By ‘From The River To The Sea Palestine Will Be Free’ I Obviously Mean ‘The 1967 Lines’

by Saeb Erekat

Ramallah, July 14 – Don’t believe the Zionist apologist distortions of the English language. Trust me, when we Palestinians repeat as we always have that only an Arab Muslim state is acceptable between the Jordan and Mediterranean, that is simple shorthand for wanting to restrict our territorial ambitions to the armistice lines of Israel and Jordan between 1949 and 1967. Whom are you going to believe, me or your lying comprehension of English?

Take the name of the body to which I have devoted my lie and career, the Palestine Liberation Organization. Judging by its terminology, history, behavior, and rhetoric, you might reach the erroneous conclusion that the Zionists would have you assume: that the PLO, established when Israel held no territory beyond that armistice line, and which attacked Israel, not the Jordanian kingdom that actually held that territory, aims to eliminate Israel. I ask you, how hard do you have to squint to see such a distorted view of our aims?

When we hijacked airplanes for Palestine, declared our intention to push the Jews into the sea, and pursued wholesale slaughter aimed at terrorizing Jews into submission or flight, we did so because we believe in two states living side by side in security and peace, as we have repeatedly affirmed when addressing English-speaking audiences. The fact that we say entirely opposed things when addressing our own Arabic-speaking audiences is a mere distraction. Obviously, our repeated refusals of peace offers indicates how serious we are about peace. I fail to see how one might reach a different conclusion.

The same will foul distortion takes place in other arenas, such as the whole “defund the police” fiasco. Who really thinks they aim to eliminate funding for the police? That would mean taking far-left activists at their word, and everyone knows only certain elements of far-left rhetoric must be taken literally, such as Antifa being anti-fascist and therefore ontologically incapable of engaging in fascism. Sometimes people speak figuratively. “We will finish the Job Hitler started,” some variation of which many Palestinians have declared, must similarly be understood poetically. I mean, considering how many Palestinians believe Hitler did nothing to the Jews and the Jews simply made it all up to garner international sympathy to help them usurp Palestinian land and displace us, the indigenous inhabitants, through Nazi methods that the Nazis didn’t actually use, you understand, because the Holocaust is a myth, how could one take it literally?

So please, let us not get carried away.

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