{Originally posted to the author’s website}
The acting-president of the Palestinian Authority made his desire for a country devoid of Jews in a statement in July 2013 when he declared:
“In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli – civilian or soldier – on our lands.”
Some Palestinian-apologists tried to divorce the statement from antisemitism by noting that Abbas said that he didn’t want “Israelis,” not Jews. Those apologists ignored Palestinian law that forbids the sale of land to any Jew, not just Israelis. It ignored the repeated assertion by Abbas and the Palestinian Authority that Jews have no history in Israel. It whitewashed the Hamas Charter‘s rant against Jews around the world.
President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry tried to further invert reality and cause-and-effect by stating in December 2016:
“Does anyone here really believe that the settlers will agree to submit to Palestinian law in Palestine?”
Suggesting that it is not Arab antisemitism but Israeli Jews unwilling to coexist that underscores the Palestinian Authority goal of a Jew-free country.
But the facts are clear as laid out in a March 2018 Palestinian poll which found that 63% of Palestinian Arabs want to forbid any Jews from living in their country. While slightly better than the 93% of Palestinian Arabs that were found to be anti-Semitic in a 2014 ADL poll, the horrifying results are abundantly clear that the Palestinian’s hatred is not limited to Israelis but about all Jews generally.
Israel as a Jewish State,
Palestine Open to Jews
Mahmoud Abbas criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that a final peace agreement include a statement that Palestine recognize Israel as a Jewish State. Abbas’s protests included comments that such a recognition was not required in peace deals with Jordan or Egypt, and that such a recognition would harm the status of Israeli Arabs.
It is quite a pool of hypocritical spittle.
Neither Jordan nor Egypt have laws that forbid the sale of land to Jews nor have they made statements that Jews are unwelcome in their respective countries. Meanwhile Palestinians have fabricated a narrative that only Arabs have a history and claim on the holy land.
If Abbas is truly worried about the status of Israeli Arabs (who prefer to live in Israel over a future Palestinian state), he should be able to empathize with Israelis’ fear about the status of Jews in a potential Palestine. Maybe Netanyahu would waive the recognition of Israel as a Jewish State in exchange for a clear Palestinian declaration that Jews are welcome to live and pray in Jewish holy sites throughout Palestine.
It could go a long way to normalizing relations between Jews and Arabs and ending the prevalent antisemitism in Arab society.
Related First.One.Through articles:
Abbas’s Speech and the Window into Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism
What do you Recognize in the Palestinians?
The Palestinian State I Oppose
The Long History of Dictating Where Jews Can Live Continues
Delivery of the Fictional Palestinian Keys
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Expulsion of Jews for 1000 years (music from Schindler’s List)
Judea and Samaria (Foo Fighters)
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