Hanan Ashrawi Refuses To Apologize For Blood Libel Smear -- Goes On Attack Instead

Does Obama in fact know the relationship, for example, between "Passover" and "Christian blood" ..?!
Or "Passover" and "Jewish blood rituals..?!
Much of the chatter and gossip about historical Jewish blood rituals in Europe are real and not fake as they claim; the Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover ...
Nawaf al-Zaru, in Hanan Ashrawi's MIFTAH

In response to Elder of Ziyon's post about Passover blood libel in Hanan Ashrawi's "Miftah" website, Ashrawi's first response was to remove the offensive post from the MIFTAH without comment or apology.

Hanan Ashrawi claims article promoting Passover Blood
Libel was posted to create open dialogue. So why was it posted
 only in Arabic? Credit: Wiki Commons

Now, however, Ashrawi has gone on the attack, posting the following statement in English on the MIFTAH website:

MIFTAH denounces smear campaign against it
Date posted: March 30, 2013
By MIFTAH

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, MIFTAH strongly denounces the smear campaign being carried out against it and, by association, its founder Dr. Hanan Ashrawi. The obscure pro-Israeli website “The Elder of Ziyon” has wrongly accused MIFTAH and Dr. Ashrawi of promoting Jewish blood libel during Passover through its publication of an Arabic-language article that briefly addressed the subject.

The disclaimer at the opening of the “News and Analysis” section clearly states that, “The views represented in [News and Analysis] are solely those of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of MIFTAH, but rather fulfill its mandate for open dialogue.” For the record, to avoid further misunderstanding, Al Zaru’s article has been taken down from MIFTAH’s website.

MIFTAH has and always will promote the principles of democracy and a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Articles published in its name on both its Arabic and English websites are proof of this philosophy. Neither MIFTAH nor Dr. Ashrawi has ever been associated with anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic campaigns due to their philosophy of promoting accurate and credible information. MIFTAH has always been focused on the promotion of the Palestinian narrative in the service of achieving a free, democratic Palestine, part of which is honoring freedom of speech.

It is in this spirit that MIFTAH is deeply disturbed by this recent slander campaign against it. Not only is the premise of their argument erroneous in characterizing MIFTAH and Dr. Ashrawi, but the underlying purpose of sabotaging MIFTAH’s reputation with its international partners is nothing short of abhorrent.

MIFTAH has been in existence for well over decade and has published countless articles on Palestine, which show its true colors. It is fair to say that its work speaks for itself.

Such a feeble response would be laughable if not for its being so insulting to one's intelligence.

• We are supposed to sympathize with Ashrawi and MIFTAH that Elder of Ziyon is sabotaging their reputation by pointing out their promotion of the Passover Blood Libel -- one of the oldest and most vicious lies told about Jews, and yet to this day widespread and popularized in the Muslim world.
  
  
• Ashrawi and MIFTAH would have us believe that spreading this calumny further among the Arabs is in the interest of "open dialogue" -- as if the accusation that Jews use the blood of non-Jews is something that should be discussed and sorted out, rather than be condemned outright.
  
  
• Neither Ashrawi nor MIFTAH see any contradiction between their claim to be dedicated to "promoting accurate and credible information" and this horrific defamation they are promoting.
  
  
• If Hanan Ashrawi and MIFTAH believe so strongly in open dialogue, why won't they address Elder of Ziyon directly, considering that all he has done is accurately report that they are actively foster the Passover blood libel?
  
  
• If Hanan Ashrawi and MIFTAH honestly were aiming for open dialogue on the issue of the Passover Blood Libel -- and not just to incite hatred of Jews among Arabs -- why did this article only appear in Arabic?

Elder of Ziyon responds to MIFTAH's weak response -- Miftah attacks me, refuses to condemn its blood libel, writing that:

If Miftah is so convinced that it has nothing to hide and it is so proud of its work, then it should welcome people emailing to the EU and US NGOs that fund it to question its editorial policies. It should not be running scared about the possibility of losing funding, rather it should be confident that it acted appropriately when it published the article by Nawaf al-Zaru, whose anti-semitism has been on display for at least four years. It should be proud of its adamant refusal to apologize for publishing pure Jew-hatred. Isn't that how a liberal, pro-democratic organization should act?

Read the whole thing.

The only proper response after endorsing the belief in the Passover Blood Libel would be for both MIFTAH and Hanan Ashrawi to offer a public apology.

Their failure to do so will only validate the suspicion that they have been caught red-handed spewing Antisemitic hatred which they fervently champion and are eager to encourage among others.

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