Ashkenazi Jewish Ancestry Confirmed European by mtDNA Tests
A recent study on mitochondrial DNA revealed that the female line of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry closely resembles that of Southern and Western Europe, rather than the ancient Near East, as many scholars proposed in the past. Ashkenazim, a Jewish group who migrated to Central and Eastern Europe, make up the majority of the world’s Jewish population today. A recent article in Nature Communications discusses the results mtDNA tests. The article, written by a team of scientists led by the University of Huddersfield’s Martin B. Richards, includes the following in its abstract:
Like Judaism, mitochondrial DNA is passed along the maternal line. Its variation in the Ashkenazim is highly distinctive, with four major and numerous minor founders … we show that all four major founders, ~40% of Ashkenazi mtDNA variation, have ancestry in prehistoric Europe, rather than the Near East or Caucasus. Furthermore, most of the remaining minor founders share a similar deep European ancestry. Thus the great majority of Ashkenazi maternal lineages were not brought from the Levant, as commonly supposed, nor recruited in the Caucasus, as sometimes suggested, but assimilated within Europe. These results point to a significant role for the conversion of women in the formation of Ashkenazi communities, and provide the foundation for a detailed reconstruction of Ashkenazi genealogical history.
As the point where three of the world’s major religions converge, Israel’s history is one of the richest and most complex in the world. Sift through the archaeology and history of this ancient land in the free eBook Israel: An Archaeological Journey, and get a view of these significant Biblical sites through an archaeologist’s lens.
Earlier DNA tests performed on male chromosomes in Jewish communities generally reveal Near Eastern DNA patterns. Population migration and conversion to Judaism may have led to the growth of the Ashekenazi population. Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry may, in fact, stem from the Jewish community in the early Roman Empire. The authors write that “a substantial Jewish community was present in Rome from at least the mid-second century BCE, maintaining links to Jerusalem and numbering 30,000–50,000 by the first half of the first century C.E. By the end of the first millennium CE, Ashkenazi communities were historically visible along the Rhine valley in Germany.”
Read more in Nature Communications.
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28 Responses
- Alexander says:
Even with the excavations that were established for more than 150 years until this day, a huge part of these initial excavations which were funded by John Rockefeller himself as mentioned by “Israel Finkelstein”, showed no artifacts left by any empire or kingdom of “israel” or “judea”, the whole story is a myth that was passed along in terms of Abrahamic religions. Who knows when or where these stories first started, but certainly they had a political agenda, to allow for the colonization of this region called the Levant, starting with Palestine as a starting point.
All of the bones found were of Canaanites, Philistines, Amorites, Jebusites, ancient Arabs, all of which make up the Palestinian DNA these days, in comparison with the ones who invaded Palestine from Europe who have no DNA lineage with the region at all. It’s not weird though, it was planned, that’s how modern settler colonialism works.
The artifacts that talk about “ancient israel” that were found so far were all forgeries, even the Dead sea scrolls that talk about nothing more than prayers, the ones that were sold off to museums, 5 in the 80’s, and 16 recently in 2020, they were found to be forgeries as well, and since then the “Israel Antiquities Authority” refused to share the rest of the scrolls to be tested, and the IAA does the same with the rest of artifacts that are said to be of Jewish history.
I don’t know why they would come up with such lies only to promote and encourage the genocide of the natives of a peaceful place like Palestine and push for the extinction of these amazing people who were one of the first people to create civilizations in the world, a history of more than 6000 years, now being buried and changed to suit the colonialists. It’s sad.
- Brakeyawself says:
Much of what you said is utter nonsense and deceit. You have no understanding of modern genetics or history. Yes of course the biblical narrative is “mythology”. Mythology being a loose recollection of history wrapped in legend and lore.
In terms of genetics, modern Jews, like their Lebanese, Druze and Samaritan cousins, are in fact descended from Bronze and Iron Age Canaanites. Just as much if not more than the average “Palestinian”. “:Palestinian” of course being a modern identity from the Islamist national movement, that only began in the 20th century, the “Palestinian” national movement.
Those calling themselves “Palestinian” today, were simply known as Arabs, or Syrian Arabs prior. There were less than 350,000 people living between Golan and Gaza prior to the middle of the 19th century. The Ottoman Empire shipped in tens of thousands of Muslims from around their empire, in the middle of the 1800’s, to build their new railroad and infrastructure. Bosnians, Albanians, Turks, and many many Egyptians and Iraqis. These are just as much the ancestors of modern “Palestinians” as they are the ancestors of modern Arab Israelis, and Western Jordanians and Syrians, who prior to the origin of the Palestinian national movement, were all considered one people, and one broader “Syrian” Arab population. Palestine simply being a territory within what is known as Greater Syria. And they were just Ottoman citizens. In the same way New Yorkers are not ethnically New Yorker, but American citizens. And around the same time in the 1800’s, Jews began to immigrate BACK HOME to Palestine. Which was named by the Romans after crushing the Kingdom of Judah back in the 1st century CE. Only 2,000 years ago.
