PA daily op-ed condemns Holocaust, but claims Israel's crimes against Palestinians "surpass the Holocaust crime"
By Muwaffaq Matar, regular columnist for the official PA daily
“Yes, we are against the Holocaust, because by [holding] this position we protect our humanity – despite the efforts of generals, prime ministers and leaders of extremist, Jewish parties that smell of racism and discrimination, to deprive us of [our humanity] and deny that we possess it like the rest of the nations.
Intelligent and compassionate people cannot help but perceive the tragedy of a European who was murdered, burned, arrested or persecuted for being a Jew, especially since we are the main victims, more than any other nation in the world, of the Zionist ideology, which exploited the suffering of the world’s Jews and the Jewish problem in Europe. It became a contractor for the old and new colonialist states in the heart of the Arab territory, and it perpetrates war crimes in Palestine…
We cannot accept the crimes of Hitler the Nazi against the Jews in Germany and Europe, even if the crimes of Israel’s political and military leaders against us surpass the Holocaust crime – because we support the right of every innocent human being to life.
Otherwise, we will enable any nation coming after us to condone the crimes that were perpetrated against us, just as we have condoned – for the sake of argument – the crimes of the Nazis against the European Jews.
I, as a humane Palestinian, oppose any form of exploitation, racism, discrimination and crime. There is no difference between victims in terms of [their] sex, faith or color, for we are all children of Adam and Eve.”
“Yes, we are against the Holocaust, because by [holding] this position we protect our humanity – despite the efforts of generals, prime ministers and leaders of extremist, Jewish parties that smell of racism and discrimination, to deprive us of [our humanity] and deny that we possess it like the rest of the nations.
Intelligent and compassionate people cannot help but perceive the tragedy of a European who was murdered, burned, arrested or persecuted for being a Jew, especially since we are the main victims, more than any other nation in the world, of the Zionist ideology, which exploited the suffering of the world’s Jews and the Jewish problem in Europe. It became a contractor for the old and new colonialist states in the heart of the Arab territory, and it perpetrates war crimes in Palestine…
We cannot accept the crimes of Hitler the Nazi against the Jews in Germany and Europe, even if the crimes of Israel’s political and military leaders against us surpass the Holocaust crime – because we support the right of every innocent human being to life.
Otherwise, we will enable any nation coming after us to condone the crimes that were perpetrated against us, just as we have condoned – for the sake of argument – the crimes of the Nazis against the European Jews.
I, as a humane Palestinian, oppose any form of exploitation, racism, discrimination and crime. There is no difference between victims in terms of [their] sex, faith or color, for we are all children of Adam and Eve.”