A history program on official Palestinian Authority television has repeated an odious PA distortion of history.
Since its inception, the PA has been rewriting the history of Zionism, teaching that the Jews came to Israel not because of their historical ties to the land, but because Europe wanted to be rid of "the burden of its Jews," [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 12, 1998] and "wanted to get rid of the Jews and their problems,"
This message has appeared again in a PA TV history program, Witnesses and Testimonies. The program featured two Jordanian academics, who explained that the Jews' behavior had been "harmful" to Europeans because of the Jews' "great love of money." They cited Shakespeare's fictitious character, the moneylender Shylock, as proof of this Jewish trait.
"This is how they harmed the societies that embraced them," one of the academics explained.
Click here to see excerpt from the TV program.
As Palestinian Media Watch has reported, the idea that Jews were a threat to every nation in which they lived, and therefore had to be expelled, is an essential concept in the Palestinian Authority's denial of the Jewish connection to Israel, and the denial of Israel's right to exist.
According to this historical revision, Jews never had a history in Israel and would therefore never have created and supported the Zionist movement. In order to explain the Jewish ties to Israel, the PA claims that the Jews were so despised and were such a threat to every country in which they lived that the European nations sent their Jews to Israel to be free of the Jewish "burden."
PA TV is controlled by the office of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Click here to see more examples from PMW's website about the PA's portrayal of Zionism as a European plot to get rid of the Jews.
Following is an excerpt from the program:
Jordanian academic Arafat Hijazi:
"150 years ago, when there were no Jews in Palestine, the Jews were in Europe, in Eastern Europe, but the Jews suffered from persecution by the European nations.
The reason was that they would harm the people of the lands in which they lived.
They had a problem: Wherever they went, they were expelled, and were imprisoned."
Jordanian academic Muhammad Dohal:
"The Jews are hated in every society in which they have lived, because of their behavior relating to their great love of money.
Their behavior led to [Shakespeare's] famous story, the story of Shylock about money lending, which clings to the Jews. This is how they harm ed the societies that embraced them."
[PA TV (Fatah), Oct. 10 and 17, 2010]
