Rewriting History
Rewriting the history of the Land of Israel in order to deny Israel's right to exist is central to Palestinian Authority (PA) policy. Long before it started the PA terror campaign (the "Intifada," 2000-2005), the PA was fighting a history war – erasing Jewish history and replacing it with a fabricated Palestinian history. This rewriting has two central goals:
1- Erase the Jewish nation's 3,000 year history in the Land of Israel;
2- Invent ancient Palestinian, Muslim and Arab histories in the land.
The goal of this historical revision as a political strategy was first expressed publicly at a conference of Palestinian historians in 1998, when rewriting history was linked to the political goal of denying Israel's right to exist:
"Dr. Yussuf Alzamili [Chairman History Department, Khan Yunis Educational College] called on all universities and colleges to write the history of Palestine and to guard it, and not to enable the [foreign] implants and enemies to distort it or to legitimize the existence of Jews on this land... [History lecturer Abu Amar] clarified that there is no connection between the ancient generation of Jews and the new generation." [Al-Ayyam, Dec. 4, 1998].
Erasing Jewish history in the land of Israel is followed by the PA’s invention of ancient and modern histories that support its political ideology and claim to the land of Israel. The Holocaust and other aspects of Jewish history are alternately denied, downplayed or distorted. Another distortion is to hide from Palestinians that Jesus was a Jew who lived in the Land of Judea/Israel. PA leaders repeatedly define Jesus as a Palestinian who preached Islam, thus denying not only Jewish history, but also the history and legitimacy of Christianity.
Citing numerous examples, this section will document that these and other historical revisions are an integral part of Palestinian policy and are used to create political ideology.
Palestinian history fabricated
Having erased Jewish history, the PA fills the historical void by fabricating the ancient histories of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. PA academics claim that Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims all populated the Land of Israel in Biblical times and even earlier. These fictions are all historically impossible, as the name “Palestine" as a replacement for the Land of Judea/Israel was coined by Rome only in 136 C.E., Islam was established only in 610 C.E., and Arabs first arrived in Israel with the Muslim invasion in 637 C.E.
Inventing thousands of years of history when none existed is accomplished through numerous distortions and lies, including changing the Biblical Canaanites into Arabs, changing Biblical Israelis, Judeans and Hebrews into Arabs and Muslims, changing the religion preached by Moses from Judaism into Islam, and changing Jesus into a Palestinian who preached Islam and not Christianity.
This so-called documentary depicting Biblical Canaanites as Arabs, broadcast many times on PA TV, is one example of this PA historical revision.
"The Arab Canaanites established ports on the coast of Canaan, known today as Palestine. Palestine was attacked by invaders, but its Arab Canaanite features withstood attempts to change them. Jaffa was one of the cities whose Canaanite origins the invaders failed to erase." [PA TV, repeatedly, 2005-2007.]
The documentary further invents history by indicating visually that the victims of the Roman invasion were Arabs, not the Jewish kingdom of Judea.
PA TV portrays Israel as foreign colonial occupier, claims ancient Jewish history is Palestinian
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, Aug. 30, 2014
The PA TV video shows a woman who apparently represents "ancient Palestinians" (or possibly Muslims) going through the history of the land - replacing the Jewish people's actual history. The woman is introduced in a peaceful scene feeding birds in a period predating the Roman conquest of Judea and destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Suddenly the scene is disturbed, the birds scatter and the woman runs away from various foreign invaders: first an ancient Roman soldier, then a Crusader, then a British soldier, and finally a Jew (wearing a skullcap), who throws a lit cigarette at her.
In the final scene, the woman stops fleeing when a man on a horse - the "new" Muslim conqueror Saladin who defeated the Crusaders - extends his hand and helps her up the mountain. He represents the coming savior who will "liberate Palestine" from Jewish-Israeli rule. In the end, the woman stands on the top of the mountain, fleeing no one anymore, symbolizing that Israel is gone like the other foreign rulers.
Click to view video
Note: The video originally aired March 2, 2012. It was rebroadcast on both PA TV and PA TV Live at least 18 times in 2012, 54 times in 2013 and 28 times in 2014, most recently on June 13, 2014.
click link to watch the video: http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=496&fld_id=496&doc_id=6555
PA daily: Synagogue in northern Israel dates to Roman period; Gazans are descendants of biblical Samson
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 24, 2014
“A spectacular mosaic discovered in a synagogue in the Galilee during excavations, which were renewed this summer for the third season, shows Samson the Giant not as he is usually described in folktales, [but] as a regular man – not a giant.
