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Ukrainian Jewish life has always taken place in Russian. Now a race to translate is underway.
LVIV, Ukraine (JTA) – The rabbis sat around a breakfast table, discussing Russia’s war on the country where they work in a mixture of Yiddish, Hebrew and Russian. They named their hometowns as Lugansk, Lvov and Dnepr, the Russian names for Ukrainian cities that have vaulted into international headlines since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
Although they were focused on Ukraine’s progress in the fighting, the rabbis uttered not a single word in Ukrainian. How could they? Like the vast majority of Jews in Ukraine, none of them speaks the country’s official language.
Russian has long been the first language for a wide swath of Ukrainians, including the majority of the country’s Jews. But after the Russian invasion, many Ukrainians decided they wanted to speak less Russian and more Ukrainian. Many Jews, similarly horrified by the sight of thousands of Russian soldiers pouring over Ukraine’s borders and wishing to demonstrate their Ukrainian bonafides, have made the same choice — even as it means disrupting a long linguistic tradition.
So when the rabbis’ successors meet for pancakes and sour cream, they will be far more likely to introduce themselves as the rabbis of Luhansk, Lviv and Dnipro, the Ukrainian names for their hometowns that have become the standard in English. They will also likely be able to hand their students and congregants Ukrainian-language versions of central Jewish texts that simply do not exist now.
“Many of my friends say that they are embarrassed to use Russian as a language. They say that we are Ukrainian Jews, and that Russia is a terrorist country fighting us and that we shouldn’t use their language,” said Rabbi Meir Stambler, from Dnipro. “Others say that [Russian president Vladimir] Putin doesn’t own the Russian language. It is an issue.”
He added, “This is something that people are discussing all the time.”
A decade ago, half of Ukrainians said they spoke Russian as their native language. That number has declined to 20%, fueled in part by resentment over Russia’s aggressions in Crimea, a contested region that it annexed by force in 2014. But Jews have remained predominantly Russian-speaking, even in parts of western Ukraine where Ukrainian has long been the dominant language. (Russian and Ukrainian are related linguistically, but their speakers cannot understand each other.)
Russia’s war on Ukraine has Ukrainian Jews playing catchup. Stambler, who heads the Federation of Jewish Communities, a body affiliated with the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement that operates a network of 36 synagogues around Ukraine, offers a stark prediction: “Within 10 years, every Jew in Ukraine will speak Ukrainian.”
The dominance of Russian among Ukraine’s Jews, who numbered in the tens of thousands before the war, has deep roots.
“The historical trajectory of Jews in what is now Ukraine led them in the 19th century to adopt Russian rather than Ukrainian,” says historian Natan Meir, a professor of Judaic studies at Portland State University. “That was because Ukrainian was perceived as a peasant language that did not have any high culture associated with it, and because there were no economic advantages to adopting Ukrainian at the time.”
Now, the upside of switching to Ukrainian — demonstrating a national allegiance during a time of war — couldn’t be clearer.
“Jews feel quite integrated into Ukrainian society, but a shift, even if it is a gradual shift, to Ukrainian is going to make that more tangible than ever,” Meir said, calling the Russian invasion “absolutely game-changing” for Ukrainian Jews. “They will be perceived even more strongly than they have been as being wholly Ukrainian and part of the fabric of Ukrainian society.”
Most Ukrainian Jews, especially those educated since the collapse of the Soviet Union, can now speak some Ukrainian. But their ability often depends on where they grew up: Many Jews in traditionally Russophone cities such as Odesa, Dnipro or Kharkiv can struggle with the language, while their grandparents often cannot speak it at all.
Books in both Hebrew and Russian sit on a bookshelf at Medzhybizh. (Jacob Judah)
“Not more than 20% were Ukrainian-speaking at home,” says Stambler. “Take President [Volodymyr] Zelensky. He knew Ukrainian, but he didn’t speak it at home, and he had to polish it up when he became president.”
It will not be simple for the Jewish community to suddenly switch to Ukrainian, the most widely spoken European language without a standardized translation of the Torah.
