Two Philadelphia advocacy groups cut ties after identity admission
Two Philadelphia advocacy groups announced over the weekend that they were cutting ties with longtime member Hannah Gann after she admitted during an in-person meeting that she had lied about being Palestinian, Tunisian and Black. Gann released a separate video on Instagram a few days later confirming the admission.
The Racial Justice Organizing Committee (RJOC) and Philly Educators for Palestine (PEFP) said in a joint statement that members met with Gann and questioned her about her background. After more than an hour of discussion, Gann “finally admitted she lied,” the groups said. They added: “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,” the joint statement continued. “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 said.
Gann, who teaches 10th grade at Philadelphia’s Workshop School, had been a visible figure in the city’s pro-Palestinian organizing for years. A November 2025 Facebook video posted by RJOC featured her addressing attendees at a teach-in, with the caption identifying her as one of PEFP’s founders. In 2024, a mobile billboard outside her school displayed a photo of her wearing a keffiyeh alongside the words “Hannah Gann: 10th Grade Teacher & Philadelphia’s Leading Antisemite,” according to the grassroots outlet Rethinking Schools.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reviewed a document compiled by the Philly Palestine Coalition that found Gann frequently referenced alleged Palestinian relatives, including a grandfather she described as Palestinian-born. The coalition located draft records and her great-grandfather’s US naturalization papers showing the grandfather was actually born in Baltimore, the Inquirer reported.
A former University of Pennsylvania classmate 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 Gann’s presentation shifted after she returned to Philadelphia from Peace Corps service in Rwanda. “She was clearly making herself look darker using makeup and fake tan, and speaking using [African American Vernacular English],” the classmate said.
In her Instagram statement, Gann said the “most sickening” aspect of facing the fallout was “seeing the way that the blowback is falling on people, groups, communities and causes I genuinely care about.” She added: “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.” She continued: “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.”
The Guardian has reached out to Gann for additional comment.
In a statement, 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.”