In July 2012, archaeological sources announced the discovery of a synagogue dating from the end of the Roman period, between the fourth and fifth centuries CE, during archaeological digs at the Huqoq site in the western Galilee…
The discovery of Jewish synagogues from that period, or the early Islamic period, is not rare in Palestine…
The legend of Samson and Delilah, which took place on the land of Palestine and Gaza, has greatly influenced modern art around the world, [including] cinema, music, visual arts, novels and poems. These days, Gaza is continuing to produce legends about resolve in the face of ongoing aggression, by those who see themselves as the descendants of Samson – who, according to the legend, found no alternative but to destroy the house of worship with its inhabitants, in what is considered to be the first suicide operation in human writing. The legendary Samson may have died with his enemies, [but] Gaza has lived, and still lives, to write its stories, which surpass [all] legends.”
Abbas advisor: "The Palestinians have been on this land for 5,000 years"
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, June 20, 2014
Official PA TV broadcast the Friday sermon from the Al-Tashrifat Mosque in the presidential compound in Ramallah. The sermon was delivered by Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the Supreme Shari’ah Judge and Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs
Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the Supreme Shari’ah Judge and Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs: “The Palestinians have been on this land for 5,000 years. They didn't leave it. Nations came and nations went, empires came and empires went, but the Palestinians are permanent here like the olive tree, rooted here like the mountains, the mountains we see in Palestine. We were here with them and will not leave them until Allah's [Day of] Judgment (i.e., Resurrection Day).”
PA Chairman Abbas is seen praying in the audience
PA minister: "We have been on this land for 5,000 years"
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, May 16, 2014
Official PA TV broadcast the Friday sermon from the Khaled Bin Al-Walid Mosque in Ein Munjid. The sermon was delivered by PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash.
PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash: "We have been on this land for 5,000 years, perhaps the Palestinian nation itself. Of course, over the course of all these years and long centuries, for over 5,000 years, Many empires and nations came to this land, to Jerusalem, one after the other, They came and went, lived here for a certain period of time, and then left. But the essential substance that remained -- like the rocks of this land, like the grains of sand of this land, like the water of this land, like the air of this land, like the olive tree of this land -- the essential substance that stayed is the Palestinian people. There was no period in history without the presence of the Palestinian people on this land. We are the salt of this earth, we are its essence, we are its air and water and we will never leave it. Many transients left and will leave... This land is ours. The Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for establishment of State of Israel), believe me, the Nakba will pass, just as the others who passed. The foreigners, the imperialism of the Crusaders, lived here for more than 92 years, and then scattered and left. The Tatars came and then left. Others came and left and the land remained with its people, its sons. The Palestinians remained in Palestine, and they will stay until Allah inherits the earth."
Palestinians are Canaanites and pre-date Jewish presence in Israel
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, May 13, 2014
Official PA TV broadcast the documentary Return to Al- Abbasiyya, about the village of Al-Abbasiyya, which was destroyed in 1948; a neighborhood of the Israeli town of Yehud was constructed on its ruins.
The film’s narrator speaks with an elderly Yemenite Jew from Yehud.
Film narrator: “These Mamluk graves, from the Mamluk period – when they came to Palestine, they came to the Canaanites. We are here, the Canaanite Arabs, we’ve been on the land of Palestine for thousands of years. You’re the sons of Isaac. Who are we the sons of?”
Yemenite Jew: “Ishmael.”
Film narrator: “Ishmael. We are…”
Yemenite Jew: “Brothers.”
Film narrator: “But you weren’t here in the land. You came here, then left again, isn’t that so? You passed through, and didn’t settle here. The people of the land are the Canaanites, right?”
Yemenite Jew: “Right, before…”
Film narrator: “The Arab tribes lived here. Where did you live, in Yemen?”
Yemenite Jew: “Yes.”
Film narrator [ironically]: “You’re great.”
Yemenite Jew: “What did they tell us in Yemen? ‘Go to your country, to Palestine.’”
Abbas rep: Palestinian presence in Jerusalem is 5000 years old, Israel threatens the city's Islamic-Christian identity
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 13, 2014
“The talks at the International Conference for the Support of Jerusalem, organized by the UN, the Organization for Islamic Cooperation and the Turkish Foreign Ministry, began in the Turkish capital, Ankara, yesterday [May 12, 2014], with the participation of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ representative, [PA] Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash…
In the speech [given in the name] of the President [Abbas], Al-Habbash asserted that Palestinian presence in Jerusalem dates back over 5,000 years, and that the Palestinians are the only permanent element in Jerusalem, while the others came and went. Al-Habbash described the grave dangers threatening Jerusalem under the Israeli occupation – despite the fact that nobody in the world recognizes Israel’s sovereignty over it. He called on all powers, parties and governments to cooperate in defending Jerusalem and protecting its Islamic-Christian identity.”