Two years ago, a team of translators working in Israel, Austria and Hungary began working to produce Ukrainian-language Jewish texts. But before the Russian invasion, the effort had so far produced only a Ukrainian book of psalms, or tehillim.
In May, two months into the war, a decision was made to accelerate work on a daily prayer book. A Torah could follow.
“The chumash is difficult,” said Stambler, who oversees the half-dozen-strong team of translators from his base in Dnipro, using the Hebrew word for the printed form of the Torah. “We are working on it.”
While translating sacred texts can take years, other changes have come faster. The leaflets, brochures and calendars that are a fixture at any Jewish center in Ukraine were quickly swapped out Russian for Ukrainian, at least at the federation’s headquarters. Before February, these had often been produced and printed by Russian Jewish communities and shared with those in Ukraine, for simplicity’s sake.
“This differentiation from Russian Jewry is going to be huge,” said Meir, the historian. “Up until this point they have essentially formed one linguistic and cultural space that all Jews, whether they were in Ukraine, Russia or Belarus could move freely between.”
Now, the ties between those communities are both logistically complicated to maintain — trade routes have been ruptured — and also potentially a liability at a time when anyone in either Russia or Ukraine showing an affinity for the other country can face suspicion or penalties.
“This shift, if it actually happens, is going to be marking out a totally new cultural space for Ukrainian Jews and almost a declaration of independence,” Meir said “Or at least that is the aspiration, because there is so much of their heritage which is still based in the Russian language that it is going to be a long time before they can fully separate.”
That separation process, which began to take shape most clearly after 2014, has quickened. “We started doing things ourselves,” said Stambler. “We used to do about 20% in Ukrainian for the Jews in western towns like Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Uzhhorod, but we are making a much stronger push now.”
He estimates that some 75% of material being distributed to Ukrainian Jewish communities by the Federation of Jewish Communities was in Ukrainian by September, up from 20% to 35% in January.
Young rabbis who come from the United States or Israel to serve small Jewish communities across Ukraine now say that they have had to add Ukrainian alongside their Russian classes.
“I began with Russian,” said one of those rabbis who works in Vinnitsya, until he decided over the summer that he had to learn Ukrainian. “I realized that I had to learn Ukrainian because I needed it on the street. I needed it to speak with the government and with the media.”
Signs in a synagogue in Ukraine are written in both Ukrainian and Russian. (Jacob Judah)
Some Ukrainian Jews are voting with their voices.
“My whole life, I spoke only Russian,” said Olha Peresunko, who before the war lived in Mikolaiv in southern Ukraine. “But after the 24th of February I am speaking only Ukrainian.”
Peresunko was speaking outside a Lviv synagogue this fall, where she and other refugees were waiting for food parcels. She had fled Mikolaiv, which has sustained repeated assault by Russian troops, for Lviv with her mother and two children while her husband is on the frontlines.
Her children are finding it hard to adjust to the exclusive Ukrainian environment in Lviv, but she is confident that they will make the shift. “They will speak Ukrainian as their first language,” Peresunko said.
Exactly how much the shift to Ukrainian will change local Jewish communities is a matter of debate. Rabbi Shalom Gopin, who fled to Kyiv in 2014 from his home community in Luhansk, an overwhelmingly Russophone city seized by Russia-backed separatists at that time, said he, too, believes that Ukrainian will displace Russian as the lingua franca of Ukrainian Jewry.
A Ukrainian woman displays her Ukrainian-language Jewish calendar as a source of pride, September 2022. (Jacob Judah)
“They are starting to slowly speak Ukrainian,” he said. “It is no problem. There are lots of Jews in America who speak English. We live here, and we speak the languages of the places that we live. It is normal.”
But Gopin said the linguistic shift “means nothing” amid other issues facing Jews in Ukraine, where Russia’s war is threatening to undo 30 years of Jewish community building, largely though not exclusively led by Chabad, Gopin’s Orthodox movement.
