By Amy Zewe
You would be surprised how much freedom of speech, space, and tolerance to absurdity the world stage allows its political leaders.
As reported by CAM (The Combat Antisemitism Movement) the Palestinian Authority’s President Abbas made a speech that was largely ignored by the mainstream in terms of its absurd content and was left unchecked and unchallenged.
While Abbas is lauded as a respected and legitimate leader representing some Arabs who identify as Palestinian and is known as the “more moderate” of stakeholders on the stage of Israeli-Palestinian politics, Abba’s latest speech leaves anyone with a cursory knowledge of the events of the 20th century, and certainly the ones who lived through them, with questions of if this man going through a degenerative mental disorder?
The 87-year-old (old enough to know better as well as having been educated in Europe) offered remarks in an address at a Fatah Revolutionary Council in early September. It has been translated and published by the DC-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
Nobody in academia, the university systems, or North American politics really seems to care. I am particularly disappointed with educators as a myriad of academics across disciplines and campuses in North America continually drumbeat the demise of Israel and laud the virtues of the so-called Palestinians—and never question its leadership.
Nevertheless, President Abbas noted, with all seriousness, that Hitler did not target the Jews for their Jewishness, but for their conduct in society such as their businesses of money lending and banking practices. Not only that, he claims, Jews in Europe are not Semites (people originating from the Middle East) but are actually white Europeans whose conduct got them expelled from various locales over the centuries. All the while, Abba’s capitalized on centuries-old tropes about Jews and finances. One could not possibly engineer a more complete speech to insult Jews then, now, in Israel and worldwide: The Jews are to blame for Hitler and Europe’s anger resulting in the Holocaust—which wasn’t such a big deal anyway. European Jews are not connected to any part of the Middle East. The first Israelis persecuted Jews located in Arab lands, and Israelis are just white Europeans occupying brown people’s land.
I think this one speech really rolled in all the essentials an antisemite/anti-Zionist could hope for!
What is most outrageous is not that an agenda-driven leader makes such claims, but that nobody seems to stand up to refute them in the mainstream circles—at least not in our schools and universities where antisemitism and anti-Zionism have some sort of love affair with Palestinians their leadership to where their reputations flourish.
We can see some welcomed pushback by a few leaders (please click the link to the original article to see a few good retorts)—but I still marvel at how none of the US mainstream press covered this (that I saw).
Why must it be niche news and watchdog groups (CAM, MEMRI) that must report on these types of speeches that expose the real sentiments behind world leaders?
If Abbas’s presupposition is that Jews in Europe in the mid-20th Century were not targeted because of their racial or ethnic identity, but instead because of their conduct in society, then
1. It blames the victims and seeks to justify the actions of the perpetrator and
2. It disconnects the victims from their identity and the roots of that identity.
And, while claiming that these “not-Semitic” Jews are but a mere niche of white Europeans whom nobody else liked, it reinforces the narrative that Jews are just one more member of the alleged white supremacists who are conquering land in the Middle East and oppressing brown people.
Moreover, to disconnect the Jewishness of the victims from the motivations of the Nazis and Hitler’s murderous intentions cleanses the notion that antisemitism is alive and well then (and now) and has been for millennia in the Middle East from Egypt to Babylon to Persia and through to the age of Christendom for 2000 years in Europe.
The cancer of hate that manifests as Jew Hatred worldwide, in our schools, political leaders, entertainment, and more and manifests as Anti-Zionism when it targets Israel, the world’s only Jewish state (among a sea of Islamic states) is being woven into all facets of society and will become mainstream as much as it was back in the 1930s in Germany. The public will be so immune to the hate that it will be dismissed as harmless or packaged as a policy for the “greater good.”
Please be vigilant and hold the words of leaders accountable. Expose them, even when ignored by the press or considered inconsequential by the public. Hitler was dismissed as an outlier, a flash in the pan, an inconsequential political player—and the underestimation of his rhetoric’s effects on the public and his willingness to exercise power in extreme ways unfolded in ways that horrified the world. And yet, while we say never again, we allow leaders to continue to espouse the same hate and we continue to give them a seat at the table of the world’s political stage.
Combating Jew hate and anti-Zionism means we must pressure our leaders by insisting they stand up to anyone in the public arena who contradicts history and truth. With good morals and values, we must pressure our media to expose these public figures and our educators must also participate and share these events with students and show them what it manifests. And let us not rely only on our media and leaders, we too can participate by sharing news events such as Abbas’ speech with our networks and showing our friends, family, communities, and colleagues the false narratives and belief systems of lies that are trickling through our schools, society, and governments.
Shavua Tov. Have a great week.To access the original article, go to https://combatantisemitism.org/cam-news/palestinian-leader-abbas-claims-hitler-murdered-jews-due-to-their-social-role-and-not-their-religion/