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I lived in the Middle East for a couple of years. There is a village in
the country I lived in that is almost entirely deaf because of the inbreeding.
“
Growing up in Oklahoma I heard plenty of quips about inbreeding.
Hence I feel a bit of sympathy for the Palestinians...but hope they
will some day “snap out of it” and quit the inbreeding.
But that may be “Mission Impossible” given the majority mindset of the place.
AFAIK (and if I’m wrong I will be gladly corrected), in the ME it is common for first cousins to marry.
That might explain the inbreeding.
If it’s culturally or socially accepted, and marriages have traditionally been mainly to cement families and tribal alliances, then all other considerations go by the wayside.