Palestinian Authority: Jews Have No Religious Connection to Israel — They Came to Become Rich

One of the classic antisemitic libels is that Jews will do anything for money.

This old libel was propagated recently on official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV by a PA advisor. He claimed that since Jews have no religious connection to the land, they were enticed to come to Israel with the promise of higher salaries than in the West (spoiler: salaries are not higher in Israel).

This is part of the PA’s ongoing denial of the history of the Land of Israel, in order to deny Israel’s right to exist. Put simply, the PA says that Jews came to Israel not because of the right to self-determination in their historical homeland, but because they just wanted money:

Advisor to Head of The Committee to Resist Settlements and the Wall Ayed Morrar: “If an opportunity was given to the expansionist occupation [i.e., Israel] to settle in Egypt and Jordan, they would not miss the opportunity…

There is no religious or emotional connection between a resident (i.e., Jews) of the occupation state and this state. They told him: “You earn $1,000 in France. In Palestine, you can earn $1,200 or $1,500,’ and therefore he came for this reason, with international support, to be a military base for the West in the Middle East.” [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, Dec. 12, 2024]

Morrar is using classic antisemitism to dismiss thousands of years of Jewish religious, historical, and cultural history and ties to the Land of Israel, all while perpetuating the lie that Jews are a foreign, invasive force.

This antisemitic libel comes as no surprise, considering the way that PA leader Mahmoud Abbas himself has explained Hitler’s hatred as the result of Jews having “worked based on usury and money — in other words, they caused ruin in his opinion.”

Morrar’s libel is just another attempt to use ancient antisemitic hate to justify modern political narratives aimed at delegitimizing Israel.

Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is PMW’s Founder and Director. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.

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