Palestinian UK envoy links Israeli annexation plan to need to learn 'lessons' of WW2

Addressing the allegation, Mr Zomlot said: "I'm not so sure if I should respond - it’s not true, and it's almost like double misinformation. This whole attempt at stifling the debate and defaming ... is very counter-productive and doesn't serve the real cause of fighting antisemitism.''

In the 2014 interview, Mr Zomlot had responded to comments made by Naftali Bennett in a prior segment of the radio programme about the then Israeli economy minister's opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state.

In remarks that were broadcast at the time, Mr Zomlot accused Israel of "fabricating these stories about beheading journalists somewhere in Iraq [and] about Palestine and the nation that has been [inaudible]".

When the BBC presenter brought up the tragic murder of journalist James Foley, beheaded by the Islamic State in Syria that year, Mr Zomlot responded that “it happened somewhere else in Iraq, as if they are fabricating also the story of the Holocaust that it happened in Europe.''

Asked by Yachad's founder and director Hannah Weisfield to explain these remarks, the Strategic Affairs Advisor to the Palestinian President Abbas said he was ''on the record before this false allegation came around'' describing the Holocaust as ''the most heinous crime in history."

 

He added that while studying in America he had "Jewish friends'' and ''housemates'' and he had seen the photographs of their grandparents who had experienced the horror of the Nazi regime.

Mr Zomlot added: "No-one would feel the agony and discrimination and targeting more than us the Palestinians. We feel it. We know the price of it."

Returning to the BBC interview, he said: "I was just saying, do not blame the Palestinians for the Holocaust. I think that radio interview, unfortunately it was on the phone, it was disconnected, not clear.

"I wasn't saying (deny) the Holocaust itself, of course. I meant attempts to link Palestinians with Daesh. I was responding; don't blame us for events in Iraq and even for the Holocaust.''

During the 90-minute conversation, Mr Zomlot - whose previous official roles include serving as ambassador-at-large for the Palestinian Presidency and Director of the Fatah Foreign Relations Commission - repeatedly suggested Israel was to blame for the failure of peace negotiations since 1988, when the PLO recognised the country's right to exist within pre-1967 borders.

He warned that annexation of the West Bank, which he believed would go ahead, was likely to lead to the "beginning of the end'' of the Palestinian Authority and a breakdown in security co-operation with Israel.

Mr Zomlot admitted that the rise to power of Hamas in Gaza was a ''most hurtful, bleak chapter of our history over the past 15 years'.'  But he claimed the Islamist group's continued dominance over Gaza was a "Palestinian internal issue" and said it should not impact on negotiations with Israel.

He claimed the former PLO chairman Yasser Arafat ''did not have this division'' between Hamas and the Fatah organisation in the West Bank ''and yet Israel did not help and Israel did not negotiate.''

Mr Zomlot told the webinar that he believed Hamas was ready to work with the idea of a two-state solution based on an Israel within pre-1967 borders.

''And it's not just me - their leaders have said it,'' he said.  "They agree with establishing a state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as a capital. 

''They agree with the platform of the PLO in general. The problem between us and Hamas has to with national issues, democratic issues. We differ.''

He then claimed: "If I was in the Israeli shoes I wouldn't put negotiating with Hamas as an obstacle.''

Mr Zomlot said he still backed a two-state solution to Israel/Palestine conflict but he admitted there was a ''growing movement calling for one state''.

He said this movement had momentum because it ''believes we are already in a situation of apartheid - fully-fledged apartheid. 

''They refer to three distinct legal systems covering the entire area - one that deals with Israeli Jews, one for Palestinian citizens of Israel and one for Palestinians under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.''

The Palestinian spokesman said claims for a one-state solution were ''very legitimate''.  He added: ''nobody should shy away from the idea. I don't see the one-state solution to be a threat.

"Some want it out of genuine belief and goodness of the human spirit. That we must live together, we must be equal, that we must dismantle all these systems of control. That we must inter-marry, we must never discriminate because of race, religion or colour.

"Some people are very principled about this - this isn't about them wanting to end Israel because they don't believe in Israel and they want to swop Israel with millions of Palestinians and end the Israeli dream.

"It's Israel that is ending the Israeli dream, not us. I see legitimacy in this thinking especially now. How can you tell these people they do not have a point at a time of annexation and the final blow in a two-state solution? I for one wouldn't mind a one-state solution.

"Why not? I would love to go and live in Haifa, the city of co-existence. And if an Israeli wants to live in Ramallah - why not?

"However I do not think that commute between Haifa and Ramallah is easy right now. What is possible is the two-state solution."

Mr Zomlot revealed the Palestinians would be staging a meeting with ''all the factions''  on Saturday to plan their response to the Israel government's planned annexation of the West Bank. He said representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad would also be attending.

Questioned about Palestinian campaigners regular chant of "To the river, to the sea, Palestine will be free", he said this was ''not helpful'' but said the PLO had been through a ''long process'' in responding both to the establishment of Israel and the defeat of the Arab armies in the 1967 war.

He added: "Narratives are to be untouched, please leave my narrative to me. Don't come close to my narrative and I will leave you to yours.

"I know where my father was born and I know his village. Why, how he was forced out of Israel I saw the fig tree he planted in what became Israel.

"I know he was forced out of Israel. He was very young but his grandparents, they told me the story. We know what happened. All the refugees know what happened."

At the end of the interview, Ms Weisfield said "not everybody was happy" in the community about Yachad staging the conversation with Mr Zomlot.

She said: "For us it is extremely important that we open these channels of communication. There is a reality we won't agree with everything that people say to us.

"We at Yachad have always been open to hosting people whose views we don't share. It is important we were able to share our concerns. We are not going to apologise for having this conversation and I want to thank you for opening up that conversation.''

Yachad have led a campaign to force the Board of Deputies into condemning any West Bank annexation. The Board currently does not take a partisan stance on the issue and reiterates its preference for a two-state solution.

Two letters containing up to 1,000 signatures were submitted to the Board this week – but the overwhelming majority of Deputies are likely to reject the call to  pressure President Marie van der Zyl to speak out on the issue.

Prior to UK role, Mr Zomlot was head of the PLO’s delegation in Washington. He claimed President Trump’s "team" initially gave the impression of being interested in a proper resolution to the Israel/Palestine issue.

But he suggested it later became apparent that Mr Trump treated the issue in the same way he would deal with "real estate’’. He claimed the Trump "peace deal" was a recipe for making the situation worse, and defended the Palestinian decision to reject it before it had even been announced.