Categories: Analysis

Abbas: Israel "is a Colonialist Project that is NOT Connected to Judaism"

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January 16, 2018, 6 AM ET

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{Originally posted to the PMW website}

Denying Israel's right to exist continues to be the fundamental component of Palestinian ideology and the fundamental cause of the conflict. It was expressed again by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas yesterday in his speech to the PLO leadership.

In his speech Abbas repeated the Palestinian revision of history that Israel's creation was not founded on Jewish history in the area, but was the European solution to its alleged problem with the Jews and its way to create a presence in the Middle East - a repeating PA libel documented by Palestinian Media Watch.

Mahmoud Abbas: "'The significance of Israel's functional character is that colonialism created it in order to fill a specific role; it is a colonialist project that is not connected to Judaism, but made use of the Jews so they would serve as pawns, and they were, under the motto 'the Promised Land' and 'the Beloved Land,' and they brought them here'... There is an important matter - how will the Jews immigrate [to Palestine]? The Jews do not want to immigrate because of killing and slaughter. Even during the Holocaust that took place they did not immigrate [to Palestine]."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 15, 2018]

Many PA and Fatah leaders regularly rewrite history to deny the Jewish people's connection to the land. Earlier this month, describing Israel as a "cancerous entity" planted by colonialists, a host on official PA radio also repeated this claim:

Official PA radio host: "Those who established and support the Zionist movement created these religious illusions and lies in the holy city [of Jerusalem]... in order to plant the cancerous entity [of Israel] in the Arab region as part of a new colonial scheme to control it... Everyone knows that in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions they [the Jews] have no right to this land, and these are firm facts."

[Official PA radio The Voice of Palestine, Sign of Hope, Jan. 1, 2018]

Click to view

The PA radio host made this statement in response to US President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital on Dec. 6, 2017. PMW has documented the Palestinian condemnations of the American decision as well as calls for violence.

Not only do the PA and Fatah not accept Jerusalem being recognized as the capital of Israel, they reject Israel's entire existence. A member of Fatah's Central Committee explained this recently:

Fatah Central Committee member Al-Haj Ismail Jaber: "All matters are on the [PLO] Central Council's agenda... Indeed, we in Fatah have not recognized Israel, never. This should be clear. We have never recognized [Israel]. The PLO recognized it. We are part of the PLO, true. And we, as Fatah, have not recognized Israel."

[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Jan. 1, 2018]

Click to view

Denial of Israel's right to exist leads to ongoing calls for terror and violence by PA and Fatah leaders as PMW has exposed repeatedly.

One such call was made by the Head of the Communications Department of the Fatah Movement Mobilization and Organization Commission Munir Al-Jaghoub, who called for "escalating the intifada":

"Al-Jaghoub noted in a special statement to Donia Al-Watan that the [celebration of the] Launch [of Fatah] will be limited to lighting the torch of the Launch and escalating the intifada."

[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, Dec. 25, 2017]

The photo above of a young Palestinian boy carrying a real M-16 semi-automatic assault rifle at a Fatah event celebrating the 53rd anniversary of the movement is illustrative of this message advocating violence coming from the PA and Fatah.

At the Fatah event, the District Governor of Qalqilya Rafe' Rawajbeh "emphasized that the popular uprising (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror) must be escalated, and that all of the Palestinians need to participate in it in order to collect the price of the occupation of our Palestinian land from the occupation, and to force it to leave [the land] by the force of the popular resistance and the support of the brothers and friends from all of the world's states." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 1, 2018]

The terms "peaceful uprising/resistance," and "popular uprising/resistance" are used by PA leaders at times to refer to peaceful protest and at times to refer to deadly terror attacks and terror waves. For example, Mahmoud Abbas defined as "peaceful popular" the murderous terror during the 2015-2016 terror wave ("The Knife Intifada"), in which 40 people were killed (36 Israelis, 1 Palestinian, 2 Americans and 1 Eritrean) and hundreds wounded by stabbings, shootings, and car ramming attacks: Abbas said: "we want peaceful popular uprising, and that's what this is."

Expressions of the Palestinian "peaceful resistance" was publicized in the official PA daily under the headline: "Trump's declaration will not pass." Similar photos from riots and rock throwing was published daily by the paper right after Trump's declaration.

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 13, 2018]

The following are longer excerpts of the reports above:

Excerpt of a speech given by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to the PLO Central Council on Jan. 14, 2018

Headline: "The [PA] president: We are meeting here in order to defend Jerusalem"

"Egyptian intellectual Abd Al-Wahab Al-Masri, may his memory be a blessing, was one of the most important people that spoke about the Zionist and Jewish movement... He described this entity with these words: 'The significance of Israel's functional character is that colonialism created it in order to fill a specific role; it is a colonialist project that is not connected to Judaism, but made use of the Jews so they would serve as pawns, and they were, under the motto 'the Promised Land' and 'the Beloved Land,' and they brought them here'...

There is an important matter - how will the Jews immigrate [to Palestine]? The Jews do not want to immigrate because of killing and slaughter. Even during the Holocaust that took place they did not immigrate [to Palestine] (sic., there were many attempts to immigrate to the Land of Israel, many of which were blocked by the British). By the way, the number of Jews in Palestine in 1948 did not exceed 640,000 (sic., according to Israeli government statistics the Jewish population in 1948 was 660,920), and most of them came from Europe. [Theodor] Herzl [a founder of modern Zionism] used to say: 'Antisemitism is the engine of Zionism' - in other words, the more antisemitic a person is, the more beneficial he is to us [the Jews]. This is because he advances the Zionist goal - to expel the Jews from their countries to Palestine."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 15, 2018]

The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that "His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." In 1922, the League of Nations adopted this and made the British Mandate responsible for putting into effect the declaration," which led to the UN vote in 1947 and the establishment of the State of Israel.

"Thousands of Qalqilya district residents and members of the Fatah Movement participated in lighting the torch of the 53rd anniversary of the Launch (Intilaqa), under the slogan Continuing for Jerusalem and Independence.

The mass participation procession set out from the [PA] Ministry of Interior directorate building, with the participation of District Governor of Qalqilya Rafe' Rawajbeh...

The district governor emphasized that the popular uprising (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror) must be escalated, and that all of the Palestinians need to participate in it in order to collect the price of the occupation of our Palestinian land from the occupation, and to force it to leave [the land] by the force of the popular resistance and the support of the brothers and friends from all of the world's states."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 1, 2018]

The boy in the photo above has the words "Jerusalem is ours" written on his forehead with face paint, and likewise has a Palestinian flag drawn on his right cheek and the number "53" on a yellow background on his left cheek referring to the 53rd anniversary of "the Launch" of Fatah. The boy and man are both wearing keffiyehs (Arab headdresses) around their necks. In the background yellow Fatah flags are waved by participants in the procession, and on the flags is the Fatah logo that includes a grenade, crossed rifles, and the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas.

Headline: "Al-Jaghoub: The Fatah rally will focus only on lighting the torch and escalating the intifada"

"Head of the Communications Department of the Fatah Movement Mobilization and Organization Commission Munir Al-Jaghoub denied that a central rally will take place for the 53rd anniversary of the Launch (Intilaqa) of the Fatah Movement.

Al-Jaghoub noted in a special statement to [the independent Palestinian news agency] Donia Al-Watan that the Launch will be limited to lighting the torch of the Launch and escalating the intifada."

[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, Dec. 25, 2017]

Intilaqa - "the Launch" refers to the beginning of Fatah on Jan. 1, 1965, when it carried out its first terror attack against Israel, attempting to blow up Israel's National Water Carrier.