An emeritus professor at Tel Aviv university, born to Jewish Holocaust survivors, he calls himself a post-Zionist, and stresses that mere “religious affinity to the land," does not give one “historical right.” Furthermore, he maintains that the national mythology does not hold up to historical scrutiny. Sand maintains that Jewish people did not originate from a single ethnic group, but rather from various groups across Europe and elsewhere who converted to Judaism, over time.

Dr. Eran Elhark’s research (Highlight: Out of Khazaria—Evidence for “Jewish Genome” Lacking & The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses) validates this view.

However, it’s important to note that Dr. Elhaik’s research and conclusions have been highly controversial and have been criticized by many other geneticists and historians. The majority view among experts in the field is that while there may have been some Khazar admixture, the primary ancestral population of Ashkenazi Jews were indeed Jews who migrated from the Levant to Europe. The debate around this topic remains ongoing in academic circles.

That being said, it is no surprise that direct-to-consumer ancestral DNA testing is effectively illegal in Israel.