Imagine You Were Abbas, Giving A Speech To The United Nations

Acting President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was lucky enough to be given a platform at the United Nations on May 15, 2023 to discuss the 75^th anniversary of what Palestinians call the “Nakba,” the events surrounding the formation of Israel in which Arabs first rejected Jews being given any part of Palestine and then lost a war to destroy Israel. At war’s end, Israel denied admitting roughly 700,000 Palestinian Arabs who had left the fighting area while they waited for the Jewish State to be destroyed by five invading Arab armies. It was the first time that the United Nations held such event, and Abbas was given the floor to address the global body.

If you were in Abbas’ shoes, you probably would have prepared and rehearsed a compelling speech of 25 to 30 minutes, meant to draw support for your positions.

You would have thanked the world for forming UNRWA, a distinct body only for Palestine refugees, funded at levels far more than every other actual refugee fleeing wars overseen by UNHCR. Such appreciation would hopefully make the generous sponsors continue to fund their perennial Arab wards.

You would have relayed the refugee situation in a sympathetic light, as people who have benefited from the work of several UN agencies but still long for citizenship, whether in a new state of Palestine or in Israel.

You would have described the desire for coexistence with the Jewish State. In evidence of such, you might have shown empathy with Jews to show sincerity of living together in peace.

Abbas did none of these things.

He actually did the exact opposite.

Abbas rambled to the audience for roughly an hour, seemingly without care that he lost the crowd’s attention early on.

He lied about the Palestinian Arabs, saying that they were descendants of Canaanites when it is common knowledge that ARABS came from ARABIA in the seventh and eighth centuries as part of the Muslim invasion of the Middle East and North Africa. He said that roughly 1 million Arabs became refugees due to Israel’s wars in 1948 and 1967, when the commonly used figures range from 700,000 to 750,000 (even though those figures are often doubted). Why exaggerate the Arab position to undermine your credibility?

Rather than thank the United States and the United Kingdom for billions of dollars in aid donated to Palestinians over the decades, Abbas blamed them for launching a “colonial” implant in Palestine and demanded an apology.

Rather than portraying the Palestinians as ready for peace, Abbas declared that Jews have no history in the holy land and the Jewish temples never existed in Jerusalem – as if billions of Christians never read the bible.

Rather than talking about homes in Israel that had belonged to Arabs, he talked about towns that no longer existed and were replaced with forests and parks.

*Mahmoud Abbas sporting a key on his lapel as if he owns a home in Israel and is ready to move in, addressing the United Nations in May 2023*

Rather than display an understanding of international law and argue in a consistent fashion, Abbas argued both sides of UNGA Resolutions 181 and 194, saying that it was wrong and unlawful for foreign countries to create a Jewish State in Palestine and to make Greater Bethlehem and Greater Jerusalem a holy basin under international rule on one hand, but on the other hand Israel should be forced to admit the descendants of refugees per the same resolution.

Most tellingly, Abbas ignored the key phrase in UNGA Res. 194 Article 11 which conditioned any return of refugees or compensation to be based on the Arabs’ willingness “to live at peace with their neighbors [in Israel].” Abbas’ various slanders against Israel – including calling Jews Nazi-like – made clear to everyone that Palestinians deserve absolutely nothing.

*Abbas comparing Jews to Nazis, the people who committed a genocide against them, a heinous antisemitic comparison.*

Abbas squandered an opportunity to show himself a statesman, with the ability to forge peace with Israel. Instead, he showcased why the majority of Palestinian Arabs want him to resign and consider the Palestinian Authority to be a corrupt burden on their lives.

The only people who stayed for Abbas’s disgraceful speech were die-hard Palestinian supporters, and even they must have cringed at the performance. Unless they also see the pathway to a Palestinian State as trampling upon the sovereignty of a member state by a raging antisemite.

ACTION ITEM

EMAIL REP. JAMAAL BOWMAN (NY16) “Mahmoud Abbas’s vile display of antisemitism at the ‘Nakba Day’ event at the UN made readily apparent the unwillingness of Palestinians to ‘live in peace with Israel’, and negates any supposed rights of descendants of refugees to move into Israel.”