Abbas’ advisor in sermon: Balfour Declaration was “despicable act of oppression;” denies Jewish connection to land or to Jerusalem, which was founded by “us, the Jebusite Canaanite Arabs;” attacks the US
Official PA TV and YouTube channel of the Office of the PA Supreme Shari'ah Judge, Ramadan Friday sermon by Supreme Shari’ah Judge, Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice Mahmoud Al-Habbash at the mosque at the PA headquarters in Ramallah. In the audience: Secretary-General of the PA Presidential Office Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim and Fatah Central Committee member, Fatah Commissioner of Mobilization and Organization in the West Bank, and PLO Central Council member Jamal Muhaisen
Supreme Shari’ah Judge, Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice Mahmoud Al-Habbash: "More than 100 years ago a despicable act of oppression befell the Palestinian people, in which one who has no [right] gave a promise to one who does not deserve it,(i.e., the Balfour Declaration) about land to which they have no connection – land that they acknowledged was not theirs, and that they have no right to… except for a sentimental connection - as the founder of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, said when he wrote to Kaiser [Wilhelm II] of Germany and asked him to intervene with the High Porte (i.e., the Ottoman Turkish government) so that they would give the Jews a right or a partial right to live in Palestine. [Herzl] wrote to [Kaiser Wilhelm II]: ‘I know that we have no right to it;’ these are his words: ‘I know that we have no legal or political right thousands of years after we lived in it’ - assuming they lived in it - but ‘Today we have no right to it,’ aside from a sentimental, religious, and historical right (sic., PMW found no records of Herzl writing this to Kaiser Wilhelm). Many nations have a historical, sentimental, and religious connection to geographical areas. Does this give them a political right? […]
But the oppression occurred, and the world conspired against the Palestinian people, and this people was uprooted 70 years ago, at the time of the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel). It was uprooted from its land and thrown out. Today the oppressors continue the oppression. We and the world have seen the completion of the sins, the completion of the sin of Palestine’s Nakba, in that America came to transfer its embassy [to Jerusalem] and to falsely say… that it is the eternal capital of the Jewish people. This is what they are saying about Jerusalem! As if Jerusalem has no people, and has no owners, and as if it has no people, and as if they are the ones who built it; even though the facts of history determine that those who built Jerusalem are us, the Jebusite Canaanite Arabs, and they gave it its name, and they set it as their capital (sic., archaeological finds have proven a Jewish role in building and developing Jerusalem; the Jebusites and Canaanites were not Arabs).Even one of the American Jewish clergy said clearly: ‘Jerusalem is not a political capital and is not a capital of the Jewish people. It is a direction of prayer for the Jews’ (PMW did not find records of such a statement –Ed.). Those are their words, not our words…
The one who is responsible for the murder of that boy, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, who was kidnapped and murdered by burning during Ramadan… who is responsible for this? Who is responsible for the Dawabsheh family who were burned while still asleep in their home? Who is responsible for the eight-month-old baby that was murdered in the Gaza Strip last week (referring to a baby whose parents claimed she was murdered by Israel, but who actually died of a preexisting medical condition –Ed.)? The one responsible for all of this is first of all the USA. Our blood is on their neck and on their hands. They are responsible. American President [Donald Trump] is responsible, because in his unlimited support and in the unlimited sponsorship that he gives to the occupation’s crimes, he gives them a green light to do what they want, and to commit whatever crimes they wish - without the world doing anything. Because America thinks, and some idiots also think… that it rules everything - and this is not so. History does not lie, and nations rise and fall. The change in the situation of nations, the change in the balance of powers, are part of the laws of nature in this existence… America is strong today, and it is responsible for all of the oppression befalling us. Before it were those who gave the Balfour Promise… Allah forgive us our sins and our excesses, and strengthen our resolve, and grant us victory over the infidel people.”
The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that “His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” In 1922, the League of Nations adopted this and made the British Mandate “responsible for putting into effect the declaration,” which led to the UN vote in 1947 and the establishment of the State of Israel.
