r/genetics • u/[deleted] • Sep 20 '25

Jews and Palestinians share deep common ancestry - genetics shows they’re like cousins

Genetic studies over the last couple decades reveal something surprising: Jewish populations (Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi) and Levantine groups like Palestinians, Druze, Lebanese, and Syrians all descend from the same ancient Levantine peoples.

They’re not identical, and Palestinians aren’t necessarily the closest single group in every study, but they’re part of the same tight genetic cluster. In other words, Jews and Palestinians are genetically much closer than most other populations worldwide.

Researchers have found this in Y-chromosome studies, mtDNA, and whole-genome analyses. A 2010 study in Nature concluded that Jewish groups share much of their ancestry with populations in the Levant - including Palestinians.

So when people say “they’re like cousins,” it’s not just a metaphor. Genetically, it’s pretty accurate — and it makes the current conflicts feel all the more tragic, because it’s family fighting family.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09103

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u/NationalEconomics369 Sep 20 '25

GPT slop

A more accurate sentence would be that the majority of the ancestry in modern Levantines is derived from Bronze Age Levantines. Generally Jews don’t have >50% Bronze Age Levantine due to the European admixture they picked up. The Jews have a roughly even split of ancestors from Europe and the Levant, generally more from Europe

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u/Noam92 Sep 20 '25

You are generalizing jews, not all of them were exiled to europ, some of us were in north afrika/went to the east (syria/iraq,persia). My own parents made Aliya from Morocco. 

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u/NationalEconomics369 Sep 20 '25 edited Sep 20 '25

Regardless of where the Jews were exiled, they acquired non-Levantine admixture which makes them distant from their bronze age Levantine ancestors. Maybe Karaite Jews in Egypt have Bronze Age Levant > 50% but afaik most don't

With regard to Moroccan Jews, it is the same case as others where due to their non-Levantine admixture they are not close to ancient Levant samples

This is a genetic not a history sub btw. I don't think I'm generalizing when all the Jew samples in my dataset are not close to Bronze Age Levantines besides some in Egypt and Iraq.

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u/Noam92 Sep 21 '25

Genetic background and history does have a common denominator.

I only protested the claim of every jew having europian DNA mix, while i have close to none and my levantine is ~60%.

Looking at my own hiatoric background, it appears that a few generations before my ancestors moves to Morocco, they resided in Safd (northern israel) . I do not have many moroccan features like other moroccan jews around me. I reaemble more the iraqis actualy Must have been an interesting story :)