Denying Israel's right to exist

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PA depicts a world without Israel

Denying Israel’s right to exist

PA depicts a world without Israel

The Palestinian Authority makes no attempt to educate its people towards peace and coexistence with Israel. On the contrary, from every possible platform it repeatedly rejects Israel's right to exist, presents the conflict as a religious battle for Islam, depicts the establishment of Israel as an act of imperialism, and perpetuates a picture of the Middle East, both verbally and visually, in which Israel does not exist at all. Israel's destruction is said to be both inevitable and a Palestinian obligation.

The following description of Israel's founding in a Palestinian schoolbook represents the dominant dogma about Israel:

"Palestine’s war ended with a catastrophe that is unprecedented in history, when the Zionist gangs stole Palestine … and established the State of Israel."
[Arabic Language, Analysis, Literature and Criticism, grade 12, p. 104]

This official PA map of "Palestine,” depicting Palestinian rule over all of Israel, was used in an official PA TV public service ad that ran daily for 3 months, Oct. – Dec. 2007. Similar maps presenting all of Israel as "Palestine" appear in Palestinian schoolbooks and are shown regularly on PATV.

Denying Israel's right to exist

The Palestinian Authority adamantly rejects Israel’s right to exist and rewrites history to deny the 3,000-year-old connection of Jews to the Land Israel. [See "Rewriting History" section.] The essential message of the PA to its people is that Jews have no historical connection to the land, and that the State of Israel was created by the colonial powers for two reasons: to rid their countries of Jews, and to establish a colonial bridgehead in order to control the region. One particularly horrific expression of this ideology appeared in the official PA daily as far back as 1998:

“The difference between Hitler and [British Foreign Minister] Balfour was simple: the former [Hitler] did not have colonies to send the Jews to, so he destroyed them, whereas Balfour ...[turned] Palestine into his colony and sent the Jews. Balfour is Hitler with colonies, while Hitler is Balfour without colonies. They both wanted to get rid of the Jews...Zionism was crucial to the defense of the West, [by] ridding Europe of the burden of her Jews.”

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 12, 1998]

This video of Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon, Abbas Zaki, shows how this distortion continues to be expressed:

"We must understand why Israel was established … [The Europeans] wanted to get rid of the Jews. … At that same time, energy [oil] was discovered in the Arab region … Then, they solved the [Jewish] problem by exporting [the Jews] to Israel [and at same time] they imposed their hegemony on the region’s natural resources. The [purpose of the] State of Israel is not for the Jews but it is an ongoing [colonial] project, an outpost for Imperialism.”

[PA TV, May 14, 2008]

PA daily: Arabs of Israel live in "the Palestinian homeland occupied in '48"

Source: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), June 20, 2010

PA-owned Al-Hayat Al-Jadida interviewed an Israeli Arab about Israeli Arab football players on the Israeli national team. The PA paper referred to the Arabs of Israel as living not in Israel but in "the Palestinian homeland occupied in ’48" and includes all his denial of his Israeli identity:
Headline: “Arab [Israeli] sports personalities express their pride and refuse to wave the Israeli flag”
“Day after day, the Palestinian Arab population in the Palestinian homeland occupied in ’48 [i.e., Israeli Arabs in Israel] express their rootedness and their pure Arab affiliation, despite the attempts [by Israel] to carry out Israelization and Judaization, which have been going on at full steam since the catastrophe [establishment of State of Israel] which befell the Palestinian people and their dispersion throughout the world [since 1948]...
Prominent [Israeli Arab] political editor… Zuhair Andreus said: ‘…I say, if the Israeli football team were to reach the finals of the World Cup tomorrow, I would not wave the flag of the Hebrew state, because I feel no identification with this flag and with the Israeli anthem. … The presence of Arab players on the [Israeli] team does not serve the [Palestinian] cause, and perhaps even weakens it, since the Zionist propaganda machine may well make use of these players to try and sell its false democracy to world public opinion.' And Andreus continued: 'The adorning of Arab villages, cities and towns in the Interior [shortened form of “Interior of Palestine,” euphemism for “Israel”] with the flags of the countries participating in the World Cup, and the fact that this team [of Arab Israelis] absolutely refuses to wave the Israeli flag at all the events, cannot be considered a symbolic act. If this behavior shows anything, it shows that the Palestinians in Israel – who, by

National football league in the "occupied homeland"

Source: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), June 18, 2010

"The Al-Ahali club in the Arab city of Um El-Fahm [in Israel] held a large ceremony of appreciation honoring its first football team, to celebrate the team's rise to the national league in the homeland occupied in '48."

PA TV host: Israelis are "those who stole Palestine in a search for an alleged homeland that would take them in"

Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), June 17, 2010

PA TV news item about disagreements among Israeli ethnic groups:
PA TV host: "This [internal Israeli conflict] is not the first time, nor will it be the last, in the history of the conflicts between the [different Israeli] ethnic populations of the world among those who stole Palestine in a search for an alleged homeland that would take them in."