From WAFA, official PA news agency
Fatah official: “[The people of the] Arab nation are the original inhabitants of the land”
Source: Awdah TV YouTube channel, May 12, 2014
The independent Palestinian TV channel Awdah hosted Fatah Central Committee member and Commissioner for Overseas Fatah Branch Affairs Dr. Jamal Muhaisen on its program The Political Situation:
Fatah Central Committee member and Commissioner for Overseas Fatah Branch Affairs Dr. Jamal Muhaisen: “I say that a democratic [state] is incompatible with a Jewish [state] or a nation [state].The current Israeli mindset, in my opinion, takes us back to the days of Hitler, when he distinguished between the German nation and the other nations of the world. Today, the Israeli side is also trying to distinguish between the Jews as a nation – I’m not talking about the Jews as a religion – and the Arab nation, who are the original inhabitants of the land.”
President of Palestinian college: “Palestinian church was active before any other church in the world”
Source: Al-Ayyam, Mar. 13, 2014
“On the third day of the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference organized by the Bethlehem Bible College with the participation of an elect group of theologians and Evangelical Christian leaders from around the world, the lecturers demonstrated the reality of life in the Palestinian territories…
Dr. Mitri Raheb, President of the Diyar Consortium and President of the Dar Al-Kalima College, gave a lecture on the Palestinian Church, which was active before any other church in the world…
Raheb added that although Palestine had experienced and been subjected to several occupations between the present occupation and the ancient one, the original Palestinians, Christians and Muslims, had lived side by side…
In addition, he noted that the racist Zionist aspirations began in 1831, with a racist initiative of the Zionist Christians, who wrote lies and racist speeches in which they claimed that Palestine was unpopulated – [claims] which later served as a basis for the Zionist lie, which planned to dominate not just Palestine, but several [other] countries as well, such as Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt.”
PA daily op-ed: "We were born here thousands of years before them [Jews]”
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 26, 2014
Op-ed by Baha Rahal:
“My uncle Salah spoke to me this morning, and said, ‘recognizing the Jewishness of the state is not all I fear; what I fear even more is what will [come] after this declaration, if it ever happens – because they won’t be satisfied with this, and will demand more of us; for example, that we testify in their favor that they are the sons of Sarah and that we are the sons of Hagar, and that our mother was her mistress’ maid, and that we agree to their narrative and recognize it for them.
But then, they will say to us, ‘you are the maid’s sons, and the maid cannot bequeath [property] nor can [her property] be inherited…’ And the truth is clear and there is no need for too much analysis. Deep down, they understand that we are the true owners of the land, and that we were born here thousands of years before them; that they have no right to be here and that, in the eyes of the world and history, they are nothing but an ephemeral occupying force – no more, no less. Therefore, they want to extract a legitimization of their presence from us, which will protect them and grant them a right they don’t have, from those with the original right.”
Official PA Daily claims Palestinians lived on the land 2,300 years ago
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 20, 2014
Headline: “2,300-year-old Palestinian village discovered”
“The Israel Antiquities Authority has announced the discovery of a 2,300-year- old Palestinian village. The village was discovered during salvage excavations carried out by the Israeli authority in preparation for the laying of a natural gas pipeline from the coastal plain to Jerusalem.
It is not known why the site was abandoned, but the reasons might have been financial. As archeologist Yuval Baruch explains: ‘It is possible that the abandonment of villages and farms at the end of the Hasmonean [period] or the beginning of the reign of Herod is related to Herod’s gigantic building projects, especially in Jerusalem. We believe that a large, collective migration took place from the villages to the capital [of people who went] to work in these projects.’”
PA chief negotiator: Palestinians lived in Jericho 3,000 years before Jews arrived
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 2, 2014
“Palestinian [chief negotiator] Dr. Saeb Erekat told Israeli [MP and negotiator] Tzipi Livni: ‘My Canaanite family lived in Jericho 3,000 years before the people of Israel came to the city, led by Joshua Bin Nun.’…
[PA] chief negotiator and Palestinian fighter Erekat, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, said this to Livni at the Security Conference in Munich, Germany.
