Israel Policy Forum condemns Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for his statements to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul. Abbas denied a Jewish connection to Jerusalem and trafficked in anti-Semitic tropes, neither of which is acceptable in any way, shape, or form.
Palestinian claims to Jerusalem should be respected and recognized, but not at the expense of Jewish ones. In continually denying thousands of years of history and tradition, Abbas reveals his own hypocrisy, myopia, and refusal to engage with basic facts.
This cannot be chalked up to frustration or dismissed as part of the soft bigotry of low expectations that often accompanies treatment of Palestinian anti-Semitic incitement. Abbas’s words should be unreservedly condemned by all.
Words like those spoken by Abbas are offensive and set back the cause of peace.No two-state solution will be negotiable or sustainable so long as such incitement is fomented by Abbas and the Palestinian leadership.
