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Don’t deny our rights: An open letter to Mahmoud Abbas
MAAN Published Wednesday 18/08/2010 (updated) 18/08/2010 19:52 22 July 2010
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=309072

We are Palestinians of diverse perspectives and affiliations — scholars,
intellectuals, artists, activists, trade unionists, human rights advocates
and civil society leaders, inside historic Palestine and in exile — who are
united in our commitment to the fulfillment of the fundamental rights of all
Palestinians, particularly our inalienable right to self-determination. This
universally sanctioned right encompasses, at a minimum, freedom from
occupation and colonization in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including
Jerusalem; full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel; and the right
of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

During a 9 June meeting with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee,
you reportedly said: “I would never deny [the] Jewish right to the land of
Israel,” a statement that you have yet to retract. We regard this
announcement, which adopts a central tenet of Zionism, as a grave betrayal
of the collective rights of the Palestinian people. It is tantamount to a
surrender of the right of Palestinian citizens of Israel to live in equality
in their own homeland, in which they have steadfastly remained despite the
apartheid regime imposed on them for decades. It also concedes the right of
Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

No Palestinian institution or leader has ever accepted an exclusive Jewish
claim to Palestine, which is irreconcilable with the internationally
recognized rights of the Palestinian people. Our rights inhere in us as a
people; they are not yours to do with as you please.

We, as Palestinians urgently need a legally and democratically elected
leadership that is responsible, capable and committed to the fulfillment of
our national rights and aspirations to live in freedom, dignity and just
peace in our ancestral homeland. We call on all Palestinians to immediately
revive the democratic processes that our people have struggled so hard to
build, so that we can designate leaders with an effective vision and
strategy for achieving our rights as a people.

Initial Signatories:

Saleh Abdel-Jawad, Assoc. Prof. of History, Birzeit University (Ramallah);
Abdul-Rahim Al-Shaikh, poet and academic (Jerusalem); Naseer Aruri, Prof.
Emeritus, University of Massachusetts (Dartmouth); Mourid Barghouti, poet
and author (Ramallah/Cairo); Omar Barghouti, commentator and human rights
activist (Jerusalem); Ramzy Baroud, author and editor of the Palestine
Chronicle (Seattle); George Bisharat, Prof., UC Hastings College of the Law
(San Francisco); Haidar Eid, academic and boycott, divestment and sanctions
activist (Gaza); Samera Esmeir, Assist. Prof. of Rhetoric, Univ. of
California, Berkeley (Haifa); Wael Hallaq, Prof., Columbia University (New
York); Nadia Hijab, author and human rights advocate (Washington, DC); Jamil
Hilal, sociologist and author (Ramallah); Islah Jad, Assist. Prof. of Gender
& Development, Birzeit Univ. (Ramallah); Hatem Kanaaneh, medical doctor and
author (Sakhnin); Ghada Karmi, author and Fellow, Exeter University
(Exeter); Nur Masalha, Prof. of Religion and Politics, St. Mary’s Univ.
College (London); Joseph Massad, Prof., Columbia University (New York); Jean
Said Makdisi, author (Beirut); Saree Makdisi, Prof., University of
California at Los Angeles (Los Angeles); Zakaria Muhammad, novelist
(Ramallah); Karma Nabulsi, Fellow in Politics, University of Oxford
(Oxford); Eyad Sarraj, psychiatrist (Gaza)

Endorsers:

