Palestinians from across the political spectrum have strongly condemned Ra’am (United Arab List) leader and MK Mansour Abbas for recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.
On Tuesday, Abbas was quoted as saying, “The State of Israel was born as a Jewish state, and it will remain one.” He made the statement at a conference of the Hebrew economic newspaper Globes.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has repeatedly stated his refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, on Wednesday expressed outrage over the statements of the Arab MK.
“These irresponsible statements are consistent with the calls of extremists in Israel to displace the Palestinians and harm the status of the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque and the history of the Palestinian people,” he said in a statement released by the PA president’s office.
The statement added that Mansour Abbas represents only himself when he talks about accepting Israel as a Jewish state.
“He does not represent the Palestinian people at home and everywhere in the world,” the statement read, adding that such remarks “contradict religion, history and Palestinian heritage.”
Accusing Mansour Abbas of being part of a “current that promotes the Zionist colonial project,” the PA statement continued, “It is unfortunate that instead of siding with the rights of his people and condemning the settlements, killings and displacement committed by the occupation and the plans of Israeli extremists to empty Palestinian lands, we see him repeating the lies of the Zionist movement.”
The PLO Executive Committee, which consists of representatives of several Palestinian factions, expressed “strong condemnation” for the statements of Mansour Abbas, saying they do not reflect the views of the Palestinians.
The committee accused the Arab MK of supporting Israeli “racist” laws and aligning himself with the “right-wing, racist and extremist policy” of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked.
Additionally, the committee accused Mansour Abbas of “repudiating the history of our people and their struggle and sacrifices.”
The ruling Fatah faction, which is headed by Mahmoud Abbas, described the Arab MK’s statements as “cheap alignment with the Zionist narrative, which falsely monopolizes the history of Palestine.”
The faction accused Mansour Abbas of “crossing all redlines” and “turning his back on his people and their national cause by throwing himself into the arms of Zionism.”
Fatah added, “Mansour Abbas represents only himself, and his fate and the fate of those like him will be in the dustbin of history.”
Fatah dissidents also expressed outrage over the statements and accused Mansour Abbas of being a “Zionist Arab.”
Ali Abu Sarhan, an official with the Democratic Reform Movement in Fatah headed by exiled Fatah operative Mohammad Dahlan, accused the Arab MK of “sacrificing” the rights of the Palestinian people to serve the “Zionist enterprise.”
Hamas, for its part, said that the statements of Mansour Abbas concerning the Jewish state “represent a flagrant bias in favor of the Zionist narrative, and a clear violation of the position of the Palestinian national consensus.”
The Iran-backed terrorist group ruling the Gaza Strip said the statements were “a clear endorsement” of the Jewish Nation-State Law that was approved by the Knesset in 2018.
The controversial law, which has been denounced by many Arab-Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, states, “The right to exercise national self-determination” in Israel is “unique to the Jewish people.”
Hamas said that despite Mansour Abbas’s statements regarding the Jewish identity of Israel, the Palestinians will “remain steadfast on their historical land and refuse to give up an inch of it.”