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URGENT OPEN LETTER FROM IFLAC TO PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS
By Dr. Ada Aharoni (Australia)
Dear President Abbas,
When we at “Iflac: The International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace”, saw you march in Paris in the protest against the killing of the journalists of “Charlie Hebdo” and the four Jews at the “Supermarket Kasher”, we became still more convinced that you are a reliable partner for the forthcoming peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
Unfortunately, not all Israelis are convinced that you are a reliable partner. It is very important to convince them before the general elections in Israel in mid-March, so as to promote the path of true peace. This is why we urgently apply to you President Abbas, to help us strengthen your status as the only reliable Palestinian partner for peace between our two people.
The strengthening of your Status as a reliable Partner
To strengthen your status as a reliable Partner we suggest two radical changes.
Our first request concerns the removal from your Facebook and from all other public display of your offending inaccurate Doctoral Thesis and your book based on it: The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism (Arabic: al-Wajh al-Akhar: al-'Alaqat asSirriya bayna an-Naziya wa's-Sihyuniya, 1984). Concerning the false contents of this book, you later wrote: “We were at war withIsrael.Today I would not have made such remarks". You have repeatedly agreed that the information in your thesis about the Jews collaborating with Hitler during the Second World War and other inaccuracies were false, so why display the Thesis and your Book with this false information?
Already in 2003 when you were appointed Palestinian Prime Minister, you wrote: "The Holocaust was a terrible, unforgivable crime against the Jewish nation, a crime against humanity that cannot be accepted by humankind". And in an interview in 2011 you emphasized that you do “not deny the Holocaust” and that you accept that there were six million victims in the horrible Nazi Holocaust. And lately, in October 2014, you stated again that the Holocaust was the “most heinous crime in the modern era”. These are the statements that should be widely displayed in schools, universities and on the public media, that would strengthen your status as a reliable Partner.
When Israelis see your offending thesis and book displayed, they have the impression that you still stand behind their offending contents, and it weakens their belief in you as a partner. We hope that you will soon remove your Doctoral Thesis and your book based on it, from your Facebook, and from the public eye, so that it can strengthen peace between our two people. We also suggest that you widely publish your backtracking on your former inaccurate views concerning the Nazi Holocaust, and that you widely publish your new enlightened and accurate views on the Nazi Holocaust, in all public media and schools, in both Arabic and in English. Our second request is still more urgent, important and central to the renewal of talks between Palestinians and Israelis, after March 2015.
We at Iflac are glad of your alliance with Hamas and that you are now the responsible authority for all the Palestinians people. We hope that you will be able to recognize the State of Israel and to denounce violence against it. Unfortunately, in the HAMAS CHARTER there are unacceptable clauses which we call upon you and upon the Hamas leaders to immediately delete if you want the peace talks to be resumed:
- First of all, the Preamble to the Hamas Charter that states: ″Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam invalidates it…″ has to be deleted.
Israel has no intention whatsoever to be destroyed or to let Islam invade it! The State of Israel will protect its citizens with all its might, as it always did in the past, from any renewal of bombing from Hamas. What will happen if Hamas renews again its attacks on Israel with rockets shot on peaceful Israeli villages, is that Gaza will be destroyed again, and the poor Palestinian people will be those who will suffer most, still more than in the past!
- Article 7 of the Hamas Charter with the following hate language in it also has to be deleted:
The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!
- Article number 13 states: “There is no negotiated settlement possible. Jihad is the only answer”.
If so, why has Hamas recently requested again to renew the peace talks with Israel? On what basis? The basis that “no negotiated settlement is possible” is an impossible basis for two serious partners to discuss peace. This article 13 has to be eliminated immediately, if both you President Abbas and the Hamas leaders are serious in wanting the peace talks to succeed this time.
- Article number 14 calls for: “The liberation of Palestine is the personal duty of every
Palestinian.”
This article too is also in a counter direction to genuine peace negotiations. Article 14 instigates hatred of Israel and it strengthens the will of every Palestinian to destroy Israel and its people. This article too has to be immediately deleted if you want serious and responsible peace talks to take place between the two sides of the Palestinian – Israeli Conflict.
- Article 28: “Conspiracy indictment against "Israel, Judaism and Jews"[21][25]. This too is a completely negative and false accusation against the Jewish people and Israel, as we see from their following statement: “The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion. It does not refrain from resorting to all methods, using all evil and contemptible ways to achieve its end. It relies greatly in its infiltration and espionage operations ….They aim at undermining societies, destroying values, corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and annihilating Islam”.
As the negative and false articles above, also Article 28 is not only basically totally false, but it also aims at propounding its dishonest views as vicious and poisonous Palestinian propaganda. It too should also be immediately eliminated as its lies and false statements present a wrong image of Israel which leads to hatred of the Jewish people. Israel is a legitimate State recognized and voted for, by the majority of the United Nations in November 1947, and not a “vicious invasion”. Among the blatant lies in this article is that Israel’s aim is “annihilating Islam”! Israel has no intention whatsoever of “annihilating Islam”, its intention is to live in peace and good relations with its peaceful Muslim neighbors.
Please President Abbas, do your best to convince from your own experience, that “War, violence and hatred” are not the way to an honest and lasting Peace Treaty between two people who are earnest in reaching reconciliation and peace. The way is to come to the peace table with an open heart and mind and not with false negative conceptions and fixed defamation of the partner. Only in this way can the negotiations between two open, honest and willing partners reach a successful result, accepted by both sides.
The offending articles above in the Hamas Charter should be eliminated at once, as well as a general revision of the aim of all the Covenant, if we really want the forthcoming peace negotiations to succeed this time. No talks can start with a partner who from the outset wants to destroy your country and to kill all its inhabitants. So, please President Mahmoud Abbas do your best to convince the Hamas leaders now that they have asked for the renewal of the peace talks with Israel, that they should revise all the negative aspects of their Covenant, and delete at once all the four unacceptable articles mentioned above.
In addition, you can remind the leaders of Hamas that more than half the citizens of Israel are Jews who fled or were thrown out from the Arab countries, with only their shirts on their backs, after 1948. In every conflict both sides suffer, like the Palestinians, the Jews from Arab countries in Israel were also tragic victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict. However, they did not
commit any “Intefada” on anybody.
We at IFLAC are convinced that you honorable President Mahmoud Abbas have the full authority and the wide experience and wisdom to convince the leaders of Hamas to make these radical changes in their Covenant as soon as possible, so that it can convince all the Israelis that you President Abbas are indeed the only responsible and reliable partner that can lead both our people to Peace.
Dear President Abbas, we are looking forward to your positive response to our plea that will indeed strengthen both our people in the path to a Peace Treaty, like the one with Egypt and the one with Jordan. A Peace Treaty would give the opportunity to the Palestinian people to have a peaceful State of their own and to flourish by the side of their neighbor Israel.
Inshallah! Halvai! May it Be!
Dr. Ada Aharoni
IFLAC Founding President ada.aharoni06@gmail.com www.iflac.com/ada
Email : ada.aharoni06@gmail.com
Moran Balaish
IFLAC Assistant Moran.bala@gmail.com www.iflac.wordpress.com
