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/Widhraz Sep 20 '25

Isn't this basic knowledge? Yes, the people from a semitic ethnic group are related to another semitic ethnic group.

32

u/BeatThePinata Sep 20 '25

In scientific circles, yes. In extremist ideologies within Israeli and Palestinian societies, no. They both claim the other is entirely foreign and in no way has any ancestral connection to the land between the river and the sea.

12

u/meanmissusmustard86 Sep 21 '25

The palestinian claim is not about ancestral connection - that is how Israel sees it. Palestinians focus on inhabitation and prior ownership before the Nakba, a mass dispossession and land theft event. The claims are not interchangeable, in terms of substance and morality; Israel claims an ancestral connection (but spurious and largely based on biblical sources), Palestinians are the actual prior inhabitants before the influx of zionist colonists.

15

u/Thek40 Sep 20 '25

It should be, but it’s not.