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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.
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UK, France, Germany Urge Gaza Ceasefire, Ask Israel to Restore Humanitarian Access
People walk among destroyed buildings in Gaza, as viewed from the Israel-Gaza border, March 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
The governments of Germany, France and Britain called for an immediate return to a ceasefire in Gaza in a joint statement on Friday that also called on Israel to restore humanitarian access.
“We call on Israel to restore humanitarian access, including water and electricity, and ensure access to medical care and temporary medical evacuations in accordance with international humanitarian law,” the foreign ministers of the three countries, known as the E3, said in a statement.
The ministers said they were “appalled by the civilian casualties,” and also called on Palestinian Hamas terrorists to release Israeli hostages.
They said the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians could not be resolved through military means, and that a long-lasting ceasefire was the only credible pathway to peace.
The ministers added that they were “deeply shocked” by the incident that affected the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) building in Gaza, and called for an investigation into the incident.
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Israeli Military Says It Intercepted Missile Fired from Yemen; Houthis Claim Responsibility
FILE PHOTO: Houthi military helicopter flies over the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea in this photo released November 20, 2023. Photo: Houthi Military Media/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen on Friday, one day after shooting down two projectiles launched by Houthi terrorists.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it fired a ballistic missile toward Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, the group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a televised statement in the early hours of Saturday.
Saree said the attack against Israel was the group’s third in 48 hours.
He issued a warning to airlines that the Israeli airport was “no longer safe for air travel and would continue to be so until the Israeli aggression against Gaza ends and the blockade is lifted.”
However, the airport’s website seemed to be operating normally and showed a list of scheduled flights.
The group’s military spokesman has also said without providing evidence that the Houthis had launched attacks against the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea.
The group recently vowed to escalate attacks, including those targeting Israel, in response to US strikes earlier this month, which amount to the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January. The US attacks have killed at least 50 people.
The Houthis’ fresh attacks come under a pledge to expand their range of targets in Israel in retaliation for renewed Israeli strikes in Gaza that have killed hundreds after weeks of relative calm.
The Houthis have carried out over 100 attacks on shipping since Israel’s war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians.
The attacks have disrupted global commerce and prompted the US military to launch a costly campaign to intercept missiles.
The Houthis are part of what has been dubbed the “Axis of Resistance” – an anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance of regional militias including Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq, all backed by Iran.
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Columbia University Agrees to Some Trump Demands in Attempt to Restore Funding
A pro-Palestine protester holds a sign that reads: “Faculty for justice in Palestine” during a protest urging Columbia University to cut ties with Israel. November 15, 2023 in New York City. Photo: Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Columbia University agreed to some changes demanded by US President Donald Trump’s administration before it can negotiate to regain federal funding that was pulled this month over allegations the school tolerated antisemitism on campus.
The Ivy League university in New York City acquiesced to several demands in a 4,000-word message from its interim president released on Friday. It laid out plans to reform its disciplinary process, hire security officers with arrest powers and appoint a new official with a broad remit to review departments that offer courses on the Middle East.
Columbia’s dramatic concessions to the government’s extraordinary demands, which stem from protests that convulsed the Manhattan campus over the Israel-Gaza war, immediately prompted criticism. The outcome could have broad ramifications as the Trump administration has warned at least 60 other universities of similar action.
What Columbia would do with its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department was among the biggest questions facing the university as it confronted the cancellation, called unconstitutional by legal and civil groups, of hundreds of millions of dollars in government grants and contracts. The Trump administration had told the school to place the department under academic receivership for at least five years, taking control away from its faculty.
Academic receivership is a rare step taken by a university’s administrators to fix a dysfunctional department by appointing a professor or administrator outside the department to take over.
Columbia did not refer to receivership in Friday’s message. The university said it would appoint a new senior administrator to review leadership and to ensure programs are balanced at MESAAS, the Middle East Institute, the Center for Palestine Studies, the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and other departments with Middle East programs, along with Columbia’s satellite hubs in Tel Aviv and Amman.
‘TERRIBLE PRECEDENT’
Professor Jonathan Zimmerman, a historian of education at the University of Pennsylvania and a “proud” graduate of Columbia, called it a sad day for the university.
“Historically, there is no precedent for this,” Zimmerman said. “The government is using the money as a cudgel to micromanage a university.”
Todd Wolfson, a Rutgers University professor and president of the American Association of University Professors, called the Trump administration’s demands “arguably the greatest incursion into academic freedom, freedom of speech and institutional autonomy that we’ve seen since the McCarthy era.”
“It sets a terrible precedent,” Wolfson said. “I know every academic faculty member in this country is angry about Columbia University’s inability to stand up to a bully.”
In a campus-wide email, Katrina Armstrong, Columbia’s interim president, wrote that the her priorities were “to advance our mission, ensure uninterrupted academic activities, and make every student, faculty, and staff member safe and welcome on our campus.”
Mohammad Hemeida, an undergraduate who chairs Columbia’s Student Governing Board, said the school should have sought more student and faculty input.
“It’s incredibly disappointing Columbia gave in to government pressure instead of standing firm on the commitments to students and to academic freedom, which they emphasized to us in almost daily emails,” he said.
The White House did not respond to Columbia’s memo on Friday. The Trump administration said its demands, laid out in a letter to Armstrong eight days ago, were a precondition before Columbia could enter “formal negotiations” with the government to have federal funding.
ARREST POWERS
Columbia’s response is being watched by other universities that the administration has targeted as it advances its policy objectives in areas ranging from campus protests to transgender sports and diversity initiatives.
Private companies, law firms and other organizations have also faced threatened cuts in government funding and business unless they agree to adhere more closely to Trump’s priorities. Powerful Wall Street law firm Paul Weiss came under heavy criticism on Friday over a deal it struck with the White House to escape an executive order imperiling its business.
Columbia has come under particular scrutiny for the anti-Israel student protest movement that roiled its campus last year, when its lawns filled with tent encampments and noisy rallies against the US government’s support of the Jewish state.
To some of the Trump administration’s demands, such as having “time, place and manner” rules around protests, the school suggested they had already been met.
Columbia said it had already sought to hire peace officers with arrest powers before the Trump administration’s demand last week, saying 36 new officers had nearly completed the lengthy training and certification process under New York law.
The university said no one was allowed to wear face masks on campus if they were doing so intending to break rules or laws. The ban does not apply to face masks worn for medical or religious purposes, and the university did not say it was adopting the Trump administration’s demand that Columbia ID be worn visibly on clothing.
The sudden shutdown of millions of dollars in federal funding to Columbia this month was already disrupting medical and scientific research at the school, researchers said.
Canceled projects included the development of an AI-based tool that helps nurses detect the deterioration of a patient’s health in hospital and research on uterine fibroids, non-cancerous tumors that can cause pain and affect women’s fertility.
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