The Zionist Fallacy: Genomes Don’t Lie

Please read my latest piece for Jacobin Magazine on the prospects for a US-Israel attack on Iran.

One of the key arguments favoring of the Zionist claim to Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people is indigeneity: It alleges Jews have a right to return to it, and possess it. This right even supersedes any right of the Palestinian people, since ancient Jews predated them.  To modify a standard legal term, the chain of possession is nine-tenths of the law.

Zionists similarly argue that because the Jewish liturgy includes passages attesting to the longing of Jews to return to Zion; and because God in the Bible promised the land to Abraham and his descendants in perpetuity–all these buttress the Jewish claim:

In…Genesis, God makes promises to Abraham (the father of Judaism). He promises…blessings on Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 12:1–3) and makes a covenant…promising that his descendants would inherit the land of Israel (Gen 15:18)…

Today, some argue that Jews inherit this promise. Therefore, they argue, the modern state of Israel…can make a divine claim that all of the Holy Land belongs to Israel.

Before reading further, I urge you to watch this video by Nathan Pearson, a geneticist who does genome population studies. In this TED talk he discussed, in particular the Levantine genetic profile. He focussed especially on the European Jewish and Palestinian genome.  Though his findings regarding Ashkenazi Jews differ in some ways from the charts displayed here–compiled by a different population geneticist–Pearson’s view of the similarity of the Jewish and Palestinian genome is profoundly moving. Especially considering the genocide committed by the descendants of some of those Jews against Palestinians. Start watching at about the 3 minute mark:

Indigeneity and the genome

They also argue for genetic continuity between Jews today and ancient Israelites as proof of indigeneity.  In other words, ancient Israelites are our ancestors. Because they once lived in Israel, and we are their descendants in both genetic and religious terms, that cements the Zionist claim.

There are numerous flaws both scientific and historical in this argument, some of which I’ll address (I also tweeted this thread).  The genome chart below first came to my attention in a Twitter thread by Miro C, an expert in population genetics:

Geneticists have had access to ancient DNA whole genome sequences from Canaanites, Israelites, Judahites for some time now.

First genetic distances to modern people below. I will be providing lots of information in this thread pic.twitter.com/YEPJtCYtEV

— Miro C (@MiroCyo) October 12, 2023

The population groups are ranked from closest to the Canaanite genome to farthest. The term “Cannanite” describes the most ancient known peoples in the Levant.  Their existence in the Bronze and Iron Ages corresponds to the period 3500-1800 BCE. Those in groups in green are almost indistinguishable from them.  As the colors change from yellow to orange to red, the groups are farther away from the Canaanites.

The closest genetic connection is the Arab Jewish populations in the Middle East, The chart lists them in order of proximity. Those higher on the list possess the largest number of genetic markers common to the Canaanites:

1. 1. Iraqi Jews
   2. Syrian
   3. Kurdish
   4. Tunisian
   5. Iranian
   6. Libyan
   7. Azeri
   8.  Chechen
   9. Georgian
   10. Sefardi

As you can see, Ashkenazi Jews (in the red zone) are outside this parameter.  The Jewish group with the overall highest number of markers are Tunisian Jews (53).  The Ashkenazi community with the highest number is Lithuanian Jews (38.2).  But their common markers with the Canaanites are minimal at best.

In other words, the Ashkenazi claim of genetic continuity with ancient Israelites is not just questionable, but false.  Of course, that doesn’t eliminate other forms of continuity such as the liturgy and other sacred texts. But these are emotional connections, not scientifically-sound genetic connections.

Bible as myth, not history

The Bible provides an interesting sidenote to these issues. Abraham, founder of Israelite religion, was purportedly born in ancient Mesopotamia (Ur of the Chaldeans). He migrated to what is now Hebron in the Palestinian West Bank.  In a sense, these genome charts confirm, in some mythic sense, the genetic ancestry (and continuity) of Abraham and his descendants.

But even here, we must proceed with caution.  Biblical scholars have long since debunked the notion that Abraham (or most of the Biblical ancestors) were actual historical figures.  They all proceed from the same realm of myth common to all civilizations and religions.

The Bible is not history. It is myth.  Not to disparage myth. It is what we tell ourselves about our identity. But myth is allegory. One cannot make determinations in the real world based on myth. Myth is not evidence.  It is not proof of anything.

