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Abbas, Erekat: Arabs Here for 'Thousands' of Years

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JERUSALEM, Israel -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told 300 Israeli students over the weekend that Arabs have lived in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) for thousands of years.

The P.A. leader hosted a largely left-leaning group, according to Jerusalem Post reporter Gil Hoffman. One Voice sponsored the event.

Abbas told the students he was neither a Holocaust denier (despite his doctoral thesis on the subject) nor an anti-Semite, saying Arabs had been living in the land for thousands of years before the "settlers" arrived, and no Jews would live in a future Palestinian state.

"Settlers cannot be equated with people who have been living in this land for thousands of years," he said.

Abbas also claimed he has no intention of changing the demographics in Israel.

"The Israeli propaganda that I intend to flood Israel with five million refugees is nonsense," he said. He didn't mention that Israel, which he envisions within the pre-1967 armistice lines, will be responsible for resettling any who emigrate from surrounding Arab countries.

Abbas, whose four-year term as president expired on Jan. 9, 2009, told students he will never recognize Israel as the Jewish nation-state and a future Palestinian state will be Judenrein -- the German term meaning devoid of Jews. He also said the Palestinian Authority would not share sovereignty on the Temple Mount, but Jews would still be allowed to pray at the Western Wall.

Meanwhile, at a conference in Munich earlier this month, P.A. chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat said he's a descendant of the Canaanites, thereby predating the Israelites.

"I am the proud son of the Canaanites who were there 5,500 years before Joshua Ben Nun burned down the town of Jericho," he said.

But numerous historians took exception to that statement.

The German publication Allegemeiner said Erekat's family tree, posted on his Facebook page, shows he's descended from a tribe that originated in Saudi Arabia.

"His family is part of the Huwaitat tribe, now one of the largest in Jordan, who migrated from Medina to the desert and the Levant settling on Aqaba, then coming to Israel many decades ago, but not centuries nor millennia," the report stated.

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About The Author

Tzippe
Barrow

From her perch high atop the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, Tzippe Barrow tries to provide a bird’s eye view of events unfolding in her country. Tzippe’s parents were born to Russian Jewish immigrants, who fled the czar’s pogroms to make a new life in America. As a teenager, Tzippe wanted to spend a summer in Israel, but her parents, sensing the very real possibility that she might want to live there, sent her and her sister to Switzerland instead. Twenty years later, the Lord opened the door to visit the ancient homeland of her people.