After WW2, when the British took over the territory, a fundamentalist Islamic movement arose. They would riot and kill Jews and other ethnic minorities when Jews would by land or be allowed to immigrate into Palestine. This subsection of the local Arab Muslim population were just that, a subsection. These were not all of the Arab Muslim population, nor all Arabs in general, as Arab Christians, Druze, Samaritan, Copts, Bedouin and other Arab ethnic minorities had no problem living alongside and with Jews. They were all minorities compared to the broader Muslim population. And they had little to no political power against the more fundamentalist section of society, led by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. They refused to even meet with Jews to discuss sharing the territory. They murdered hundreds, burned villages and settlements. And they also oppressed other non MUslim Arab minorities. This is why the Druze and many Bedouin, along with some Arab Christians, fought alongside the Jews in the 1947 war for independence. And why they are ISraeli citizens today. 20% of the Israeli population is in fact Arab Israeli, the majority Muslim. Because not all Muslims were part of this Palestinian national movement. And not all Muslims refused to live with Jews and non Muslim minorities.
This is a Grand Mufti who met with Hitler to discuss bringing the holocaust to Palestine, and allied with the Axis powers. Against the British who pandered to this population at every step. Including handing all their military equipment, tanks, ammo, military bases, over to the Islamist army in 1947, knowing full well they planned to wipe through Palestine and destroy all the Jews and many of the ethnic minorities. Again, why it wasn’t just Jews fighting for Israel in 1947, but Arabs as well.
Now in terms of genetics, Jews are every bit the descendants of Canaanites that Palestinians are, sometimes more so. Georgian Jews are something like 70% genetically similar to Bronze Age Canaanites, while Lebanese are 90% genetically similar. Along with Druze, Samaritan and Iraqi Jews I believe, these groups are all 70-90% genetically similar to the Bronze/Iron Age Canaanite population. Other Jews, along with Palestinians, are about 40-60% similar to Bronze/Iron Age Canaanite populations. Ashkenazi Jews getting about 60% of their ancestry from the ancient Canaanite population, and about 40% from mostly Southern Europe, as they descend from Roman Jews. Iraqi Jews are mixed with Iraqi, Egyptian Jews with Egyptians, Moroccan with Moroccan, Persian with Persian. And still all of these Jewish groups are above 50% of Canaanite ancestry. Palestinians sometimes lower, since the local population that lived their prior to the middle of the 19th century, was already heavily descended from 7th century Arabians who conquered the region at the during the Muslim expansion.
So modern Jews often have MORE Canaanite ancestry than the “Palestinian” or local Arab population. Which again, traditionally included those who are today Arab Israel, as well as those on the eastern shore of the Jordan river, in Jordan and Syria. The reason Lebanese are considered their own ethnicity, and why “Palestinian” never was, is because Lebanese have a unique dialect of Arabic, and a unique Canaanite descended culture. Just as Jews and Samaritans do. Jews speak a Canaanite language, a dialect of Phoenician called Hebrew. And their culture and history is Canaanite. While Arab culture is Arabian obviously. Not that Palestinians don’t retain some cultural Canaanite elements, they certainly do. But they are few and far between in comparison.
So you are lying about the genetics and you are misunderstanding the cultural differences and the origin of these groups and why the entire situation is happening
European Jews absolutely do have some European ancestry, mostly from the Italian peninsula, Balkans, Iberia, southern France and Anatolia as both Sephardic and Ashkenazi began in southern Europe under Roman rule. And later they would gain smaller portions of Northern European ancestry, but far less than southern. These were still endogamous communities and thus retained a majority of their indigenous Levantine ancestry. Along with perpetuating actual Canaanite culture and language. So sorry, Jews are every bit descended of Canaanites and culturally more Canaanite than the local Arab population, aside from Lebanese, Druze and Samaritan. Who are all more heavily descended from Canaanites than Palestinians or Jews for the most part.
The state of Israel, home to 20% Arab Israelis, all the Arab ethnic minorities who don’t want to live under fundamentalist “Palestinian” theocracy, which is what a Palestinian state would be, along with the Jewish majority, is an indigenous “Canaanite” nation, with a Canaanite culture and language. “Palestine” is a RELIGIOUS national movement, that began in the 20th century, who speak a southern Arabian language and have a largely southern Arabian culture mixed with an Eastern Mediterranean culture, largely from Ottoman Turkish rule. Yes they are also descended partially from Canaanites, but often less than Jews, and usually less than Samaritans, Druze, Lebanese, and Arab Christians as well, who tend to have more indigenous ancestry.
You call it settler colonialism. It’s nothing of the sort. It’s indigenous people moving back to their indigenous land. Settling it illegally in the West Bank, yes, that’s true. But it’s indigenous people settling it illegally, not “foreigners” not “Europeans”. There are Palestinians that have Turkish, Albanian and Bosnian ancestors, French ancestors, British ancestors. The population of Gaza has something like 40% Egyptian ancestry. They were a part of Egypt up until the war of 67. Israel occupied the Sinai and Gaza strip. They tried giving BOTH back to Egypt. Egypt refused to take Gaza back. They didn’t want the people despite the people being significantly Egyptian. So Isreael was forced to babysit. They gave up control of Gaza over a decade ago and it has fallen into a theocratic mob dystopia. Where a theocratic Mafia, who receive funds from foreign fundamentalist Islamist sources, live in high rises, as millionaires, while the common Gazan lives in oppression and poverty. That’s BECAUSE Israel left Gaza. Egypt took the Sinai back, they wanted the SInai. They refused to take Gaza back.
