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Palestinian activist: Palestinians descend from ancient Canaanites, if Jews were in Samaria 3000 years ago it was "for a short period" as "guests"

Headline: “Journalists took a tour of the historic village of Sebastia”
     “Activists of the village of Sebastia (i.e., where an ancient Jewish capital stood, see note below) in the Nablus district, during a meeting of journalists held yesterday morning [Sept. 4, 2016], declared that the village is the third [place] after Jerusalem and Hebron that is [most] under the threat of Israeli Judaization …
The hashtag campaign #Sebastia_sun_of_the_cultures, which was officially launched yesterday by young activists, declared that the village of Sebastia is under threat of Judaization…
Head of the Sebastia Municipality Mu’tasim Aliwi said: ‘The Zionist occupation illegally insists that it has ownership of the place… Despite the occupation’s claim that it has roots in this village for the last 3,000 years, the Canaanites were here before that and established their culture here 4,000 years ago…’
Spokesman of the #Sebastia_sun_of_the_cultures campaign Zaid Al-Zuhri emphasized that, ‘Every bit of Sebastia tells of an ancient culture that has passed from here. They say it is Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. Indeed, this is the Israeli version on which they base their historic right to Palestine, and we say to them: ‘Perhaps we received you here as guests 3,000 years ago for a short period during the Roman period, but we have been here for more than 4,000 years. Sebastia is the direct continuation of Canaanite Shakim, in other words the city of Nablus.”

The city Shomron (Samaria in Greek), near Nablus, was the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. It was destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BCE and rebuilt by the Judean King Herod in 27 BCE, who renamed it “Sebastia.” It was excavated several times throughout the 20th century. The PA denies the existence of the ancient nation of Israel, and therefore whenever additional archaeological evidence confirms Israel’s historical record the Palestinian Authority announces that Israeli archaeologists are falsifying evidence. The archeological site of Sebastia is located in Area C, i.e., under full Israeli security and administration.

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