‘The US is occupying Palestine, not Israel’ – Abbas

Palestinian Authority chairman calls Israeli independence ‘ a big lie,’ says the US is occupying Palestine.

By World Israel News Staff

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas accused the U.S. of “occupying Palestine,” while denying Israel’s independence at a conference in Ramallah on Tuesday.

According to the Palestinian Authority’s Sama News outlet, Abbas made the comments as part of an address at the “Digital Life and Creativity” conference in Ramallah Tuesday afternoon.

Abbas accused Israel of limiting civil rights for women, claiming that women in the Palestinian Authority enjoy greater rights than women in the Jewish state.

The 87-year-old PA chairman linked this claim to clashes in Tel Aviv last week which broke out between worshippers praying during the Yom Kippur holiday and left-wing activists who tore down a makeshift divider between female and male worshippers.

“Compare this with what happened a few days before the war against women in [Israel] because they are an impure gender and it is not permissible for them to walk with men in demonstrations,” Abbas said.

Abbas went on to deny Israeli independence, calling the idea a “big lie.”

“When Israel says that it is celebrating its independence day, it has gained independence from whom? Who was occupying the State of Israel so that it celebrates the anniversary of its freedom from this occupation? This is a big lie.”

Furthermore, Abbas said, Israel is not the primary power responsible for the alleged “occupation” of Palestine; rather the United States is to blame.

“America is the one occupying Palestine.”

In August, Abbas claimed that Adolf Hitler had been justified in persecuting Jews, denying that the Holocaust was motivated by bigotry and racial hatred, arguing instead that the Nazi party targeted Jews because of the negative economic role they allegedly played in Germany.

“They say that Hitler killed the Jews because they were Jews and that Europe hated the Jews because they were Jews. Not true. It was clearly explained that [the Europeans] fought [the Jews] because of their social role, and not their religion,” Abbas said.

“The Europeans fought against these people because of their role in society, which had to do with usury, money and so on and so forth,” the P.A. president continued.

Mahmoud AbbasPalestinian AuthorityUnited States