The West Bank was under Jordanian rule for over 2 decades. They could have made a “Palestinian” sate at any time, but they didn’t. “Palestinians” of the West Bank, who are from the same population as Jordanians of Western Jordan, were happy to be part of Jordan. Because Jordan was essentially one of two “Palestinian” states, along with Syria, meant for the local Arab Muslim majority of the region, who were all one basic culture along the Jordan and to the Mediterranean. Lebanon of course, it’s own indigenous nation, a Canaanite cultural heritage. It was only when Israel defeated the Islamist coalition in 1967, and occupied the West Bank, did this Palestinian national movement really turn in to what it is today. Arafat basically created this modern “Palestinian” ethnicity from this national movement. Which is again, theological in nature, not ethnic. The only reason Palestine is NOT a modern sovereign, recognized nation, is because leadership refuses without Jerusalem being a part of it, on theological grounds, not national. There is no reason a Palestinian state can’t exist without Jerusalem. And it would if they would have just created it without Jerusalem., but they refuse. On theological grounds.
While Jerusalem is the capitol of Israel because it is the major Jewish city and the ancient capitol of Israel and Judah. It also happens to be a holy city in Judaism, as it is in Islam and Christianity and would continue to be so whether it was the capitol of a Palestinian nation or not. But that’s not what the Palestinian movement is about, it’s not about the people on the ground, the common “Palestinian”, who is used and abused by their leadership for this theological goal. As they are funded by foreign fundamentalist sources from places like Iran, Syria, Iraq and Turkey.
So maybe you should learn the actual history and learn about what’s actually happening before just unloading a bunch of hyperbolic nonsense and naivety about the actual genetics of the situation.
- SaEFan says:
Mostly quite correct. Couple of minor details: “capitol” with “o” is the building of the Legislature; the town in which the capitol resides is the “Capital”, with an “a”.
Much more importantly: please use the name Filashtini to identify the Arab population segment of the area known as Mandatory Palestine before May 5, 1948, because that is what they call themselves in Arabic. The word Palestine is synonymous with Eretz Israel, that is Land of Israel. The word was born when the Hellene Greeks under Alexander conquered the Land of Israel, and dubbed it Paleistine, i.e. the Land of the Wrestler, of the forefather Jacob. Pal meant wrestle, and “isr” is wrestle in Biblical Hebrew and classical Arabic. Thus a Palestinian is actually an Israelite, none other.
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- Helena says:
“I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” Revelation 2:9
- Susan Cohen says:
Yes, thank you for proving just how antisemitic Christians are.
- Adolf bringer of Truth says:
Isn’t it strange that so many different civilizations, across time and of all beliefs have come to that very same conclusion! Treachery and misery left in their wake.
- Phyllis says:
Their fraud scheme on the land of Israel is horrific. They touch something and it becomes Jewish. No rights to this land exist for the Jews. They are from Turkey and Spain. The tiny percent that were anywhere near the Levant is irrelevant.
- Alexander says:
Exactly, even with the excavations that were established for more than 150 years until this day, a huge part of these initial excavations which were funded by John Rockefeller himself as mentioned by “Israel Finkelstein”, showed no artifacts left by any empire or kingdom of “israel” or “judea”, the whole story is a myth that was passed along in terms of Abrahamic religions. Who knows when or where these stories first started, but certainly they had a political agenda, to allow for the colonization of this region called the Levant, starting with Palestine as a starting point.
All of the bones found were of Canaanites, Philistines, Amorites, Jebusites, ancient Arabs, all of which make up the Palestinian DNA these days, in comparison with the ones who invaded Palestine from Europe who have no DNA lineage with the region at all. It’s not weird though, it was planned, that’s how modern settler colonialism works.
The artifacts that talk about “ancient israel” that were found so far were all forgeries, even the Dead sea scrolls that talk about nothing more than prayers, the ones that were sold off to museums, 5 in the 80’s, and 16 recently in 2020, they were found to be forgeries as well, and since then the “Israel Antiquities Authority” refused to share the rest of the scrolls to be tested, and the IAA does the same with the rest of artifacts that are said to be of Jewish history.
I don’t know why they would come up with such lies only to promote and encourage the genocide of the natives of a peaceful place like Palestine and push for the extinction of these amazing people who were one of the first people to create civilizations in the world, a history of more than 6000 years, now being buried and changed to suit the colonialists. It’s sad.
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- gsniper1 says:
DNA and scriptural evidence prove that modern Jews are not Semitic but rather of Turkish descent, scripturally speaking Genesis makes it clear that Japeth is the father of Ashkenaz, therefore your use of the weaponized word “anti sematisim” is not applicable, since to be a Semite your lineage would have to be of Shem and not Japeth. Funny how when the truth is not what suits you, then you resort to the use of toxic labels. Furthermore according to many scriptural passages such as the song of Solomon, the true Semites are black as the tents of Kadar.
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- Jill says:
I always ask myself ” What does the Word say” when listening to such discussions as these. And this discussion reminds me of Genesis 9:27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; The descendants of Japheth, the oldest son of Noah, settled in the Northern European territories and now they indeed dwell in the tents of Shem (Israel) making up what, 92% of the Jews living there. Fascinating!
