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Azeris, Georgians, and Jews did not have any African roots. [1] A possible explanation is the proximity of the Arabian peninsula to the Black African nations. This conclusion is favored by the fact that Yemenite Arabs have 35% Black African genes in their mtDNA (which passes through the mother), while others have less. Yemen, of course, is very close geographically to several Black African nations. Other Arabs, especially those far away from the Arabian peninsula, have as little as 10% African blood in their mtDNA. As such, it is possible that the African gene was merely diluted by the introduction of non-Arab (and non-African) genes to the pool when Arabs began to conquer other Middle East people after the rise of Islam. The "real" Arabs -- those who have Arab ancestors stretching beyond the last 1,400 years are actually 35% Black in their mtDNA. These Arabs are from the Arabian peninsula.[2]
Other populations that are now called Arabs became Arabized through intermarriage and adoption of the Arabic language and culture. These people are partially Arab and partially descendants of the nations that lived in their region prior to the rise of the Muslim faith. Just as their "Arab gene" was diluted by mixing with local genes, so too the 35% of the mtDNA that is Black African was diluted and reduced to around 10%.
The reduction of the Black genes from 35% to around 10% also suggests that the large majority (around 70%) of genes belonging to the Arabs outside the Arabian peninsula come from the local nations. The claim is supported by the historical fact that the original Arab population was relatively small and could not have populated a region stretching from Iraq to Morocco with such density, no matter the birthrate (and, in any event, where did the original populations go?). Both historically and genetically, it is almost definite that the Arab population intermarried with locals, including Palestinians, upon their conquest.
Palestinians, however, differ from other Arabs in some ways. As the web site for Harpers Magazine reported, one study showed that Jews and Palestinians have common ancestry that is so recent that it is highly likely that at least some of the Palestinian blood actually descends from Jews. [3] Another study by New York University confirmed a remarkable similarity between Jewish and Palestinian genes. "Jews and Arabs are all really children of Abraham," said Dr. Harry Ostrer, director of the Human Genetics Program at New York University School of Medicine, who worked on the study. "And all have preserved their Middle Eastern genetic roots over 4,000 years. [4]
According to several other studies, Palestinians and Jews are genetically closer to each other than either is to the Arabs of Arabia or to Europeans [5]. A study of congenital deafness identified an allele limited to Palestinian and Jews of Ashkenazi origin (those who lived in Europe in recent centuries), suggesting a common origin. Furthermore, Y-chromosome polymorphism is very similar among Palestinians and Sephardic Jews. [6]. The claims of genetic closeness may be used to confirm claims of both sides to Israel/Palesitne, but right now, results are incomplete and are subject to much interpretation. [7]
There is a significant Christian population among Palestinian Arabs, leading some to claim that at least part of the Palestinian population (the Christians) descended from the original followers of Christ, who were, of course, Jews (they were Jews ethnically, even if they didn't follow Judaism). Despite extensive research, I have not been able to find any scientific studies supporting this claim.
Among Palestinian Muslims, there is a significant number of people who are recent immigrants from other Arab states. Official records of the Ottoman Empire (colonial power until WWI) and Britain (colonial power from the 1920's to 1948) show that there was very significant Islamic immigration into holy land. In some years, there were more Muslim new-comers than Jewish.
Finally, several studies have shown that Palestinians have a larger than usual (among Arabs) European blood. This may be explained by the Crusades and the establishment of a Crusader Kingdom in medieval times. It is highly likely that at least some percentage of the Palestinian population mixed with Europeans, either through intermarriage or rape of Arab women by Europeans, as well as European women by Arabs. Additionally, cities with significant Palestinian populations, including Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem, are sites of many Christian holy landmarks, which draw a large number of European tourists. This, too, may have played a role in the disproportionate amount of European genes found among Palestinians.
