The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has condemned as racist the  statement by Ahmed Qurei, former Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister and currently head of its negotiating team, who has declared that there will be no Jews or Jewish communities allowed in Judea and Samaria, including the eastern half of Jerusalem, thus calling for these territories to be Judenrein.

According to a Jerusalem Post report, Qurei, speaking to Palestinian media, said that the PA was not budging at all in its rejection of Israeli proposals to retain major Jewish towns and centers in Judea and Samaria within the framework of any peace agreement. “There can be no peace with the presence of these settlement blocs in the West Bank … Our experiences have taught us that it’s impossible to coexist with these settlers … the settlers are dangerous and that it’s impossible to live with them. If these settlers are allowed to stay, that would mean more friction and confrontation. Peace can be achieved only if Israel withdraws to the last centimeter of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967″ (Khaled Abu Toameh, ‘Qurei: No room for Jews in West Bank,’ Jerusalem Post, December 13, 2008).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “The ZOA condemns Ahmed Qurei’s racist policy and statement that Jews may not live in the historical and religious heartland of the Jewish people. We condemn him for suggesting that peace can somehow be built on the Nazi-like basis that an area must be depopulated of Jews.

“Imagine if Israel demanded as a condition of its statehood that it expel every Palestinian before there could be peace. The outrage would be deafening.  Yet it appears that, while 1.2 Arabs can live among 6 million Jews in Israel, 400,000 Jews cannot be allowed to live among 2 million Arabs in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. What does this policy position say about future Palestinian intentions towards the Jewish state of Israel?

“No peaceful Palestinian state can be built on the basis that it must rid itself of every Jew in its midst. Any such suggestion that it can and should is simply bigotry and hatred of the worst kind and its reiteration by Qurei simply underscores why Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority is not a genuine negotiating partner. It is a policy that former Klansman David Duke would be delighted to espouse.

“Qurei speaks of Palestinian memories of Jewish attacks, which have been extremely few in number, whereas Palestinian attacks upon Jews have been in their tens of thousands and unrelenting across the years. ‘Friction’ and ‘confrontation’ stem from the Palestinian refusal to accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, not from the presence of Jews living in Judea and Samaria who have been victims of incessant Palestinian attacks. Arabs come into Jewish communities without fear of their lives, but no Jew can walk down the streets of Hebron or Nablus without fear of lynching or other acts of murderous violence and brutality.

“The Jewish communities in the vicinity of Jerusalem do not hinder access to the city for Arabs – although it is worth remembering that when Arabs controlled eastern Jerusalem before 1967, Jews were barred from entering and could not pray at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site. In those days, no Arab leader other than King Hussein even visited the city. The Palestinian uproar over Jerusalem is simply manufactured with the intent of depriving Israel of its holiest Jewish sites and patrimony.

“Even left-wing Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said, according to the same report, that ‘settlement blocs are a legitimate Israeli demand and that Gush Etzion, Ma’aleh Adumim, Givat Ze’ev and Ariel-Kedumim should be part of Israel under a permanent peace agreement.’ Qurei’s policy would mean the destruction of all these large, thriving communities.

“Qurei belongs to a regime which, as ZOA has noted on numerous occasions, is complicit in, promotes, and extols terrorism. Even if no Jews lived in Judea and Samaria, it would be the height of folly for Israel to withdraw totally from the area and such a course of action is nowhere demanded by UN Security Resolution 242 or any other agreement signed by Israel.”