- kohen says:
You really are a fool bulan, Jews always traced paternally for tribes but after Ezra Jewishness was traced by the mother. What you failed to read is most ashkenazi have paternal semitic markers. My mothers a German convert to Judaism my dad is a kohen and we have the j1c3 middle eastern haplogroup my chromosomes come to 53 percent middle eastern. Ashkenazi is a made up term to define Jews that migrated from the middle east to Italy and settled in the Rhine. Historically Jews were traveling merchants like greeks and Armenians yet no one doubts Armenian ancestry despite many living in Europe for centuries. Also the ashkenazi were in Europe before the khazars existed. Furthermore explain to me why ashkenazi overlap and share IBd values with the sephardic Jews? They cluster together. Furthermore all kohens are related. I relate to kohens from Russia, Syria, Egypt, morocco etc. We don’t owe Palestinians anything. We are indigenous to the Levant and mesopotamia.
- Anahid says:
Not “all” Cohens are related, as evidenced by this study illustrating that at least these Cohens who were tested turned out to be converts who took the priestly name.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4860683/
Furthermore, though Jews were prolific traders, Armenians were not known for traveling great distances in trade. No one doubts Armenian ancestry because Armenians have lived in the same region continuously for thousands of years, uninterrupted, and have very little admixture due to the isolated nature of the culture. My Archaic DNA puts me square in the middle of ancient Armenia. Does your DNA prove your descent from the ancient lands of Canaan?
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- Bulan says:
These so called Jews of Khazaria had jumped on the gravy wagon by falsifying their race from Turkic/Mongol origin of Khazaria to the Middle Eastern race, why? Why not? Free land, homes, farms and free Western money pouring from governments and these guilt ridden American morons and fools of Judea-Christians hooligans and collaborators. They have been killing the real Semites in Palestine for over 70 years now to replace them with these fake Jews. There are decent and god fearing Jews (like the Jews of the Middle East or the Neturei Karta) but all of them disagree with these lunatics Ashkenazis that comprise 92% of Palestine now. This is science and is not my word against yours. We all go by the father lineage to trace our ancestry as Noah past by Shem, past by Ebrahim, past by Isaac and then by Jacob. AshkeNazis, to hide the origin of their ancestry, follow the mother side, why? To deceive us that’s why! But they never thought Science will put the last nail in their coffin at the end! There is a god after all. Now, all of the supporters of this racist state of Khazaria, you all have to compensate the Palestinians that’s if there is a dollar figure that can be found!
- PJ says:
All the scientific data points to what has been theorized all along – these people are mentioned biblically as “those who say they are Jew’s but are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan.” On the east wall of every synagogue is written, “Am I My Brothers Keeper?!” Hijacked history and falsehoods abound, but time and science will rule the outcome and the truth will see the light of day.
- david says:
Oh come on. I’ve been to many synagogues and have never seen that written. What is usually written is the 10 commandments (words).
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- Tristan says:
Here I a thought I was wondering of the different haplogroups, H K M and N, but I was wondering this a person I know has a question if he has any askenazic origin …. he is Haplogroup J1b1a1 and has a migration connection to North Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, and Europe what could it mean for my friend? Could he be possibly somewhat askkenazic giving that middle east migration connection ?
- Sean Dugaw says:
The title of the article is misleading. It seems some who posted comments didn’t read the full article and missed this:
“Earlier DNA tests performed on male chromosomes in Jewish communities generally reveal Near Eastern DNA patterns.” - J.J. says:
Actually this article diverges from Koestler’s theory. It suggests support for the theory that the Ashkenazi community was primarily originated in the Rhineland since most Ashekenazi mitochondrial DNA is of southern and western European origin not central Asian or Caucasian. To provide support for Koestler’s theory (which was probably politically motivated) most of Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA would originate not from southern and western Europe but from central Asia or the Caucuses.
- da troof says:
this lays it out… the white jews of today are converts, and not the jews of antiquity and thus the bible. all this fighting
in Israel over “history” is naught, because they are European, and not those folk.. who looked like the egyptians,
that we see on the walls of the pyramids - Ethan says:
@Judith,
Actually according to both Bible believers and evolutionists, we arose from Asia.
If you go according to the Bible, everyone alive today is a descendent of Noah whose famous Ark landed in the mountains of Ararat which are either in Turkey or Iran, both Asian countries. All of the human race then spread out from Asia.
According to evolutionists, the first primates came from Asia and then made the trip to Africa 40 million years ago before again spreading out from there to the rest of the world. - Allan Rchardson says:
This would be logical in that one would not expect entire Jewish families, or couples who were starting to raise families, to leave the Holy Land for Europe (perhaps Egypt or Mesopotamis, which werecloser and had significant, and centuries old, Jewish communities). But for a single man doing business, the money was in Asia Minor, Greece and Rome, so such a bachelor might well migrate there alone, then fall in love with a Gentile woman who was willing to convert. Even St. Paul’s ancestors MAY have come from such a union. And given the destruction of the Jewish state, which made the Diaspora almost complete, these families would have gradually moved further north and east, away from Rome, and eventually outside the former empire completely, to the never-Roman-occupied countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
And yes, Judith we are all Africans, but some of our ancestors left Africa long before others. The article was referring to differences in DNA acquired AFTER leaving Africa.
- Judith says:
Didn’t we all come out of Africa? Where was this “European” mtDNA before it came to Europe?
- Ethan says:
What are the near eastern DNA profiles they have been utilizing? Have they done any comparison with Israelite DNA from the first temple period or even earlier?
