Palestinian academics deny archaeological evidence of Jews in Israel

The Palestinian Authority is continuing with its propaganda mission to deny Jewish links to the land of Israel by placing on television academics who are willing to refute clear archaeological evidence to the contrary.

Palestinian Media Watch has recorded three examples of Palestinian academics appearing on official PA TV in October and November to discuss the archaeological evidence linking Jews to the region. In all three cases, the academics outright denied that there was any evidence at all of Jewish life in Israel before 1948, painting the current Jewish population as occupiers and usurpers.

“The Jews claim that they were in Palestine 2,000 years ago,” Riyad al-Aileh, a Palestinian political science lecturer from Al-Azhar University stated on a program called The Supreme Authority on November 6.

He continued: “If we look at the history, we will see that they were not in Palestine in the past, but rather only as invaders less than 70 years ago. For these 70 years they have been invaders, like the Hyksos, the Byzantines, the Persians and [British] colonialism. The Canaanite Palestinian people have since succeeded in defeating those invaders and continue [to live] in this land.”

Similarly, Abir Zayyad, an archaeologist and member of Fatah’s Jerusalem branch, said on November 7 in a program called The Scent of History: “We have no archaeological evidence of the presence of the children of Israel in Palestine in this historical period 3,000 years ago, neither in Jerusalem, nor in all of Palestine.”

Their claims came a month after a Palestinian author asserted in an interview that Jewish history had been “falsified.”

Speaking to Palestine This Morning on October 6, Haidar Massad said: “I wrote a novel called The Palace that was published in 2019. This novel… is about the falsification of the historical geography in the Zionist and Talmudic (i.e., Jewish) narrative… The reader can establish… that in this land, Palestine, which has always been Arab – the children of Israel were never there.”

The Palestinian Authority regularly expounds revisionist history, aiming to usurp the Jewish nationality embedded in the land of Israel with a Palestinian narrative.

For example, on November 15, Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad al-Malki claimed during a UNESCO session that Palestinian culture was 10,000 years old.

“Palestine is the cradle of culture and religions, and part of our Palestinian people’s past, heritage and history is engraved on the walls of its capital Jerusalem – this heritage that Israel, the occupying power, is working to destroy and control, and [it is working] to falsify the history that is witness to our people’s rootedness in its land for more than 10,000 years, which refutes the Israeli occupation’s settlement colonialism narrative,” he said.

The academics’ appearances on television illustrates how successful this propaganda campaign has been in disseminating revisionist history among the Palestinian population at large.

Commenting on the appearances, Palestinian Media Watch said: “the PA habitually refutes the authenticity of the numerous archeological artifacts and non-Biblical sources that testify to the Jewish presence and nationhood thousands of years ago. [These examples show] that the PA’s political message passed on by Palestinian leaders for decades has been successfully adopted and is being repeated even by Palestinian academics.”