World Peace & Genetics:
Why Not?
LOS ANGELES, California—December 6, 2001 (OTVNewswire)— Elsevier Science calls itself the “market leader in the publication and dissemination of literature covering the broad spectrum of scientific endeavors.” It is part of Reed Elsevier, the British/Dutch global information provider and publisher. Last week, Elsevier Science asked libraries and subscribers to its Human Immunology magazine to tear out the pages of a report appearing in its current issue. Under threat of mass resignations by members of its New York staff, publisher Nicole Sucio-Foca, of New York’s Columbia University, agreed to the self-censorship. The research paper, written by Professor Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, is entitled “The Origin of Palestinians and Their Genetic Relatedness With Other Mediterranean Populations.”
According to Robin McKie of The Observer (London), the report showed that Middle Eastern Jews and Palestinians are genetically almost identical: “Such a drastic act of self-censorship is unprecedented in research publishing and has created widespread disquiet, generating fears that it may involve the suppression of scientific work that questions Biblical dogma.”
By studying genetic similarities among Middle Eastern populations, the report concluded that Palestinians and Jews of the region are closely related. But with bloodshed escalating in the real estate wars of the Middle East, such a theory has geo-political implications insofar as those wars are based, in large part, on Biblical claims of eminent domain.
The report has been yanked from Human Immunology’s website, as well as subsequent runs of hard copy editions. Notices of Retraction have been sent to all websites posting the offending article. The report’s author, Arnaiz-Villena, has been sacked from the journal's editorial board. Arnaiz-Villena, of Complutence University in Madrid, told The Observer, “I am stunned.”
Meanwhile, similar genetic research is being conducted throughout the world, many yielding the same results. Michael Hammer, a University of Arizona associate research scientist in the Arizona Research Laboratory, has been performing studies on the Y chromosome to help answer questions of Biblical significance related to the Jewish Diaspora, or dispersion of the Jewish people.
Hammer said that his research suggests that the world's Jewish populations closely resemble Syrians, Palestinians and Lebanese, indicating a common ancestry originating in the Middle East about 4,000 years ago.
At the University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, Dr. Joel J. Elias, Professor (Emeritus) takes on the difficult task of presenting more scientific findings in his article The Genetics of Modern Assyrians and their Relationship to Other People of the Middle East.
Prof. L.L. Cavalli-Sforza, senior author of the landmark book "The History and Geography of Human Genes," came to the conclusion "that Jews have maintained considerable genetic similarity among themselves and with people from the Middle East, with whom they have common origins." Cavalli-Sforza is considered one of the preeminent human population geneticists in the world.
Results of direct DNA analysis of the Y chromosome showed that "Despite their long- term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level" and there was an "extremely close affinity of Jewish and non-Jewish Middle Eastern populations [Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese, Druze, Saudi Arabians] observed here ...[that] supports the hypothesis of a common Middle Eastern origin" of these populations dating back about 4,000 years."
According to Elias: “The Palestinians and Syrians were so close to the Jews in genetic characteristics that they ‘mapped within the central cluster of Jewish populations.’"
As one of the Israeli scientists on the team said, “Eventually people will realize that they are not that different,” leaving Professor Elias to ponder the notion: “Peace through Genetics?”
Dr. Harry Ostrer, a researcher in the Department of Genetics at New York University Medical School, contends that while the Ashkenazi Jews are not very close genetically to European gentiles, they are genetically close to some Arab groups.
Reinforcing this evidence is a study by Aravinda Chakravarti, director of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, who found that a certain genetic mutation causing deafness, DFNB1, affects Jews, Palestinians and other groups of the Mediterranean. Recognizing the historical ramifications of this study, Dr. Ostrer pointed out that Jews and Palestinians probably had common ancestors not so long ago. "It's commonly believed among historians that many of the people that became Palestinian Arabs were once Jewish," he said.
According to David Pollack of the Forward, the irony was not lost on Dr. Ostrer: "The Arabs don't happen to 'remember' that anymore," he said, pointing to the hostilities of Arab groups toward Israel. He was also able, however, to see the situation from the opposite perspective. "Conversely, maybe if the Israelis 'remembered' [that the Arabs used to be Jews], they'd be nicer to them."
Indeed, by repressing Arnaiz-Villena’s research paper, Elsevier Science may have deprived the very “science” it promotes from achieving one of science’s more lofty goals -- that of making the world a better place to live.
Is there any doubt that Israel would revert to this same condition if the Jews were driven out? Tell me one country in the Islam world which is ruled successfully without massive oil wealth? Sorry, Turkey and Malaysia don't count because they're secular Muslim countries aligned with the west which practice a moderate and rational brand of Islam.