“The problem for the Jews of Ukraine is not language,” he said. “It is about how much they are going to synagogue, or how many children are going to Jewish schools, not about what they are speaking.”
Natalia Kozachuk, 45, a Jewish businesswoman in Lviv, sees only upside to shedding Russian, her native language. She has started to speak to her children only in Ukrainian.
“It will be hugely positive if Jews speak more Ukrainian,” Kozachuk said. This is the only way that Jews can truly “learn more about the Ukrainian people,” she said, “about their history and the positive qualities and strengths of Ukraine.”
“Only good can come of it,” she added. “We will understand each other better.”
—
The post Ukrainian Jewish life has always taken place in Russian. Now a race to translate is underway. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Murderer of Couple and 9-Year-Old-Son — ‘A Badge of Honor’ for Palestinians
Hamas gunmen stand guard on the day that hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, are handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
While the world is focused on the war to dismantle the danger to all humanity from the terror state of Iran, the Palestinian Authority (PA), clearly, wants to be the new terror state in the region.
The PA’s official TV station welcomed two terrorist murderers, recently released in the Hamas extortion deal in exchange for Israeli hostages, to its weekly TV program honoring terrorists.
While some naïve observers of the PA were surprised when Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) exposed that the PA supported the Oct 7 atrocities, which included mass murder of families, it should not have been a surprise as PA policy has always been to support and glorify mass murder.
And just two weeks ago, the PA did it again.
On its weekly show to honor terrorists, official PA TV interviewed two murderers. One was serving 7 life sentences, responsible for the deaths of Rabbi Ya’akov Yosef Dikstein, his wife Chana, and their 9-year-old son Shuvel Zion, and others. The terrorists were introduced as “dear brother … We will always view you as badges of honor on the Palestinian chest.”
Since the PA continues to define mass murderers as “badges of honor,” this again confirms what PMW has been insisting. The proper action for the international community is not to grant the PA statehood, but to designate it as a terror organization:
Official PA TV host: “Our two guests will be dear brother Khalil Abu Arram ‘Abu Jihad’ [i.e., terrorist, responsible for murder of 5], who was sentenced to 7 life sentences… Also with us is our dear brother Nidal Amar [i.e., terrorist, murdered 1]. Blessings to him as well. He is a free prisoner after more than 14 (sic, 12) years. His sentence was life imprisonment … We will always view you as badges of honor on the Palestinian chest.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Giants of Endurance, March 24, 2026]
That terrorist murderers are heroes and role models for the entire society is the ideology that the PA feeds Palestinians from early childhood and through all the years in the PA education system.
A high school in Jenin planted a “Martyrs’ Garden” honoring among others arch-terrorist Abu Jihad, responsible for murdering 125, and Walid Obeidi, responsible for murdering 11. At the inauguration of the Garden of the Martyrs event, at which PA Security Forces officers were also present, a Fatah official explained the rationale behind the Martyrs’ garden: Teaching youth to desire becoming terrorist “Martyrs.” He said: “Whoever honors the Martyr walks in his path,” and also stated that terrorist “Martyrs” are “more noble and precious than all of us”:
Insan National Action Association Chairman Fida Turkeman: “In honor of Palestinian Martyrs’ Day, we inaugurated the Garden of the Martyrs of Palestine here at the Jenin Vocational School…. We are proud of these important and great figures… They sacrificed their lives for Palestine, for the Palestinian cause, for liberation, for the right of return, and for the establishment of the Palestinian state on all national lands, on the occupied Palestinian lands, 1948 and 1967 [i.e., all of Israel]…”
Member of Fatah Jenin branch Osama Bazzour: “As we always say, whoever honors the Martyr walks in his path. We came to plant an olive tree… in the name of all the Martyrs of the Palestinian revolution and our Martyrs, who are more noble and precious than all of us… We will continue to walk in their path until victory, liberation, and return, Allah willing.”