- Dallas Kennedy says:
Actually, the study definitively lays to rest Koestler’s theory, which is also unsupported by linguistic evidence, or any other serious evidence for that matter. Now the genetic evidence refutes it completely. There’s no significant Central Asian component to Ashkenazi ancestry, or to Sephardi or Mizrachi ancestry either.
It does point to a large component of maternal conversion for much of the European Jewish ancestry of the late-ancient and Dark Ages period. There is some literary evidence for this, although the period is poorly documented for that period of European history, in contrast to the rich Mediterranean and Near Eastern sources available. The evidence from the Middle Ages and later is that Ashkenazi communities were by later times large enough to support endogamy and conversion became less significant, as well as far more dangerous for legal-religious reasons. The evidence of European ancestry drops off sharply after about 900 years ago.
The statistics in the sample of mutations is limited. So drawing more detailed conclusions has less foundation.
- Nebor says:
Finally a scientific convalidation of the position long held by historians like Arthur Koestler in “The Thirteenth Tribe.” Buried truth will always rise again.
- juan says:
the founders share a similar european ancestry? this is a nonsense
- Hannu K. Keskinen says:
The problem with these DNA studies is that the classification does not base on mutations but on something else. Mutations are rare and happen only once. In the classification system that is in use now, same mutatitons can be found in several lines (H, G, I, R,…) and that sure ain’t logical.
Even with the excavations that were established for more than 150 years until this day, a huge part of these initial excavations which were funded by John Rockefeller himself as mentioned by “Israel Finkelstein”, showed no artifacts left by any empire or kingdom of “israel” or “judea”, the whole story is a myth that was passed along in terms of Abrahamic religions. Who knows when or where these stories first started, but certainly they had a political agenda, to allow for the colonization of this region called the Levant, starting with Palestine as a starting point.
All of the bones found were of Canaanites, Philistines, Amorites, Jebusites, ancient Arabs, all of which make up the Palestinian DNA these days, in comparison with the ones who invaded Palestine from Europe who have no DNA lineage with the region at all. It’s not weird though, it was planned, that’s how modern settler colonialism works.
The artifacts that talk about “ancient israel” that were found so far were all forgeries, even the Dead sea scrolls that talk about nothing more than prayers, the ones that were sold off to museums, 5 in the 80’s, and 16 recently in 2020, they were found to be forgeries as well, and since then the “Israel Antiquities Authority” refused to share the rest of the scrolls to be tested, and the IAA does the same with the rest of artifacts that are said to be of Jewish history.
I don’t know why they would come up with such lies only to promote and encourage the genocide of the natives of a peaceful place like Palestine and push for the extinction of these amazing people who were one of the first people to create civilizations in the world, a history of more than 6000 years, now being buried and changed to suit the colonialists. It’s sad.
Much of what you said is utter nonsense and deceit. You have no understanding of modern genetics or history. Yes of course the biblical narrative is “mythology”. Mythology being a loose recollection of history wrapped in legend and lore.
In terms of genetics, modern Jews, like their Lebanese, Druze and Samaritan cousins, are in fact descended from Bronze and Iron Age Canaanites. Just as much if not more than the average “Palestinian”. “:Palestinian” of course being a modern identity from the Islamist national movement, that only began in the 20th century, the “Palestinian” national movement.
Those calling themselves “Palestinian” today, were simply known as Arabs, or Syrian Arabs prior. There were less than 350,000 people living between Golan and Gaza prior to the middle of the 19th century. The Ottoman Empire shipped in tens of thousands of Muslims from around their empire, in the middle of the 1800’s, to build their new railroad and infrastructure. Bosnians, Albanians, Turks, and many many Egyptians and Iraqis. These are just as much the ancestors of modern “Palestinians” as they are the ancestors of modern Arab Israelis, and Western Jordanians and Syrians, who prior to the origin of the Palestinian national movement, were all considered one people, and one broader “Syrian” Arab population. Palestine simply being a territory within what is known as Greater Syria. And they were just Ottoman citizens. In the same way New Yorkers are not ethnically New Yorker, but American citizens. And around the same time in the 1800’s, Jews began to immigrate BACK HOME to Palestine. Which was named by the Romans after crushing the Kingdom of Judah back in the 1st century CE. Only 2,000 years ago.
After WW2, when the British took over the territory, a fundamentalist Islamic movement arose. They would riot and kill Jews and other ethnic minorities when Jews would by land or be allowed to immigrate into Palestine. This subsection of the local Arab Muslim population were just that, a subsection. These were not all of the Arab Muslim population, nor all Arabs in general, as Arab Christians, Druze, Samaritan, Copts, Bedouin and other Arab ethnic minorities had no problem living alongside and with Jews. They were all minorities compared to the broader Muslim population. And they had little to no political power against the more fundamentalist section of society, led by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. They refused to even meet with Jews to discuss sharing the territory. They murdered hundreds, burned villages and settlements. And they also oppressed other non MUslim Arab minorities. This is why the Druze and many Bedouin, along with some Arab Christians, fought alongside the Jews in the 1947 war for independence. And why they are ISraeli citizens today. 20% of the Israeli population is in fact Arab Israeli, the majority Muslim. Because not all Muslims were part of this Palestinian national movement. And not all Muslims refused to live with Jews and non Muslim minorities.
