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PA Leaders Appropriate the Holocaust as Crime Against Palestinians
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C) alongside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, July 26, 2023. Photo: Reuters/Palestinian Presidents’ Office
For years, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been defining its situation as a Holocaust-like tragedy that is happening to Palestinians.
Now, senior PA leaders are invoking the Holocaust to say that the Palestinian experience is on a level worse than the atrocities committed against the Jews. This is all in an effort to demonize the Jewish people, and thus to incite violence against them.
In an interview with the Voice of Palestine posted on Facebook on Feb. 10, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, who is PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations, said:
It may be that what the Palestinian people is experiencing now was not experienced by humanity in World War II, and was not experienced by humanity during [any] war. The tragedies, massacres, and holocaust in the operation by Israel, the occupation state, in the Gaza Strip did not happen even in World War II, which they speak about all the time, about the Holocaust that they underwent. Now they are committing a worse and more criminal holocaust against the Palestinian people. [emphasis added]
In another post on Facebook, the same Al-Habbash, who is also the PA’s Supreme Shariah judge and the chairman of the Supreme Council for Shariah Justice, introduced another video of his with text that said:
The Gaza Strip is being subjected to a holocaust and famine as a result of the Israeli aggression and the war of annihilation that Israel is carrying out under American auspices. [emphasis added]
In the video of his interview with Egyptian Extra TV News on Feb. 24, Al-Habbash went on to say:
We stand before a holocaust, facing a massacre, facing a human tragedy that is taking place before the eyes of the world, and there are still those, and more precisely the US, who are continuing to give a green light for this aggression to continue claiming more lives. [emphasis added]
Another PA official of significance, Mundir Mar’i, who is a Palestinian National Council member, said in a YouTube video posted on the Falestinona channel, which serves Fatah’s Information and Culture Commission in Lebanon:
I compare Netanyahu to [Joseph] Goebbels, who was the Nazi propaganda minister … Now we are going in the same direction and on the same path. Goebbels was the propaganda minister, and now he has parallels in the form of Benjamin Netanyahu, [Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel] Smotrich, and [Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar] Ben Gvir. [emphasis added]
The Palestinian National Council, which is the legislative body of the PLO, made further use of the term Nazi in a statement:
March 8 [2024] [i.e., International Women’s Day] is arriving this year at a time when the women of Palestine are experiencing the darkest days in modern history, both in the West Bank and in Jerusalem [sic., apparent intent is “and in the Gaza Strip”], and are suffering at the Nazi military checkpoints. [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 9, 2024]
These statements follow a CBC interview with Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub in which he said:
The scope of the aggression against the Gaza Strip is unprecedented in history. In other words, there has been no precedent to the scope of the victims, the scope of the destruction, and the scope of the killing and genocide, even in World War II. [emphasis added]
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Feb. 3, 2024]
The attempts by these PA officials to reframe the Holocaust as a Palestinian experience is part of their subversive campaign to paint the Jewish people as the monster, and thus to justify terror. By drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, the campaign reveals itself as one of the manifestations of antisemitism described by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
It is time for the world to recognize the Palestinian Authority’s antisemitism, and to begin condemning it.
The author is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
The post PA Leaders Appropriate the Holocaust as Crime Against Palestinians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Nominates State Dept Spokeswoman Bruce as US Deputy Representative to UN
FILE PHOTO: U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce speaks during her first press briefing at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was nominating State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce as the next US deputy representative to the United Nations.
Bruce has been the State Department spokesperson since Trump took office in January.
In a post on social media in which Trump announced her nomination, the president said she did a “fantastic job” as State Department spokesperson. Bruce will need to be confirmed for the role by the US Senate, where Trump’s Republican Party holds a majority.
During press briefings, she has defended the Trump administration’s foreign policy decisions ranging from an immigration crackdown and visa revocations to US responses to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza, including a widely condemned armed private aid operation in the Palestinian territory.
Bruce was previously a political contributor and commentator on Fox News for over 20 years.
She has also authored books like “Fear Itself: Exposing the Left’s Mind-Killing Agenda” that criticized liberals and left-leaning viewpoints.
In a post after Trump’s announcement, Bruce thanked him and suggested that the role was a “few weeks” away. Neither Trump nor Bruce mentioned an exact timeline in their online posts.
“Now I’m blessed that in the next few weeks my commitment to advancing America First leadership and values continues on the global stage in this new post,” Bruce wrote on X.
Trump has picked former White House national security adviser Mike Waltz to be his U.N. envoy. Waltz’s Senate confirmation for that role, wherein he will be Bruce’s boss, is still due.
Waltz was Trump’s national security adviser until he was ousted on May 1 after he was caught up in a March scandal involving a Signal chat among top Trump national security aides on military strikes in Yemen. Trump then nominated Waltz as his U.N. ambassador.
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Iran Says IAEA Official to Visit for Talks, No Access to Nuclear Sites Planned
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
A senior official from the U.N. nuclear watchdog will fly to Iran for talks on Monday, but no visit to nuclear sites is planned, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday.
Since Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites during a 12-day war in June, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been unable to access Iran’s facilities, despite IAEA chief Rafael Grossi stating that inspections remain his top priority.
Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31, which led the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors to declare Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.
Iran, which denies seeking nuclear weapons, said it remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“Negotiations with the IAEA will be held tomorrow to determine a framework for cooperation,” Araghchi said on his Telegram account.
“A Deputy Director General of Grossi will come to Tehran tomorrow, while there are no plans to visit any nuclear sites until we reach a framework.”
Last month, Iran enacted a law passed by parliament suspending cooperation with the IAEA. The law stipulates that any future inspection of Iran’s nuclear sites by the IAEA needs approval by Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council.
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Over 400,000 Reservists Called to IDF as New Operation Expected to Start
Israeli Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara. Photo: Twitter
i24 News – The government is set to approve extending the mobilization, potentially issuing up to 430,000 reserve call-ups by November 30, 2025. This move prepares for a major military operation anticipated to occupy Gaza City, expected to last at least six months according to military forecasts.
Israel’s government legal advisor, Gali Baharav-Miara, affirmed on Sunday that despite significant legal challenges, particularly regarding the unequal burden placed on different populations, there is no alternative but to continue mobilizing reservists.
This decision supports the ongoing expanded military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
In parallel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are preparing a large-scale evacuation of Gaza City’s over 800,000 residents. This process will move civilians to the Mawasi humanitarian zone over the next six weeks, ahead of ground operations expected to begin thereafter.
To support the humanitarian effort, Israel plans to increase aid deliveries significantly. Daily aid truck convoys will increase from 300 to 1,200, with intensified aerial drops and the construction of additional distribution centers.
The mobilization will start next month with the deployment of the 146th and 98th Divisions. Overall, six IDF divisions, including the 162nd, 36th, 98th, Gaza Division, 99th, and 146th, will participate in the operation. The IDF anticipates encircling Gaza City by October 2025.
If hostage negotiations do not yield results, Israeli security officials estimate the occupation could continue for at least half a year, marking a significant escalation in a conflict that has now stretched over 22 months.