Ahmad Rashid, school principal: “We hope that this [garden] will bring glory and eternity to the Martyrs of Palestine.” [emphasis added]
Some of the same arch-terrorists were honored by Fatah and the PLO at a Palestinian Martyrs’ Day event at Al-Burj Al-Shamali refugee camp in Lebanon. At the terrorists’ memorial, a PLO official explained that “Martyrdom is the path to victory [and] freedom of Palestine”:
Text on screen: “On behalf of [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas]: Palestinian Ambassador [in Lebanon] Dr. Muhammad Al-As’ad lays wreaths on the monument of the Martyrs of the Palestinian revolution”
Secretary of Fatah and the PLO factions in Lebanon Nasser Al-Lahham: “Many are the Martyrs of Palestine who sacrificed their lives for their freedom and our freedom, and no brave person can equal them and compete with their Martyrdom, because Martyrdom is the path to the approaching victory, which leads to the freedom of Palestine and its people.” …
In the background of the stage was a large poster featuring PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and former head of the Black September terror organization Salah Khalaf “Abu Iyad.”
Reporter:“At every turning point in our national cause, the last wills of the Martyrs and their sacrifice continue to serve as a roadmap towards Palestine.”
Participants in the event carried a large poster featuring terrorist Khalil Al-Wazir “Abu Jihad” who was responsible for the murder of 125 people, Salah Khalaf “Abu Iyad,” Mahmoud Abbas, and former PLO and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Text on poster:“Here we remain” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV News, Jan. 7, 2026]
Earlier this year, a Fatah official also used the term “badges of honor” to describe terrorist prisoners serving long-term sentences:
Follow-up Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs Director and Fatah member Amin Shuman: “[The prisoners] merit to be a symbol for all our Palestinian people who appreciate the prisoner (i.e., terrorist) who is serving more than 20 years and even 25 years, and even the administrative detainees, the female prisoners, the children, and all the models of the prisoners’ movement inside the Israeli prisons … They are a badge of honor on the forehead of every Palestinian and Arab and every free person in this world.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Dec. 30, 2025]
So, as Israel and the US fight to destroy one terror state, the PA is actively building another beside Israel.
The author is the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
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Jews in Curacao: A Remarkable History (PART ONE)
A look inside the exhibit “Longing for Freedom. The World of Anne Frank” opening at the Jewish Museum Curacao. Photo: Anne Frank House
Curacao is a small island in the Atlantic Ocean near Venezuela known for its rich Jewish history. Covering 170 square miles, it is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Curacao may ring a bell as the place Jews escaping Lithuania named as their final destination in escaping Europe, but its Jewish roots go back much further, to when it was called the “Mother Congregation of the Americas.”
This is the story of Curacao.
Curacao was conquered by a Spanish expedition in 1499 and remained under Spanish control until 1634. At that time, the Dutch decided to capture Curaçao from Spain in response to Spain’s seizure of Saint Martin from the Dutch West India Company (WIC).
In April 1634, the WIC sent Admiral Johannes Van Walbeeck to take Curacao and Bonaire from the Spanish. These islands were important for their location near the American continent and for their role in trade and shipping,
In May 1634, Van Walbeeck departed from Holland with a fleet of four ships, 180 sailors, and 250 soldiers. To their good fortune, the Spanish had mostly abandoned Curacao, which facilitated the Dutch conquest. During this time, Curacao’s first known Jew, Samuel Cohen, arrived to serve as an interpreter for the Dutch. On August 21, the Spanish forces surrendered, and Van Walbeeck was appointed the first governor of the Netherlands Antilles.
Arrival of the First Jewish Settlers
At first, the Dutch used Curaçao as a naval base against Spain. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the island lost its strategic value, so the WIC encouraged Dutch settlers to farm there. In 1651, Joao d’Yllan, a Portuguese Jew, and 12 Jewish families from Amsterdam’s Portuguese community moved to Curacao. They were promised religious freedom, land, tax breaks, exemption from guard duty on Shabbat even during war, and government protection. This was the earliest charter of its kind for Jews in the New World.
The families established a plantation called Plantation De Hoop (Plantation of Hope).
