November 29, 2007 “Accept Israel as the Jewish State?”

November 29, 2007 Islam Says No to Jewish Homeland and State of Israel

“Accept Israel as the Jewish State?”

• The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee in Nazareth unanimously called on the Palestinian Authority not to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
• Salam Fayad, Palestinian Authority “prime minister”: “Israel can define itself as it likes, but the Palestinians will not recognize it as a Jewish state.”
• Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s executive committee: “This issue is not on the table; it is raised for internal [Israeli] consumption.”
• Ahmad Qurei, chief Palestinian negotiator: “This [demand] is absolutely refused.”
• SAEB EREKAT, HEAD OF THE PLO NEGOTIATIONS DEPARTMENT: “THE PALESTINIANS WILL NEVER ACKNOWLEDGE ISRAEL’S JEWISH IDENTITY. … THERE IS NO COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WHERE RELIGIOUS AND NATIONAL IDENTITIES ARE INTERTWINED.”

EREKAT’S GENERALIZATION IS BOTH CURIOUS AND REVEALING. NOT ONLY DO 56 STATES AND THE PLO BELONG TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE, BUT MOST OF THEM, INCLUDING THE PLO, MAKE THE SHARI‘A (ISLAMIC LAW) THEIR MAIN OR ONLY SOURCE OF LEGISLATION. SAUDI ARABIA EVEN REQUIRES THAT EVERY SUBJECT BE A MUSLIM.

Further, the religious-national nexus extends well beyond Muslim countries. As Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe points out:

“ARGENTINEAN LAW MANDATES GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR THE ROMAN CATHOLIC FAITH. QUEEN ELIZABETH II IS THE SUPREME GOVERNOR OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. IN THE HIMALAYAN KINGDOM OF BHUTAN, THE CONSTITUTION PROCLAIMS BUDDHISM THE NATION’S ‘SPIRITUAL HERITAGE.’ … ‘THE PREVAILING RELIGION IN GREECE,’ DECLARES SECTION II OF THE GREEK CONSTITUTION, ‘IS THAT OF THE EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF CHRIST’.”

Source: Pipes, Daniel. Jerusalem Post, November 29, 2007.