Many of us remember Rachel Dolezal, the “black” activist from Spokane, Washington, who made national headlines in 2015 when her parents publicly announced she was white.
Well, it turns out there’s a white, Jewish teacher from Philadelphia who’s just given Dolezal a run for her money. For years, anti-Israel activist Hannah Gann, 34, presented herself as part Arab and part black. She was so immersed in the pro-Palestinian cause that “a mobile billboard once parked outside her school calling her ‘Philadelphia’s Leading Antisemite,’” according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
But after several fellow left-wing activists from the group Philly Educators for Palestine confronted her about her lies, Gann was forced to admit she was neither Arab nor black.
The Inquirer reported:
“Members met with Hannah and questioned her about her background on Thursday and after an hour of discussion, Hannah finally admitted she lied,” the Racial Justice Organizing Committee and Philly Educators for Palestine said in a statement. Gann had been a visible member of both groups. “We asked her to publicly acknowledge that she is a white woman of Jewish heritage and an Israeli settler family.”
In a video posted to Instagram, Gann confessed she had lied about her identity for years: “I have no Palestinian or Tunisian heritage. I am a white woman of significant privilege and wealth.”
Her apology began earnestly enough. Gann accepted full responsibility for her deception, said she felt “shame and sorrow and regret,” and claimed she “genuinely wanted to commit to the work I was doing in spite of those lies.”
I hid the truth or outright lied about my background to everyone in my life. There is not a single person on this planet, no friend, no fellow organizer, no one in my family, no professional connection, no secret op or handler who knew what I was doing. I hid my family’s background from everyone in Philly and also hid from the people in my own family what I was doing.
I allowed half-truths and obfuscations to grow into outright lies.
By the end of the video, however, she’d let her extremist flag fly. One would be forgiven for thinking they’d been transported to a pro-Palestinian rally. Her mea culpa had turned into a vile attack on Israel, accusing it of committing genocide against Palestinians.
🔥🚨DEVELOPING: This anti-Israeli activist is the new Palestinian Rachel Dolzal after getting exposed for growing up in a $1.8 million house in one of the wealthiest towns in America before changing her race to Black Palestinian for years until she was outed as both White and… pic.twitter.com/X2DQarfWMQ
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) September 23, 2026
One of her former classmates at the University of Pennsylvania told the Inquirer that Gann was “known in college as a self-proclaimed white Jewish woman with family in the occupied West Bank.”
The classmate said she had “watched her sudden transformation after she returned to Philly from the Peace Corps [in Rwanda]. She was clearly making herself look darker using makeup and fake tan, and speaking using [African American Vernacular English.]”
While her fellow activists don’t doubt the authenticity of her beliefs, they feel betrayed by the lies she told about her identity.
The New York Post reported that in a December 2025 video, Gann wore a keffiyeh and spoke with “a blaccent.”
The Inquirer cited a document from the Philly Palestine Coalition (PPC), which said Gann “frequently referenced family in Palestine, including a grandfather who was revealed to have been born in Baltimore.”
The document read (in part):
As a teacher of predominately black youth, [Gann] has gained the trust of young people on the basis of a sense of shared oppression. She has served as a mentor to at least one young white person, who was manipulated by Hannah on the basis of a fake identity.
Her access to vulnerable young people, especially black youth, is deeply concerning, given her pattern of lying and manipulation.
Additionally, the PPC claimed “she successfully solicited money by claiming she was broke because of sending cash to her relatives in Palestine.”
Shocker. Same as cosplayer ⬇️ @hasanthehun pic.twitter.com/tnVFSxwLMr
— RetiredGuy999 (@RGuy999) September 23, 2026
Gann and Dolezal went to extraordinary lengths to lie about their identities, but they are hardly the only left-wing activists to misrepresent their backgrounds for perceived political gain.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is perhaps the poster child of deception. Her claim of Native American ancestry came back to bite her in humiliating fashion and earned her the nickname “Pocahontas” from President Donald Trump.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) repeatedly suggested he had served in Vietnam, though his Marine Corps Reserve service never took him there.
Former President Joe Biden claimed during his 1987 presidential campaign that he finished in the top half of his law school class. He later acknowledged the claim was untrue.
Gann’s claims of Arab and black heritage helped her win the trust of fellow activists. She obviously believes deeply in the pro-Palestinian cause and likely could have earned their confidence on the strength of her convictions alone. But once they discovered she had lied about the most fundamental parts of her identity, her credibility collapsed. Rebuilding that trust may be impossible.
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