Philadelphia teacher admits to lying about being Palestinian and Black: ‘I hid the truth’

Local advocacy groups say they have cut ties with Hannah Gann, who ‘fully lied about her identity and background’

A Philadelphia teacher is facing criticism from her fellow colleagues and activists after it was revealed that she fabricated being both Palestinian and Black.

The Racial Justice Organizing Committee (RJOC) and Philly Educators for Palestine (PEFP) announced over the weekend that it was cutting ties with “one of their long-time members”, Hannah Gann, who “completely lied about her identity and background, claiming at various times to be Palestinian, Tunisian and Black”.

Members of both organizations met with Gann and questioned her about her background. After over an hour of discussion, Gann “finally admitted she lied”, the joint statement said, adding: “We asked her to publicly acknowledge that she is a white woman of Jewish heritage and an Israeli settler family.

“We will no longer work with Hannah, and she will no longer be welcome in any of our organizing spaces … We recognize the profound harm this has caused; Palestinians whose identity and struggle were appropriated, the Black community, young people, organizers, and organizations whose trust and resources were exploited,” PEFP and RJOC continued.

Gann released a separate statement on Instagram a few days later, saying in a video: “One of the most sickening aspects of facing what I’ve done is seeing the way that the blowback is falling on people, groups, communities and causes I genuinely care about. I recognize it’s far too late for me to mitigate all the damage I’ve done, but I’m determined to try to do what I can.

“I hid the truth or outright lied about my background to everyone in my life. There is not a single person on this planet … who knew what I was doing … The fact that I lied about who I was does not mean anyone else who speaks up for Palestine is lying and does not erase the urgency of listening to voices on the ground, voices who are courageously telling us about an ongoing genocide, even as the state of Israel deliberately targets journalists and others who are speaking the truth for extermination,” she continued.

The Guardian has reached out to Gann for additional comment.

Videos and local news articles online showed Gann’s involvement over the years in local pro-Palestinian activism, with one Facebook video posted by RJOC in November 2025 featuring Gann addressing attendees at a teach-in.

“Philly Educators for Palestine is bigger and stronger than ever before. Curious about who we are and what our purpose is? Listen to these powerful words from one of our founders, Hannah Gann, as she welcomed attendees to our most recent teach-in,” the video caption said.

Gann, who teaches at Philadelphia’s Workshop School, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, was also the subject of a moving billboard outside her school in 2024. The mobile display featured a photo of her wearing a keffiyeh alongside the words: “Hannah Gann: 10th Grade Teacher & Philadelphia’s Leading Antisemite,” the grassroots outlet Rethinking Schools reported.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, which reviewed a document compiled by the Philly Palestine Coalition, noted that Gann often made references to alleged Palestinian relatives “including a Palestinian-born grandfather whom the PPC found was actually born in Baltimore, citing historical draft records and her great-grandfather’s US naturalization papers”.

Meanwhile, a former University of Pennsylvania classmate told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Gann was known in college “as a self-proclaimed white Jewish woman with family in the occupied West Bank. I 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.]”

In a statement to the Guardian, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia school district said: “The school district of Philadelphia is aware of social media posts concerning a district employee and her involvement with an outside advocacy organization. The posts reference the employee’s involvement in an external group. The district is making support available to The Workshop School staff and students, as needed.”