Muhammad Abu Khdeir - Palestinian teen kidnapped and murdered by Israeli extremists in Jerusalem on July 2, 2014, in revenge for the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teens Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel in the West Bank on June 12. Following Abu Khdeir’s murder, Palestinians took to the streets of East Jerusalem in violent and continuous protests. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli ministers immediately condemned the revenge murder in the strongest terms. Israeli police arrested six Israeli suspects on July 6 of whom three confessed to murdering Khdeir. One of the murderers, Yosef Ben-David, is serving 1 life sentence and an additional 20 years. His two accomplices, both unnamed minors, are serving 1 life sentence and 21 years respectively.
Duma arson attack - On July 31, 2015, two Palestinian houses in the West Bank village of Duma were set afire by Molotov cocktails thrown through their windows. 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was murdered in this attack, as was his father, Saad Dawabsheh and mother, Reham Dawabsheh, who both died of their injuries later. The only survivor of the attack was the couple’s other son, 4-year-old Ahmad, who suffered burns on 60% of his body and was treated in Israel. Israeli leaders and citizens from all sectors of society condemned this attack, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that all Israelis were disgusted by the crime, adding, “We will not countenance terrorism of any kind.” He ordered the security forces "to use all means at their disposal to apprehend the murderers and bring them to justice forthwith." Israeli Police has treated the attack as a nationalistic crime carried out by Jewish extremists in revenge for Palestinian terror attacks. In early December 2015, Israeli police arrested several Jewish extremists who were believed to have been involved in the attack, and in January 2016, Israel indicted 21-year-old Amiram Ben Uliel, a member of the radical Jewish group “Hilltop Youth,” with three counts of murder, attempted murder, arson and conspiracy to commit a nationalistically-motivated crime. Ben Uliel confessed to police that he carried out the attack in revenge for the murder of Malachi Rosenfeld, an Israeli who was shot and murdered in a terror attack in the West Bank. Ben Uliel's defense has claimed that his confession was made under torture and suspicions have been raised that the arson and three other subsequent arson attacks against other Dawabshe family members are part of a family feud. The trial of Ben Uliel and a minor whose name remains under a police gag order are still pending.
Laila Gandour - 8-month-old Palestinian baby girl who died on May 21, 2018, at the March of Return riots on the Gazan border with Israel, to which her family had brought her. The Palestinians have claimed that she died of tear gas inhalation, and pictures of Gandour and her funeral have become a symbol of the border riots. The actual cause of Gandour's death was a preexisting blood disease, and according to her uncle, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades member Mahmoud Omar, the family was paid 8,000 Israeli shekels by Hamas leader Yahya Al-Sinwar so they would claim Gandour was killed by Israelis, by tear gas inhalation.
Supreme Shari’ah Judge, Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice Mahmoud Al-Habbash: "More than 100 years ago a despicable act of oppression befell the Palestinian people, in which one who has no [right] gave a promise to one who does not deserve it,(i.e., the Balfour Declaration) about land to which they have no connection – land that they acknowledged was not theirs, and that they have no right to… except for a sentimental connection - as the founder of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, said when he wrote to Kaiser [Wilhelm II] of Germany and asked him to intervene with the High Porte (i.e., the Ottoman Turkish government) so that they would give the Jews a right or a partial right to live in Palestine. [Herzl] wrote to [Kaiser Wilhelm II]: ‘I know that we have no right to it;’ these are his words: ‘I know that we have no legal or political right thousands of years after we lived in it’ - assuming they lived in it - but ‘Today we have no right to it,’ aside from a sentimental, religious, and historical right (sic., PMW found no records of Herzl writing this to Kaiser Wilhelm). Many nations have a historical, sentimental, and religious connection to geographical areas. Does this give them a political right? […]
But the oppression occurred, and the world conspired against the Palestinian people, and this people was uprooted 70 years ago, at the time of the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel). It was uprooted from its land and thrown out. Today the oppressors continue the oppression. We and the world have seen the completion of the sins, the completion of the sin of Palestine’s Nakba, in that America came to transfer its embassy [to Jerusalem] and to falsely say… that it is the eternal capital of the Jewish people. This is what they are saying about Jerusalem! As if Jerusalem has no people, and has no owners, and as if it has no people, and as if they are the ones who built it; even though the facts of history determine that those who built Jerusalem are us, the Jebusite Canaanite Arabs, and they gave it its name, and they set it as their capital (sic., archaeological finds have proven a Jewish role in building and developing Jerusalem; the Jebusites and Canaanites were not Arabs).Even one of the American Jewish clergy said clearly: ‘Jerusalem is not a political capital and is not a capital of the Jewish people. It is a direction of prayer for the Jews’ (PMW did not find records of such a statement –Ed.). Those are their words, not our words…
