Pathans in Jerusalem Israel is planning to finance a rare genetic study to see if there is a link between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtun tribe who has become the Taliban in Afghanistan. Shalva Weil, anthropologist is a senior researcher at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and tells us this. However, interest in this is lessening. The Pashtuns are not interested in it, and Israelis are also losing interest. The theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites is being studied by Navras Aafreedi and Shahnaz Ali of India. They tell us that the Pathans, or Pashtuns, are the only ones in the world possibly descended from the lost tribes of Israel. The evidence is mentioned from the 10th century to today, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim writers, both religious and secularists. A Muslim, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, wrote a book titled Jesus in India in which says that Afghans, Pashtuns and Pathans are descended from the Tribes of Israel. His proof is that Kish had 5 sons, of which one was Irmia Jeremia,. Afghana had descended from him. Qais Abdur Rasheed was a descendant of King Saul whose original name was Kish. He had met Muhammad and became Muslim. All of the tribes in Afghanistan are descendants of him. It all started with Jacob who was renamed as Israel. His first son was Joseph from Rachel, who had 2 sons, Ephraim and Menashe. Through Jacobs 2 wives and 2 concubines, he also had Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphitali, Gad, Asher, and Josephs full brother, Benjamin. When land was divided between the tribes, Levi was to be a tribe of teachers and were given no land, but Ephraim and Menashe got shares. All should have the same Ydna. Through time, there will be mutations, but scientists should be able to connect them to the present descendants. The Telegraph comments that they may be from the tribe of Ephriam, captured and taken away in around 700 BCE. The Pashtuns or Pathans, as they are called, live in Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. They are made up of 60 Pushto-speaking tribes numbering 8 million in Afghanistan and 10 million in Pakistan. If they are the remnant of 10 Tribes, they seem to have multiplied very well without suffering from any discrimination such as the tribes of Judea and Israel did. The 2nd President of Israel, Itzhak Ben-Zvi wrote The Exiled and the Redeemed in 1957. He stated that Hebrew migrations into Afghanistan began with a few exiles from Samaria transplanted there by the King of Assyria, Shalmaneser, in 719 BC. There are references in the Book of Esther to the 127 dominions of King Ahasuerus of Persia, and that eastern Afghanistan could have been one of them. Though they are Muslim today, they still have the tradition of descending from the 10 Tribes. Josephus, the Jewish-Roman historian of the first century CE, describes Israelite Tribes living beyond the Euphrates river in inaccessible lands to the East. A genetic study concluded from Y-chromosome analysis (male line) that Samaritans descend from the Israelites (including Kohanim, or priests), and mitochondrial DNA (female line) analysis shows descent from Assyrians and other foreign women, effectively validating both local and foreign origins for the Samaritans. Judea and Samaria lie in what Jordanians have named as The West Bank, being it is land west of the Jordan River. Afghan tribes are Muslim but have biblical names that are seen in the Torah. A variation of DNA between Afghans and Jewish groups of Iranians, Arabs, Iraqis and even Ashkenazi is seen as mingling their DNA with local non semitic groups of peoples. Dr. Aafreedi, Indian historian, did a genetic study on the Afridi clan of Pashtuns in Malihabad, India. It was found that 650 out of the 1,500 members had dna similar to genetic dna found in Jews. Thats less than half of the members were connected to Jews. The Ydna haplogroup G2C has been found in 7% of Ashkenazi Jews and in the Pashuns. Tudor Pafitt also did tests on Pashuns in India. Research shows a relationship between Afghan (Pashun) and Jewish (Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi) DNA and also that Afghan DNA is 2nd closest (68.1) to Ashkenazi DNA after Irani and Iraq Jews (67.9). Most of this research used Yusufzai, Afridi or Khattak samples from Pakistan and India. Scientists can draw inferences about Afghan DNA in general from this. Rare genetic disease shows a common origin. Inclusion body myopathy has been found among Afghans (Pashtuns), Iranian Jews and Ashkenazis. This indicates a common founder mutation. This is a disease in which muscular weakness is a rare genetic disorder which is localized to Jewish populations. Most known patients are Iranian Jews, with a few originating from Pashtuns of Afghanistan. The high frequency is due to a founder mutation (GNE, M712T) from Nature Genet 29:83-87, 2001. Another genetic disease common to both Pashtuns and Jews is the disease Glucose 6 Phosphate Dehydrogenase deficiency. G6PDH is common to Jews from Kurdistan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen and in Afghans/Pashtuns. After over 3,000 years, we see the irony that Pathans are the ones who would reject Israel being they have this relationship. They have said that they want to be the ones doing the test, or a 3rd party. Probably most Jews would scream, Oy vey at the discovery as well. When you think about it, though, the 10 Lost Tribes had to go somewhere, but not too far. This group has the oral history of the connection, and DNA is showing that they indeed have a connection to Jews. Israelis are saying, Oy, vah, ah, voy! Such cousins!
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 20:38:15 +0000
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