At the same time, Mahmoud Al-Aloul, a member of the Central Committee of that same liberation movement conducting the peaceful popular resistance in Palestine (i.e., Fatah), explained what Jesus, the messenger of love and peace, meant when he said ‘salt of the earth’: [standing] beside the holy stones of the homes in the village of Ein Hijleh in the Jordan Valley, [Al-Aloul] said: ‘The Jordan Valley is Palestinian and the village of Ein Hijleh is [on] the land of the Deir Hijleh church, and was originally a Palestinian Canaanite village on the route connecting the Dead Sea to Beit Shean.”
Abbas rep claims Palestinians descended from Canaanites who lived 10,000 years ago
Source: Official PA TV Live, Jan. 20, 2014
Official PA TV Live broadcast the first convention of the Palestinian Bar Association Union that discussed “Palestine and International Law.” Fatah Central Committee Member and PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat represented PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The symbol of the European Union appeared on the banner behind the stage, and an EU representative addressed the gathering.
Fatah Central Committee member Erekat: “Concerning the Israeli side repeatedly saying that Israel is a ‘Jewish state’ – some say they intend to sabotage the refugees’ right to return, by this term. Some say they want to harm the status of Palestinian residents in the ’48 territories (i.e. Israel). You are in the city of Jericho. Our story began in this city 10,000 years ago when the Natufians founded it. The Canaanites were [here] 5,500 years before Joshua burned it down. Whoever asks me to accept Israel as a Jewish state, is asking me to alter my history, to change my religion, to revise my culture. That is not going to happen. He wants us to say it is a Jewish state, meaning that the land belonged to the Jews and that we are strangers to it.”
Note: The Natufian culture was a sedentary, hunter-gatherer, Mesolithic culture that lived in the Levant region of the Near East between about 13,000-9,800 BCE.
PLO official states that the ancient Canaanites were Palestinians
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 27, 2013
“During the reopening ceremony of the Jericho Culture and Art Center… [PLO Executive Committee member and PA chief negotiator] Dr. Saeb Erekat said: ‘I will demand of Dr. Rami Hamdallah, as Prime Minister, that he issue a decision to name Jericho ‘Mother of Cities,’ because it is the cradle of civilizations and its roots go back ten thousand years, and Jesus lived there, the first Palestinian after the Canaanite Palestinians.’ […]
Regarding the negotiation process, Erekat said: ‘There have been no direct negotiations with the Israeli side since the fifth of last month [November 2013]; rather there are American-Palestinian and American-Israeli talks.’
Erekat added: ‘In order to narrow the gaps, President Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter to American President Barack Obama, which contained all that is in our power and not in our power. We will not accept the Jewishness of Israel, which will harm the refugee cause and harm the Palestinians of the Interior (i.e., Israel), and most dangerously – will alter history and religion as though we were never on this land.’ […]
According to Erekat, the letter included ‘non-acceptance of any interim agreement or extension of the negotiation period.’”
PA official claims Palestinians descended from Canaanites who lived on land 10,000 years ago
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, Dec. 26, 2013
PA TV program Speak Up hosted Fatah Central Committee member and PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat.
Fatah Central Committee member Saeb Erekat: “We are members of this land and members of this people. The Natufians were in Jericho 10,000 years ago. And so were the Canaanites, thousands of years. When Israel says to us: You must recognize us as a Jewish state; they are asking us to erase my history. Erase my culture. Erase my narrative. That will never happen.”
Note: The Natufian culture was a sedentary, hunter-gatherer, Mesolithic culture that lived in the Levant region of the Near East between about 13,000-9,800 BC.
Official PA daily: Jews have "nothing to do with... historic Palestine"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 25, 2013
Op-ed by Adel Abd Al-Rahman, regular columnist for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida
“How, and on what grounds, is the Jew, who has nothing to do with the Palestinian Arab land (historic Palestine) [parenthesis in source], entitled to return to it, while the Palestinian son of the Palestinian is not entitled [to return]?”
Jesus was a Palestinian and Canaanites were the root of "Palestinian identity"
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 24, 2013
Regular columnist Adel Abd Al-Rahman for the official PA daily:
“Today humanity is celebrating the birth of Jesus by conducting mass in churches all over the world in honor of the birth of the messenger of love and peace who was persecuted by the Jews from the first day he raised the banner of the New Testament. When it seemed to them (i.e., the Jews) that they had caught him, they crucified him (see explanation below), and to this very day they persecute him through incessant attacks against the Arab Palestinian people…
Jesus, son of the Palestinian people…
Jesus belongs to all human beings, and he will continue to belong to all Christians from all nations and peoples no matter what community or school of thought they are from. This [is true even though] his Palestinian national identity is undeniable, for he was a son of this land and he laid the foundation for the Canaanite identity (there were Canaanites thousands of years BCE – Ed.) that is the root of Palestinian identity.”
