Of the steady stream of Palestinian Authority (PA) lies, possibly the most farcical is its claim to be a 6,000-year-old nation — combined with its denial of the thousands of years of Israel’s documented history.

The below cartoon appearing on an official Fatah website reinforces the lie.

While the PA knows that there is no such thing as an ancient Palestinian Arab history prior to the last few decades, it appropriates the history of multiple ethnic groups present in the Land of Israel thousands of years ago as its own, declaring them to be “Palestinian.”

This propaganda is constant, coming from all PA leaders, so-called academics, and religious figures — and it is prevalent across all the PA’s controlled education and media. The headline of the cartoon above is called “The history” and the caption states:

The Palestinian people have a long history of culture, and they were part of ancient cultures, as their lands were characterized by diverse cultures over the generations, from the Canaanites to the Phoenicians.

[Falestinona, Fatah’s Information and Culture Commission in Lebanon, Feb. 19, 2025]

Cartoons like these are a snapshot of how the PA systematically brainwashes its people to deny Israel’s right to exist through distortion or denial of history. This education forms the core of how the PA educates children, and is also preached consistently by PA leadership.

One example of how this kind of PA/Fatah false education can be seen in Fatah’s children’s magazine:

Palestine has belonged to the Palestinians for thousands of years. Therefore, the Palestinian people rejected this [UN] resolution that gives rights to our land and our homeland to foreigners who came from all ends of the earth, foreigners who did not know Palestine and did not live in it — neither them nor their fathers and forefathers. Their color is not our color, their skin is not our skin, and their customs are different from our customs. They do not even have one color or one ethnic origin — they are a strange and odd mixture of different races.” [emphasis added]

[Waed, Issue 36, p. 2]

The facts are that Israel/Judea suffered invasion and expulsions by the Assyrian Empire (722 BCE) and the Babylonian Empire (586 BCE); experienced invasion and return from exile under the Persian Empire (538 BCE); occupation by the Greek Empire (329 BCE) and expulsions by the Roman Empire (70 CE and 135 CE), who also renamed the land “Syria-Palestina” in 135 CE.

Since then, Jews remained and survived in the Land of Israel and in exile during 2,000 years of invasions and occupation by foreigners until the State of Israel was reestablished in 1948.

None of this matters to PA/Fatah. Besides denying Israel’s ancient history, it instead rewrites actual aspects of Jewish history as “Palestinian history”:

The Canaanite Arabs settled the land of Palestine … Palestine underwent dozens of invasions, and many peoples entered it such as the Babylonians, the Persians, the Samaritans, the Assyrians, the Hyksos, the Hittites, the Pharaohs, and the Hebrews… One hundred years ago the British invaded it. Their invasion was the most dangerous because they deliberately arrived to give our land to the Jews, whom they brought with them. In the end, Palestine fell under the Zionist occupation, which continues to this very day …

The occupation will cease to exist just as what was before it ceased to exist. As we said, Palestine underwent many invasions that coveted it. All the invaders were defeated, and Palestine returned to be free and Arab.” [emphasis added]

[Waed, Issue 32, pp. 5-6]

Since, according to the PA/Fatah, Palestinians are descendants of the 5,000-year-old Canaanite-Palestinians and since the PA says Jews have no history in the land, Palestinians then have the “absolute right to take back its rights in full” [Waed, Issue 26, page 12] and therefore: “The Palestinian people will not surrender; just as it fought in the past to defend its land, it is returning to fight in order to take it back and return to it… The Palestinian people refused to surrender … Its men and women set out to seek ways to return Palestine to us.”

On the level of the PA leadership, the same nonsense is preached from the highest levels, be it by the former Palestinian prime minister or by Mahmoud Abbas’ top advisor:

Posted text: “[Fatah Central Committee member and former PA Prime Minister Muhammad] Shtayyeh emphasized that all the Israeli attempts to erase our Palestinian heritage, and through it to erase the history of our people and our Palestinian national cause, as well as Israel’s attempts to create a fake history and non-existent heritage, will not succeed because we will continue our steadfast adherence to this rich heritage that passes from generation to generation.”

[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, Nov. 29, 2024]

Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “We have been living in this land for over 6,000 years. The Palestinian people is the one that created the civilization and history of this land. It is the one who built all the cities in most of the territories of Palestine — the Gaza Strip, which was built by the Canaanites, and Jerusalem, which was built by the Jebusite Canaanites.” [emphasis added]

[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, Feb. 12, 2025]

The fact is that no amount of cartoons or reinvented education will help the PA escape the facts. The Palestinians have no history prior to the modern period and no connection to the Canaanites or the Phoenicians. On the other hand, Jewish history for thousands of years in the Land of Israel is proven by an abundance of evidence.

Itamar Marcus is Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)’s Founder and Director. Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.

The post Here’s the Truth About Palestinian National Identity first appeared on Algemeiner.com.