Secret_History

478 The Secret History of the World
Analysis of the Y chromosome has already yielded interesting results. Dr. Ariella
Oppenheim of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem said she had found considerable
similarity between Jews and Israeli and Palestinian Arabs, as if the Y chromosomes
of both groups had been drawn from a common population that began to expand
7,800 years ago. 353
About two-thirds of Israeli Arabs and Arabs in the territories and a similar
proportion of Israeli Jews are the descendents of at least three common prehistoric
ancestors who lived in the Middle East in the Neolithic period, about 8,000 years
ago. This is the finding of a new study conducted by an international team of
scholars headed by Prof. Ariella Oppenheim, a senior geneticist in the Hebrew
University’s hematology department and at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. In the
study, soon to be published in the scientific journal ‘Human Genetics,’ the
researchers probed the history of Jewish and Arab men by analyzing the genetic
changes in the Y chromosome.[…]
The results of the study, says Prof. Oppenheim, ‘support the historical
documentation according to which the Arabs are descendents of an ancient
population of the country and that a large proportion of them were Jews who
converted to Islam after Islam reached Eretz Israel in the seventh century CE.’ […]
They […] discovered that Jews and Arabs have common prehistoric ancestors who
lived here until just the last few thousand years..[…] In view of the small
geographical area of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the researchers were
surprised to discover that some Palestinians on the West Bank have a unique
genetic trait that is reflected in a relatively high frequency of certain genetic signs.
This fact indicates that they are the descendents of people who have lived here for a
few hundred years at least. […] Dr. Filon says that the unique genetic trait is
characteristic of a population that has lived in the same place for many
generations.” 354
Data on the Y chromosome indicates that the males originated in the Middle East,
while the mothers’ mitochondrial DNA seems to indicate a local Diaspora origin in
the female community founders. 355
We have analyzed the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA from each of nine
geographically separated Jewish groups, eight non-Jewish host populations, and an
Israeli Arab/Palestinian population, and we have compared the differences found in
Jews and non-Jews with those found using Y-chromosome data that were obtained,
in most cases, from the same population samples. The results suggest that most
353 Nicholas Wade. “Scientists Rough Out Humanity’s 50,000-Year-Old Story.” The New York Times
(November 14, 2000)
354 Tamara Traubman. “A new study shows that the genetic makeup of Jews and Arabs is almost
identical, and that both groups share common prehistoric ancestors.” Ha’aretz (2000).
355 Judy Siegel-Itzkovich. “Dad was out and about, while Mom stayed home.” Jerusalem Post (June 16,
2002).