I heard the same disinformation from an Iranian engineer that I worked with 25 years ago, and he was BORN IN THE USA. They hear propaganda in the mosque claiming there were no Jews in Israel prior to WWII. He was unaware that at the time of partition in 1947 about half of the population of Transjordan, a British protectorate, was Jewish. Jews were given about 20% of the land in Transjordan, mainly the area along the coast where they were settled. The Arabs got the rest, now the country of Jordan.
Do their imams tell them not to read history? Do they read it but just not believe it? Have no interest in history? Or can they just not read? Vicious, ignorant, know-nothingism always astounds me.