PA minister: PA agreements are modeled
after Muhammad's Hudaybiyyah
Peace Treaty
Muhammad signed a 10-year truce
at Hudaybiyyah with the tribes of Mecca,
but two years later he attacked and conquered them
PA Minister of Religious Affairs Al-Habbash,
in the presence of Mahmoud Abbas,
compared PA agreements with Israel
to Muhammad's pact that led not to peace
but to defeat of the peace partners:
"This is the example and this is the model"
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
On the eve of the renewed peace talks with Israel, PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash said in his Friday sermon that when PA leaders signed agreements with Israel, they knew how to walk "the right path, which leads to achievement, exactly like the Prophet [Muhammad] did in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah." Al-Habbash's sermon was delivered in the presence of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and was broadcast on official Palestinian Authority TV.
Click to view
The Hudaybiyyah peace treaty was a 10-year truce that Muhammad, Islam's Prophet, made with the Quraish Tribe of Mecca. However, two years into the truce, Muhammad attacked and conquered Mecca. The PA Minister of Religious Affairs stressed in his Friday sermon that Muhammad’s agreeing to the Hudaybiyyah treaty was not "disobedience" to Allah, but was "politics" and "crisis management." The minister emphasized that in spite of the peace treaty, two years later Muhammad "conquered Mecca." He ended his comparison by expressing the view that the Hudaybiyyah agreement is not just past history, but that "this is the example and this is the model."
Since the signing of the Oslo Accords, there have been senior PA officials who have presented the peace process with Israel as a deceptive tactic that both facilitated the PA's five-year terror campaign against Israel (the Intifada), and which will weaken Israel through territorial compromise that will eventually lead to Israel's destruction.
Arafat also compared the Oslo Accords to the Hudaybiyyah agreement:
Arafat: "This agreement [the Oslo Accords], I am not considering it more than the agreement which had been signed between our Prophet Muhammad and Quraish, and you remember the Caliph Omar had refused this agreement and considered it Sulha Dania [a despicable truce]. But Muhammad had accepted it and we are accepting now this [Oslo] peace accord."
[Audio recording of Arafat speech in Johannesburg, May 10, 1994]
Click to view
Arafat: "When the Prophet made the peace of Hudaybiyyah, [Muhammad's followers] Omar ibn Al-Khattab and Ali ibn Abi Talib said: 'How can we accept an agreement like that?' 'How can we accept such humiliation of our religion, Oh Messenger of Allah?'
And when we signed the agreement in Oslo, if anyone has an objection to that agreement, I have a hundred."
[Official Palestinian Authority TV, April 16, 1995]
Click to view
The following is an excerpt from Al-Habbash's sermon in front of Mahmoud Abbas, comparing PA agreements to the Hudaybiyyah Treaty which facilitated the eventual defeat of the peace partner:
PA Minister of Religious Affairs, Mahmoud Al-Habbash:
"We hate war. We don't want war. We don't want bloodshed, not for ourselves, nor for others. We want peace. We say this because our culture is founded on this, and because our religion is based on this. Yes, we want peace, but not any peace. We want a peace based on justice, therefore the Palestinian leadership and the PLO have not missed any opportunity for peace...
The Palestinian leadership's sense of responsibility towards its nation made it take political steps about 20 years ago (i.e., signing the Oslo Accords). Despite the controversy, despite much criticism and much opposition by some, it brought us to where we are today: We have a [Palestinian] Authority and the world recognizes the [Palestinian] state.
All this never would have happened through Hamas' impulsive adventure, but only through the wisdom of the leadership, conscious action, consideration, and walking the right path, which leads to achievement, exactly like the Prophet [Muhammad] did in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, even though some opposed it...
The hearts of the Prophet's companions burned with anger and fury. The Prophet said: 'I'm the Messenger of Allah and I will not disobey Him.' This is not disobedience, it is politics. This is crisis management, situation management, conflict management...
Allah called this treaty a clear victory...
Omar ibn Al-Khattab said: 'Messenger of Allah, is this a victory? Is this logical? Is this victory? We are giving up and going back, and not entering Mecca. Is that a victory?' The Prophet said: 'Yes, it is a victory.'
In less than two years, the Prophet returned and based on this treaty, he conquered Mecca. This is the example, this is the model."
[Official Palestinian Authority TV, July 19, 2013]
The following are some examples of PA leaders explaining that the goal of the Palestinian Authority's signing of the Oslo Accords was to facilitate violence against Israel and to bring about Israel's destruction:
Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki:
"The agreement is based on the borders of June 4 [1967]. While the agreement is on the borders of June 4, the President [Mahmoud Abbas] understands, we understand, and everyone knows that it is impossible to realize the inspiring idea, or the great goal in one stroke. If Israel withdraws from Jerusalem, if Israel uproots the settlements, 650,000 settlers, if Israel removes the (security) fence - what will be with Israel? Israel will come to an end. If I say that I want to remove it from existence, this will be great, great, [but] it is hard. This is not a [stated] policy. You can't say it to the world. You can say it to yourself."
[Al-Jazeera TV, Sept. 23, 2011]
Click to view
In 2009, Sultan Abu Al-Einein, current advisor to PA Chairman Abbas on NGOs, said the following:
Abu Al-Einein: "The resistance (i.e., terror) brought about the Oslo Accords. There are 250,000 Palestinians who have returned to their homeland. The arms that were used against the Israeli enemy in Gaza and in other places..."