A larger group of Jewish settlers came in 1659, bringing a 14th-century Torah Scroll from the Amsterdam community. This Torah is still used today at the Mikveh Israel-Emmanuel Synagogue. Most of these settlers were refugees from the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. After first moving to the Netherlands or Northern Brazil, they now settled in Curacao, starting a new chapter for the Jewish community there.
Farmers? Not Quite. Financiers — Absolutely!
The settlers first tried to farm, but the dry soil made it difficult. By 1660, the Jewish community moved to Willemstad and began trading between Northern Europe and South America. They found great success in this new focus.
Once trade routes connected Curacao with Northern Europe and South America, business on the island grew quickly. The Jewish community became the largest and wealthiest in the Americas. From 1670 to 1900, Jews in Curacao owned over 1,200 sailing ships, with at least 200 Jewish captains. A 1728 report said, “the lion’s share of shipping is in Curacao Jewish hands.”
Due to the risks involved in shipping, marine insurance was invented to help distribute the risk of loss of ships or cargo among the parties involved. Most of the insurance brokers were Jewish, and they eventually also became the bankers of Curacao. By the early 20th century, three commercial banks owned by Sephardic Jews were established in Curacao: Maduro’s Bank, Curiel’s Bank, and Edwards Henriquez & Co.’s Bank. (The first two merged in 1932 to form Maduro & Curiel’s Bank, which is the oldest and most extensive bank in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.)
An archived photo in Maduro’s bank. Photo: provided.
In another successful business, Jewish businessmen Haim Mendes Chumaceiro and Edgar Senior started Senior & Co. in 1896 to make Curaçao liqueur. It was first made for medicine but soon became a popular drink. The founders’ families still run the company, and they are the only ones who use Curacao-grown larahas in their liqueur. The product is also Star-K Kosher certified.
Interestingly, the Jews of Curacao also provided refuge and funds to Simon Bolivar, known as the “George Washington of South America” when he was fighting for freedom from Spain. As the Jews of Curacao shared his hatred for Spain, due to their experience of the Inquisition, they were eager to help him. They provided a place for Bolivar and his family and Curacao’s Jews even served in his army.
In short, over the years, the Jewish community in Curacao gained great wealth and influence, and, as we will see, they used it to strengthen their own community and support other communities throughout the Americas.
Building The Community
While still in its early years, in 1659, the Jewish community of Curacao created Haskamos, defining how the community would be governed. A key component of rulership was a Machamad (the equivalent of a board) that would govern the community for years to come.
The Machamad was a mixed blessing. They had control over all that went on within the community, and in good times, this was positive, but in times when the members of the Machamad were more concerned with their own power than the good of the community, this led to divisions and strife that would ultimately lead to the demise of the proud Curacao community.
The Haskamos of the Curacao community were patterned after those of the Portuguese Talmud Torah Kehillah in Amsterdam, from where most of them had come, and to which they would remain deeply connected. Over the coming centuries, Rabbis for Curacao would be sent from Amsterdam, and Amsterdam would continue to lead and direct the Jewish community from across the ocean.
In 1651, the community established itself as Congregation Mikveh Yisrael. By 1674, the community had grown enough in size and finances to buy its first shul building in Willemstad. In 1703, they rebuilt it with a larger structure, and in 1730, they tore it down and constructed a magnificent edifice that remains in use to this day. It was built by a master carpenter brought in from Amsterdam and was completed by Pesach of 1732. The beautiful shul is called the Snao (which means synagogue in Papiamentu, the language of Curacao). It has 50-foot-high ceilings and 18th-century copper chandeliers, and it was built to resemble the shul in the Amsterdam community from which most Jews in Curacao had come. The shul is large enough to seat 600 people. Today, it is a major tourist attraction in Curacao.
The shul is unique for its sand-covered floors. Some believe the sand is to remember the forty years the Jewish people spent in the desert. Others say it recalls God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as many as the stars and the sand. Another idea is that it comes from Jews who prayed in secret during the Inquisition and used sand to quiet their footsteps and prayers.
