Op-ed in PA daily invents ancient Arab history in Palestine, denies any Jewish ties to the land of Israel: “If they are here, this is for a Western colonialist goal”
Excerpt of an op-ed by Bakr Abu Bakr, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “Palestine, what is under the ground and what is above it belongs to you”
“There is no doubt about the Arabness of Palestine for the last 10,000 years, as [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas noted in his latest speech in Istanbul. Regarding the Children of Israel, the Arab tribe that became extinct, and its presence here, indeed it is Arab movement (i.e., apparently meaning an Arab nomadic tribe), and the present residents of our land who are affiliated with the Jewish religion have no connection to them. In other words, they (the residents of the [Zionist] entity) [parentheses in source] are affiliated with several nations, and there is no hereditary – DNA – or national connection between them and the Children of Israel that became extinct. On the other hand, we – the Jebusites, Canaanites (members of the Kinana tribe) [parentheses in source], and Arab Palestinians (the Philistines) [parentheses in source], members of the Tayy tribe, and other tribes - were in Palestine even before the Common Era and established civilization and Jerusalem…
The groups of people that are affiliated with Judaism today… were never a people at any time in history. Religion does not create a people or race. Palestine belongs solely to the Palestinian Arabs, as Yemen belongs solely to the Yemenite Arabs. The scattered members of the nations that are affiliated with Judaism have countries of their own, and if they are here, this is for a Western colonialist goal – the dismantling of the [Arab] nation – and this is pure exploitation of the cover of a religious lie…
O Muslim, O Christian, O Arab, O Palestinian – do not let your spirit fall, as the land belongs to you, and the skies, and the sea. What is under the ground and what is above it attests to this. Our story with these foreigners begins only with the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel).”
Headline: “Palestine, what is under the ground and what is above it belongs to you”
“There is no doubt about the Arabness of Palestine for the last 10,000 years, as [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas noted in his latest speech in Istanbul. Regarding the Children of Israel, the Arab tribe that became extinct, and its presence here, indeed it is Arab movement (i.e., apparently meaning an Arab nomadic tribe), and the present residents of our land who are affiliated with the Jewish religion have no connection to them. In other words, they (the residents of the [Zionist] entity) [parentheses in source] are affiliated with several nations, and there is no hereditary – DNA – or national connection between them and the Children of Israel that became extinct. On the other hand, we – the Jebusites, Canaanites (members of the Kinana tribe) [parentheses in source], and Arab Palestinians (the Philistines) [parentheses in source], members of the Tayy tribe, and other tribes - were in Palestine even before the Common Era and established civilization and Jerusalem…
The groups of people that are affiliated with Judaism today… were never a people at any time in history. Religion does not create a people or race. Palestine belongs solely to the Palestinian Arabs, as Yemen belongs solely to the Yemenite Arabs. The scattered members of the nations that are affiliated with Judaism have countries of their own, and if they are here, this is for a Western colonialist goal – the dismantling of the [Arab] nation – and this is pure exploitation of the cover of a religious lie…
O Muslim, O Christian, O Arab, O Palestinian – do not let your spirit fall, as the land belongs to you, and the skies, and the sea. What is under the ground and what is above it attests to this. Our story with these foreigners begins only with the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel).”