PA Minister of Culture denies Jewish history: Nothing proves it, they have no connection to history

Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning

PA Minister of Culture Atef Abu Saif: “Our struggle is with this State [of Israel] that came out of nowhere, without a history and without geography, stole our land, and wants to put an end to our existence… There is a lying author who wrote a story about his false presence on this land, and then comes and wants to realize his tale. There is nothing in history that proves this presence. They have not found one stone...

You have heard the story; as [former] Jordanian Minister of Culture [Maha Al-Khatib] said several days ago: They come to plant relics in Petra in order to say in another 100 years: ‘We swear that [the Jews] were here.’ Man, you were not here, you have no connection to this land…

The struggle is a struggle of narrative. Therefore, it is a cultural struggle over cultural identity. Israel is terrified when a cultural symposium is held in Jerusalem. It shakes when it sees a Palestinian poet standing in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem reciting a poem, because it knows this means Israel does not exist in a practical sense, [Israel knows] that they have no connection to this city [Jerusalem], that they have no connection to this history, and that they have no connection to the geography, just as they have no connection to the future.

Therefore, as you have said, we Palestinians have a great responsibility. We must adhere to the Palestinian narrative and strengthen it.

If Israel celebrated the lie of ‘3,000 years [of Jewish history] in Jerusalem,’ we have 7,000 years in Jerusalem – so what? We Canaanites are the first ones who built Jebus more than 6,000 years ago. And perhaps we need no celebrations because it is natural that we are here. Those who celebrate are foreigners.

Therefore, it is important to emphasize that it is critical that we adhere to our narrative, our tradition, the Palestinian garb that Israel attempts to steal, the songs, the Palestinian tune… All of this is being stolen; the Palestinian kitchen is being stolen.”