Foreign secretary tells Mahmoud Abbas to stop spouting “disgusting antisemitic tropes”
James Cleverly, the UK Foreign Secretary, has said that Mahmoud Abbas must stop spreading antisemitic tropes.
The comments came during an address to the World Summit on Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, ahead of Mr Cleverly’s meeting with officials from the Palestinian Authority, which Mr Abbas heads.
Referring to Mr Abbas’ recent speech, which contained a tirade of antisemitic tropes, Mr Cleverly said: “When I meet with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, I will make it clear that rather than spreading disgusting antisemitic tropes and outrageous distortions of history, they should be clear in their denouncement of violence.”
He continued: “The PA [Palestinian Authority] should be clear that there is no acceptance for brutality and terrorism. It should be clear that there is no excuse to target Israelis, particularly Israeli civilians, because that is the only way that peace is possible.”
Mr Cleverly also said during his speech that Israel’s “right to self-defence belongs exclusively to Israel’s security forces who operate within the line of international law”.
Referring to Iran’s involvement in attacks on the Jewish state, Mr Cleverly said: “Iran refuses to take responsibility for their complicity in these attacks, but we in the UK are under no illusion about Iran’s maligned role.”
Mr Abbas’ speech was given on 24th August to the Revolutionary Council of Fatah. In the speech, Mr Abbas claimed that Jews were not “Semites” and were actually descendants of the Khazars. The Khazar myth is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that claims that Jews are descended from a Central Asian people and have no connection to the Land of Israel. He did, however, make the distinction that, in his view, Sephardi Jews are Semites “because they originated in the Arabian Peninsula”.
Mr Abbas also said in his speech: “They say that Hitler killed the Jews for being Jews and that Europe hated the Jews because they were Jews.”
He added, “It was clearly explained that [the Europeans] fought [the Jews] because of their social role, and not their religion. Several authors wrote about this. Even Karl Marx said this was not true. He said that the enmity was not directed at Judaism as a religion, but to Judaism for its social role.”
Referring to Hitler, Mr Abbas continued: “He said he fought the Jews because they were dealing with usury and money. In his view, they were engaged in sabotage, and this is why he hated them. We just want to make this point clear. This was not about semitism and antisemitism.”
Following Mr Abbas’ speech, Paris revoked his Medal of the City of Paris. The medal was awarded to Mr Abbas in 2015 in “recognition of his actions towards finding peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis”.
Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism worldwide.