Thus, Zionism is not historical. Its claims are based on ideology. Not historical fact.

I write all of this above not to prove or disprove the claim of the Palestinians or Jews to Israel.  DNA or even indigeneity claims aren’t persuasive in this context.  As I’ve written, a divine promise in a Book, the historicity of whose claims are suspect, is not probative.  God is not a real estate agent. He doesn’t convey property.  Peoples come and go throughout history and pre-history. They migrate. They return.  They assimilate.  They strike out on their own.  Nothing is eternal, no matter what is written in a book.

As powerful as it may be for Zionists to say Jews have an eternal claim to the land of Israel and its holy city, Jerusalem–history proves them wrong.  The Jewish association with these holy places may harken back to ancient times.  But it is not a perpetual promise.  We must remember in humility that 2,000 years may seem a long time, but it is a blip in the existence of this planet.

Not to mention that the liturgy’s references to rebuilding Zion and the ancient Temple aren’t necessarily literal, as Zionists would have us believe.  They could also be  allegorical:

One form of Jewish longing was the yearning for Zion. This yearning is a Jewish archetype, in the sense that it was not necessarily concrete and was often used  as a metaphor. Often the longing for Zion was a Messianic yearning for a better world or for the resurrection of the dead, or for world peace, for safety, and even for material abundance.

African-Americans, especially during slavery, embraced the stories of the enslaved Hebrew people and its exodus to freedom in the promised land.  Theirs too was an allegorical yearning for redemption.  It gave them hope and enabled them to survive.

Almost all Diasporic populations have a certain nostalgic yearning for the homeland.  They preserve their native language, culture and traditions out of a sense of continuity with ancestors and ties to a homeland, just as Jews do.  But that does not mean that Diaspora Jews believed literally in returning to it. In fact, they largely did not do so, which indicates that they considered their native lands to be their real homeland.

Exile and Return: another historical fallacy

Zionism is predicated historically on the concept of exile and return.  According to this: Jews were exiled from ancient Judea by the Romans after the defeat of the final rebellion in 135 CE.  Thence, they wandered throughout the world, finding temporary refuge in various countries. They were constantly under attack, facing threats of violence from anti-Semites.

Zionism meant the return of Jews to their one true homeland and the end of their exile. Instead of wandering defenseless through the lands in which they dwelled, Zion would become their rock, their refuge and natural homeland.  Key elements of this historical claim are false, as we’ll see below.

The existence of the Jewish Diaspora harkens back to the Roman conquest when, according to Talmudic legend, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakai appealed to the Roman general to leave the besieged city of Jerusalem to found a rabbinic academy in Yavneh (near present-day Tel Aviv).  Though it was within ancient Judea, it was in effect the first Jewish community whose legitimacy was not dependent on the holy city of Jerusalem for its rites.

Jewish historians confirm that during the Second Temple period (prior to the first Roman conquest in 70 CE), up to 60% of Jews lived in the Diaspora. The first such community was in Alexandria, one of the great capitals of the ancient world.  Jewish presence there dates back to 332 BCE.  Almost as old was Rome: “Jews have lived in Rome for over 2,000 years, longer than in any other European city.”

These migrations were based on economic circumstances.  Jews were merchants and traders. Their business interests took them to the countries and cities which offered the most economic opportunity.  There they established roots and developed their own communities.

As for the claims that Rome expelled all Jews from Judea, even this is not true.  It did exile the Jews of Jerusalem because the Roman generals believed that the city was the locus of Jewish resistance. Destroying it and exiling its inhabitants was intended to extinguish the urge for rebellion.

But the Romans permitted Jewish communities to remain in other cities of religious significance including Tiberias and Safed.  Historians document that in Judea and surrounding territory, there were hundreds of thousands of Jews during the Byzantine period.  So the Zionist claims of exile and return are manipulated, if not manufactured.

No doubt, Zionist Jews came to Israel under the influence of these Zionist myths.  But basing one’s existence on myth is highly dangerous.  It leads to hardened thinking and blind faith.  It leads to hatred of the Other and belief in the supremacy of one’s own myths over those of others.  Finally, myths can and do kill.