How one editing typo opened the floodgates of PA demonization
US Amb. Friedman is “the embodiment of human sin"; “like the devil”; and “inciting to assassinate Abbas”
It took nothing more than a typo in an interview with US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman in the Israeli daily Israel Hayom, to open the floodgates of PA demonization.
According to two writers in the official PA daily, Ambassador Friedman
is “the embodiment of human sin”
is “like the devil who chose sin as a path”
sent “open and explicit (uncoded) [parentheses in source] messages to his agents in the region to execute the plan to assassinate the elected president of the Palestinian people”
is “working together with his administration to bring a convicted criminal [Muhammad Dahlan] who is wanted by Interpol, who was expelled and dismissed from the framework of the greatest Palestinian national struggle (i.e., Fatah) due to his treason and crimes, and to appoint him… instead of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas”
gave “the sign to assassinate President Mahmoud Abbas”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 20, 2020]
committed “the greatest crime… when he called to bring down the legal president of the State of Palestine”
is “inciting to murder and assassination”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 22, 2020]
See longer excerpts of the op-eds below.
Initially, the interview (published close to midnight Sept. 16, 2020) in the Israeli daily ran a typo in Ambassador Friedman’s response to a question about whether the US is considering appointing former Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan, who lives in the UAE, as the next Palestinian leader. The corrected article (Sept. 17, 2020) reads:
“Friedman replied: ‘We're not thinking about it, we have no desire to engineer the Palestinian leadership.” (emphasis added – PMW Ed.)
However, the “not” in Friedman’s answer was accidentally left out of the first edition of the article and it read as follows:
“Friedman replied: ‘We're thinking about it, we have no desire to engineer the Palestinian leadership.”
The Israeli author of the article, journalist Ariel Kahana, noted the typo and its correction on his Twitter account and the online version was corrected on the paper’s website later the same day the article was published.
But this didn’t stop the two writers in the official PA daily from jumping at the opportunity to demonize and slander the ambassador as if he had said the US was “thinking about” forcing regime change on the PA.
Writing three days after the interview had already been corrected, Muwaffaq Matar, who is a regular columnist at the official PA daily, knowingly dismissed the correction of the typo, accusing Friedman of having given “the sign” for violent regime change and even given instructions to assassinate Abbas:
“Friedman’s words were not a slip of the tongue, and were not missing or mistaken such that they require correction, as the paper did, for the sign to assassinate President Mahmoud Abbas has already been given, and those who will act to commit this crime received it…”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 20, 2020]
While at it, Matar also vilified US President Trump and Israeli PM Netanyahu, referring to them as belonging to the side of “ugliness,” “evil,” and “lies.” He also cited the PA’s invented Palestinian history, which they allege stretches back to “the beginning of creation” for good measure:
“How could we be on the side of history of Trump and Netanyahu, when we believe that the Palestinian man was created from the dust of Palestine at the beginning of creation? How could we be with them on their side of history, when they know – or should know – that beauty and ugliness do not go together, that good and evil do not meet, and that truth and lies are in eternal conflict…”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 20, 2020]
The following are longer excerpts of the op-eds in the official PA daily:
Excerpt of an op-ed by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “Friedman – an ambassador on the side of the historical crime”
“[US President Donald] Trump’s Ambassador [to Israel] with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, whose name is David Friedman, thinks that we are on the other side of history, because the historical root of the three of them does not equal one moment compared to the history of the Palestinian people and the history of Palestine according to the true cultural criteria of history; it is impossible as far as we are concerned to be on the side of one who stole the lands of peaceful peoples, populated them, and settled in them…
How could we be on the side of history of Trump and Netanyahu, when we believe that the Palestinian man was created from the dust of Palestine at the beginning of creation? How could we be with them on their side of history, when they know – or should know – that beauty and ugliness do not go together, that good and evil do not meet, and that truth and lies are in eternal conflict…
Friedman thinks that we are on the wrong side of history, because he and his president belong to the side of crimes against humanity, violations of international law, aggression against the peoples and their political, sovereign, and fundamental rights, and because he sends open and explicit (uncoded) [parentheses in source] messages to his agents in the region to execute the plan to assassinate the elected president of the Palestinian people…
We think that Friedman and the mafia he belongs to are on the side that must be outside the framework and path of history, because as he told [the Israeli] paper Israel Hayom [on Sept. 17, 2020], he is working together with his administration to bring a convicted criminal who is wanted by Interpol, who was expelled and dismissed from the framework of the greatest Palestinian national struggle (i.e., Fatah) due to his treason and crimes, and to appoint him – this is what he said – instead of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas (sic., Friedman made no such statement about replacing Abbas with former Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan, but rather the paper ran a typo it later corrected). This is the clearest expression of their inability to deal with President Mahmoud Abbas’ willpower and to break it…
Friedman’s words were not a slip of the tongue, and were not missing or mistaken such that they require correction, as the paper did, for the sign to assassinate President Mahmoud Abbas has already been given, and those who will act to commit this crime received it…
We will remain on the right side of history, the side chosen by the free peoples and their national leaderships. We will prove to those who thought that we are on the wrong side of history that they are the embodiment of human sin. They are like the devil who chose sin as a path, viewed every person who disagrees with him as an enemy, and swore… to tempt them until causing them to enter the path that will necessarily lead them to hell.”[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 20, 2020]
Excerpt of an op-ed by Fawzi Ali Al-Samhouri
Headline: “Friedman’s threats are a double crime against international law and Palestine”
“The greatest crime in the series of crimes that the administration of [US President Donald] Trump is continuing to commit in order to support the policy of war criminal [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his camp against the State of Palestine… is what Trump’s ambassador in the occupation state, the racist settler [David Friedman],declared a number of days ago [on Sept. 17, 2020] when he called to bring down the legal president of the State of Palestine (sic., Friedman made no such statement about replacing PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, but rather the paper that interviewed him ran a typo it later corrected… This declaration has only one explanation: a plan to assassinate [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas…
The plan to bring down the president [Abbas] of a state that is recognized by the overwhelming majority of world states is a great and clear crime that is being committed premeditatedly, and which obligates putting on trial the terrorist Friedman who is inciting to murder and assassination without honoring international law that provides heads of state with extensive immunity…
The threat that Trump sent through his ambassador Friedman constitutes a medal [of honor] of the highest order in history, which President Mahmoud Abbas has merited and which every one of the world’s leaders hopes to merit: this is the medal of love of the homeland and the people, and self-sacrifice for the sake of freedom, independence, and fighting colonialism.”[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 22, 2020]
The following is a screenshot of the Israeli journalist’s immediate correction of the typo on his twitter account:
[Twitter account of Ariel Kahana, Sept. 17, 2020]