Europe's desire to get rid of remaining Jews after WWII made it support Zionism, says Abbas advisor
Abbas' advisor repeats antisemitic PA narrative:
Europe's Jews "had a monopoly over the economy,"
and so Europe supported Zionism to get rid of the Jews
By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
The antisemitic Palestinian Authority narrative that Zionism was a European scheme to get rid of the Jews, because Jews were damaging European society, was repeated last week by a senior advisor of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Mahmoud Al-Habbash charged that after WWII Europe supported the establishment of Israel because they "wanted to get rid of the presence of the Jews of Europe." Al-Habbash, one of the most important religious figures in the PA, repeated the PA narrative that the European animosity toward the Jews was because the Jews "had a monopoly over the economy and capital" - a particularly absurd accusation following WWII, and the destruction of most of European Jewry in the Nazi concentration camps.
Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Abbas' Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs:
"After World War II ended, the colonialist states wanted to get rid of the presence of the Jews of Europe, who had a monopoly over the economy and capital. Therefore, they supported these claims and helped them establish their state on the land of Palestine at the expense of the Palestinian people, who are still suffering from this crime."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 24, 2018]
Al-Habbash made these statements during his "religious and political lecture" at a conference in Sudan.Palestinian Media Watch has reported on the centrality of the PA messaging that Zionism was supported by Europeans because they wanted to get rid of the Jews, as it supports the Palestinian narrative that Israel is a foreign and "colonial project," and therefore has no right to exist.
Abbas himself expressed this falsehood in a speech to PLO Central Council earlier this year:
 |  |
Abbas: "There is an important matter - the Jews' immigration [to Palestine]. The Jews did not want to immigrate, not even because of killing, slaughter. They did not want to immigrate. Even during the Holocaust that took place, they did not immigrate [to Palestine]. They did not immigrate... [Theodor] Herzl (i.e., founder of modern Zionism) used to say: 'Antisemitism is the engine of Zionism. The more antisemitic a person is the more beneficial he is to us because he advances the Zionist goal by expelling the Jews.' They [the Europeans] wanted to get rid of the Jews there for their reasons and to benefit from them in our land - killing two birds with one stone."
[Official PA TV, Jan. 14, 2018]
PMW has reported on the fundamental antisemitic beliefs of Abbas' advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash. In a televised Friday sermon in 2015, Al-Habbash taught that the conflict with Israel is the continuation of the historic conflict with the Jews, because Jews represent "evil," "falsehood," "the Devil," and "Satan." Accordingly, Israel is "Satan's project" and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is between "Allah's project vs. Satan's project."  |  |
The following is the report on Al-Habbash's recent statements in the official PA daily:
"Supreme Shari'ah Judge of Palestine, [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas'] advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, Mahmoud Al-Habbash discussed with Sudanese Minister of Guidance and Endowments Abu Bakr Othman Ibrahim... bilateral relations and expanding the cooperation between the two states...
Al-Habbash also gave a religious and political lecture at the end of the events of the 21st Season of Culture and Dawah (i.e., preaching), which is organized by the Islamic University in Omdurman, Sudan...
During the lecture, Al-Habbash refuted the claims that the Israeli occupation is spreading against Palestine and its residents by falsifying history and the religious and political facts through fabricated and false myths.
He said: 'After World War II ended, the colonialist states wanted to get rid of the presence of the Jews of Europe, who had a monopoly over the economy and capital. Therefore, they supported these claims and helped them establish their state on the land of Palestine at the expense of the Palestinian people, who are still suffering from this crime.'"
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 24, 2018]