A Palestinian Rewrite of History

At a session of Fatah`s Revolutionary Council in August this year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave a speech in which he tried to rewrite five important facts about the Jews and Israel.

First, he claimed that European Jews are not Semites and therefore their persecution has nothing to do with antisemitism, thus trying to discredit their claim to Israel as their homeland.

Second, he asserted that Hitler and the Europeans did not kill the Jews “because they were Jews” but rather because of “their social role” – their usury and their money. He thus implied that it was the behaviour of the European Jews that prompted the Holocaust, rather than racial hatred.

Third, he acknowledged that the eastern Jews are Semites but then claimed that they originated from the Arabian Peninsula and not Israel, again trying to discredit any claim to Israel as their homeland.

Fourth, he accused the Americans of developing the Balfour Declaration jointly with the British, so as to accuse the Americans of being enemies of the Palestinians and thus distort the motives of American Jews who support Israel.

And fifth, whilst acknowledging that there were only 650,000 people in Israel in 1948, he ignored the fact that the Israelis defeated five Arab armies and claimed that it was the Israelis rather than local Arabs who later attacked Jews living in Arab countries like Iraq, so as to force them to move to Israel and increase the population.

This report by Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)::