Inside a shul with a sand-covered floor. Photo: provided,
By the late 1740’s, the Jewish community had expanded beyond Willemstad into its neighboring Otrabanda, where a new shul, Neve Shalom, was founded in 1746. Over the next few years, disagreements arose over whether Mikveh Yisroel shul should make decisions for the new community or whether Neve Shalom was now an independent community. The conflict grew to such an extent that it affected the island’s economy (indicating the Jewish community’s importance to Curaçao’s economy), and the government got involved.
In 1750, the Prince of Holland ordered the two communities to make peace. His royal order required Neve Shalom to follow the leadership of the Machamad and the board of Mikveh Yisroel, and to obey the directives of the Portuguese community in Amsterdam.
The Curacao community had many organizations that helped the poor and the sick. In fact, the community was so renowned for taking care of the needy that the Kehillah of Amsterdam would pay the travel expenses for poor members to go to Curaçao and settle there, knowing they would be well cared for. This occurred so frequently that by 1736, Governor Juan Pedro van Collen asked the West India Company to stop giving passports to poor Jews because he worried that they would become a burden to Curacao.
The Rabbis of Curacao
The Jewish community in Curaçao was deeply committed to their faith. In the 1600s, Jews there had more rights and freedoms than anywhere else in the Western world. While more rights often led to assimilation in other places, this was rare in Curacao. For the next two centuries, the community remained strong. Unlike other Jewish communities in the Americas, they made Jewish education a top priority and worked hard to give their children a strong religious foundation.
In 1674, Chacham Josiau Pardo arrived from Amsterdam to become Curacao’s first rabbi. He came from a family of rabbis, and in fact, his father had served as a judge in the Amsterdam Jewish court of law alongside the famous Rabbi Menashe ben Israel. Rabbi Pardo’s focus was on the Torah study of the community. He set up a medras (beit medrash study hall) for the children of the community.
With Chacham Pardo as leader, the community required boys to attend the medras from age five to sixteen, showing their strong commitment to Torah study. In Europe then, only wealthy or very dedicated boys continued learning after bar mitzvah, yet in Curacao attendance was mandatory. Families that did not send their sons to the medras could be fined or even forced by the government to comply.
Chacham Pardo also started the Yeshiva Eitz Chaim v’Ohel Yaakov to train teachers, Chazzanim, and those who wanted to study Torah for additional years. This was the first yeshiva-like school in the Western Hemisphere, and many of its graduates would go on to lead Jewish communities in the Americas.
In 1683, after Rabbi Pardo moved to Jamaica, there was no rabbi for the community until 1696 when Rabbi Eliau Lopez arrived in Curacao. He had previously served as the Chacham of Barbados and as the leader of the Curacao community until his passing in 1713.
Rabbi Raphael Jesurun, a student of the Eitz Chaim Yeshiva in Amsterdam, served as rabbi from 1717 to 1748. Rabbi Raphael Mendes de Sola, who had been a rabbi in Amsterdam, came to Curacao in 1744 to serve as an assistant Rabbi to Rabbi Jesurun. After his passing, he served as the Chacham until his passing in 1761.
The next rabbi was Rabbi Isaac Henriquez Farro from Amsterdam. Tragically, he passed away just a few days after arriving in Curacao in July 1762. At this point, the community persuaded Rabbi Raphael Chaim Yitzchok Karigal, who was a Torah scholar and a fundraiser for the community of Chevron, to serve as rabbi until the native Curacaon Rabbi Jacob Lopez da Fonseca would return with semicha from the Eitz Chaim Yeshiva of Amsterdam, as he was expected to become the next rabbi of Curacao. Rabbi Karigal agreed and stayed for two years. He later became a rabbi in Newport, Rhode Island, and New York City.
Rabbi Jacob Lopez da Fonseca returned to Curacao in 1764 and served as the Chacham until his passing in 1815. He was the first Chacham born in Curacao to serve the community.
