Muslim preacher and PLO member: “No Jew will remain in Jerusalem”
Official PA TV interviewed Islamic preacher and Palestinian Central Council (PCC, or PLO Central Council) member Yaakub Qureish.
Yaakub Qureish: “One of the conditions in the Pact of Umar (i.e., pact signed between the Muslims and Christians of Syria after the Muslim conquest of 637), and I tell this to people in the country and abroad: We promised Sophronius (i.e., Patriarch of Jerusalem at the time of the Muslim conquest), who gave us the key of Jerusalem, that we would allow no Jews into Jerusalem. Now we say [to] the West, America, Europe: ‘The founder of the Christian religion [sic] demanded that we promise, as part of the Pact, to bar Jews from entering Jerusalem. How can you allow them to enter? How can you violate this agreement?’ … ‘We will protect it, and will not allow any Jews to be in Jerusalem. No Jew will remain in Jerusalem. There is no debate on this point.’”
Official PA TV host: “Right.”
Qureish: “I say this without hesitation, and I speak for the entire Palestinian people and the entire Arab and Islamic nation. I am thereby representing what [our] leader, Mahmoud Abbas, said in his speech ten minutes ago (In this speech Abbas said that Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine and that all Israel is doing in it is illegal according to UN resolutions, -Ed.): There will not be a single Jew or Israeli in Jerusalem. Not a single one. By contrast, Christianity’s rights will be fully protected, as we have promised them for 1400 years. We demand that they respect, together with us, the Pact of Umar, and expel the Jews from Jerusalem.”
Yaakub Qureish: “One of the conditions in the Pact of Umar (i.e., pact signed between the Muslims and Christians of Syria after the Muslim conquest of 637), and I tell this to people in the country and abroad: We promised Sophronius (i.e., Patriarch of Jerusalem at the time of the Muslim conquest), who gave us the key of Jerusalem, that we would allow no Jews into Jerusalem. Now we say [to] the West, America, Europe: ‘The founder of the Christian religion [sic] demanded that we promise, as part of the Pact, to bar Jews from entering Jerusalem. How can you allow them to enter? How can you violate this agreement?’ … ‘We will protect it, and will not allow any Jews to be in Jerusalem. No Jew will remain in Jerusalem. There is no debate on this point.’”
Official PA TV host: “Right.”
Qureish: “I say this without hesitation, and I speak for the entire Palestinian people and the entire Arab and Islamic nation. I am thereby representing what [our] leader, Mahmoud Abbas, said in his speech ten minutes ago (In this speech Abbas said that Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine and that all Israel is doing in it is illegal according to UN resolutions, -Ed.): There will not be a single Jew or Israeli in Jerusalem. Not a single one. By contrast, Christianity’s rights will be fully protected, as we have promised them for 1400 years. We demand that they respect, together with us, the Pact of Umar, and expel the Jews from Jerusalem.”