The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has pointed to a recent statement by Palestinian Authority (PA) president and dictator, Mahmoud Abbas, indicating that the PA chief regards all of Israel as an “occupation.” As a result, the ZOA has noted that, whenever the PA demands an end to “occupation” or claims that it recognizes Israel but merely wishes to end the “occupation,” it is lying about its acceptance of Israel and seeking the eventual destruction of the world’s only Jewish state.
Abbas, who is now in his eleventh year as PA president, to which office he was elected for a four year term in January 2005, said in an interview in Arabic on PA TV on March 11 that “We have been under occupation for 67 or 68 years [i.e., since Israel’s establishment in 1948]. Others would have sunk into despair and frustration. However, we are determined to reach our goal because our people stands behind us” (Official PA TV, March 11, 2016, translation in ‘PA Chairman Abbas: All of Israel is an “occupation”’ Palestinian Media watch Bulletin, April 6, 2016).
Abbas has a long record of admitting the PA’s pro-terror, anti-peace positions to Arab audiences, while making conciliatory statements in English to Westerners. Indeed, on March 29, less than three weeks after making this statement about all of Israel belonging to the Palestinians, Abbas told a Jewish delegation that, “We strive for peace through the establishment of the Palestinian state, which will live in peace and stability alongside Israel” (Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 29, 2016, translation in ‘PA Chairman Abbas: All of Israel is an “occupation,”’ Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, April 6, 2016).
Abbas insists on the Israel-destroying so-called ‘right of return’ for Palestinian refugees of the 1948-9 war and their millions of descendants; demands that a future Palestinian state be judenrein; refuses to accept Israel as a Jewish state; admits that he rejected Israel’s 2008 peace offer encompassing Palestinian statehood in all of Gaza, almost all of Judea/Samaria and including a capital in eastern Jerusalem; teaches PA schoolchildren to hate and murder Jews; and honors terrorists and pays them and their families various stipends and benefits. A detailed compilation of Abbas’ statements repudiating Israel’s existence and legitimacy can be found here.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “These are but the latest examples of Abbas and the PA indicating their actual non-acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state and thus of any genuine peace settlement with it.
“Within Mahmoud Abbas’ PA, maps that do not show a country called Israel; Israeli cities are described as being part of ‘Palestine’; atlases used in grades 1-12 show Israel within the pre-1967 borders as ‘occupied Palestine’; Israel is not listed in PA indexes of countries; PA textbooks fail to mention Israel or even the Oslo agreements the PA itself signed with it –– all these devices to delegitimize Israel are standard fare in Abbas’ PA, a terror-supporting entity to whom we give over $500 million of U.S. taxpayer’s money annually.
“When one reflects that numerous examples from the PA media have been shown to contain a variety of content that is clearly inimical to the idea of Palestinians accepting Israel and living in peace with it as a result of negotiations –– things like Palestinian mothers supporting the quest of their children for death via suicide terrorism, official Palestinian media praising and honoring terrorists as heroes and role-models, PA-salaried clerics comparing Jews to the AIDS virus and calling for their extermination –– then it is clear that we are witnessing a society that is mired in fanaticism and hate. We are witnessing a society which, in its hatred of Jews and Israel, produces parents who overcome their natural feelings towards protecting and sparing the lives of their children, educators who only wish to poison their students’ minds and clerics who only want to see their flock murder Jews.
“Abbas’ latest stint indicates that none of this has changed in the least. The ZOA therefore reiterates its call upon the Obama White house and the Congress to immediately cease U.S. aid to Abbas’ P.A.”