The official Palestinian Authority WAFA news agency did not comment on Mahmoud Abbas' interview on Israeli TV where wishful thinking Westerners believed that Abbas showed flexibility on the long-standing PLO (and Arab) demand to force Israel to accept millions of so-called "refugees."
But the agency does have two prominently featured articles quoting PLO Executive Committee member Zakaria al-Agha, head of the department of refugee affairs, on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
Al-Agha says that the Balfour Declaration, which called for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, was a "historic sin committed against our people." He called on Britain to amend that policy by supporting the "legitimate rights of return and self-determination" for Palestinian Arabs.
He specifically called for the internationakl community to recognize the Palestinian Arab "right to establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of its refugees to their homes in accordance with Resolution 194."
He further said that the Balfour Declaration gave a promise to those who do not deserve it, meaning that Jews do not have the right of self-determination that he insists "Palestinians" do. He added that this promise by Lord Balfour is contrary to all international norms and conventions and the principles of human rights, and is illegal.
Al-agha also said that the Declaration caused Arabs of Palestine woes and suffering that continues to this day, and he called on the international community and its institutions take full responsibility about this promise to the Jewish people. He called for the world to "lift this injustice" done to the Palestinian people and to "end the occupation of our land."
At no time did he define the "land" as excluding the state of Israel.
While Westerners strain to try to parse Abbas' words as a new sign of flexibility, the official PLO news agency is explicitly not only re-affirming the so-called "right of return" to destroy Israel demographically, but it is also denying the rights of self-determination for the entire Jewish people and it is calling on the international community to effectively rescind the legal basis for a Jewish state to exist altogether.
Don't expect the media to report on this, though. After all, a highly ambiguous comment on Israeli TV has far more import than explicit, official statements by the PLO in Arabic, when that ambiguous comment fits the mainstream media narrative of a "moderate" PLO.