This is a Grand Mufti who met with Hitler to discuss bringing the holocaust to Palestine, and allied with the Axis powers. Against the British who pandered to this population at every step. Including handing all their military equipment, tanks, ammo, military bases, over to the Islamist army in 1947, knowing full well they planned to wipe through Palestine and destroy all the Jews and many of the ethnic minorities. Again, why it wasn’t just Jews fighting for Israel in 1947, but Arabs as well.
Now in terms of genetics, Jews are every bit the descendants of Canaanites that Palestinians are, sometimes more so. Georgian Jews are something like 70% genetically similar to Bronze Age Canaanites, while Lebanese are 90% genetically similar. Along with Druze, Samaritan and Iraqi Jews I believe, these groups are all 70-90% genetically similar to the Bronze/Iron Age Canaanite population. Other Jews, along with Palestinians, are about 40-60% similar to Bronze/Iron Age Canaanite populations. Ashkenazi Jews getting about 60% of their ancestry from the ancient Canaanite population, and about 40% from mostly Southern Europe, as they descend from Roman Jews. Iraqi Jews are mixed with Iraqi, Egyptian Jews with Egyptians, Moroccan with Moroccan, Persian with Persian. And still all of these Jewish groups are above 50% of Canaanite ancestry. Palestinians sometimes lower, since the local population that lived their prior to the middle of the 19th century, was already heavily descended from 7th century Arabians who conquered the region at the during the Muslim expansion.
So modern Jews often have MORE Canaanite ancestry than the “Palestinian” or local Arab population. Which again, traditionally included those who are today Arab Israel, as well as those on the eastern shore of the Jordan river, in Jordan and Syria. The reason Lebanese are considered their own ethnicity, and why “Palestinian” never was, is because Lebanese have a unique dialect of Arabic, and a unique Canaanite descended culture. Just as Jews and Samaritans do. Jews speak a Canaanite language, a dialect of Phoenician called Hebrew. And their culture and history is Canaanite. While Arab culture is Arabian obviously. Not that Palestinians don’t retain some cultural Canaanite elements, they certainly do. But they are few and far between in comparison.
So you are lying about the genetics and you are misunderstanding the cultural differences and the origin of these groups and why the entire situation is happening
European Jews absolutely do have some European ancestry, mostly from the Italian peninsula, Balkans, Iberia, southern France and Anatolia as both Sephardic and Ashkenazi began in southern Europe under Roman rule. And later they would gain smaller portions of Northern European ancestry, but far less than southern. These were still endogamous communities and thus retained a majority of their indigenous Levantine ancestry. Along with perpetuating actual Canaanite culture and language. So sorry, Jews are every bit descended of Canaanites and culturally more Canaanite than the local Arab population, aside from Lebanese, Druze and Samaritan. Who are all more heavily descended from Canaanites than Palestinians or Jews for the most part.
The state of Israel, home to 20% Arab Israelis, all the Arab ethnic minorities who don’t want to live under fundamentalist “Palestinian” theocracy, which is what a Palestinian state would be, along with the Jewish majority, is an indigenous “Canaanite” nation, with a Canaanite culture and language. “Palestine” is a RELIGIOUS national movement, that began in the 20th century, who speak a southern Arabian language and have a largely southern Arabian culture mixed with an Eastern Mediterranean culture, largely from Ottoman Turkish rule. Yes they are also descended partially from Canaanites, but often less than Jews, and usually less than Samaritans, Druze, Lebanese, and Arab Christians as well, who tend to have more indigenous ancestry.
You call it settler colonialism. It’s nothing of the sort. It’s indigenous people moving back to their indigenous land. Settling it illegally in the West Bank, yes, that’s true. But it’s indigenous people settling it illegally, not “foreigners” not “Europeans”. There are Palestinians that have Turkish, Albanian and Bosnian ancestors, French ancestors, British ancestors. The population of Gaza has something like 40% Egyptian ancestry. They were a part of Egypt up until the war of 67. Israel occupied the Sinai and Gaza strip. They tried giving BOTH back to Egypt. Egypt refused to take Gaza back. They didn’t want the people despite the people being significantly Egyptian. So Isreael was forced to babysit. They gave up control of Gaza over a decade ago and it has fallen into a theocratic mob dystopia. Where a theocratic Mafia, who receive funds from foreign fundamentalist Islamist sources, live in high rises, as millionaires, while the common Gazan lives in oppression and poverty. That’s BECAUSE Israel left Gaza. Egypt took the Sinai back, they wanted the SInai. They refused to take Gaza back.
The West Bank was under Jordanian rule for over 2 decades. They could have made a “Palestinian” sate at any time, but they didn’t. “Palestinians” of the West Bank, who are from the same population as Jordanians of Western Jordan, were happy to be part of Jordan. Because Jordan was essentially one of two “Palestinian” states, along with Syria, meant for the local Arab Muslim majority of the region, who were all one basic culture along the Jordan and to the Mediterranean. Lebanon of course, it’s own indigenous nation, a Canaanite cultural heritage. It was only when Israel defeated the Islamist coalition in 1967, and occupied the West Bank, did this Palestinian national movement really turn in to what it is today. Arafat basically created this modern “Palestinian” ethnicity from this national movement. Which is again, theological in nature, not ethnic. The only reason Palestine is NOT a modern sovereign, recognized nation, is because leadership refuses without Jerusalem being a part of it, on theological grounds, not national. There is no reason a Palestinian state can’t exist without Jerusalem. And it would if they would have just created it without Jerusalem., but they refuse. On theological grounds.
