Are Palestinians Jews?

I recently came across a study that caused me to ask this question...Are Palestinians long-lost Jews? Here's what I found.

A study by Ariella Oppenheim and her colleagues published in The American Journal of Human Genetics (Dec 2000) finds 70% of Jews and 82% of Palestinians share the same paternal chromasomal pool. This makes Palestinians distinctive from their Arab neighbors such as Lebanese, Jordanians, Iraqis and Egyptians who do not share the same DNA. The suggestion is that Palestinians are the descendants of Jews who converted to Islam in centuries past.

While many will dispute this claim, the important thing is what it means to relations between the two groups and their ability to live together in peace. If they are truly relatives of each other then why is this seemingly impossible? Could this study be a piece of the puzzle necessary to replace hate with brotherly love? I'm not trying to sound like an idealogue ungrounded in reality, but if attitudes are to change, it has to start with a questioning of the status quo.

In past discussions, I've advocated the the idea of one Federal Republic of Jerusalem replacing the failed two-state solution. The concept is that the current territories of Israel and Palestine would be divided into local canton-like units similar to Switzerland. Jerusalem would serve as the joint capital for both entities much like Washington D.C. does in America. Government would be kept localized as much as possible with the individual cantons controlling internal functions such as education, religion and local courts. National affairs such as defense, trade and the sharing of natural resources would be controlled by the national government which would be composed of a bicameral legislature with the House of Representatives elected by popular vote and a Senate divided evenly between the Palestinian Arab and Israeli entities. I would envision a Prime Minister, or President who'd be elected by the Senate.

How we get there is still unclear to me. But it seems to work well in Switzerland's multi-ethnic population and also in the federated system of the new Iraq, who's internal rivalries are at least as fierce as that between Israelis and Palestinians. By comparison, decades of the two-state solution have not gotten us any closer to peace in the Middle East.

Each week, we pray for peace during our Shabbat celebrations and sing the song "Oseh Shalom." In the song "Hineh MaTov" we sing of brothers coming together. DNA tells us that Jews and Palestinians are really brothers themselves. So let's continue to pray for peace between these two entities in particular. Perhaps a new approach and way of thinking will get us there.

Until next time....

Shmuel