Jose Pardo Hidalgo, of Murcia, Spain writes to me by email:

Dear Sirs,

Do you know if Iberia is coming of Ibrya=Hebrew,the Hebrew land of Spain and Portugal.

Ivry is a Jewish surnames, Ivrya,may pe "Ladino", for femenine.. where Iberos semitic people, Assyrian tablets say even Celts were a tribe Lost of Israel, red.haired and blue eyes,losing his identity, not lost, only identity, Judah, benjamin, dan, etc... which is your opinion?.

Thanks and peace,lover and friendships,

Thank you.

I write back that this does not fit with the pattern of settlement of Iberia in pre-Roman times, before the Jewish diaspora, and I include a few links, such as:

The Iberian language dates back to 7th century B.C., although it may have not been called that back then. Also, the Celtiberians are well known in history, in Rome's wars with Carthage, and that the etymology of Iberian probably originating from the Ebro river.

His response was:

I know Ebro river is Hebrew, Hebreo=Hebro=ebro, Gualduivir river, Seville,arab name, means "River of the ivris=Riverof the Hebrews". Jews and Arabs wereas brother many centuries. Inquisition destroyed everything. However,Iber,Ebermeans =Abraham,as per dictionary of Jewish surnames, of Families, Prof.Guggenheimer, verygood book.

Many Jews adopted Arab surnames,latin, Berber,New Christians, etcand also Hebrew as Barcelona=Bar-sheloneu=Our coast, Mahari, arab, Jews surname, "Coty of adobe houses".

Murcia was built by Arabs as city,but Jew were here with Roman, Soria means Soraya, arab, Sephardic surname, Murcia is not mursiye, it is Morsaya=God, the goldsmith or Myhrr,s goldsmith , of Mor, Jewish surname,also master,also Myhrr.

It is complicated.very interesting.

Thank you very much.Best regards,peace,love and friendship,brotherhood.

Dr.Jose Pardo Hidalgo,Ph.D.

So, I did some more searching, and Google turned up a few links, such as this post by Jose:

Dear friends, and Family,Pls.order test DNA,mtDNA,male, to see matches with me.I did my test,match Cohanim,Jewish Priest of Israel, see my web www.semiticroots.com and http://usuarios.lycos.es/pardoinfo/crising.htm and other,I was bodybuilder with Arnold Schwarzenneger,I was general Secretary for Spain,International Fedration of Bodybuilders,I am many thing,awaiting to receive title-diploma as PH.D.In naturopatia,Cambrdige International University.Pls.contact me urgenty all Pardo males¡¡¡.Thans.Best rgds.Prof.Jose Pardo.Murcia.Spain

Here is another post about Pardo genealogy on Yahoo Groups.

There is no question that some Jews inhabited the Iberian penninsula prior to their explusion in 1492. It is well documented that the early Catholic rulers of Iberia had to deal with Jews, as evidenced by the Visigothic Code, and its harsh stance on them. It was much more draconian and biased against them from say, the Roman Justinian Code.

However, jumping to the conclusion that they are the original of the Iberians is tenuous at best. A more plausible scenario is that they came to Spain after the diaspora caused by the Roman general Titus' destruction of the temple in 70 C.E.