David Storobin, Esq. is the current editor-in-chief of Global Politician. He is a New York lawyer who received Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Rutgers University School of Law. His Master's Thesis (M.A. - Comparative Politics) deals with Extremist Movements in the Middle East and the historical causes for the rise of fundamentalism. Storobin spent years in southern Russia, gaining a familiarity with the conflicts in Chechnya, Dagestan, etc. Mr. Storobin's book "The Root Cause: The Rise of Fundamentalist Islam and its Threat to the Modern World" will be published in 2005.
A good source on gender-asymetric mating among Arabs is "Extensive Female-Mediated Gene Flow from Sub-Saharan Africa into Near Eastern Arab Populations" by Martin Richards. Click here.
Posted: Fri 17 Dec 2004 21:24 Post subject: Palestinian Genes Show Arab, Jewish, European and Black-Afri
Good read. Have there been any studies of the Sephardic/Oriental Jewish populations in Israel or the Middle East and the degree of sub-saharan ancestry in their makeup?
I've seen pictures of some Oriental Jews from Israel and they are no different in appearance than the Palestinians and other Arabs.
Posted: Fri 17 Dec 2004 21:42 Post subject: Re: Palestinian Genes Show Arab, Jewish, European and Black-Afri
gwtapper2000 wrote:
Good read. Have there been any studies of the Sephardic/Oriental Jewish populations in Israel or the Middle East and the degree of sub-saharan ancestry in their makeup?
I don't have copies of any, but if you go to "pubmed" (<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi>) and type "admixture jews" into the search engine, you will turn up a bunch of articles. Four of the interesting titles on the first search-results page are:
The Y chromosome pool of Jews as part of the genetic landscape of the Middle East
Human mitochondrial DNA sequence variation in the Moroccan population of the Souss area
High-resolution Y chromosome haplotypes of Israeli and Palestinian Arabs reveal geographic substructure and substantial overlap with haplotypes of Jews
Consistent long-range linkage disequilibrium generated by admixture in a Bantu-Semitic hybrid population.
Posted: Thu 06 Jan 2005 08:41 Post subject: Semetic genes
Dean Chapman posted an interesting article on racial kinship between the Israelis and Palestinians. Their both being Semitic peoples is long known, I think.
Possibly the core problem, that I see, dogging the Middle East's denial of peace is racial in this sense. And it seems to be the unmentionable elephant in the room, so to speak.
Firstly, the conflicting ethnic groups claming the same land both perceive themselves in the sense of a "blood race." Around 1900 the notion of human "races" was reinterpreted to stress fractional blood-lineage over regional phenotype. This gave everyone's "race" a connotation nearer a domesticated dog or hog breed than description of a natural, wild, free thing. So it is, the Jews, especially Zionists, regard themselves an ethnicity of lineal "blood" descendants of their religion's founding father. They think their claim on biblical Israel survives on Palestinian land today through their "blood" inheritance from their remote ancestor. Moreover, as "a race" they see themselves collectively -- "us" -- the "blood race" granted biblical "deed" to Israel, regardless their possible distant ancestors were dispersed into Europe and elsewhere some 2,000 years ago.
Secondly, when modern Israel hoisted its own blue flag, sewn by Holocaust surviving post-World War II European Jews (1948), it was untroubled by its inherent racism. The racist ("white") world of 1948 was sanguine about Jews ripping their own racial homeland back out of the grasp of squatting "sand niggers." The 380,000 or so refugee Palestinians counted for no more than American Indians -- as mere savages, primitives -- undeserving of lands promised by the Old Testament God of Abraham to Jews, who UNESCO decreed were "white," Europeans. Today's post-MLK civil rights World would see Palestinians differently had Israel tried to re-invent itself now. No doubt this is partly why Israel cannot simply expel the non-Jews from the West Bank & Gaza Strip, which it covets. Nonetheless, everyone will talk endlessly about U.N. resolutions and "rights of self-determination," without coming near the basic questions that brought this problem on the world with the Balfour Declaration.
I think the Palestinians who lived on the land for thousands of years before the "white" Jews "returned" have a strong case. I think arguments can be framed questioning the rights of foreigners with tenuous "blood" claims to homelands of peoples who lived millennia ago. Unfortunately, the Palestinians discredit themselves by jettisoning reason and non-violent resistance. They lost my support when they took up suicide terrorism. Even founded-on-theocracy-and-"race entitlements" Israel is preferable to that.