Note: According to classical Islam, Jesus was not actually crucified. The people thought they had crucified him, but in fact Allah had lifted Jesus to heaven, and whoever/whatever the Jews crucified (according to some Islamic sources, it was not a human) was not actually Jesus.
Official PA daily denies ancient Jewish connection to Israel while falsely claiming ancient Palestinian heritage
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 17, 2013
Op-ed by Dr. As’ad Abd Al-Rahman, regular columnist for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida
“The debate surrounding the identity of the ‘State of Israel’ and the identity of its citizens since its establishment in 1948 is still ongoing, and ‘Israel’ may well be the only [country] in the world that refuses to grant its name as a national identity to its citizens.
The real reasons for the disagreement in Israel about a citizenship that would define the national identity of the state and its citizens, from among the national identities offered – Israeli, Jewish and Hebrew – arise from huge historical, legal and religious obstacles, which prevent Israeli identity from being used as the national identity of the Zionist state and its citizens…
Genetic analysis, scientifically revealed that the European Ashkenazi Jews, who adopted the Jewish religion in the 7th century CE, are from the Aryan race, and have no connection to Semites...
The Oriental Talmud of the Oriental Jews who converted the Ashkenazim from their pagan religion to Judaism, is the ‘Palestinian Talmud, [or] Jerusalem Talmud.’
This Talmud was written thousands of years ago, ‘in the ancient Palestinian Jewish Aramaic language,’ meaning the language of the Canaanite Palestinians. It’s enough for us to know that the name of the Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, was, from its founding in 1932 until the establishment of the Zionist state in 1948, The Palestine Post.’”
see link for full article: http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=495&doc_id=686
Palestinian Arabs have been in “Palestine” for “thousands of years”
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 26, 2013
Columnist for official PA daily Adel Abd Al-Rahman:
Headline: “Bethlehem spews out the Israeli lies”
“One does not wish to get into a historical argument about historical places and sites in Palestine [which is] from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, in which every plot of land holds the Palestinian-Arab past, [ever] since the first Canaanite stepped on Palestinian soil thousands of years ago.”
Palestinians created culture in the land 6,500 years ago
Source: Official Palestinian Authority TV, Nov. 16, 2013
PA TV program Palestine This Morning interviewed Activities Coordinator at the An-Najah National University’s Faculty of Humanities, Dr. Jaber Khdeir about the Museum of Folklore and Ancient Tools that was built under the university’s auspices.
Dr. Jaber Khdeir: “The Israeli occupation is trying to steal this [Palestinian] heritage. Trying to steal the Palestinian land and the [identity of the] Palestinian man. And we tell everyone that the land of Palestine [is] the land where, first of all, human culture was born. In this way we tell the Israeli occupier: ‘You have no legacy in this land, you have no existence in this land. We, the Palestinians, built this land, built these cities. The Palestinian human being is a creator of industry, a creator of agriculture, a creator of cities, and creator of culture. The agriculture was created in Palestine. The first ten cities built in the world are in Palestine.’ That is why we say that it is the Palestinian human being who created this culture 6,500 years ago. These Jews have no existence on this Palestinian land. They were passers-by and they will continue to be passers-by.”
PA daily op-ed by Fatah official: “Canaanite-Palestinians” lived in Jerusalem for 5,000 years
Source: Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 21, 2013
Opinion piece by Bakr Abu Bakr, member of Fatah Revolutionary Council (since 2009) and regular columnist for official PA daily:
“There are many dimensions to the question of Jerusalem, just as there are many dimensions to the Palestinian issue…
Firstly: The historical time dimension of the city of Jerusalem is broad, since for 5,000 years Canaanite-Palestinians have been in this land that was ignored by invaders throughout history… Fifthly: …We still see only crumbs from the money to support Jerusalem’s resolve in the Arab, Islamic and world-wide dimension, while the Palestinians and Jerusalemites alone challenge, resist, and substantiate - by standing firm on their land in the face of the most horrendous kinds of persecution, - [the claim] that our “Al-Quds” (Arab name for Jerusalem) is not “Jerusalem,” and the Jerusalem of the Bible was never here, as has been proven by modern research and excavations.”
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=495&all=1
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