Columnist justifies Abbas’ remarks on the Holocaust, calls Munich massacre “heroic”
Excerpt of a column by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for official PA daily and former advisor to former PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on national affairs
Headline: “The insanity of the Zionist lies goes out of control”
“Some of the biggest weapons in the war against the truth, and those who produce false narratives, fabricate news, and turn the facts upside down, are the Zionist media machine and the Western media outlets that follow after it. This machine opened its mouthpieces… in a crazy assault on [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, who said the truth amid legitimate defense of himself as the leader of the national enterprise, of the choice of the leadership and the people, of the national rights and interests, and of the Palestinian narrative (refers to a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Aug. 16, 2022, in which Abbas claimed Israel “has committed 50 holocausts” instead of apologizing for the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by the Palestinian Black September terror group at the Munich Olympics in 1972, which a journalist asked him to do -Ed.).
This is a transparent assault by the villains and bullies in the Zionist media and their German and American partners and their ilk… on President Mahmoud Abbas’ statement two days ago, Tuesday, Aug. 16 [2022], during a [joint] press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin. [Abbas] rejected the logic behind the question (i.e., about whether he plans to apologize for the Munich Olympics massacre in which 11 Israelis were murdered; see note below -Ed.), which was meant to twist the arm of the PLO chairman and extract an apology from him over a self-sacrificing operation that took place 50 years ago. He responsibly and courageously answered the media member who asked the question, and said: ‘There are 50 massacres, 50 acts of slaughter (sic., Abbas said “50 massacres, 50 holocausts”), and Israel is a state of apartheid and ethnic cleansing.’ Abbas’ goal was to clearly note that if you want to go back to history, it did not start with the Munich operation in 1972, but rather even before 1948, the year of the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel), and after the Zionist terror organizations committed more than 50 massacres including Deir Yassin (see note below -Ed.), Al-Dawayima (see note below -Ed.), Tantura (see note below -Ed.), Kafr Qassem (see note below -Ed.), Safed, Al-Shajara, Sabra, Shatila (see note below -Ed.), Jenin, Khan Yunis (see note below -Ed.), and Gaza…
Therefore, the conflict began before the heroic self-sacrificing operation, which is part of the ongoing war between the Palestinian truth and the Zionist-American lie and terror, between historical justice and framing lies about history and twisting it, between the truth that gleams like snow and the mercenaries of the present time and the pawns of the capitalist West – the Jewish Zionists – and their lies…
President Mahmoud Abbas did not deny the Holocaust, which the European fascists and Nazis committed against the Jews from among their peoples and against all of humanity. He wanted to compare the Holocaust that was committed against the Jews to what the Zionists – those who hijacked Judaism to use it as merchandise – are committing against his people.The Zionist media outlets will not succeed in distorting the truth, especially because the entire world is already aware of the Israeli state’s barbarism and fascism. Therefore, Israeli, American, and international human rights organizations have shamed it as an ethnic cleansing state and an apartheid state…
Therefore, the leaders of the Israeli apartheid state must be silent and shut their mouths before they boast and deny the facts of history.
It is no longer possible to understand the German logic behind refusing to define Israel as an apartheid state.The time has come for the [German] inferiority complex to pass, and for them to abandon the provinces of fear and terror of the Zionist movement and its allies in the world government. The time has come for them to adopt the option of peace, recognizing the Palestinian state, stopping the Zionist project state’s crimes against the Palestinian people, and commitment to the demands of a political agreement based on the two-state solution in the June 4, 1967 borders, with a guarantee of the [Palestinian refugees’] right of return based on international [UN] Resolution No. 194 (see note below -Ed.).”
The Munich Olympics massacre - terrorist attack perpetrated by the Palestinian terror organization Black September, a secret branch of Fatah, during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, in which they murdered 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team.
Deir Yassin - On April 9, 1948, Jewish fighters from the Irgun and Lehi military groups, part of the forces opening the blockaded road to Jerusalem, attacked the Arab village of Deir Yassin. When the battle was over, the village had fallen and in addition to the Arab fighters killed, 107 civilians were also killed. Narratives differ as to whether the civilians were killed in the crossfires or were intentionally murdered by the Irgun and Lehi fighters.