Mohammed Abu Abdu, Pal. Student Campaign for Academic Boycott of Israel
(PSCABI) (Gaza); Bashir Abu-Manneh, Prof., Columbia University (New York);
Mohsen Abu Ramadan, civil society activist and independent political
commentator (Gaza); Salman Abu Sitta, Palestine Land Society (London);
Abdefattah Abusrour, President of Palestinian Theatre League, Jerusalem –
General Director of Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Society, (Aida refugee
camp, Bethlehem); Majeed Al-Barghouthi, poet and writer (Amman); Musa
Al-Hindi, Coord. Comm. member, US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN);
Hala Al-Yamani, Assist. Prof., Bethlehem University (Bethlehem); Lubna
Arikat, community activist (San Diego); Huwaida Arraf, attorney and human
rights activist, New York; Khaled Barakat, writer and activist, Vancouver;
Nasser Barghouti, human rights activist (San Diego); Diana Buttu, lawyer
(Ramallah); Yasmeen Daher, lecturer at Birzeit University and human rights
activist (Jaffa); Seif Da’na, Prof. of Sociology, University of Wisconsin,
Parkside (Parkside); Lamis J. Deek, attorney and human rights advocate (New
York); Noura Erakat, human rights attorney (Washington, DC); Leila Farsakh,
Assoc. Prof., University of Massachusetts (Boston); Jess Ghannam, Prof.,
University of California, San Francisco (San Francisco); Lubna Hammad,
lawyer and human rights activist, Adalah-NY (New York); Rema Hammami, Assoc.
Prof. of Anthropology, Birzeit University (Ramallah); Nizar Hasan, filmmaker
(Nazareth); Zaha Hassan, civil rights attorney and human rights advocate
(Oregon); Kamel Hawwash, Assoc. Prof. in Civil Engineering, University of
Birmingham (Birmingham); Monadel Herzallah, US Palestinian Community Network
(USPCN), San Francisco; May Jayyusi, Exec. Director of Muwatin, Palestinian
Institute for the Study of Democracy (Ramallah); Ray Jureidini, sociologist,
Cairo; Jamal Kanj, author, (Nahr el Bared refugee camp); Osamah Khalil, PhD
Candidate, University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley); Suleiman Mansour,
visual artist (Jerusalem); Dina Matar, academic, SOAS – University of London
(London); Moammar Mashni, Co-Founder, Australians for Palestine (Melbourne);
Mazen Masri, lawyer and human rights activist (Toronto); Fouad Moughrabi,
Prof. and Head of Dept. of Political Science, Univ. of Tennessee
(Chattanooga); Rana Nashashibi, activist, Coalition for Jerusalem
(Jerusalem); Mary Nazzal-Batayneh, Barrister, Palestine Legal Aid Fund
(London); Mahmoud Oriqat, Engineer (San Diego); Mazin Qumsiyeh, Prof.
(Bethlehem); Ahmad Sadi, Academic (Galilee); Grace Said, activist
(Washington, DC); Dalal Yassine, lawyer and human rights advocate (Beirut);
Raja Zaatry, journalist (Haifa); Elia Zureik, Prof. Emeritus of Sociology,
Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario)

PLO defends Abbas statements on Jewish rights
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=309344

Published yesterday (updated) 20/08/2010 03:33 BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The PLO
responded Wednesday to a letter to Mahmoud Abbas authored and endorsed by
Palestinian academics and intellectuals questioning the Ramallah-based
government’s ability to lead.

The 22 July letter, signed by dozens of scholars, activists, and civil
society leaders, specifically expressed concerns that Abbas had denied
Palestinians their basic rights and accepted an “exclusive Jewish claim to
Palestine” in remarks during a conversation with American Jews in the US
capital.

“We regard this announcement, which adopts a central tenet of Zionism, as a
grave betrayal of the collective rights of the Palestinian people. It is
tantamount to a surrender of the right of Palestinian citizens,” the letter
said. “It also concedes the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their
homes.”

“No Palestinian institution or leader has ever accepted an exclusive Jewish
claim to Palestine, which is irreconcilable with the internationally
recognized rights of the Palestinian people. Our rights inhere in us as a
people; they are not yours to do with as you please,” the message explained.

The PLO office in Washington described the letter as an inflammatory
misrepresentation of Abbas’ statements.

The accusations were “based on misinformation propagated by certain media
outlets, which misquoted the president’s remarks at an event held during his
trip,” the PLO General Delegation said in a statement.

According to the PLO office, Abbas said at the time that “Nobody denies the
Jewish history in the Middle East. A third of our Holy Koran talks about the
Jews in the Middle East, in this area. Nobody from our side at least denies
that the Jews were in Palestine, were in the Middle East.'”

This is neither an acceptance of “exclusive” Jewish claims nor is it
disputed by any Palestinian faction, the PLO said adding that the backlash
aids “those who sow the seeds of division in the Palestinian people.”

George Bisharat, a Palestinian-American professor at Hastings College of the
Law in San Francisco and an initial signatory of the letter, dismissed the
PLO’s explanation.

“I think the denial just doesn’t ring true at this point,” Bisharat told
Ma’an.

“We of course checked the reports and the statements of Abbas carefully
before the letter was sent. I suppose it’s possible that the statement was
misreported, but Abbas repeated it on Al-Jazeera,” he said. “Accepting there
was an inaccuracy, why did they not take pains to clarify it without having
to wait for us to object?”

The fact that Abbas “failed to recognize the political significance of his
remarks at the time” goes to show that the current leadership, which claims
to be the sole representative of the Palestinian people, “long ago lost
touch with the Palestinian public” at large, especially the Diaspora.

The law professor went on to say that the exact wording was secondary to a
wider crisis of legitimacy plaguing the Palestinian leadership, which has
remained in power despite losing a 2006 election to its Hamas rivals.

“I think the fact of the matter is that the Palestinian people desperately
need creative thinking on how to press forward,” he said. “They had a
strategy. But by all objective measures it seems a tragic failure.”

Still, Bisharat said he was “glad we’re being listened to. We want to make
sure they’re aware that we are aware of what they’re doing. We hold them
accountable. We pay attention to what they

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