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From our partners at The Agonist
Pakistan | Jan 23
Dawn – The 2,700 year old Pashtun link to Israel
A genetic study to investigate a connection between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan will be funded by Israel, according to a report in The Observer.
Israeli anthropologists have claimed that the Pashtuns may be one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel in light of longstanding historical and anecdotal evidence. No scientific proof has ever been able to demonstrate a conclusive link.
However, an Indian researcher based at the National Institute of Immuno-haemotology in Mumbai will now spend time at a leading Israeli institute, Technion to study the findings of her research. Shahnaz Ali collected the blood-samples from members of the Pashtun Afridi tribe living near Lucknow, India. Previous research in a similar area failed to determine a link either way.
According to the report, 10 of the original 12 tribes of Israel were pushed into exile 2,730 years ago when the Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel. Modern-day Jews belong to the two remaining tribes of Benjamin and Judah, according to Jewish history. Ever since, speculation has centered on the exact whereabouts of the lost tribes. Claims of their traces in China, Burma, Nigeria and Central Asia have been offered in the past. It is believed that the tribes settled in areas around latter-day Northern Iraq and Afghanistan therefore making the Pashtun link the most compelling.
Navraas Aafreedi, an academic at Lucknow University said, “Pathans, or Pashtuns, are the only people in the world whose probable descent from the lost tribes of Israel finds mention in a number of texts from the 10th century to the present day, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars alike, both religious as well as secularists.”
However, Ali still remainsl cautious. “The theory has been a matter of curiosity since long ago, and now I hope a scientific analysis will provide us with some answers about the Israelite origin of Afridi Pathans. We still don’t know what the truth is, but efforts will certainly give us a direction,” she told the Times of India last year.
Err I thought that majority of Pashtun peoples are actually closely related to and often directly descended from the Greeks that followed Alexander the Great :/ on his tour de monde?
Naturally, there has to be some compelling reasons for the research project. Like with Beta Israel, Either way Israel needs their sons to maintain its borders.
It is anyhow a fascinating project and research
retrace the connections between humanity.
Oddly enough for its power to unify people based on scientific evidence it is rather used to divide.
For crying out loud 90% of Middle East populations are of the same far distant mother and share genes.
But the indoctrination prevents people to acknowledge that Palestinians are the same bunch as the Jews genetically speaking.
One could argue that Palestinians are those Israeli tribes that stayed and slaved under the Assyrians, while the rest went around the world and done their share of slaving.
The 2 tribes of that came back and reinstated Israel managed to preserve their identity better then the others perhaps because they moved around.
apologies for drifting of the topic…
What a Bunch of Morons! Pashtuns are not “Lost Tribes of Jews”.Anglo Yidishs and their arse lickers at DAWN should keep their noses out of their arse.
They are not Even Greeks you punks! Alexander the homo got his arse nabbed there and after five continuous years of war efforts he had to divert his location far away from Pashtuns.It was the time when His generals were cursing him and Alexander cursed his generals back.That frustration of his and his general made him to avoid Pashtuns. Pashtuns are Better described as The descendent of the ancient central Asian horse men.Which have led the Ancient Aryan invasion of India.Pashtuns were the descendents of those who forcibly removed other western central asian (Caucasians)from that region across black sea and for themselves they had chosen Indus Valley!
Hi Khan, Agree with the horse riding Aryans there as predecesors of most people of the region.
But there was a significant presence of greeks from alexandres time that stayed there. The Greek army was basically a “whole city on the move” these days.
And there are evidence that certein pashtun tribes have more ancient greek looks, customes and traditions than others in the are.
Believe it or not the ancient greeks were more nordic type looking then greeks today.