Jerusalem, January 15, 2018 ... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today said it was greatly disturbed by the latest anti-Israel diatribe by Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority. In a two and half hour long speech Sunday, the Palestinian leader had barbed words for the U.S., Israel, the United Kingdom and other Arab leaders, whom he told to "go to hell" for criticizing him. Abbas said the peace process was dead, and claimed Israel's creation was a "colonial project" that had nothing to do with Judaism.
ADL issued the following statement:
Palestinian President Abbas’s latest anti-Israel diatribe is a sober reminder that at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies the Palestinian leadership’s longstanding refusal to recognize the historic Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.
President Abbas’s argument that Israel was founded as “a colonial project that has nothing to do with Judaism” is rooted in an anti-Semitic rejection of the undeniable Jewish connection to Israel. This false claim only raises serious doubts about the Palestinian Authority’s desire to negotiate, in good faith, a peace agreement with Israel, one which would recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
We are also greatly disturbed by the Palestinian President’s bizarre claim that even during the Holocaust Jews chose to undergo “murder and slaughter” rather than seek refuge in the Land of Israel. There is simply no denying the anti-Semitic nature of this ahistorical statement.