Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs invents Palestinian history: Palestinians have existed in this land “from before Abraham came to it, more than 5,000 years ago”

Official PA TV, broadcast of Friday sermon by PA Supreme Shari’ah Judge and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash, with Abbas in attendance

Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, Mahmoud Al-Habbash: ”They (i.e., the Israelis) have denied our existence and our lives. They have denied that we are a people that has existed on this land from before Abraham came to it, more than 5,000 years ago. We have been on this land in a continuous existence.”

Al-Habbash claims that there was an ancient Palestinian people that predated Abraham. The Bible says Abraham dwelt “many days in the land of the Philistines.” (Genesis 21: 34). The Bible’s “Philistines” have no connection to the modern Arab Palestinian people. The Philistines were a people of Greek origin who settled in the land of Canaan at the beginning of the Iron Age (1150 - 586 BCE) and lived beside the Israelite tribes. The Philistines were exiled by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 604 BCE and ceased to exist as a nation soon afterward.
The land of “Judea” was renamed “Palestine” by Rome in 136 CE, as a punishment to the Jews for participating in the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome, known as “The Bar Kochba Rebellion.” Arabs first arrived in the land of Israel/Judea with the Muslim invasion of 637 CE. Arabs of “Palestine” first identified themselves as “Palestinians” in the 20th century.