Palestinians and Lebanese Show Greater Genetic Correlation with Ancient Canaanites

October 2, 2026

Palestinian Historiographical Research

In a recent interview with U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee in Israel, Tucker Carlson questioned the narrative of an exclusively Jewish “return” to the biblical land. He pointed out that many local communities, especially Palestinian Christians, show greater ancestral continuity than Israelis of Ashkenazi origin. Although Carlson focused on Christians, the genetic evidence goes further: Palestinians and Lebanese in general show a stronger correlation with ancient Levantine populations than the average modern Israeli (Agranat-Tamir et al., 2020; Haber et al., 2017).

Several genomic studies confirm this continuity. The analysis by Agranat-Tamir et al. (2020) in Cell, based on 73 ancient genomes from the southern Levant of the Bronze Age, shows that Palestinians and Lebanese share between 81–93% of their ancestry with ancient Canaanites, with minimal external dilution. Recent quantitative models indicate that Palestinians exceed 90% contribution from Iron Age Levantines, clustering closely with Canaanite and Israelite samples (Permana, 2026).

In contrast, the current Israeli Jewish population, dominated by Ashkenazim (around 45%), shows an average Levantine continuity below 60–70% due to European admixture (40–60%) accumulated during the diaspora (Behar et al., 2010; Ostrer & Skorecki, 2013). Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews are closer to local ancestors, but the national average is diluted (Khan, 2023).

The Islamization of the 7th century did not imply population replacement, but rather a cultural transformation of the same communities (Haber et al., 2016). Thus, Palestinians and Lebanese emerge as the principal direct descendants of ancient Canaanites and Israelites.

This evidence does not resolve political conflicts, but it sheds light on a shared and complex genetic reality, challenging essentialist interpretations of territorial rights.

References

Agranat-Tamir, L., Waldman, S., Martin, M. A. S., Gokhman, D., Mishol, N., Eshel, T., … & Reich, D. (2020). The genomic history of the Bronze Age southern Levant. Cell, 181(5), 1146–1157.e11.

Behar, D. M., Yunusbayev, B., Metspalu, M., et al. (2010). The genome-wide structure of the Jewish people. Nature, 466(7303), 238–242.

Haber, M., Doumet-Serhal, C., Scheib, C. L., Xue, Y., Danecek, P., Mezzavilla, M., … & Tyler-Smith, C. (2017). Continuity and admixture in the last five millennia of Levantine history from ancient Canaanite and present-day Lebanese genome sequences. American Journal of Human Genetics, 101(2), 274–282.

Haber, M., Mezzavilla, M., Xue, Y., & Tyler-Smith, C. (2016). Ancient DNA and the rewriting of human history: Be sparing with Occam’s razor. Genome Biology, 17(1), 1–6.

Khan, R. (2023, December 28). More than kin, less than kind: Jews and Palestinians as Canaanite cousins. Razib Khan’s Unsupervised Learning.

Ostrer, H., & Skorecki, K. (2013). The population genetics of the Jewish people. Human Genetics, 132(2), 119–127.

Permana, B. (2026). Genetic proximity of modern Palestinians and Ashkenazi Jews to Iron Age Levantines: A quantitative paleogenomic analysis.