While Jerusalem is the capitol of Israel because it is the major Jewish city and the ancient capitol of Israel and Judah. It also happens to be a holy city in Judaism, as it is in Islam and Christianity and would continue to be so whether it was the capitol of a Palestinian nation or not. But that’s not what the Palestinian movement is about, it’s not about the people on the ground, the common “Palestinian”, who is used and abused by their leadership for this theological goal. As they are funded by foreign fundamentalist sources from places like Iran, Syria, Iraq and Turkey.
So maybe you should learn the actual history and learn about what’s actually happening before just unloading a bunch of hyperbolic nonsense and naivety about the actual genetics of the situation.
Mostly quite correct. Couple of minor details: “capitol” with “o” is the building of the Legislature; the town in which the capitol resides is the “Capital”, with an “a”.
Much more importantly: please use the name Filashtini to identify the Arab population segment of the area known as Mandatory Palestine before May 5, 1948, because that is what they call themselves in Arabic. The word Palestine is synonymous with Eretz Israel, that is Land of Israel. The word was born when the Hellene Greeks under Alexander conquered the Land of Israel, and dubbed it Paleistine, i.e. the Land of the Wrestler, of the forefather Jacob. Pal meant wrestle, and “isr” is wrestle in Biblical Hebrew and classical Arabic. Thus a Palestinian is actually an Israelite, none other.
“I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” Revelation 2:9
Yes, thank you for proving just how antisemitic Christians are.
Isn’t it strange that so many different civilizations, across time and of all beliefs have come to that very same conclusion! Treachery and misery left in their wake.
Their fraud scheme on the land of Israel is horrific. They touch something and it becomes Jewish. No rights to this land exist for the Jews. They are from Turkey and Spain. The tiny percent that were anywhere near the Levant is irrelevant.
Exactly, even with the excavations that were established for more than 150 years until this day, a huge part of these initial excavations which were funded by John Rockefeller himself as mentioned by “Israel Finkelstein”, showed no artifacts left by any empire or kingdom of “israel” or “judea”, the whole story is a myth that was passed along in terms of Abrahamic religions. Who knows when or where these stories first started, but certainly they had a political agenda, to allow for the colonization of this region called the Levant, starting with Palestine as a starting point.
All of the bones found were of Canaanites, Philistines, Amorites, Jebusites, ancient Arabs, all of which make up the Palestinian DNA these days, in comparison with the ones who invaded Palestine from Europe who have no DNA lineage with the region at all. It’s not weird though, it was planned, that’s how modern settler colonialism works.
The artifacts that talk about “ancient israel” that were found so far were all forgeries, even the Dead sea scrolls that talk about nothing more than prayers, the ones that were sold off to museums, 5 in the 80’s, and 16 recently in 2020, they were found to be forgeries as well, and since then the “Israel Antiquities Authority” refused to share the rest of the scrolls to be tested, and the IAA does the same with the rest of artifacts that are said to be of Jewish history.
I don’t know why they would come up with such lies only to promote and encourage the genocide of the natives of a peaceful place like Palestine and push for the extinction of these amazing people who were one of the first people to create civilizations in the world, a history of more than 6000 years, now being buried and changed to suit the colonialists. It’s sad.
DNA and scriptural evidence prove that modern Jews are not Semitic but rather of Turkish descent, scripturally speaking Genesis makes it clear that Japeth is the father of Ashkenaz, therefore your use of the weaponized word “anti sematisim” is not applicable, since to be a Semite your lineage would have to be of Shem and not Japeth. Funny how when the truth is not what suits you, then you resort to the use of toxic labels. Furthermore according to many scriptural passages such as the song of Solomon, the true Semites are black as the tents of Kadar.
I always ask myself ” What does the Word say” when listening to such discussions as these. And this discussion reminds me of Genesis 9:27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; The descendants of Japheth, the oldest son of Noah, settled in the Northern European territories and now they indeed dwell in the tents of Shem (Israel) making up what, 92% of the Jews living there. Fascinating!
You really are a fool bulan, Jews always traced paternally for tribes but after Ezra Jewishness was traced by the mother. What you failed to read is most ashkenazi have paternal semitic markers. My mothers a German convert to Judaism my dad is a kohen and we have the j1c3 middle eastern haplogroup my chromosomes come to 53 percent middle eastern. Ashkenazi is a made up term to define Jews that migrated from the middle east to Italy and settled in the Rhine. Historically Jews were traveling merchants like greeks and Armenians yet no one doubts Armenian ancestry despite many living in Europe for centuries. Also the ashkenazi were in Europe before the khazars existed. Furthermore explain to me why ashkenazi overlap and share IBd values with the sephardic Jews? They cluster together. Furthermore all kohens are related. I relate to kohens from Russia, Syria, Egypt, morocco etc. We don’t owe Palestinians anything. We are indigenous to the Levant and mesopotamia.
Not “all” Cohens are related, as evidenced by this study illustrating that at least these Cohens who were tested turned out to be converts who took the priestly name.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4860683/
Furthermore, though Jews were prolific traders, Armenians were not known for traveling great distances in trade. No one doubts Armenian ancestry because Armenians have lived in the same region continuously for thousands of years, uninterrupted, and have very little admixture due to the isolated nature of the culture. My Archaic DNA puts me square in the middle of ancient Armenia. Does your DNA prove your descent from the ancient lands of Canaan?