Rabbi Menachem Levine is the CEO of JDBY-YTT, the largest Jewish school in the Midwest. He served as Rabbi of Congregation Am Echad in San Jose, CA, from 2007 to 2020. He is a popular speaker and writes for numerous publications on Torah, Jewish History, and Contemporary Jewish Topics. Rabbi Levine’s personal website is https://thinktorah.org A version of this article was originally published at Aish.
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Palestinian Officials Say Oct. 7 Was Israeli ‘Plot’ to Control the Entire Middle East
Israeli protestors take part in a rally demanding the immediate release of the hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, and the end of war in Gaza, in Jerusalem September 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
During the Oct. 7 war, the Palestinian Authority (PA) spread different libels about Israel, ranging from claims that the massacre did not happen at all, to lies that Israel wanted the war and even planned it in advance as a way to gain control over the entire Middle East.
This libel is still alive and well. It not only whitewashes Palestinians of any responsibility for their massacre and murder of over 1,100 Israelis and foreigners in one day but also cements the PA’s narrative of victimhood that casts Israel in the role of existential danger that threatens not only the PA, but the entire region.
PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, has adamantly promoted this PA narrative, and did so again recently:
PA Chairman Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “Some people even speculate that Oct. 7 was an Israeli plot.
Some say this, even in the Palestinian street. They say that Israel dragged Hamas and the Palestinian street into this bottomless abyss to later justify everything it is doing as part of its desire to control either Palestine primarily or the Arab region in general, the entire Middle East.” [emphasis added]
[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, March 14, 2026]
Palestinian Media Watch reported this month on similar accusations against Israel, claims that Israel “shares goals with Iran” to “weaken the Arab states.”
The spokesman for Abbas’ Fatah party also portrayed Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as “a danger to the whole region”:
Fatah Movement official spokesman and released terrorist Abd Al-Fattah Doleh:“Today the whole world is preoccupied with Iran. The one who is benefiting the most from this is [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu, who has committed all kinds of aggression and used all justifications not to adhere to [US President] Trump’s plan [for Gaza]… Today the issue of Iran came on a silver platter, and all eyes and attention were directed there…
We told [the Arab states] at the start of the war against us: The danger is not only to the Palestinian people, the danger is to the region, and if you remain silent on Netanyahu, the danger will reach [you] everywhere… Netanyahu and the occupation is the greatest danger to peace, security, and stability.” [emphasis added]
[Al-Alam radio station (Hebron), Facebook page, March 7, 2026]
A regular columnist of the official PA daily has also promoted the libel that Israel “turned a blind eye to Hamas’ weapons and tunnels” to serve its “mission” to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state:
It was no secret that the governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu gave Hamas and the armed groups in the Gaza Strip golden opportunities to enhance their power and capabilities, in order to carry out the mission that is to prevent any chance of establishing the exclusivity of the legitimate PA institutions, and specifically the official legitimate [PA] Security Forces
… No one can convince us that the military and civilian intelligence forces of the occupation system— which worked for 15 years, spent about $320 million on the operation of blowing up about 5,000 pagers with a single button press — and managed to land a blow on the Hezbollah forces in Lebanon in an unprecedented operation in the history of global intelligence – were in a deep sleep and were surprised by the Oct. 7, [2023] operation… The crime of assassinating the Palestinian state… required turning a blind eye to Hamas’ weapons and tunnels until the moment the organization expired. [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 8, 2026]
During the Oct. 7 war, Al-Habbash claimed Israel benefited from the massacre as it enabled them to carry out a “premeditated plan” to “destroy the Palestinian people”:
Al-Habbash: “Israel is behind all the obstacles and reasons leading to the continuation of this war of annihilation [i.e., Oct. 7 war].
It wanted it and pursued it and took advantage of the opportunity presented to it on Oct. 7 to execute this plot, to carry out this plan that was premeditated and incubated in the minds of the leaders of this right-wing Israeli government: The attempt to destroy the Palestinian people.” [emphasis added]
[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, Aug. 27, 2025]
The author is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this story first appeared.