Would Abbas tell Americans to “return” to

Mexico, Africa, South America & Europe?

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has urged President Barack Obama to hold Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas accountable for a broadcast on PA TV on May 4 and May 7 which called Israelis thieves and advised them to return to Europe & Ethiopia.

In the program broadcast on PA TV, We Are Returning, the PA TV narrator said:

“I’m from Jaffa, I’m from Haifa, I’m from Acre, I’m from Nazareth, I’m from Gimzu, I’m from Zakariya, I’m from Ein Kerem. [All are cities and towns in Israel] Where are you [Israelis] from? Where are you from?

Of course, you’re from Ukraine; of course, you’re from Germany, from Poland, from Russia, from Ethiopia, the Falasha (a pejorative term for Ethiopian Jews, Ed.) Why have you stolen my homeland and taken my place? Please, I ask of you, return to your original homeland, so that I can return to my original homeland. This is my homeland; go back to your homeland!” (PA TV (Fatah), May 4 and 7, 2010, translation courtesy of Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, ‘PA to Israelis: Go to Europe and Ethiopia – Israel is “stolen” land,’ Palestinian Media Watch bulletin, May 11, 2010).
 

Only four days following the second of the two broadcasts of this program by PA TV, President Barack Obama had a telephone conversation with the PA’s Abbas, in which he actually raised the issue of incitement,  but not in reference to this or any other PA act of incitement. Instead, President Obama “urged that President Abbas do everything he can to prevent acts of incitement or delegitimization of Israel” (‘Readout of the President’s Call with President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority,’ May 11, 2010).

The Obama Administration has on occasion raised the issue of incitement against Israel but has never made continuing U.S. aid or diplomatic support conditional on an end to PA-sponsored incitement. On specific occasions, such as the glorification of terrorists at the 2009 Fatah conference, the honoring by the PA of terrorist Dalal Mughrabi or the praise and PA condolence calls on the families of terrorists killed after murdering an Israeli, the Administration has either completely ignored or else finessed the issue in such a way as to shield the PA from exposure as a promoter of hatred and violence.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “Only a few weeks ago, the State Department’s Philip Crowley said that the Obama Administration ‘will continue to hold Palestinian leaders accountable for incitement.’ But as the cases mentioned above indicate, the Obama Administration has not been doing this to date.

“Here, we have again a clear test of U.S. resolve. The PA, through its TV broadcasts, has been inciting hatred against and non-acceptance of Israelis. The Abbas government-controlled media is telling Israelis that they are land thieves who must ‘return’ home. Jews are not recent arrivals – we are the natives of this land who have lived there continuously for millennia. Even if  Jews were merely comparatively recent arrivals, like those who settled in the New World, can one imagine Abbas telling Americans that they must ‘return’ to Mexico, Africa, South America and Europe?

This is outright incitement, though far from being the worst example of it that can be found, practiced by the PA, which is heavily funded by the U.S. taxpayer – $900 million last year alone.

“President Obama urged Abbas to ‘do everything he can’ to stop incitement. Abbas can certainly stop his own PA TV broadcasting hate propaganda like this.

“We call on President Obama to make good on his repeated assurances that he will hold Palestinian leaders accountable for incitement by publicly condemning Abbas and making it clear that U.S. aid will be withheld if the PA does not cease to engage in incitement to hatred and murder immediately.”