PLO "strongly condemns" Israeli Arab MP Mansour Abbas’ statement that Israel is a Jewish state
Headline: “The [PA] presidential office condemns Mansour Abbas’ statements”
“The PLO Executive Committee strongly condemned [Israeli Arab Parliament Member] Mansour Abbas’ statements and his position regarding the racist and terrorist laws that were raised for ratification in the Israeli Parliament (sic., refers to Mansour Abbas saying Israel is a Jewish state, while noting his opposition to the Jewish Nation-State Law; see note below).
In a statement yesterday [Dec. 22, 2021], the committee said that these statements do not reflect the opinion of our people wherever they are on everything connected to ‘the racist nation and Jewish state law,’ which completely contradicts our right to self-determination, reduces our people’s rights in the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel), threatens them directly, and perpetuates the policy of Zionist racism (sic., the law does not reduce the rights of Arab citizens of Israel)…
It emphasized that Mansour Abbas’ support for laws that harm the heroic prisoners… reflects the level he has reached in terms of solidarity and participation with the extremist racist right-wing policy of [Israeli Prime Minister Naftali] Bennett – [Israeli Minister of Interior Ayelet] Shaked against our people, in the guise of ‘Islamism’ that he attempts to cloak himself with… and his turning into the voice of the Zionist racist extremists and the settlers. The committee added that he only represents himself, and that our people have no connection to him.
The Fatah Movement strongly condemned the positions of Mansour Abbas, who announced that he agrees with the Nation-State Law (the Jewish state) [parentheses in source] (sic., Abbas expressed opposition to the law). In a statement by the [Fatah] Commission of Information and Culture yesterday, Fatah emphasized the severity of these positions that significantly harm our people’s historical national rights in Palestine…
Fatah said that Mansour Abbas only represents himself, and that his fate and the fate of defeatists like him is the trash can of history. It added that our people within the 1948 territories and outside of them will excommunicate this pariah in democratic ways and will settle accounts with him.It also emphasized that Mansour, and Zionism before him, have not succeeded and will not succeed in changing the shining historical truth: Our Palestinian people has the right to its historical homeland of Palestine and the right to self-determination on its land.”
At the Globes Israel Business Conference on Dec. 21, 2021, Israeli Arab Parliament Member Mansour Abbas said: "The State of Israel was born as a Jewish state. This is the people’s decision, and the question is not what the identity of the state is – it was born like this and thus it will remain… I protested the [Jewish] Nation-State Law and I do not want to deceive anyone. The question is what the status of the Arab citizen in the Jewish State of Israel is. That is the question.”
Jewish Nation-State Law – law passed by the Israeli Parliament on July 19, 2018, which codifies in Israel's Basic Law that Israel is the home of the Jewish nation with Jerusalem its capital, and the Hebrew calendar its official calendar. It establishes Hebrew as the sole official language and grants Arabic a special status, and it recognizes Jewish and Israeli holidays, memorial days, and the Jewish Sabbath as national holidays and days of rest - while guaranteeing the right of all Israeli citizens and residents to celebrate their holidays and days of rest. The law, which passed with 62 in favor, 55 against, and 2 abstentions, has sparked controversy within Israeli society.