George
Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 1763 } Location: Hudson Valley, NY
Posted: Thu 06 Jan 2005 16:31 Post subject:
George wrote:
I think the Palestinians who lived on the land for thousands of years before the "white" Jews "returned" have a strong case. I think arguments can be framed questioning the rights of foreigners with tenuous "blood" claims to homelands of peoples who lived millennia ago. Unfortunately, the Palestinians discredit themselves by jettisoning reason and non-violent resistance. They lost my support when they took up suicide terrorism. Even founded-on-theocracy-and-"race entitlements" Israel is preferable to that.
I totally agree with you. But are the Ashkanzi Jews who are the people in control of Israel and most of it's population as well as here in the States of Semitic background??? I think the term "Anti-Semite" is a misnomer of sorts since a "Semite" could be a Christian or Muslim Arab.
I have a tough time sometimes explaining to people that Iranians are not Arabs but Persians and Turks are not Arabs.
I think the Palestinians who lived on the land for thousands of years before the "white" Jews "returned" have a strong case. I think arguments can be framed questioning the rights of foreigners with tenuous "blood" claims to homelands of peoples who lived millennia ago. ...
I totally agree with you. But are the Ashkanzi Jews who are the people in control of Israel and most of it's population as well as here in the States of Semitic background??? I think the term "Anti-Semite" is a misnomer of sorts since a "Semite" could be a Christian or Muslim Arab.
[Omissions.]
Thanks for the complement. Sure. I think"Semite" is suposed to mean a language group, not a "race."
I believe the pre-World War II neighbors of European Jews regarded them at least partly racially Semitic. I understand that Hitler's/Nazi furious eugenic animus (muchly of Ango-American origins) for exterminating Ashkanazi Jews was their alleged racial "mixedness" -- their "impurity." The inheriting of ethnic Jewishness is discussed on the site:
HalfJew.com http://www.halfjew.com/
HalfJew.com opened about three years ago offering refuge to "half-Jews." The owner was shocked by the furious opposition to her merely proposing that any half-Jews exist. She has withdrawn somewhat from the fray. Her Web site now goes long between updates. Anyway, there she explains that Jewish "blood" passes the same as did antebellum slave status -- hypodescent -- inherited through the mother only.
All that I care about is the justice (or injustice) of modern Israel hoisting its own flag in 1948, and forcibly proposing to restore to "their" ancestral lands the peoples believing themselves "blood" lineal descendants of biblical Abraham. Obviously they believe they constitute a "one-drop" "blood race," all collected together under the racial/ethnic rubric of Jewish. (I.e., Zionism.) Something similar is happening in Hawaii, where three concentric circles of "Native Hawaiian" define increased racial privileges based on "purity" of fractional native "blood"; as determined at the time in 1788 when the islands were discovered by Captain Cook, and the English. (See Rice v. Cayetano, 528 U.S.495 (2000) http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/98-818.ZS.html.) And again, similar racial "blood" animal husbandry for humans is smudging the identities of about 80 percent of our American Indian tribes who define their tribal membership, at U.S. government urging, by "blood" fractions of genetic descent from racially "pure" Indian ancestors.
Among antebellum horrors of slavery was humans in bondage, as chattel, being forcibly bred in captivity the same as livestock. Today U.S. government policy is horribly entangled with the business of animal husbandry for humans that is "blood races" -- drawn on the genes ("blood") of ancestors. This affects control of spouse-selecting today and tomorrow. (It violates Loving v. Virginia's, Const. 14th Amend. guarantee of freedom of marriage.) It differs from screaming slaves, force-fucked in chains, only by degrees. The gravamen of "different races" belief that this "gene policing" propagates is the inequality that "different" means. It rends a caste society. I oppose this government "races"-breeding (preferences driven) -- a seductive political scheming that plainly is spreading overseas, and poisoning the world.
George
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