These so called Jews of Khazaria had jumped on the gravy wagon by falsifying their race from Turkic/Mongol origin of Khazaria to the Middle Eastern race, why? Why not? Free land, homes, farms and free Western money pouring from governments and these guilt ridden American morons and fools of Judea-Christians hooligans and collaborators. They have been killing the real Semites in Palestine for over 70 years now to replace them with these fake Jews. There are decent and god fearing Jews (like the Jews of the Middle East or the Neturei Karta) but all of them disagree with these lunatics Ashkenazis that comprise 92% of Palestine now. This is science and is not my word against yours. We all go by the father lineage to trace our ancestry as Noah past by Shem, past by Ebrahim, past by Isaac and then by Jacob. AshkeNazis, to hide the origin of their ancestry, follow the mother side, why? To deceive us that’s why! But they never thought Science will put the last nail in their coffin at the end! There is a god after all. Now, all of the supporters of this racist state of Khazaria, you all have to compensate the Palestinians that’s if there is a dollar figure that can be found!
All the scientific data points to what has been theorized all along – these people are mentioned biblically as “those who say they are Jew’s but are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan.” On the east wall of every synagogue is written, “Am I My Brothers Keeper?!” Hijacked history and falsehoods abound, but time and science will rule the outcome and the truth will see the light of day.
Oh come on. I’ve been to many synagogues and have never seen that written. What is usually written is the 10 commandments (words).
Here I a thought I was wondering of the different haplogroups, H K M and N, but I was wondering this a person I know has a question if he has any askenazic origin …. he is Haplogroup J1b1a1 and has a migration connection to North Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, and Europe what could it mean for my friend? Could he be possibly somewhat askkenazic giving that middle east migration connection ?
The title of the article is misleading. It seems some who posted comments didn’t read the full article and missed this:
“Earlier DNA tests performed on male chromosomes in Jewish communities generally reveal Near Eastern DNA patterns.”
Actually this article diverges from Koestler’s theory. It suggests support for the theory that the Ashkenazi community was primarily originated in the Rhineland since most Ashekenazi mitochondrial DNA is of southern and western European origin not central Asian or Caucasian. To provide support for Koestler’s theory (which was probably politically motivated) most of Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA would originate not from southern and western Europe but from central Asia or the Caucuses.
i think the person above me has it about right
this lays it out… the white jews of today are converts, and not the jews of antiquity and thus the bible. all this fighting
in Israel over “history” is naught, because they are European, and not those folk.. who looked like the egyptians,
that we see on the walls of the pyramids
@Judith,
Actually according to both Bible believers and evolutionists, we arose from Asia.
If you go according to the Bible, everyone alive today is a descendent of Noah whose famous Ark landed in the mountains of Ararat which are either in Turkey or Iran, both Asian countries. All of the human race then spread out from Asia.
According to evolutionists, the first primates came from Asia and then made the trip to Africa 40 million years ago before again spreading out from there to the rest of the world.
This would be logical in that one would not expect entire Jewish families, or couples who were starting to raise families, to leave the Holy Land for Europe (perhaps Egypt or Mesopotamis, which werecloser and had significant, and centuries old, Jewish communities). But for a single man doing business, the money was in Asia Minor, Greece and Rome, so such a bachelor might well migrate there alone, then fall in love with a Gentile woman who was willing to convert. Even St. Paul’s ancestors MAY have come from such a union. And given the destruction of the Jewish state, which made the Diaspora almost complete, these families would have gradually moved further north and east, away from Rome, and eventually outside the former empire completely, to the never-Roman-occupied countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
And yes, Judith we are all Africans, but some of our ancestors left Africa long before others. The article was referring to differences in DNA acquired AFTER leaving Africa.
Didn’t we all come out of Africa? Where was this “European” mtDNA before it came to Europe?
What are the near eastern DNA profiles they have been utilizing? Have they done any comparison with Israelite DNA from the first temple period or even earlier?
Actually, the study definitively lays to rest Koestler’s theory, which is also unsupported by linguistic evidence, or any other serious evidence for that matter. Now the genetic evidence refutes it completely. There’s no significant Central Asian component to Ashkenazi ancestry, or to Sephardi or Mizrachi ancestry either.
It does point to a large component of maternal conversion for much of the European Jewish ancestry of the late-ancient and Dark Ages period. There is some literary evidence for this, although the period is poorly documented for that period of European history, in contrast to the rich Mediterranean and Near Eastern sources available. The evidence from the Middle Ages and later is that Ashkenazi communities were by later times large enough to support endogamy and conversion became less significant, as well as far more dangerous for legal-religious reasons. The evidence of European ancestry drops off sharply after about 900 years ago.
The statistics in the sample of mutations is limited. So drawing more detailed conclusions has less foundation.
Finally a scientific convalidation of the position long held by historians like Arthur Koestler in “The Thirteenth Tribe.” Buried truth will always rise again.
the founders share a similar european ancestry? this is a nonsense
The problem with these DNA studies is that the classification does not base on mutations but on something else. Mutations are rare and happen only once. In the classification system that is in use now, same mutatitons can be found in several lines (H, G, I, R,…) and that sure ain’t logical.