Palestinian Mufti to Pope: Let's Unite Against the Jews

by Charles Lenchner · 2009-05-12 06:20:00 UTC
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Ack! I meant to write, Palestinian Mufti Sheikh Tamimi interrupted an interfaith dialogue meeting with the Pope and other dignitaries to denounce the occupation and Israeli policy. The New York Times reports that he urged Muslims and Christians to unite against Israel.

(Let's play fill in the blank: Muslims, Christians, ___________. What word fits? Israel, or Jews?)

My first reaction was to see what was reported on Palestinian and Arab news and opinion sites in English. Obviously, my search wasn't comprehensive, but I have a collection of sites I visit. The ones that mentioned the incident quotes Sheikh Tamimi making a perfectly understandable plea for support to end the Israeli occupation, but all the ones I saw omitted the part about Muslims and Christians needing to unite against Israel.

This is interesting. Are they omitting that key phrase because the editors of those sites clearly understand that most of the world would interpret it as a hostile statement out of place at a meeting to advance interfaith dialogue? Or perhaps because the introduction of a religious dimension to the conflict undermines the thesis that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a national conflict over land, and not a religious conflict with Jews?

Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but I think most enlightened Palestinians are embarrased by Tamimi, who sabotages  Palestinian PR efforts. My advice: don't omit what he said from the conversation - pay attention to it and respond. Whatever logic it is that would compel 'Muslims and Christians to unite against Israel' would surely be applicable to calls for 'Christians and Jews to unite against Palestinians.' Religious fundamentalism is the meta-logic within which all fundamentalisms operate - Muslim, Christian, and Jewish. Opposing one of them but not the other is not only cowardly - it's bad PR.

Charles Lenchner
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