PA schoolbooks portray Israel as foreign colonial occupier, not legitimate state

Source: National Education, Grade Six, June 13, 2010

"Colonialism: Palestine faced the British occupation after the First World War in 1917, and the Israeli occupation in 1948."
[National Education, sixth grade, p. 16, PA schoolbook currently in use. http://www.pcdc.edu.ps/textbooks/watanyeh_G6.pdf - accessed June 13, 2010]

PA daily: Israeli Arabs are called "1948 Arabs"

Source: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), June 12, 2010

“During solidarity rally in El-Tireh, within the ’48 territories”
"Ramallah – '48 Arabs (Euphemism for Israeli Arabs).”

PA daily praises Helen Thomas for calling for Jews to leave Israel and "return" to Germany and Poland

Source: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), June 10, 2010

"The old lady in the White House… There is not a person who doesn’t recognize the face of Helen Thomas… The old lady had enough, and she said something nice at the end of her professional career. For a long time she had urged her journalist colleagues to present the truth about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict fairly, and to awaken from their coma of media falsification, but her final declaration at the White House, where a [press] conference was held concerning Jewish heritage, reverberated between the walls of the presidential home. She shouted: ‘The Jews should get out of the lands of Palestine and go back to where they came from. It is occupied land that belongs to the Palestinians; it's not the land of the Germans or the Poles. They must go back to their homes in Poland, Germany, America and wherever else.’"

Note: Following her remarks, Helen Thomas was fired from her job of 40 years in the White House press corps.

PA TV: "All of the land is occupied by Israel" and must be liberated

Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), June 9, 2010

Dr. Nasri Qamsiyeh, Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ):
"The scenarios for a solution in Jerusalem must not be separated from the scenarios for a solution of the Palestinian issue as a single unit, since all of the land is occupied by Israel, and the liberation of the entire land without exception, is a personal [religious] commandment [Arabic: fard aiyn]."

PA daily euphemisms for Israel: "Interior Palestine," "occupied in 1948," and "48 territories"

Source: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), June 1, 2010

“Demonstrations were held yesterday in several Palestinian towns in the Interior [of Palestine] occupied in 1948, denouncing the massacre which the occupation forces carried out against the freedom flotilla. At the same time, the occupation forces declared a state of alert in order to deal with any developments in the '48 territories. The Supreme Monitoring Committee in the '48 territories has decided to declare a strike today in protest against the assault by the Israeli occupation authorities on the freedom flotilla.”

Israeli Arab journalist: Must protect Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River

Source: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), May 17, 2010

Israeli Arab Journalist Sa'id Hasanein:
"This visit [by Israeli-Arab Um El-Fahm soccer team to Hebron] is a natural action between people of the same nation: There is no difference between all the people of Palestine, and our obligation is to protect it [Palestine], from the [Mediterranean] sea to the [Jordan] river."

Hebron is "city of Martyrs," Israel is "Interior Palestine"

Source: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), May 17, 2010

Redwan Sidr, secretary of the Al-Khalil Youth Foundation:
"We welcome our brothers [Israeli Arabs]: to the city of the Martyrs, Hebron: I also hope to see a group from Interior Palestine [i.e., Israeli Arabs] in the International Hebron Youth Tournament."

PA TV: Israel stole land, identity of the Palestinian people

Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), May 17, 2010

PA TV news broadcast, item on PLO main ceremony marking the 62nd anniversary of the "Nakba":

PA TV Host: "They [Israel] stole the land, stole the [identity of the] people, stole the holy places, and do not want the Palestinian people to commemorate this painful anniversary."

Arab Member of Israeli Parliament: Jaffa, Acre, Haifa, Lod and Ramle are Palestinian cities

Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), May 17, 2010

Israeli Member of Parliament Dr. Jamal Zahalka, introduced at PLO rally commemorating 62nd anniversary as: "Our representative within the '48 territories":
Israeli MP Zahalka: "We want the women of Ramallah, who were harmed in the Nakba –greetings to them – to return, and I mean to Jaffa, to Haifa, to Lod, to Ramle and to all the cities of Palestine… I want you to know that you have family in Jaffa, that you have family in Lod, in Ramle, in Haifa, and in Acre. Those who keep the flame, those who have preserved the identity of the land. They are the remaining remnant, and living testimony that Jaffa is a Palestinian Arab [city], and that Lod and Ramle are Palestinian Arab [cities], and likewise concerning Haifa and Acre… We are facing a Zionist plan that divides our people… We oppose and do not submit to this division, and emphasize the unity of our Palestinian people: a single entity, a single nation, a single memory, a single fate, and a single future for a single nation – the nation of Palestine.”

PA newspaper calls Israel "occupied Palestine of '48"

Source: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), May 14, 2010

PA-owned Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported on the coach of an Israeli Arab football team from a city in northern Israel:
"... leading the team to the second division league for the first time in the history of the city of Um El-Fahm, one of the largest Arab cities in northern occupied Palestine. The Football Association of occupied Palestine of '48 [euphemism for Israel] resolved: to suspend the player and the coach for one week."

