Philly activist confesses to faking Black and Palestinian heritage – NBC New York
A white Philadelphia instructor and activist has admitted to mendacity about her identification for years, falsely claiming Palestinian and Black heritage whereas working with Palestinian and racial justice organizations.
Hannah Gann posted an announcement to her Instagram web page final week, admitting she has no Palestinian or Tunisian heritage and describing herself as a “white girl of serious privilege and wealth.”
In a follow-up video, Gann stated she was starting to attempt to take accountability and requested that nobody choose the teams she labored with primarily based on her lies. She stated she deceived “everybody” in her life.
“There may be not a single individual on this planet, no buddy, no fellow organizer, nobody in my household, no skilled connection, no secret op or handler who knew what I used to be doing,” she stated. “I hid my household’s background from everybody in Philly, and in addition hid from the individuals in my family what I used to be doing.”
Commenters on Gann’s authentic submit dubbed her the “Palestinian Rachel Dolezal” and “Temu Rachel Dolezal,” a reference to the previous NAACP chapter president who pretended to be Black. Dolezal, who legally modified her identify to Nkechi Diallo in 2016, was outed by her mother and father as being“Caucasian by delivery.”
“I nonetheless consider in each trigger I ever supported, within the ongoing struggle for justice, and within the righteousness of liberation for all oppressed peoples,” Gann stated within the video. “I nonetheless consider that theirs is the true story, and mine is only a sick, deluded distraction.”
Gann declined to remark additional to NBC Information on Wednesday,referring again to her video as her solely public assertion.
One other Philadelphia instructor, Keziah Ridgeway posted her personal video Saturday, saying Gann deceived her over their practically decade-long friendship. Ridgeway stated that when the 2 of them met round 2018, she had no consciousness of Gann’s precise background — solely that Gann was “talking up for the Black group, for the Palestinian group.”
It was not till 2023, Ridgeway stated, that Gann — after a visit she described as being to “Israel/Palestine” — informed her she had Palestinian Jewish ancestry and Muslim family members.
On Labor Day, Ridgeway stated she acquired a message from a non-Palestinian member of the Philly Palestine Coalitiion that Gann had been pretending to be Palestinian, that the declare was false, and that the group deliberate to launch an announcement after assembly that Sunday.
Gann denied the allegations when Ridgeway confronted her, based on Ridgeway, earlier than providing extra particulars — claiming her father’s father died when her father was 13 and that she’d been raised by a Palestinian Jewish girl. Ridgeway stated Gann’s grandfather truly died when her father was 23.
Ridgeway, who wasn’t a member of the coalition and couldn’t attend its assembly, later reviewed the group’s report on Gann. She stated she confronted Gann once more final week, asking her to name her father so Ridgeway might query him instantly.
“She hung up on her father and snapped at me once I tried to ask one other query,” Ridgeway stated. “And in that second, I noticed that her father didn’t know, her household didn’t know that she was right here on this metropolis, mendacity about being a black girl to her college students, about being Palestinian, and no person in her household knew the reality.”
Gann addressed Ridgeway’s video in her personal, saying “Every thing she stated is true, and I absolutely corroborate.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that it had obtained a duplicate of the coalition’s report on Gann, which discovered that the grandfather she claimed was Palestinian-born was truly born in Baltimore. The report additionally stated she had relations residing in Israel.
The Philly Palestine Coalition didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark to NBC Information on Wednesday.
The Inquirer recognized Gann as a instructor on the Workshop College, a Philadelphia College District highschool. A district spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a cellphone name from NBC Information however informed the Inquirer that the district was conscious of “social media posts regarding a district worker,” and stated it was providing assist to affected college students and employees.
Two organizations, Philly Educators for Palestine and Racial Justice Organizing Committee, issued a joint assertion on Friday saying they had been “shocked, saddened and angered by this betrayal.”
“Members met with Hannah and questioned her on her background on Thursday and after over an hour of dialogue, Hannah lastly admitted she lied,” the assertion stated.
The teams stated they requested Gann to publicly acknowledge that she “is a white girl of Jewish heritage and an Israeli settler household,” and stated they might now not work together with her and that she was not welcome of their areas. The assertion acknowledged the hurt prompted and expressed hope that individuals who had labored with Gann in good religion wouldn’t be discredited consequently.
“We won’t enable her actions to distract us from our goal or fracture the group we’ve labored arduous to construct,” the organizations stated.
