January 10, 2017
Last month, international action put the onus on Israel for the absence of peace with the Palestinians, with the December 22 UN Security Council resolution, followed by Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech on December 28, both focusing on Israel’s settlement policy. In response to Secretary Kerry, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged: “For more than an hour, Kerry obsessed over the issue of settlements and hardly touched on the root of the conflict – Palestinian resistance to a Jewish state within any borders.”
It is undeniable that Palestinian rejectionism of Israel continues to play out in different aspects of Palestinian society, including newspapers and school textbooks.
A recent report issued by IMPACT-se (Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education), spotlights disturbing narratives within the textbooks, including language that negates Israel as a Jewish state, insists on a full right of return for Palestinians – which would mean the demise of Israel as a Jewish state – endorses violence towards Israel, and rejects Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
And articles recently published in Palestinian newspapers explicitly reject Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish State, deny the historic Jewish connection to Israel, and compare Israel to the Nazis and Apartheid South Africa.
Article examples:
Rejecting Israel’s Legitimacy as a Jewish State –
“The most important thing about Kerry’s speech was his suggested parameters for an agreement which the Palestinian people cannot accept. First, we cannot accept the description of our just and legitimate struggle as terrorism or incitement. Nor is it possible to accept Kerry’s opposition to our right to a popular uprising including the BDS movement. The notion of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state is also unacceptable because it means foregoing the rights of two million Palestinians of those who were able to remain in 1948 territory, as well as foregoing the Right of Return.”
Al-Quds (Palestinian Authority), Palestine Doesn’t Need Kerry’s Parameters, by Mustafa Barghouthi, January 1st, 2017.
Denying the Historic Jewish Connection to Israel –
“He (Nathan Sharansky – AB) says that anti-Semitism is the rejection of the Jews’ right to self-determination and Israel’s right to exist. I say that Ashkenazi Jews from the Caucasus have no right to be on the land of Palestine.”
Jihad Al-Khazen, “American Likud Media”, Ar-Raya (Palestinian Authority), December 13, 2016.
Labeling Israelis as Nazis –
“The UNSC decided that settlements built on Palestinian land were illegitimate. This is nice but incomplete, as all of Israel is a settlement on Palestinian land and Israeli cabinet members, most of whom are neo-Nazis, are the main reason for the return of anti-Semitism. Benjamin Netanyahu the war criminal assailed President Barack Obama because the US abstained in the vote rather than vetoing it as usual, to prevent Israel’s condemnation. Then Netanyahu condemned the UN itself, while it represents the entire world, whereas he represents the last neo-Nazi state in the world.”
Ar-Raya (Palestinian Authority), The World Stands Up to Israel’s Terror, by Jihad Al-Khazen, December 27, 2016.
Labeling Israel an Apartheid State –
“And through visits of a number of South African delegations to Palestinian territories occupied on June 4th 1967, they increasingly felt the terror and horror of the Israeli abuse of the Palestinian people, which exceeded in loathsomeness those racist practices perpetrated by the Apartheid regime in their country against South African citizens. They unequivocally confirmed that the racial segregation policy and acts of ethnic cleansing carried out by colonialist Israel on the lands of the State of Palestine are a mark of disgrace on the forehead of humanity, which didn’t take the appropriate stand against the crimes of the Israeli ethnic cleansing state.”
“The Pulse of Life: South Africa and Palestine”, Omar Hulmi Al-Ghoul, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Palestinian Authority), December 4th, 2016.