Abbas’ advisor claims Herzl wanted to “throw Palestinians to wild animals in Africa”

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “Since nearly 6,000 years ago there has been a Canaanite-Palestinian-Arab presence in the land of Palestine... The Zionist project is based on emptying the land of Palestine, so that Palestine will be a land without a people, to which ‘a people’ – in quotation marks, if it can be called a people – without a homeland will come, so that it will have a homeland, the so-called “Jewish national homeland” in Palestine… When Theodor Herzl, who is “the father of political Zionism,” as they call him – visited Palestine in the beginning of the 20th century, he found that Palestine was settled, vibrant, and full of a culture whose roots were planted in history. He said: “Where will be establish our project?” ... He said: “We must eliminate them, take them and throw them into the deserts or the jungle of Africa so that the wild animals will eat them, so that Palestine will become empty [so we can] bring the Jews from all over the world.” The Jews who have no connection to the East, or to Palestine, or to the Semitic race, if we treat the issue as a racial issue.”

Mahmoud Al-Habbash also serves as Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice. In August 2019 PA Chairman Abbas dismissed all his advisors by Presidential decree. It is unclear what their status is today.

PMW found no record of Theodor Herzl ever making a statement about throwing Palestinians to wild animals in Africa.