Philadelphia Teacher Admits Faking Palestinian, Black Identity

Philadelphia public school teacher Hannah Gann admitted this week to lying for years about being Palestinian, Tunisian, and Black. In a video posted Monday, she identified herself as "a white woman with significant privilege and wealth" with no such heritage.

Two activist groups, Philly Educators for Palestine and the Racial Justice Organizing Committee, said they confronted Gann last Thursday. After an hour of discussion, she acknowledged the deception and the groups permanently severed ties.

“I hid the truth or outright lied about my background to everyone in my life.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Gann is white and Jewish, with family ties to Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Documents cited by the paper show she claimed in college to be a "Jewish woman with family in the occupied West Bank."

Colleagues also accused Gann of darkening her skin with makeup and fake tanner and adopting a Black American accent after serving in the Peace Corps in Rwanda. She allegedly told coworkers her grandfather was born in Palestine; records indicate he was born in Baltimore.

Online commenters have dubbed the case the "Palestinian Rachel Dolezal," referencing the former NAACP leader exposed in 2015 for posing as Black. Gann taught at the Workshop School, a project-based high school in West Philadelphia.