Closest Modern Populations to Ancient Israelites

[Kross]

Iron Age samples from around the time of the Kingdom of Israel suggest that Christians of the Levant (and Samaritans) are the closest living descendants of the ancient Israelites.

On the other hand, Muslims and Jews have, to a large extent, mixed with foreign elements. In the case of Palestinian Muslims, a significant Sub-Saharan African component distinguishes them from the ancient Israelites. As for Ashkenazi Jews, a substantial European admixture sets them apart from the ancient Israelites.

The Israeli government considers Palestinian Christians to be Arab Christians, in other words, not native to the region. However, little do they realize that Palestinian Christians may, in fact, be more indigenous to the region than all Jewish groups combined.

https://i.imgur.com/W91KBqh.png

[Peterski]

Aren't Ashkelon samples actually Philistines rather than Israelites?

[Kross]

Aren't Ashkelon samples actually Philistines rather than Israelites?

They were a mix of locals and Philistines. The Philistine samples stood out clearly due to their strong Southern European genetic shift.

https://i.imgur.com/q76cMI3.png

[Dardanos]

Albanians

[Gannicus]

I was expecting to see some Druze in that list.

[Bulkster]

Iron Age samples from around the time of the Kingdom of Israel suggest that Christians of the Levant (and Samaritans) are the closest living descendants of the ancient Israelites.

On the other hand, Muslims and Jews have, to a large extent, mixed with foreign elements. In the case of Palestinian Muslims, a significant Sub-Saharan African component distinguishes them from the ancient Israelites. As for Ashkenazi Jews, a substantial European admixture sets them apart from the ancient Israelites.

The Israeli government considers Palestinian Christians to be Arab Christians, in other words, not native to the region. However, little do they realize that Palestinian Christians may, in fact, be more indigenous to the region than all Jewish groups combined.

https://i.imgur.com/W91KBqh.png

If you mean "significant" of SSA admixture in Palestinian Muslims is 4% then yeah. And no, the average Palestinian Muslim, while indeed more admixed than Christians, still are more native than foreign(58%).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCn6v8X0Ebk&t=23s


For Palestinians the bulk of their ancestry/admixture comes from two groups: the local pre-7th century population, mostly Christians by that time but also Jews and Samaritans; and the tribal Arabs who settled afterwards (many of whom abandoned nomadism and became sedentary).
My guess is that until the mid-10th century, the local Palestinian genepool would've been mostly Samaritan-like + some Tell_Qarassa, then the SSA starts coming in the late Abbasid period, Berber comes in with the Fatimids, the Iranian/Kurdish with the Ayyubids, and then some sporadic Egyptian and Turkish in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Regarding the AP admixture: if you exclude the tribal Arabs (~20-25%) mostly living along the Euphrates and the badiya of Syria since the 15th-17th century, then Palestinians have more AP admixture than north Levantines.
https://genarchivist.net/showthread.php?tid=2057&pid=64449#pid64449

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6qrxR5b0AAldIK?format=jpg&name=medium

Christians practiced endogamy similar to the Druze while their Muslim and European Jewish counterparts did not. Fyi, these Christians are Arabs, and being an Arab has nothing to do with race whatsoever.

[Kross]

If you mean "significant" of SSA admixture in Palestinian Muslims is 4% then yeah. And no, the average Palestinian Muslim, while indeed more admixed than Christians, still are more native than foreign(58%).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCn6v8X0Ebk&t=23s



https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6qrxR5b0AAldIK?format=jpg&name=medium

Christians practiced endogamy similar to the Druze while their Muslim and European Jewish counterparts did not. Fyi, these Christians are Arabs, and being an Arab has nothing to do with race whatsoever.

Where did you get 4%? It's 8% on average, and in some cases it rises to 15%.

Palestinian Muslims are roughly as indigenous as Jewish groups like the Ashkenazi and Mizrahi; however, all these populations are more genetically mixed than the Christians and Samaritans.

Some hypothesize that the Sub-Saharan African component is Egyptian, which would mean Palestinian Muslims have about 30 to 40% Egyptian ancestry.

