WASHINGTON – More than 75 leading Palestinian leaders, intellectuals and activists over the weekend sharply condemned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ comments roundly decried as antisemitic Holocaust revisionism, stating he has long ago forfeited any claim to represent the Palestinian people.
The open letter from among the most respected Palestinian intellectuals is the latest missive against Abbas, following efforts from U.S., European and Israeli diplomats as well as U.S. Jewish groups across the political spectrum.
“Rooted in a racial theory widespread in European culture and science at the time, the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people was born of antisemitism, fascism, and racism,” note the writers, the majority of whom are based abroad and identify as academics, writers, artists, activists, and people of all walks of life.
Abbas had said that Adolf Hitler and antisemites before him hated and persecuted the Jews not because of who they were but because of “their role in society” having to do with “usury, money, and so on and so on.” The Palestinian thinkers stressed they “adamantly reject any attempt to diminish, misrepresent, or justify antisemitism, Nazi crimes against humanity, or historical revisionism vis-à-vis the Holocaust.”
They further noted Palestinians are “sufficiently burdened by Israeli settler colonialism, dispossession, occupation, and oppression without having to bear the negative effect of such ignorant and profoundly antisemitic narratives perpetuated by those who claim to speak in our name.” They added that they are “also burdened by the PA’s increasingly authoritarian and draconian rule, which disproportionately impacts those living under occupation.”
“Having held onto power nearly a decade and a half after his presidential mandate expired in 2009, supported by Western and pro-Israel forces seeking to perpetuate Israeli apartheid, Abbas and his political entourage have forfeited any claim to represent the Palestinian people and our struggle for justice, freedom, and equality, a struggle that stands against all forms of systemic racism and oppression,” they added.
Among the signatories include historian Rashid Khalidi, human rights lawyer Zaha Hassan, novelist Isabella Hammad, filmmaker Annemarie Jacir, businessman Sam Bahour and writer Joey Ayoub. Noura Erekat, an activist who joined the letter, noted “it’s a shame we have to put out this statement at all.”
Abbas, 87, delivered the speech last month to a body of his political party, Fatah. It was translated and posted on social media last week by MEMRI, a pro-Israel group that tracks depictions of Jews and Israel in the Arab world and translates material in Arabic. Other agencies verified the translation.