DUBAI: Surveying the landscape of Gaza after two years of Israeli bombardment, it is clear the damage inflicted on the Palestinian enclave will take decades to repair. The wounds sustained by civilians, both mental and physical, will likewise last a lifetime.
However, new research suggests the scars of the conflict may be felt by generations who have not even been born yet, with the effects of trauma shaping the very DNA of Gazans themselves, leaving a genetic footprint on the Palestinian people.
According to a paper by an international team of researchers titled “Epigenetic signatures of intergenerational exposure to violence in three generations of Syrian refugees,” trauma can edit our genome, altering how our bodies adapt to our environment.
“We know usually that epigenetic signatures are erased every generation,” Rana Dajani, professor of genetics and molecular biology at the Hashemite University of Jordan, who participated in the research, told Arab News.
“But what we found is that 14 sites of the genome were altered as a result of a grandmother’s exposure to violence had been passed through to her grandchildren, who themselves were not exposed to violence at all.”
