Scriptwriter on PA TV: Israel and the PA are actually part of Greater Syria
PA TV program Personal Encounter interviews scriptwriter Hassan Yusuf, son of a Palestinian father.
Yusuf: "Let's speak openly: I think that the Palestinian cause is fundamentally and essentially a Syrian matter, whether we like it or not. Let's start from the position that it's an Arab issue, or an issue which could be Islamic – or… cosmic. Since the Palestinian cause is an exceptional instance in history, it may be that it has no parallel other than the matter of the [American] Indians. Even the Indians – a great portion of them fled and managed. Obviously, [the Palestinian issue] is a cosmic, Arabic, regional, etc. matter. But in essence, at its foundation, it is a Syrian matter, since it [Palestine] is part of the Al-Sham region, part of Greater Syria."
PA TV interviewer: "In other words, you consider it [Palestine] as southern Syria? That's your logic? "
Yusuf: "I don't recognize [the] Sykes-Picot [agreement], I don't recognize the Balfour Declaration; I don't recognize the Faisal-Weizmann agreement… From before 1916 and until today, there are still [schemes] concerning this land which is called Syria, and which has effectively been divided, and has had land taken from it here and there and there, and unfortunately had this strange and deformed entity called Israel planted in it."
Note: This video aired twice, first on June 17 and again on June 20, 2012.
Yusuf: "Let's speak openly: I think that the Palestinian cause is fundamentally and essentially a Syrian matter, whether we like it or not. Let's start from the position that it's an Arab issue, or an issue which could be Islamic – or… cosmic. Since the Palestinian cause is an exceptional instance in history, it may be that it has no parallel other than the matter of the [American] Indians. Even the Indians – a great portion of them fled and managed. Obviously, [the Palestinian issue] is a cosmic, Arabic, regional, etc. matter. But in essence, at its foundation, it is a Syrian matter, since it [Palestine] is part of the Al-Sham region, part of Greater Syria."
PA TV interviewer: "In other words, you consider it [Palestine] as southern Syria? That's your logic? "
Yusuf: "I don't recognize [the] Sykes-Picot [agreement], I don't recognize the Balfour Declaration; I don't recognize the Faisal-Weizmann agreement… From before 1916 and until today, there are still [schemes] concerning this land which is called Syria, and which has effectively been divided, and has had land taken from it here and there and there, and unfortunately had this strange and deformed entity called Israel planted in it."
Note: This video aired twice, first on June 17 and again on June 20, 2012.