<nettime> Palestine and Immunology

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 Palestine and Immunology


��Date: ��

    Wed, 1 May 2002 12:14:51 -0400 


Arnaiz-Villena A, Elaiwa N, Silvera C, Rostom A, Moscoso J, G�mez-
Casado E, Allende L, Varela P, Mart�nez-Laso, J. " The origin of
Palestinians and their genetic relatedness with other Mediterranean
populations". Human Immunology 62: 889-900, 2001.

It has been removed from Columbia University's online archive by the American
Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, almost a year after
its being published.


--------------------------

http://www.cosmiverse.com/news/science/science04160208.html

Jews and Palestinians are Genetically Identical

April 16, 2002 8:30 CDT


The journal Human Immunology is making history, but not for anything it
would like to be known for. In a move of unprecedented self-censorship,
they are begging libraries and private readers alike to physically remove
an article from their most recent issue and throw the offending story into =
the nearest trash receptacle. Really.

"I have authored several hundred scientific papers, some for Nature and
Science, and this has never happened to me before," said the article's
lead author, Spanish geneticist Professor Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, of
Complutense University in Madrid. "I am stunned."

Other geneticists are similarly appalled: "If the journal didn't like the
paper, they shouldn't have published it in the first place. Why wait until =
it has appeared before acting like this?'" Why, indeed?

Dolly Tyan is president of the American Society of Histocompatibility
and Immunogenetics, which runs the Journal. She issued a statement
to the effect that the Society was "offended and embarrassed" by the
whole thing.

The journal's editor, Nicole Sucio-Foca, of Columbia University, New
York, claims the article provoked such a welter of complaints over its
extreme political writing that she was forced to repudiate it. The article =
has been removed from Human Immunology's website, while letters
have been written to libraries and universities throughout the world
asking them to ignore or 'preferably to physically remove the relevant
pages'.

Arnaiz-Villena has been sacked from the journal's editorial board. Just
what is all the fuss about? The paper, 'The Origin of Palestinians and
their Genetic Relatedness with other Mediterranean Populations',
involved studying genetic variations in immune system genes among
people in the Middle East.

In common with earlier studies, the team found no data to support the
idea that Jewish people were genetically distinct from other people in
the region. In doing so, the team's research challenges claims that
Jews are a special, chosen people and that Judaism can only be
inherited.

Jews and Palestinians in the Middle East share a very similar gene pool
and must be considered closely related and not genetically separate,
the authors state. Rivalry between the two races is therefore based 'in
cultural and religious, but not in genetic differences', they conclude.

Source: The London Observer

Cosmiverse Staff Writer

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