Ancestry or 'Descent"

In the Canberra Times of Saturday February 25th 2006 there was an article entitled “Iraqis under curfew to stem rage.”

I found the article interesting and reasonably balanced until I came across the words:

“. . General John Abizaid, a US born general of Palestinian descent, said he did not believe attempts to divide Iraq would succeed.”

“Nothing wrong in that,” you might say, but let’s consider it again.

Personally I would have used the words “of Palestinian ancestry” rather than “Palestinian descent”

Why?

Well for one thing I am of the view that this is correct English usage and for another that by using the word ‘descent’ the author was associating an emotive term with the general’s genealogical heritage.

The man’s family, genealogically speaking, was not on some high point from which, by his birth, he descended.

Unless of course what was being suggested is that anyone born in Palestine could only possibly “descend” by migrating to the USA?