For decades, political narratives—not evidence—have dominated public understanding of ancestry and legitimacy in the Levant. Claims of exclusive return, ethnic rupture, or population replacement have been repeated so often they hardened into dogma. But modern population genetics has now placed those claims under forensic scrutiny. And under that scrutiny, they collapse.
The scientific record is unequivocal: Palestinians and Lebanese are the most direct living genetic descendants of the ancient Canaanite and Israelite populations of the southern Levant. This is not ideology. It is not activism. It is the conclusion of multiple independent genomic studies published in the world’s leading scientific journals.
Exhibit A: Continuity, Not Replacement
In 2020, a landmark study published in Cell analyzed 73 ancient genomes from Bronze Age Levantine sites—precisely the populations historically identified as Canaanites. The results were decisive. Modern Palestinians and Lebanese retain the overwhelming majority of their ancestry—often exceeding 80–90%—from these ancient inhabitants (Agranat-Tamir et al., 2020).
This finding alone dismantles the claim that Palestinians are late arrivals or foreign interlopers. They are not. They are the descendants of the people who never left.
Follow-up work by Haber et al. (2017) confirmed this continuity over five millennia, showing that modern Levantine populations cluster tightly with ancient Canaanite samples, with only modest external admixture. The data demonstrate persistence, not displacement.
Exhibit B: Islamization Did Not Mean Population Erasure
A key myth used to delegitimize Palestinians is the assertion that Arab conquests “replaced” earlier populations. Genetic evidence directly contradicts this.
Haber et al. (2016) established that the 7th-century Islamization of the Levant was primarily a cultural and religious transformation, not a demographic one. The same local communities adopted a new language and faith—but remained biologically continuous with their ancestors.
In plain terms: Palestinians are not descended from invaders. They are descended from the land itself.
Exhibit C: Israeli Jewish Populations Show Substantial Diaspora Admixture
By contrast, genetic studies of contemporary Israeli Jewish populations reveal a markedly different pattern.
While Jewish populations retain a genuine ancestral connection to the Levant—no serious scholar disputes this—the extent of continuity varies dramatically by subgroup. Ashkenazi Jews, who constitute roughly 45% of Israel’s Jewish population, exhibit substantial European admixture, often ranging between 40% and 60% (Behar et al., 2010; Ostrer & Skorecki, 2013).
This admixture accumulated during centuries of diaspora in Europe. It is not a moral failing. It is a biological fact.
Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews maintain closer genetic proximity to Middle Eastern populations, but even when these groups are included, the national Israeli Jewish genetic average is significantly more diluted from ancient Levantine populations than that of Palestinians or Lebanese.
Exhibit D: Ancient Israelites Were Canaanites
Perhaps the most politically inconvenient finding of all is this: ancient Israelites themselves emerged from within the Canaanite population.
Archaeology, linguistics, and now genetics converge on the same conclusion. There was no mass invasion. No external ethnic replacement. The Israelites were a subgroup of the broader Canaanite world who developed a distinct religious identity over time.
That means Palestinians—Muslim and Christian—are not outsiders to “biblical land.” They are the biological cousins of the very people later identified as Israelites.
The False Use of Genetics as a Weapon
None of this genetic evidence resolves modern political questions. But it decisively rebuts the claim that Palestinians lack indigenous legitimacy.
As Razib Khan has written, Jews and Palestinians are best understood as “Canaanite cousins”—populations that diverged historically but share deep ancestral roots. Attempts to elevate one group’s claim by erasing the other’s ancestry are not supported by science. They are acts of political myth-making.
Conclusion: The Burden of Proof Has Shifted
For generations, Palestinians were asked to prove they belonged. Genetics has answered that demand—forcefully.
They did not arrive recently.
They were not replacements.
They did not erase another people.
They are the continuation of the ancient population of the land.
What remains unresolved is not ancestry, but power.
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