“No Separate People”
A long forgotten 1977 interview with a PLO Leader
Zuheir Mohsen, leader of the pro-Syria as-Sa'iqa faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization gave an interview on 31 March 1977 to James Dorsey—then a young journalist working for the Dutch paper Trouw.1 ‘Wij zin alleen Palestijin om politieke reden,’ the Dutch headline quotes Mohsen, We only like Palestinian for political reasons. The article describes the intention of the PLO vis à vis Israel and Jews quite clearly — the Arab resentment of Jewish presence on Arab land. [It was Ottoman land that the Allies partitioned after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, which historically always acknowledged Eretz Yisrael but okay].
Anyhoo, Mohsen openly admits the original intent behind the establishment of the Palestinian nationalist movement—to continue the fight against Jews, who receive the label Zionist, (as a pejorative) to denote a fascist + racist nationalist.
We are part of a people, the Arab nation. … Yes the existence of a separate Palestinian identity is there only for tactical reasons … Just for political reasons carefully we underwrite our Palestinian identity. It is of national importance for the Arabs to encourage the existence of Palestinians in the face of Zionism … The establishment of a Palestinian state is a new means of continuing the fight against Israel and for Arab unity.
Zionism + Israel are euphemisms for Jews, in case you needed that little hint.
*Many of us living in the Anglo-dominated west do need that hint + reminder and we need it very often. The low-level anti-semitism embedded in western culture most of us gloss over. As the Holocaust fades from view, we risk forgetting things. Like how boycotting the only Jewish state on the planet is NOT like boycotting South Africa. Like how pro-Palestinian for many many people means anti-Jew. Like how the critical race theory genre of progressive politics has a deeply anti-semitic vibe to it.
As-Sa'iqa is Arabic for lightning, and denotes a military faction created in 1968 to provide an alternative to Yasser Arafat + his Fatah for the liberation of Palestinians. This branch of the PLO existed under the Syrian branch of the Ba’ath Party, which formed in Axis-friendly Iraq by two Nazi-sympathetic blokes. Zionistfree and OnlyOneSolution and From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free are simply modernised Arab nationalist versions of Judenfrei. One only need look at Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, where a mob of Pro-Palestinian students marched around campus shouting for intifada whilst holding a sign reading there is only one solution.
The goal of the pro-Palestinian movement = eliminate Jews.
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I see in progressive and pro-Palestinian circles the disinformation which equates Zionism with Kahanism—this seems analogous to castigating all Muslims as terrorists, unhelpful and bigoted. One cannot miss the Jew-hatred embedded in the Palestinian liberation rhetoric—when you see it you cannot un-see it. Welcome to the Hotel California you can check out anytime but you can never leave. New to the whole issue and scene, thinking the best of people as I do, when I first spotted the Jew hatred in the pro-Palestinian rhetoric I wanted to excuse it — thinking to myself, haven’t we been here before, are we still doing this thing where we hate Jews and blame them for a thing blah blah?
So, can I ask? I’m dying to know, really. So, I’m gonna just come out and ask. From what are we freeing Palestine? Progressive muppets with watermelons in their profiles tweeting free Palestine —tell me point blank: from what? Do you mean free, like Judenfrei? Cuz that’s what Article 15 of the 1968 PLO Charter pretty much says — the liberation of Palestine … attempts to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine.
This notion that the British sauntered into the Ottoman lands, took the keys to Palestine EY and rolled out the carpet for the Jews, portrayed in popular media such as this Al-Jazeera documentary I’m currently watching, simply does not jive with the on-the-ground historical accounts about the Arabist-leaning sentiment of the British. It blatantly omits vital historical facts and fails to mention the reason for increased Jewish immigration to Palestine in the 1930s. Dude, at what point does a documentary become propaganda?
As I watched the Anti-Semitic Arabs in this documentary talk about how they didn’t want Jews from Europe overrunning their lands in the 1930s and 40s I couldn’t help but think of the recent refugee crisis of Arab Muslims and the massive numbers resettled to the west, the backlash over same, and the outcry amongst the Muslim community at the perceived + racist unwelcome they received by ardent nationalists in western countries complaining about creeping sharia blah blah. Life, a boomerang—that’s my thought on that. There but for the grace of God goes I, says the adage.
Guess what—Zionist is not a swear world, assholes!
The repeated sanitisation of Grand Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husayni in Arab-biased historical accounts, be they journalistic, documentary, or in book form—I find utterly disgusting. Nazi collaboration, deliberate instigation of violent revolts that killed Jews and Arabs, participating in the overthrow of the Iraq government and instigating the pogrom against Jews there—all behaviour that constitutes sedition + crimes against humanity and all ignored by the Arab historians seeking to portray the Arabs as innocent victims. This is the most disingenuous portrayal of history—all designed to foment hatred of Jews, of Zionists, and of Israel. Arab historical accounts consistently choose to omit the accounts of Arab Nazi collaboration, sympathising, and cheering of the Nazi Final Solution.
As for the fantasy notion of this fabulously pro-Zionist Britain, that’s utter horsesh1t. In his book, I.F. Stone reported that the British eventually caved into Arab demands and blockaded Jewish refugees escaping Nazi Europe and blockaded Holocaust survivors trying enter Palestine. Note that Jews were being rounded up and gassed to death by the Germans at this time, that the British leadership knew, like many officials did. Absorb the callousness of that decision and tell me the British were pro-Zionist or pro-Jewish. I.F. Stone also reported the Americans slapping arms embargoes on Zionists whilst simultaneously arming the Arabs. I wrote about that last week. Also, Arabs seem to have amnesia about the fact that the British pulled out of Mandatory Palestine and then assisted Transjordan in the war against Israel. Finally, Churchill was absolute NOT an ardent supporter of Zionism—that’s a fabrication.
Let me end this missive by flash forwarding to present day. From what are the progressive muppets freeing Palestine? Perhaps they can complete that sentence for me, because I’m fairly dumb and need y’all to spell it out. Free Palestine … from what? Like, can you add the implied proper noun to that sentence? Also what’s your plan? Like, that Only One Solution y’all are talking about—please share the details, inquiring minds need to know. What are the pro-Palestinian plans for the 15 million Jews in Israel today? You know, for when you free Palestine?
Methinks freePalestine = Judenfrei and I will not be quiet about it.
my thanks to Martien Pennings for his diligence in tracking down this newspaper article from the Trouw archives themselves, as nothing prior to 1994 is digitised. I found a copy of the article on his blog site. This Zuheir Mohsen interview is oft-quoted online without a link to the original article + I wanted to ensure the veracity of the claims about the quote myself.