The Israeli flag at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Photo: Hynek Moravec via Wikimedia Commons.

One of the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s biggest problems is its identity complex. It knows that the Jewish people have been in the Land of Israel for thousands of years, while there is no Palestinian Arab history prior to the last few decades and therefore no ancient Palestinian identity.

The PA often lies that Palestinians are the descendants of Canaanites, and denies the authenticity of thousands of archeological finds attesting to the kingdoms of Israel and Judea.

Now, the PA has created a new magic trick: Turn everyone in the land since the Stone Age — pagans, Jews, and Christians — into Palestinians.

By saying that the kingdoms of Israel and Judea were Palestinian kingdoms, all the antiquities proving Jewish/Israeli history then magically instead prove Palestinian history.

All of this idiocy is being disseminated by the director-general of the PA Ministry of Culture and Antiquities, Dirgham Al-Fares:

The Palestinian people are a direct continuation of the original inhabitants from the Stone Age to the present.

The Palestinian people were pagan, who worshipped El, Baal, Ishtar, and Anat, and it is the people that developed the concept of God and adopted the Jewish religion, Christianity, and Islam.

Therefore, the Palestinian people own the land and history, and all the antiquities in it are the property of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people [of today] is the legitimate heir, and everything the occupation [i.e., Israel] says is untrue … Everyone knows that the Zionist claims are no longer historically acceptable. [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, Resolve and Confrontation, Nov. 27, 2024]

After turning the Biblical Jews into Palestinians, the PA turns today’s Israeli Jews into “foreigners who stole the name ‘Israel'”:

Syrian political commentator Husam Shuaib: “Those who remain today in Palestine as occupiers are Talmudist foreigners who stole the name ‘Israel,’ and with this name they succeeded in marketing a religion with which they are not in fact affiliated, but they convinced the West that they are affiliated with it.” [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, Capital of Capitals – Damascus, Nov. 10, 2024]

Once the magic trick is performed, the PA turns the narrative on its head and says that it is the Jews who “falsify the narrative and falsify the antiquities”:

PA Nablus District Governor Ghassan Daghlas: “We say to the world that we have antiquities. We have a history, and we have an existence [from] before the occupation [i.e., Israel] arrived. The occupation wants to falsify the narrative and falsify the antiquities, and we say to the world that the occupation is fake, while the roots of the Palestinian people are planted in its land.” [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, Nov. 20, 2024]

After fabricating the idea that the Jewish people have no history in the Land of Israel, and that all evidence proves the Palestinian narrative, the PA can then totally delegitimize the Jews. And, when it delegitimizes them, it can encourage violence against them in order to drive them out so that those with the “real roots” remain:

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “The Al-Aqsa Mosque is our mosque. They [the Jews] have no right to even one millimeter of it. It is an Islamic mosque, and if they are talking about an alleged Temple, let them look for it somewhere else, because there was never any Temple, presence, or sovereignty of theirs here at this pure Islamic place, the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and occupied Jerusalem.” [emphasis added]

[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Aug. 27, 2024]

Al-Azhar Cleric Sheikh Yasser Mustafa Younes: “I say to Israel, to this Zionist entity, and to those who stand behind it that you will not impose this reality on the Muslims… This Al-Aqsa Mosque and lofty Jerusalem are a right of Muslim waqf (i.e., an inalienable religious endowment) and a red line that is not up for negotiations, bargaining, or half-solutions. We have no partners there at all. It is Muslim and it is Muslim land, Arab land, Islamic land – the Al-Aqsa Mosque and all the 144 sq. meters around it [i.e., the entire Temple Mount, reaching the Western Wall] are all an Islamic waqf … The right will return to its owners sooner or later… History will repeat itself and you [Jews] will be removed from this land.” [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, April 23, 2024]

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