Al-Dawayima - On Oct. 29, 1948, during Israel’s War of Independence, Arab civilians were also killed in addition to combatants during a battle for the capture of the Arab village of Al-Dawayima in southern Israel. Accounts differ as to whether the civilians were killed during the fighting, as the combatants were fighting from the homes, or were killed after the fighting. While some sources claim a death toll of over 100, a UN report stated that 30 Arab women and children died in the incident.
Tantura - During Israel’s War of Independence, the Israeli army carried out an operation to take control of the Arab village of Tantura on the northern Israeli coast, which was serving as a port through which Arab fighters were receiving weapons and reinforcements from Lebanon. In addition, forces from Tantura were blocking the Tel Aviv - Haifa road and attacking Israeli vehicles. During the battle, on May 22-23, 1948, 70 of Tantura’s residents were killed, after which most of the residents left for the neighboring Arab villages, primarily Fureidis. What exactly happened in Tantura is the subject of debate. Some claim there was a massacre; others claim there was a “transfer” or “expulsion” of Arabs. On the other hand, a record in the Israeli army archives refutes that a massacre took place, and likewise, a report on the battle in the book "Al-Tantura," written by Yahya Mahmoud, a son of one of the village’s families, does not mention a massacre, and mentions that actually 52 residents were killed in the battle.
Kafr Qassem Massacre – With the outbreak of the Israel–Egypt war in Sinai Israel on Oct. 29, 1956, Israel imposed a curfew on Arab villages for security reasons. Israeli border police were given orders to shoot anyone who broke the curfew, and 43 Israeli Arabs of the village of Kfar Qassem, including women and children, who were outside the village and unaware of the curfew were shot and killed. An Israeli military court determined that the soldiers had a duty to disobey the order as it was manifestly illegal. The families of those killed were compensated financially, the border policemen were prosecuted and sentenced to prison - but pardoned after one year, and the brigadier commander was given a symbolic fine. This massacre is condemned in Israel and is considered a seminal event in its history that is studied in the Israeli army at all levels. In addition it is taught in Israeli schools and efforts are being made to increase its study. Former Israeli President Shimon Peres formally apologized for the massacre in December 2007, and President Reuven Rivlin has condemned it, calling it a “terrible crime” that weighs heavily on Israel’s collective conscience.
Sabra and Shatila are Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. In 1982, during the first Lebanon War, Muslim residents of the camps were massacred by Christian Phalangists. The PA has a longstanding policy of falsely accusing Israel of committing the massacre or actively helping to carry it out.
“Khan Yunis massacre” and “Rafah massacre” - What the Palestinians call the “Khan Yunis massacre” and “Rafah massacre” refers to battles during the Sinai War (Operation Kadesh, the Suez Crisis) of 1956. Following years of terror attacks from the Gaza Strip against Israelis, and then the Egyptian nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956, Israel together with Britain and France attacked and defeated the Egyptian army and took control of all of the Sinai and the Gaza Strip. Palestinians claim that Israeli soldiers killed 275 non-combatant men in Khan Yunis on Nov. 3, 1956, and 111 in Rafah on Nov. 12, after the war had ended. Israel reported that as the army approached Khan Yunis, armed locals joined Egyptian soldiers and attacked them, resulting in deaths in an armed battle. In Rafah, civilians broke into UN storehouses apparently thinking that the Israeli army had already left, sparking a clash. Egyptian soldiers and armed men later attacked Israeli soldiers and there too sustained casualties. The actual numbers of Egyptian soldiers and local fighters who died in these two battles are unknown.
UN Resolution 194 (Chapter 11, Dec. 11, 1948) states that "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return." Palestinian leaders argue this means that all Arabs who left Israel during the war (hundreds of thousands) and their descendants (a few million) have a "right of return" to Israel. Israel argues that the resolution only calls for a limited return and only under certain conditions, especially focusing on the words "wishing to return... and live at peace with their neighbors."