The one who is responsible for the murder of that boy, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, who was kidnapped and murdered by burning during Ramadan… who is responsible for this? Who is responsible for the Dawabsheh family who were burned while still asleep in their home? Who is responsible for the eight-month-old baby that was murdered in the Gaza Strip last week (referring to a baby whose parents claimed she was murdered by Israel, but who actually died of a preexisting medical condition –Ed.)? The one responsible for all of this is first of all the USA. Our blood is on their neck and on their hands. They are responsible. American President [Donald Trump] is responsible, because in his unlimited support and in the unlimited sponsorship that he gives to the occupation’s crimes, he gives them a green light to do what they want, and to commit whatever crimes they wish - without the world doing anything. Because America thinks, and some idiots also think… that it rules everything - and this is not so. History does not lie, and nations rise and fall. The change in the situation of nations, the change in the balance of powers, are part of the laws of nature in this existence… America is strong today, and it is responsible for all of the oppression befalling us. Before it were those who gave the Balfour Promise… Allah forgive us our sins and our excesses, and strengthen our resolve, and grant us victory over the infidel people.”
The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that “His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” In 1922, the League of Nations adopted this and made the British Mandate “responsible for putting into effect the declaration,” which led to the UN vote in 1947 and the establishment of the State of Israel.
Muhammad Abu Khdeir - Palestinian teen kidnapped and murdered by Israeli extremists in Jerusalem on July 2, 2014, in revenge for the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teens Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel in the West Bank on June 12. Following Abu Khdeir’s murder, Palestinians took to the streets of East Jerusalem in violent and continuous protests. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli ministers immediately condemned the revenge murder in the strongest terms. Israeli police arrested six Israeli suspects on July 6 of whom three confessed to murdering Khdeir. One of the murderers, Yosef Ben-David, is serving 1 life sentence and an additional 20 years. His two accomplices, both unnamed minors, are serving 1 life sentence and 21 years respectively.
Duma arson attack - On July 31, 2015, two Palestinian houses in the West Bank village of Duma were set afire by Molotov cocktails thrown through their windows. 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was murdered in this attack, as was his father, Saad Dawabsheh and mother, Reham Dawabsheh, who both died of their injuries later. The only survivor of the attack was the couple’s other son, 4-year-old Ahmad, who suffered burns on 60% of his body and was treated in Israel. Israeli leaders and citizens from all sectors of society condemned this attack, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that all Israelis were disgusted by the crime, adding, “We will not countenance terrorism of any kind.” He ordered the security forces "to use all means at their disposal to apprehend the murderers and bring them to justice forthwith." Israeli Police has treated the attack as a nationalistic crime carried out by Jewish extremists in revenge for Palestinian terror attacks. In early December 2015, Israeli police arrested several Jewish extremists who were believed to have been involved in the attack, and in January 2016, Israel indicted 21-year-old Amiram Ben Uliel, a member of the radical Jewish group “Hilltop Youth,” with three counts of murder, attempted murder, arson and conspiracy to commit a nationalistically-motivated crime. Ben Uliel confessed to police that he carried out the attack in revenge for the murder of Malachi Rosenfeld, an Israeli who was shot and murdered in a terror attack in the West Bank. Ben Uliel's defense has claimed that his confession was made under torture and suspicions have been raised that the arson and three other subsequent arson attacks against other Dawabshe family members are part of a family feud. The trial of Ben Uliel and a minor whose name remains under a police gag order are still pending.
Laila Gandour - 8-month-old Palestinian baby girl who died on May 21, 2018, at the March of Return riots on the Gazan border with Israel, to which her family had brought her. The Palestinians have claimed that she died of tear gas inhalation, and pictures of Gandour and her funeral have become a symbol of the border riots. The actual cause of Gandour's death was a preexisting blood disease, and according to her uncle, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades member Mahmoud Omar, the family was paid 8,000 Israeli shekels by Hamas leader Yahya Al-Sinwar so they would claim Gandour was killed by Israelis, by tear gas inhalation.