ISRAEL WAS HERE. The victory stele of Merneptah, a pharaoh who ruled during Egypt’s 19th Dynasty in the New Kingdom, names Israel as a people within the Land of Canaan. The mention of Israel is included with a list of Canaanite cities that the pharaoh claims to have conquered. This demonstrates that by the 13th century B.C.E. Israel was a known entity in Canaan.