The renowned Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translated and published on Sunday, November 19th 2017, a 6 minute long video clip, with one of the more extraordinary interviews to emerge from within the Arab Muslim world in recent memory.
The video includes excerpts of Kuwaiti writer, Abdullah Al-Hadlaq (with a history of realistic and positive views about Israel), articulating remarkable statements about the Jewish state. Statements, that had they not had been spoken by a Muslim Arab on Kuwaiti TV, one would be forgiven to have thought that they were communicated at some rightwing Zionist convention in Israel.
Here are a few incredible examples:
"Israel is an independent sovereign state.... and most peace-loving and democratic countries recognize it. The group of states that do not recognize Israel are the countries of tyranny and oppression…
"The State of Israel has scientific centers and universities the likes of which even the oldest and most powerful Arab countries lack…
There is no occupation. There is a people returning to its promised land…
When the State of Israel was established in 1948, there was no state called 'Palestine.'...
From the religious perspective, Quranic verse 5:21 proves that the Israelites have the right to the Holy Land. Allah says: 'When Moses said to his people... Oh my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has assigned to you.' So Allah assigned that land to them…
Are you aware that the history of the Israelites is ancient, predating Islam? Therefore, we Muslims must acknowledge that the Israelites have a right to that land, and that they have not plundered it…
I support the establishment of a three-way alliance, consisting of Israel, the Arab Gulf states, and America, in order to annihilate Hizbullah beyond resurrection."
The clip was ignored by Israeli mainstream Hebrew media. The Jerusalem Post and The Times Of Israel (both English publications not consumed by mainstream Hebrew speaking Israelis), were the first to pick-up the story on Wednesday November 22.
Following that, the clip started spreading on Israeli social media, including a Hebrew translation by Yoni Barak, so that by Friday evening, November 24, Israel channel 1 news, could no longer ignore it, and showed 2 brief parts from it, mixed into other clips about the winds of change taking place in the Arabian peninsula, regarding attitudes towards Israel. Channel 1 news offered no commentary on it, and instead spent most of their 2 hour long Friday evening week-in-summary news, on other matters that best fit their blatant biased center-left commentary and political agenda.
But here’s the amazing thing, if you go back and read these statements:
“There is no occupation. There is a people returning to its promised land”
“When the State of Israel was established in 1948, there was no state called 'Palestine'.”
“From the religious perspective, Quranic verse 5:21 proves that the Israelites have the right to the Holy Land”
For decades now mainstream media and the political left have ignored or marginalized brave and internationally renowned Zionist truthsayers from the Arab and Muslim world, the likes of Brigitte Gabriel, Nonie Darwish, Mosab Hassan Yousef and Kasim Hafeez just to mention a few of the more famous ones.
The time has come for mainstream media and the political center-left in Israel and the west, to wake up and acknowledge the truth as simply stated by Abdullah Al-Hadlaq. Their relevance will depend on it, history will judge them by it, and true democratic free-speech is waiting for it.
This Op-Ed was originally published on The Times of Israel Blogs:
Israeli Mainstream Media Fails to Cover Zionist Statements by Muslim Kuwaiti Writer on Kuwaiti TV by Noam A. Rotem
