Fatah slams Republican candidates for anti-Palestinian remarks

Dimitri Diliani, a Jerusalem-based member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, called on Romney and Gingrich to apologize for their “vulgar, hurtful and ridiculous remarks against our people.”

Diliani said that the candidates’ remarks “constitute a totally unacceptable distortion of historical truth, the Middle Eastern politics and an evidence of racism.”

He added that the comments “prove that in the hysterical atmosphere of American elections, people lose all touch with reality and make not just irresponsible and dangerous statements, but also very racist comments that betray not just their own ignorance but an unforgivable bias.”

“The statements were a cheap way to win the pro-Israel vote,” the Fatah official said.

He said the comments “are certainly regressive. They are certainly an invitation to further conflict rather than any contribution to peace.”

Romney said that “Israelis would be happy to have a two-state solution. It’s the Palestinians who don’t want a two-state solution; they want to eliminate the State of Israel.”

“Whether it’s in the political discourse that is spoken either from Fatah or from Hamas, there is a belief that the Jewish people do not have the right to have a Jewish state,” Romney said in response to a question posed by a Palestinian-American Republican at a CNN-sponsored debate in Jacksonville, Florida on Thursday night. “How would a Republican administration help bring peace to Palestine and Israel, when most candidates barely recognize the existence of Palestine or its people?” the Palestinian asked.

Gingrich, who was asked to comment on his statement calling Palestinians “an invented people,” stood by his controversial remarks.

“It was technically an invention of the late 1970s,” Gingrich explained. “Prior to that they were Arabs.”

Gingrich said his goal was for Palestinians to live in peace with Israel, and that “they can achieve it any morning they say Israel has a right to exist.”

Diliani said that “the cause of war and violence in the region is denying the Palestinian people their right of existence.”

He demanded Gingrich “review history. From the beginning, our people have been determined to stay on their land.”

Wednesday marked the final “exploratory meeting” between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, and it ended with no progress. The negotiators made little headway in their fifth meeting, the last before the January 26 deadline set by the Quartet to break the impasse and relaunch direct talks for a final status agreement between the two sides.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that he would soon head to the Arab League to consult about steps to be taken in this regard.