‘The awakening of American Jews’: The rampant PA antisemitism

In the eyes of the PA, Jews – not Israelis and not just Zionists, but Jews – have taken control and have a strangle hold on American institutions and decision-making.

By Maurice Hirsh, Palestinian Media Watch

As the international community attempts to combat global antisemitism, the Palestinian Authority is again showing why its population has become the most antisemitic in the world.

In the eyes of the PA, Jews – not Israelis and not just Zionists, but Jews – have taken control and have a strangle hold on American institutions and decision-making.

In the eyes of the PA, it was hatred of the Jews and the desire to “get rid of them” that pushed Great Britain to issue the 1917 Balfour Declaration and pave the way for the creation of the State of Israel.

These expressions are just a few examples of the rampant PA antisemitism regularly exposed by Palestinian Media Watch.

The now widely accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of Antisemitism includes “Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective – such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.”

Presenting the PA’s position, Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, who is a regular columnist for an official PA daily and also former advisor on national affairs to former PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and, left no room for misinterpretation or doubt.

In his article titled “The awakening of American Jews,” Al-Ghoul used all the traditional antisemitic tropes about Jews controlling American institutions, Jews controlling Western capitalism and world government, Jews joining forces with white racists, and the Zionist lobby taking $38 billion “by force from the American taxpayer”:

“The Jewish question in the US is relatively complicated and complex, due to a number of factors:

 

A. The fact that the Jewish-Zionist American families hold a central place in the three branches – the legislative, the executive, and the judicial, and necessarily in the deep state as well. Therefore, they grasp the reins of politics, economy, capital, media, the arts in general, and Hollywood in particular. They control the nerve center of the decision-making in both central political parties (the Republican and Democratic [parties]) [parentheses in source].

 

B. Through their leading position in the center of the decision-making of Western capitalism, and through their seat on the throne of capital and the industrial, military, and media sectors, they have succeeded in grasping the wheel of the world government and controlling it.

 

C. They have established strategic ties with all the groups and layers that influence American society in general, and particularly with the white racists.

 

D. Through AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the Zionist lobby, they have succeeded in deepening and expanding the support for the colonialist Zionist project state, until the financial aid in the last decade reached $38 billion per year (sic., apparently refers to agreement for $38 billion in American military aid to Israel over the decade of 2017-2028, not an annual amount of $38 billion), which they took by force from the American taxpayer. This is in addition to the military and logistical aid and the strategic security cooperation.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 14, 2022]

Expressing a similar form of Antisemitism spokesperson for PLO General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW) Wisam Al-Rais argued that the “Jews’ influence” in Britain and Europe had increased and the Jews were “generally hated by the masses.” Therefore, according to Al-Rais, British support for a Jewish homeland simply reflected a “need to get rid” of the Jews in a manner that would serve British interests.

Spokesperson for PLO General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW) Wisam Al-Rais: “The Jews’ influence increased both in Britain and in the rest of Europe, and they were generally hated by the masses. There was a need to get rid of them, but in a manner that would suit Britain’s interests. They [wanted to] plant a foreign body in the Arab homeland. This body would serve their interests and carry out their plans, and it would be a knife in the heart of the Arab world.”

[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Nov. 7, 2022]

Al-Ghoul has made similar assertions in the past, espousing the PA narrative that the Western countries were so burdened by the evil nature of the Jews that they created Israel to get rid of them:

“The West has derived benefit from Israel for 80 years. It was created by the capitalist Western colonialists in order to achieve two goals; the first, to get rid of the Jewish problem in their countries, and the second, to realize the West’s colonialist aspirations in the Arab world: to steal its people’s resources, to thwart its development, to prevent the revival of the pan-Arab awakening enterprise, and to settle the historical Crusader accounts with the Arabs and Muslims.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 8, 2021]

Al-Ghoul has also argued that all Palestinians and Arabs know that Israel was created simply as a means to “destroy every spark of hope for the revival of the Arab nation”:

“All the Palestinians and Arabs – including simple people – know that colonialist Zionist Israel is the West’s creation, its pawn, its illegitimate daughter, and its front line in the Arab homeland. They created it in Palestine… in order to eliminate and destroy every spark of hope for the revival of the Arab nation.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 6, 2022]

It is antisemitic sentiments such as these that were most probably reflected in a 2014 ADL poll, which found that 93% the Highest in the world of Palestinian adults – 1,900,000 out of 2,030,259 – harbor antisemitic attitudes. Since then, under the continued rule of the PA, nothing has changed.

AntisemitismPalestinian AuthorityPalestinian Media Watch