PA TV video denies Israel's right to exist

Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), May 7, 2010

Palestinian narrator: "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, - Ed.)
Where are you [Israelis] from? Where are you 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 (pejorative for Ethiopian Jews).
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!" Click here to view
Note: This video appeared on May 4 and 7, 2010.

Senior Fatah member: Fatah will not recognize Israel

Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), Apr. 18, 2010

Azzam Al-Ahmad, Fatah Central Committee member:
"We, as the Fatah movement, have not recognized Israel and will not recognize Israel, as the Fatah movement. We call upon all the factions not to recognize Israel, as Palestinian national action factions. Why? Because recognition is an act of governments. From our perspective, when our government, known as the PLO, exchanged documents of recognition with Israel following the Oslo Accords, that was the end of the matter."

Recognition of Israel is hazard, has only harmed Palestinians

Source: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), Mar. 18, 2010

Article by Adli Sadeq, columnist for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, in response to the rededication of a synagogue:
"If we cannot respond to the fire of oppression with the fire of justice and legitimate struggle, the very least [we can do] is to declare explicitly that recognition of Israel's right to be a state in this region represents an environmental and security hazard; it creates the basis for acute internal and regional tensions, and distorts history, just as it poisons the future. It may be that the most important ramification of the recognition of Israel's right to be a state with which we shall participate – or not participate – in a peace process, is encouragement of the Arab polity to support American strategy in the region… with the pretext that Washington is acting for the sake of peace…
From our point of view, nothing is currently as pressing as the destruction of the constructions of words which have been built within the framework of the peace process. Recognition of Israel has harmed us and has brought us the opposite results, for these occupiers are not worthy of goodwill gestures, political rapprochement, or negotiations of any form. They have made their decision, as part of a joint plan with the Americans, such that the challenge now requires a new spirit, a different language, and a rationale that will create the basis for a unifying Arab understanding of the nature of the sudden danger, whose proof is what is now happening in Jerusalem."

PA TV kids' host: All of Israel is "occupied"

Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), Feb. 26, 2010

PA TV kids' TV host, Walaa:
"Soon, if it works out, we will be among you [Israeli Arabs] in the 1948 terriroties [i.e. Israel] the occupied territories. Our friends from the 1948 territories - the occupied territories - they write wanting us [to broadcast] there with them. Many of them have come here, trying to be friends [of the program] and they are truly dear friends and regular [viewers]. There are also [some] from Lod [Israeli city] and also Ahmad from Nazareth [Israeli city] and there are so many. There's Adnan from Be'er Sheva [Israeli city]. Dear [Israeli Arab] children: We will definitely always remain in contact with you, because you have the right, and this program is definitely yours too, just as it belongs to every Palestinian child, since you are part of occupied Palestine." Click here to view

Fatah "does not recognize Israel"

Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), Feb. 8, 2010

Ahmad Assaf, Fatah spokesman:
"Fatah is not responding [to the Goldstone Report], is not apologizing, is not sorry, and does not recognize Israel. It is the PLO that negotiates on behalf of the Palestinian people."

Ahmad Bahar, Acting Chairman of Parliament (Hamas): Accepting two states is betrayal of Allah

Source: Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), Sept. 11, 2009

Ahmad Bahar, Acting Chairman of Parliament (Hamas):
"We say to our Palestinian nation: The significance of the Jewishness of the State [of Israel] – someone who accepts the Jewishness of the State betrays Allah, His messenger and believers. The significance of the Jewishness of the State is that the Palestinians don't exist. Your brethren in the 1948 territories [i.e. the Israeli Arabs]. The Jewishness of the State – recognizing it means recognizing Jewish existence in the land of Palestine. And I'll tell you something else: even recognition of two states, as they say, is a crime against the Palestinian cause. Two states – a Jewish state and a Palestinian state. Where is the Palestinian state? It can't exist! It has no sovereignty! It has no authority to make decisions! The state that the Jews want is a state in which we will be servants, messengers, of the Jews. And one who accepts this is betraying Allah, His messenger, and [Muslim] believers. We will not accept and not recognize a state for the Jews here on Palestinian land! We will not recognize it! It makes no difference what this will cost us."
[Friday prayer and sermon (third Friday of Ramadan) from the Salem Abu Muslim Mosque in Bet Lahiya.]

PA teacher taught Balfour Declaration for exam only

Source: Al-Filistiniya TV (Fatah Party), Sept. 10, 2009

Palestinian TV broadcast an interview with Mustafa Othman, an Arab teacher in Israel, in which he describes what he teaches Israeli Arab youth in Israeli schools:
"I used to teach about the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration, in relation to us, from 1917 November 2nd, was a curse… In the Jordanian curriculum – or the Palestinian one, permit me to say – this material was studied on the basis [of the fact] that they [Israel] occupied our country by force of arms, stole it, destroyed its homes, expelled its people from the towns and from the villages. When I taught the Israeli curriculum, I told the students, 'It's only for the exam, you shouldn't consider it as information.' We may say that the Balfour Declaration is a victory for Zionism."

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