Mahmoud Abbas: Jews' "social role... usury" caused "massacres every 10 to 15 years" and the Holocaust; Jews were hated because of their own behavior
Jews' behavior responsible for Antisemitism - says Mahmoud Abbas
by Itamar Marcus
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas exposed his antisemitic beliefs in a speech this week opening the 23rd session of the Palestinian National Council, the legislative body of the PLO.
The main antisemitic elements of his talk were:
- The Jews brought Antisemitism upon themselves because of their "social roles" connected to "usury and banks"j
- It was this Jewish behavior that led to "massacres by some state every 10 to 15 years from the 11th century until the Holocaust"
In addition, Abbas denied Jewish history and the connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. He argued that Ashkenazi Jews are the descendants of the Khazar Kingdom - "a Tatar-Turkic state" - who have no connection to the 12 tribes of Jacob in the Bible. He rejected completely any Jewish connection to the land of Israel:
"They are talking about longing for Zion and that's why they are going [there] and so forth. I say - not me, rather history says that these words are baseless."
[Official PA TV, April 30, 2018]
The following are the main parts of Abbas' talk concerning these subjects. Abbas defends his antisemitic claims, citing Jewish sources for some of his remarks. (See below):
"The sons of Jacob were 12. Where did you bring 13 from? They invented it. Where? In the Khazar Kingdom. When? In the 9th century. It was an irreligious kingdom. Afterwards it became a Jewish kingdom. The emperor converted to Judaism and therefore [the kingdom] converted to Judaism. Afterwards it broke apart, and all its residents migrated to Europe, and these are the Ashkenazi Jews (this claim is rejected by experts and genetic testing confirms uniform origin of the different Jewish communities-Ed.). The Ashkenazi Jews are not Semites, and they have no connection to Semitism or Abraham, Jacob, or others. It was a Tatar-Turkic state...
Second, these Jews who migrated to eastern and western Europe were subjected to massacres by some state every 10 to 15 years from the 11th century until the Holocaust that took place in Germany. OK, but why did this happen? They say: 'Because we are Jews.'...
The hatred of the Jews is not due to their religion, but rather due to their social role. If so, it's a different issue. And therefore, the Jewish problem that was common in all of the states of Europe against the Jews was not due to their religion, but rather due to their social role that was connected to usury, and banks, and so forth...
Now we are talking about the Jewish homeland. They are talking about longing for Zion and that's why they are going [there] and so forth. I say - not me, rather history says that these words are baseless."
Abbas' claims denying the origin of the Jews and their connection to the land of Israel have been rejected by scholars as well as by numerous genetic researchers. The genetic research shows Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews from around the world "'shares a set of common genetic threads' dating back to their common origin in the Middle East." Here is one example of this research:
"Researchers collected DNA from Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, and Ashkenazi Jews around New York City; Turkish Sephardic Jews in Seattle; Greek Sephardic Jews in Thessaloniki and Athens; and Italian Jews in Rome as part of the Jewish HapMap Project...
Geneticist Harry Ostrer of NYU Langone Medical Center, who led the study... [said] each Diaspora group has distinctive genetic features "representative of each group's genetic history," he says, but each also "shares a set of common genetic threads" dating back to their common origin in the Middle East.
The DNA analysis undermines the claim that most of today's Jews, particularly the Ashkenazi, are the direct lineal descendants of converted Khazars... Instead, find the scientists, at most there was "limited admixture with local populations, including Khazars and Slavs ... during the 1,000-year (second millennium) history of the European Jews."
...
Michael Hammer of the University of Arizona, made the first big splash when he discovered that... one specific genetic marker on the Y chromosome (which is passed on from father to son, as membership in the priestly family would be) is found in 98.5 percent of people who self-identify as Cohanim, he and colleagues reported in a 1997 paper in Nature (the PBS science series Nova did a nice segment on that work, summarized here). The Cohanim DNA has been found in both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, evidence that it predates the time when the two groups diverged, about 1,000 years ago. DNA can also be used to infer when particular genetic markers appeared, and suggests that the Cohanim emerged about 106 generations ago, making it fall during what is thought to be the period of the exodus from Egypt, and thus Aaron's lifetime."
[Newsweek, June 2, 2010]
The following is a longer excerpt from Abbas' speech:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "I have read many books, all by Jewish authors, and also all of them by Zionist authors. In other words, they aren't ours and are not from here or there. Authors of Zionist and Jewish books have noted what I want to say now.
First, one of the authors whose name is Arthur Koestler - an American Zionist Jew - wrote a book The Thirteenth Tribe. The thirteenth tribe means - sir, they are 12 tribes [of Israel]! These [Ashkenazi Jews] are the thirteenth tribe. In other words, the sons of Jacob were 12. Where did you bring 13 from? They invented it. Where? In the Khazar Kingdom. When? In the 9th century. It was an irreligious kingdom. Afterwards it became a Jewish kingdom. The emperor converted to Judaism and therefore [the kingdom] converted to Judaism. Afterwards it broke apart, and all its residents migrated to Europe, and these are the Ashkenazi Jews (this claim is rejected by experts and genetic testing confirms uniform origin of the different Jewish communities - Ed.). The Ashkenazi Jews are not Semites, and they have no connection to Semitism or Abraham, Jacob, or others. It was a Tatar-Turkic state, it was irreligious and afterwards became Jewish, and the Jews began to say 'the Promised Land' and I'm Semitic and I'm denying them! The one saying this is not me, but rather the Zionist American Jew Arthur Koestler. This is one point.
Second, these Jews who migrated to eastern and western Europe were subjected to massacres by some state every 10 to 15 years from the 11th century until the Holocaust that took place in Germany. OK, but why did this happen? They say: 'Because we are Jews.' Now I want to mention three Jews [who wrote] three books, including [Soviet leader] Joseph Stalin. I assume we all know Stalin, right? Stalin was Jewish (sic.), and another man whose name was Abraham Leon, and another man whose name was Isaac Deutscher.
The three of them say that the hatred of the Jews is not due to their religion- (the audience calls out that Abbas meant Karl Marx instead of Joseph Stalin -Ed.) Karl Marx, Karl Marx, I apologize. The hatred of the Jews is not due to their religion, but rather due to their social role. If so, it's a different issue. And therefore, the Jewish problem that was common in all of the states of Europe against the Jews was not due to their religion, but rather due to their social role that was connected to usury, and banks, and so forth. The proof of this is that there were Jews in the Arab states. Why did not a single incident take place against the Jews because of them being Jews? (sic., there were many atrocities against Jews in Arab countries. See "In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands," by Martin Gilbert -Ed.) Not even one incident. You claim that I'm exaggerating? I challenge [anyone claiming] that any incident took place against the Jews during 1,400 years in any Arab state due to them being Jews! They occurred in Europe for this reason. This is a second point.
Now we are talking about the Jewish homeland. They are talking about longing for Zion and that's why they are going [there] and so forth. I say - not me, rather history says that these words are baseless."
[Official PA TV, April 30, 2018]