Like the Lebanese, Syrians, Egyptians, Maghrebis, and most other people today commonly called Arabs,
the Palestinians are an Arab people in linguistic and cultural affiliation. Like most other peoples today called Arabs,
Palestinians descend from the pre-existing ancient inhabitants of their respective region and those who have come to settle it throughout history;[15] a matter on which genetic studies described below has begun to shed some light.[80]
American historian Bernard Lewis writes:
"Clearly, in Palestine as elsewhere in the Middle East,
the modern inhabitants include among their ancestors those who lived in the country in antiquity. Equally obviously, the demographic mix was greatly modified over the centuries by migration, deportation, immigration, and settlement. This was particularly true in Palestine..."[81]
...
Much of the local Palestinian population in Nablus is believed to be descended from Samaritans who converted to Islam.[83] Even today, certain Nabulsi surnames including Muslimani, Yaish, and Shakshir among others, are associated with a Samaritan origin.[83]
...
Other founding fathers of Zionism believed that the Palestinian people were
descended from the biblical ancient Hebrews.
David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben Zvi, later becoming Israel's first Prime Minister and second President, respectively, tried to establish in a 1918 paper written in Yiddish that Palestinian peasants and their mode of life were
living historical testimonies to Israelite practices in the biblical period.[84][86] Tamari notes that "the ideological implications of this claim became very problematic and were soon withdrawn from circulation."[84]
...
One DNA study by geneticist Ariella Oppenheim concluded that
genetic evidence coincides with historical accounts that at least part of the Arab Israeli and Palestinian population is mainly descended from local Christians and Jews "who had converted [to Islam] after the Islamic conquest in the seventh century A.D."[110][111][112] These Christian and Jewish converts are believed to be descended from a "core population that had lived in the area for several centuries, some even since prehistorical times."[113] The study also discovered significant genetic mixing between these converts and incoming Arab tribes during the first millennium AD, as well as parallel genetic mixing of the Jewish population with the local peoples throughout the Jewish diaspora.[110]
A follow-up study by Oppenheim found that
in addition to being closely related to Israeli and Palestinian Arab populations, Jews are even more closely related to the peoples living in the north of the Fertile Crescent, such as the Kurds.[114] Given the influx of Arabs to the area that reached climax with the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century AD, the researchers concluded that
this disparity was likely the result of genetic mixing between the Palestinian population's Christian and Jewish ancestors and these later Arab settlers.[115]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palesti...estral_origins