Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (AP/Michael Sohn) (AP/Michael Sohn)
Mahmoud Abbas

Abbas is again promoting the great lie that the so-called Palestinians are the indigenous people of the Land of Israel, this time claiming they are the descendants of the ancient Canaanites.

Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas continued to propagate the Palestinian lie negating Jewish history by claiming that the Palestinians are the indigenous people of Israel and the descendants of the Canaanites.

Abbas was on a three-day trip to Germany to add diplomatic pressure on Israel. Addressing the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, he spoke about his alleged pursuit of peace.

Abbas also declared that “the nation of Palestine, throughout its long history, has been a beacon of generosity, and our people are an extension of the 3,500-year-old Canaanite civilization, with urban communities thousands of years old.”

Abbas was further circulating the lie that the Palestinians constitute a nation that existed for thousands of years.

The irony is that the so-called Palestinians have yet to decide just how old they are. Abbas put their age at 3,500 years. However,  other Palestinian leaders provide broadly differing opinions on this crucial issue; some go back as far as 15,000 years.

More important, besides trying to create their own national identity and history, the Palestinians are attempting to negate the age-old Jewish ties to Israel and particularly Jerusalem, a practice previously adopted by anti-Israel elements that has ultimately failed.

What is the Reality?

To this end, they disregard history, archaeology and, indeed, reality. A quick read of any credible history book, a short visit to any serious museum or a swift stopover at any archaeological site in Israel would quickly dispel the great national Palestinian lie.

Archaeologists have yet to uncover any findings dating from the “Palestinian” era, although there is an abundance of archaeological findings corroborating Jewish history, unearthed almost on a weekly basis.

The Palestinians have also attempted to distort Christian history by claiming that Jesus was a Palestinian, when in fact he was a Jewish rabbi.

The Palestinians are a group of families or tribes with no common historic or ethnic background, but they have perpetuated a myth that has taken on a life of its own and provided them with world recognition and legitimacy in their war against Israel.

But not everyone is buying their story.

“It is completely clear the Temple that the Romans destroyed in Jerusalem was a Jewish temple,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a radio interview, referring to a recent Palestinian claim that the Jewish people have no historic ties to Jerusalem.

By: Max Gelber, United with Israel