Host: "More than 40,000 rifles."
Abu Al-Einein: "Were brought [into the PA] in accordance with [the Oslo] Accords. When we refer to the negative aspects of the Oslo Accords, we should also look at their other aspects."
[Al-Quds TV, April 6, 2009]
Click to view
Najat Abu-Bakr, Fatah member of Palestinian Legislative Council:
"It doesn't mean that we don't want the 1948 borders (all of Israel), but in our current political program we [Fatah] say we want a state on the 1967 borders... We [Palestinians] were created on this land in order to liberate it, to live on it, to continue as people of Ribat (religious conflict/war over land claimed to be Islamic). We are on the land of Ribat, and must remain [on it] until Resurrection."
[Official Palestinian Authority TV, Aug. 25, 2008]
Click to view
Al-Quds Al-Arabi Editor-in-Chief, Abd al-Bari 'Atwan:
"After the Oslo Accords were signed, I went to Tunisia to visit him [Arafat] in July. I told him: 'We disagree. I don't support this agreement. It will harm us.'
[Arafat] told me: 'By Allah, I will drive them crazy. I will make these [Oslo] Accords a disaster for them [Israel]. It won't be in my lifetime, but you will see the Israelis run away from Palestine. Have a little patience.'
The Al-Aqsa Brigades [Fatah terrorist wing] were founded and armed by him [Arafat] as a reply, as a counterweight to the historic mistake of the Oslo Accords."
[ANB TV (Lebanon), Feb. 16, 2006]
Click to view
Ziyad Abu Ein, PA Deputy Minister of Prisoners' Affairs:
"The Oslo Accords are not the dream of the Palestinian people. However, there would never have been resistance in Palestine without Oslo. Oslo is the effective and potent greenhouse whish embraced the Palestinian resistance. Without Oslo, there would never have been resistance. In all the occupied territories, we could not move a single pistol from place to place. Without Oslo, and being armed through Oslo, and without the Palestinian Authority's "A" areas, without the training, the camps, the protection afforded by Oslo, and without the freeing of thousands of Palestinian prisoners through Oslo - this Palestinian resistance and we would not have been able to create this great Palestinian Intifada."
[Al-Alam TV (Iran), July 4, 2006]
Click to view
Ibrahim Mudayris, PA official at the Ministry of Religious Trusts and Religious Affairs:
"We might return to the 1967 borders by diplomacy, but we shall not return to the 1948 borders [i.e. eliminate Israel] by diplomacy. The 1948 borders- no one on earth recognizes as ours. Therefore we shall return to the 1967 borders, but we have not given up on [Israeli cities] Jerusalem and Haifa, Jaffa, Lod, Ramle and Tel Aviv. Never. Your father's blood was shed here, at the villages, at Ashqelon, Ashdod, Hirbia [all in Israel] and hundreds of villages and towns that demand it from us. [Their blood] shall curse anyone who will concede a grain of earth of those villages. The land of Palestine will demand the Palestinians return as Muhammad returned- as a conqueror."
[Official Palestinian Authority TV, Feb. 4, 2005]
Click to view
Faisal Husseini, Palestinian Authority Representative for Jerusalem Affairs:
"Had the U.S. and Israel realized, before Oslo, that all that was left of the Palestinian National movement and the Pan-Arab movement was a wooden horse called Arafat or the PLO, they would never have opened their fortified gates and let it inside their walls...
This effort [the Intifada] could have been much better, broader, and more significant had we made it clearer to ourselves that the Oslo agreement, or any other agreement, is just a temporary procedure, or just a step towards something bigger... We distinguish the strategic, long-term goals from the political staged goals, which we are compelled to temporarily accept due to international pressure. ... [Palestine] according to the higher strategy [is]: 'from the river to the sea.' Palestine in its entirety is an Arab land, the land of the Arab nation."
[Al-Arabi' (Egypt), June 24, 2001]
Abd Al-Aziz Shahin, Palestinian Authority Minister of Supplies:
"The Palestinian people accepted the Oslo Accords as a first step and not as a permanent settlement, based on the premise that the war and struggle in the land is more efficient than a struggle from a distant land [i.e. Tunisia, where the PLO was based before Oslo -Ed] ... the Palestinian people will continue the revolution until they achieve the goals of the '65 revolution...".
[Al-Ayyam, May 30, 2000]
Note: The "65 Revolution" refers to the founding of the PLO and the publication of the PLO charter that calls for the destruction of Israel through armed struggle.
Othman Abu Arbiah, Arafat's aide for Political Guidance and national affairs, and Director-General for National Affairs, a senior position in the Palestinian national educational structure:
"At this stage we'll prevail in our struggle [toward] the goals of the stages [plan]. The goal of this stage is the establishment of the independent Palestinian State, with its capital in Jerusalem. When we achieve this, it will be a positive [step] and it will advance us to the next stage via other ways and means... 'Every Palestinian must know clearly and unequivocally that the independent Palestinian State, with Jerusalem as its capital is not the end of the road. The [rise of] the Palestinian State is a stage after which there will be another stage, and that is the democratic state in all of Palestine [i.e. in place of Israel]."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 25, 1999]