[Bulkster]

Where did you get 4%? It's 8% on average, and in some cases it rises to 15%.

Palestinian Muslims are roughly as indigenous as Jewish groups like the Ashkenazi and Mizrahi; however, all these populations are more genetically mixed than the Christians and Samaritans.

Some hypothesize that the Sub-Saharan African component is Egyptian, which would mean Palestinian Muslims have about 30 to 40% Egyptian ancestry.

It's not 8% but rather around 4 to 5% if we take direct SSA ancestry. I was talking about averages here, not few individuals. Yes, Christians, Druze and Samaritans are more purer because they practiced endogamy. I think you're mistaking autosomal admixture with SSA haplogroups which is around 15%:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1180338/

As for Egyptian ancestry, well, you're not exactly wrong considering that many Egyptian fala7een(peasants) did settle in Palestine in the mid 1800's. The average AE ancestry, which obviously derives from Egyptian peasents who are genetically predom. of AE stock, is around 20 to 30%.
https://i.ibb.co/1JskFbd/Fl2-YJpd-WAAU2bn.jpg

[Kross]

It's common for Palestinian Muslims to show a high Egyptian component on 23andMe and little to no Sub‑Saharan African; that's because the Egyptian component contains Sub‑Saharan African DNA, so some people end up with 30% to 40% Egyptian.

A random result:
https://i.redd.it/kwcfbmbqt98b1.jpg

[Bulkster]

It's common for Palestinian Muslims to show a high Egyptian component on 23andMe and little to no Sub‑Saharan African; that's because the Egyptian component contains Sub‑Saharan African DNA, so some people end up with 30% to 40% Egyptian.

A random result:
https://i.redd.it/kwcfbmbqt98b1.jpg

I don't deny that, and the G25 model that I have showed shows exactly that btw. The point is that Palestinian Muslims are indeed admixed while their Christian counterparts did not because the latter practiced endogamy - marrying only within your community or group. The reason is because Christians didn't want to lose their religious identity since Islam only permits mixing with Christian or Jewish women, and that the children from such unions would have to be Muslim.

As for me, I'm from the Northern parts of Acre in Palestine, and I cluster more closer to Lebanese Muslims, Alawites, Druze, Syrians and etc because I'm as native as they are with substantial Central Asian admixture(used nMonte).
https://i.ibb.co/Df8zGJ82/tc5i-B9-Rd-1.png
https://i.ibb.co/7TsKPTt/2025-10-30-13-44-27-vahaduo-github-io-3cee083d65e0.png

Myancestrydna results:
https://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?285335-My-true-ancestry-com&p=8306058&viewfull=1#post8306058

[Kross]

Put another way, if the land were awarded to the most genetically indigenous people, Christians would rank highest, not Jews or Muslims.

More Palestinian Muslim results:

https://i.redd.it/h00hyui8tq1e1.jpeg
https://i.redd.it/pdi7hmx7lgzb1.jpg
https://i.redd.it/1zhrhpayvf0c1.jpg

[Kross]

I don't deny that, and the G25 model that I have showed shows exactly that btw. The point is that Palestinian Muslims are indeed admixed while their Christian counterparts did not because the latter practiced endogamy - marrying only within your community or group. The reason is because Christians didn't want to lose their religious identity since Islam only permits mixing with Christian or Jewish women, and that the children from such unions would have to be Muslim.

As for me, I'm from the Northern parts of Acre in Palestine, and I cluster more closer to Lebanese Muslims, Alawites, Druze, Syrians and etc because I'm as native as they are with substantial Central Asian admixture(used nMonte).
https://i.ibb.co/Df8zGJ82/tc5i-B9-Rd-1.png
https://i.ibb.co/7TsKPTt/2025-10-30-13-44-27-vahaduo-github-io-3cee083d65e0.png

Myancestrydna results:
https://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?285335-My-true-ancestry-com&p=8306058&viewfull=1#post8306058

You’re somewhat of an outlier.

