Contrary to Palestinian claims, Arab residents west of the Jordan River (Judea, Samaria and pre-1967 Israel) are not descendants of the Canaanites, but of recent Arab migrants.
Have Arabs been in the area west of the Jordan River from time immemorial?
In 1881, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, a leading British cartographer and Dean of Westminster Abbey, reported that "in Judea it is hardly an exaggeration to say that for miles and miles there was no appearance of life or habitation" (Sinai and Palestine in Connection with Their History, New York 1895, pp. 184-186).
