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Here’s the Truth About Palestinian National Identity
The Western Wall and Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
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.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
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