[Bulkster]

Put another way, if the land were awarded to the most genetically indigenous people, Christians would rank highest, not Jews or Muslims.

More Palestinian Muslim results:

https://i.redd.it/h00hyui8tq1e1.jpeg
https://i.redd.it/pdi7hmx7lgzb1.jpg
https://i.redd.it/1zhrhpayvf0c1.jpg

I agree

[Bulkster]

You’re somewhat of an outlier.

I know, and it showcases this since I'm from Acre, Palestine which make sense.

[Bulkster]

Put another way, if the land were awarded to the most genetically indigenous people, Christians would rank highest, not Jews or Muslims.

More Palestinian Muslim results:

https://i.redd.it/h00hyui8tq1e1.jpeg
https://i.redd.it/pdi7hmx7lgzb1.jpg
https://i.redd.it/1zhrhpayvf0c1.jpg

As for the results, the first two are clearly not typical(outlying) results of your average Palestinian genome while the third one is more typical based on G25 results.

Here's the comment from the guy's results in the 2nd picture:

let me start off by saying this:

most Palestinians do not simply score 2% Levantine. most score much more. from what i see typically it's like 25-70%. your results are clearly an outlier compared to most Palestinians. the 44% Arabian peninsular is much much much higher than average(most often Palestinians score less than 10%) and this certainly indicates your family is not your typical Palestinian. either there is some migrant ancestry in the past handful of generations or your family is from some outlying subset that is still heavily descended from Arabians from a few hundred years ago at most distant.

now onto the political stuff and an explanation of your lack of Levantine:

23andme has no intention to recognize either Israel or Palestine as of now from what i know. which honestly makes sense considering the backlash they'd get from either countries supporters. it is more economically beneficial for them to stay out of the politics of the region entirely.

and besides the fact that your family is much more Arabian compared to the vast majority of Palestinians, you should consider that Palestinians have mixed, like a lot. What is now Palestine has been tossed back and forth by empires for most of the past 1400 years. being controlled mainly by Arabians, Egyptians, Persians, and Ottomans, which very little time being spent as an independent nation. But what do each of those 4 peoples that controlled them have in common? they were all predominantly Muslim. so when they controlled the levant there wasn't a large religious barrier keeping them from mixing with the general population. tests pretty consistently show a large portion of the palestinian genome being from various groups surrounding the levant.

but you might also hear that 23andme only looks into the past 500 years. which is true, but also not true. depends on which populations you look at.

23andme uses levantine christians as their reference population for levantine, this being due to the low levels of outmixing with non-levantines in the christian populations compared to the muslim populations(once again going back to the religious barrier). so whilst they look into the past 500 years for christians they do not do the same for muslims. and it's debated whether or not muslims should be included in the reference populations because many of them are significantly mixed enough in the past 1000 years and even the past 500 to cause issues. the same reason 23andme likely wouldn't include Slovenians in the eastern European reference or mixed south asian and persian reer xamar people in the Somali reference.

regardless of whether or not they should be included this lack of inclusion means two things:
1- muich of the ancestry of muslim levantines in the past 1000+ years does not show as levantine. meaning "low" levantine percentages compared to known family histories for palestinians.
2- understated levantine for many. mainly with it going into broadly arab egyptian and levantine and iranian caucasian and mesopotamian. egyptian and arabian however are more distinctive and less likely to be misidentified.

in conclusion: it's just how 23andme and dna works, nothing against palestinians specifically. no attempted erasure is going on by 23andme just because their ceo is of the same background as palestines biggest enemy.
https://www.reddit.com/r/23andme/comments/17rxejr/palestinian/

More typical Palestinian genetic results:
https://i.ibb.co/F45DCwnB/palestinian-dna-photo-v0-fg1t4o69zisf1.webp
https://i.ibb.co/B256zyPJ/muslim-palestinian-from-farmer-families-through-both-v0-z7nqux72jaoc1.webp
https://i.ibb.co/4nSWqnFj/9qrgusjw69uc1.jpg

Palestinian Muslims as individuals score between 23 to 70% Levantine ancestry.